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Defaming as impure what God declares

Pure, and commands to fome, leaves free to all.
Our Maker bids increase; who bids abftain

But our Destroyer, foe to God and Man?

Hail wedded Love, myfterious law, true fource 750
Of human ofspring, fole propriety

In Paradife of all things common else.
By thee adult'rous luft was driv'n from men
Among the bestial herds to range; by thee
Founded in reafon, loyal, juft, and pure,

755 Relations

for by myfterious he (Dr. Bentley) means, itself hidden or conceal'd; and Milton means, containing fome hidden meaning in it, befides the plain precept which appear'd.

Pearce.

legitimo modo, &c. The quotation would fwell this note to too great a length; but the reader, who understands Italian, may, if he please, compare the original with our author, and he will eafily perceive what an excellent copier Milton was, as judicious in omitting fome Dr. Bentley reads 'mong all things; circumftances as in imitating others. but of fignifies among in this place, It is in one of Taffo's letters to as it does in ver. 411. and in V. his relation Signor Hercole Taffo, 659. VL 24. Lib. 2. p. 150. Edit. In Venetia. and elsewhere. 1592.

750.myflerious law,] That is including a mystery in it, in the fame fenfe as myfterious rites are spoken of before. He plainly alJudes to St. Paul's calling matrimony a mystery, Eph. V. 32. No need then for Dr. Bentley's myfterious league: and his objection, that a law fuppofed to be myfterious is no law at all, is cafily anfwer'd;

752.-of all things common elfe.]

Pearce.

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Relations dear, and all the charities

Of father, fon, and brother first were known.
Far be' it, that I should write thee fin or blame,
Or think thee unbefitting holiest place,

760

Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets,
Whose bed is undefil'd and chafte pronounc'd,
Prefent, or past, as faints and patriarchs us❜d.
Here love his golden fhafts employs, here lights
His conftant lamp, and waves his purple wings,
Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile 765

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finity, as in Cicero De Officiis, 1. 17. Cari funt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares; fed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa eft. It is used likewife in this manner in the Italian, and by Taffo in the place which our author is here imitating, Ma la charita del fglivolo, e del padre.

761. Whofe bed is undefil'd and

chafte pronounc'd,] In allufion to Heb. XIII. 4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. opinion of marriage, or he would And Milton must have had a good

never have had three wives. And tho' this panegyric upon wedded love may be condemn'd as a digreffion, yet it can hardly be call'd a digreffion, when it grows fo naturally out of the fubject, and is introduced fo properly, while the

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Of harlots, lovelefs, joylefs, unindear'd,
Casual fruition; nor in court amours,
Mix'd dance, or wanton mafk, or midnight ball,
Or ferenate, which the starv'd lover fings
To his proud fair, beft quitted with disdain.
These lull'd by nightingales embracing slept,
And on their naked limbs the flow'ry roof
Show'rd roses, which the morn repair'd. Sleep on,
Bleft pair; and O yet happiest, if ye feek
No happier state, and know to know no more.

action of the poem is in a manner fufpended, and while Adam and Eve are lying down to fleep; and if morality be one great end of poetry, that end cannot be better promoted than by fuch digreffions as this and that upon hypocrify at the latter part of the third book.

765. Reigns here and revels;] What our author here fays of marriage Marino applies in the fame terms to Venus in his defcription of her, Adon. Cant. 2. St. 114. and 'tis probable that Milton alluded to this and other fuch extravagances of the poets, and meant to say, that what they had extravagantly and falfly applied to loose wanton love, was really true of that paffion in its state of innocence. Quiui Amor fi traftulla, e quindi impera. Thyer.

775 Now

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Now had night measur'd with her shadowy cone Half way up hill this vaft fublunar vault,

780

And from their ivory port the Cherubim
Forth iffuing at th' accuftom'd hour stood arm'd
To their night watches in warlike parade,
When Gabriel to his next in pow'r thus fpake.
Uzziel, half these draw off, and coast the south
With strictest watch; these other wheel the north;

776. Now had night measur'd wib ber Thadowy cone] A cone is a figure round at bottom, and leffening all the way ends in a point. This is the form of the fhadow of the earth, the base of the cone standing upon that fide of the globe

where the fun is not, and confequently when 'tis night there. This cone to those who are on the darken'd fide of the earth, could it be feen, would mount as the fun fell lower, and be at its utmost highth in the vault of their heaven when it was midnight. The fhadowy cone had now arifen half way, confequently fuppofing it to be about the time when the days and nights were of equal length (as it was X. 329.) it must be now about nine o' clock, the ufual time of the Angels fetting their fentries, as it immediately follows. This is marking the time very poetically.

Richardfon.

777. Half way up hill] The exereffion is fomething dark, but it's

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777.-this vaft fublunar vault,] For the fhadow of the earth fweeps as it were the whole arch or vault of Heaven between the earth and moon, and extends beyond the oFbit of the moon, as appears from the lunar eclipfes.

778. And from their ivory port &c.] We cannot conceive that here is any allufion to the ivory gate of fleep, mention'd by Homer and Virgil, from whence falfe dreams proceeded; for the poet could never intend to infinuate that what he was faying about the angelic guards was all a fiction. As the rock was of alabafter, ver. 543. fo he makes the gate of ivory,

Our circuit meets full weft. As flame they part, Half wheeling to the fhield, half to the spear. 785 From thefe, two ftrong and fubtle Spirits he call'd That near him stood, and gave them thus in charge. Ithuriel and Zephon, with wing'd speed

Search through this garden, leave unsearch'd no nook; But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge, 790 Now laid perhaps afleep fecure of harm.

which was very proper for an eaftern gate, as the finest ivory cometh from the eaft; India mittit ebur, Virg. Georg. I. 57. and houfes and palaces of ivory are mention'd as inftances of magnificence in Scripture, as are likewise doors of ivory in Ovid, Met. IV. 185.

This

flame, but this fimile is better fuited to thofe beings, of whom the Scripture fays, He maketh his angels fpirits, and bis minifters a flame of fire.

785. Half abeeling to the field, half to the fpear.] Declinare ad haftam vel ad fcutum. Livy. to

Lemnius extemplo valvas patefe. wheel to the right or left. Hume.

cit eburnas.

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As all the Angels ftood in the eaftern gate, their right hand was to the north, to the fpear; their left hand to the fouth, to the field. From thefe that wheel'd to the spear Gabriel calls out two: He himself then was in that company. Shield while the men are fuppofed in and Spear for left hand and right, arms, gives a dignity of expreffion, more than the common words have.

Bentley.

788. Itburiel and Zephon,] Two Angels having their names as indication of their offices. Ithuriel in Hebrew the difcovery of God. Zephon in Hebrew a fecret or fearcher of Secrets. Hume.

796.- and

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