Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep; Witness if I be filent, morn or even, To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade Made vocal by my fong, and taught his praise. 202. Witness if I be filent,] Dr. Bentley thinks that Milton had forgot that both Adam and Eve fhar'd in this hymn, and therefore he reads if we be filent, and in the next verfe but one by our fong: But Milton rather imitates here the ancient chorus, where fometimes the plural, and fometimes the fingular number is used. The fame is practic'd by our poet in the fpeeches of the chorus in Sampfon Agoniftes, where the reader will fee in every page almost that the number is thus varied. Dr. Bentley obferves, that the whole hymn naturally divides itself into parts interlocutory, and that he has prefumed to put it fo, tho' not warranted by any edition. But this is not Dr. Bentley's invention; for this hymn was fet to mutic fome years ago, and in that compofition the feveral parts of it were affign'd diftinctly to Adam and Eve. I think that fuch interlocutory parts are by no means fit for an heroic poem: but if the author fhould be fuppofed to have defign'd them, I fhould choose to divide this hymn very different from the Doctor's divifion. [The Doctor affigns the first feven lines to Adam, thofe of the Angels to Eve, thofe of the Morning Star to 200 Hail Adam, thofe of the Sun to Eve, thofe of the Moon to Adam, of the Air and Elements to Eve, of the Mifts and Exhalations to Adam, of the Winds and Pines to Eve, of the Fountains and Rills to Adam, of the Creatures and Birds to Eve, of the Fishes and Beafts to Adam, and the four laft lines to Eve. But on the contrary Dr. Pearce fays] The firft feven and the four last verses of this hymn I would suppose spoken by Adam and Eve together: and as to the other verfes, I would have Adam fpeak all that the Doctor affigns to Eve, and Eve all that is now affign'd to Adam. In this method the mention of the fair Morning Star, the Moon, and Fountains and Rills will come to Eve's fhare, and they are circumftances which feem fitter for her to mention than her husband. Pearce. be bounteous ftill To give us only good;] He had his thought, as Dr. Bentley remarks, on that celebrated prayer in Plato, Ζευ βασιλευ, τα μεν εθλα και ευχομένοις και ανευπλοες Αμμίδιδε τα δε λυγρα και ευχομένων απερύκε Q Hail univerfal Lord, be bounteous ftill O Jupiter give us good things, whether we pray for them or not, and remove from us evil things, even tho' we pray for them. And we learn from the first book of Xenophon's memoirs of his mafter Socrates, that Socrates was wont to pray to the Gods only to give good things, as they knew beft what things were fo. To de που τις θεός απλως τ' αγαθα e δίδοναι, ὡς τις θεός καλλιςα ε 209. Se pray'd they innocent, and On to their morning's rural work they hafte &c.] Thefe verfes are thus pointed in the beft, that is in Milton's own editions: but the latter fentence begins very abruptly, On to their morning's work &c. Dr. Bentley therefore continuing the fentence reads thus, 205 Firm So pray'd they innocent; and to their thoughts Firm peace recov'ring foon and wonted calm, On to their morning's rural work they hafte &c. Dr. Pearce thinks the sentence fufficiently continued in the common reading, if recover'd be a parti conceives this to be the conftrucciple of the ablative case; and tion, Peace and calm being recover'd to their thoughts, they hafe &c. and accordingly points it thus, -and, to their thoughts Firm peace recover'd foon and wonted calm, On to their morning's rural work they hafte. But perhaps the abruptnefs of the line On to their morning's rural work was defign'd the better to exprefs Then to their morning's rural work 210 Firm peace recover'd foon and wonted calm. 214. Their pamper'd boughs,] The propriety of this expreflion will best be feen by what Junius fays of the etymology of the word pamper. The French word pampre of the Latin pampinus is a vine-branch full of leaves and a vineyard, he obferves, is faid by them pamprer, when it is overgrown with fuperfluous leaves and fruitless branches. Gallis pampre eft pampinus: unde iis pamprer dicitur vinea fupervacuo pampinorum germine exuberans, ac nimia crefcendi luxuria quodammodo fylvefcens. 216. To wed her elm;] Hor. Epod. II. 9. -Aut adulta vitium propagine Altas maritat populos: Inutilefque falce ramos amputans, Feliciores inferit. Adam and Eve are very well employ'd in checking fruitless embraces, and leading the vine to swed her elm; His that is very fitly made the employment of a married couple, which is urged in Ovid as an argument to marriage, Met. XIV. 661. Ulmus erat contra fpatiofa tumentibus uvis, Quam focia poftquam pariter cum vite probavit ; At fi ftaret, ait, cœlebs fine palmite truncus, Nil præter frondes, quare peteretur, haberet. Hæc quoque quæ juncta vitis requiefcit in ulmo, Si non nupta foret, terræ acclinata jaceret. An elm was near, to whofe embraces led, The curling vine her fwelling He view'd their twining branches Yet His barren leaves. Them thus employ'd beheld With pity Heav'n's high king, and to hìm call'd 220 His marriage with the fev'ntimes-wedded maid. This night the human pair, how he defigns 226 In ter of Raguel, and how to drive away the wicked Spirit who had deftroy'd her former feven husbands before they had knowledge of her. So fociable a Spirit as this is very properly fent to converse with Adam upon this occafion. 224. Raphael, faid he, thou hear'ft what fir on Earth &c] Milton in the following scene seems to have had his eye in a particular manner upon the 9th Canto of Taflo's Jerufalem, where God fends Michael to affift the Chriftians. What God fays here to Raphael is exprefs'd much after the fame manner with the beginning of God's speech to Michael, St. 58. Non vedi hor come s'armi I i4 Thyer. 235. Hap In them at once to ruin all mankind. Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend As Or with repofe; and such discourse bring on, advise him of his happy state, Happiness in his pow'r left free to will, may Left to his own free will, his will though free, 235. Happiness in his pow'r left free to will,] That is in the power of him left free to will. 247. nor delay'd the winged Saint &c.] Raphael's departure from before the throne, and his flight thro' the quires of Angels, is finely imaged. As Milton every where fills his poem with circumstances that are marvelous and aftonishing, he defcribes the gate of Heaven as framed after fuch a manner, that it open'd of itself upon the approach of the Angel who was to pafs through it. The poet here feems to have regarded two or three paffages in the 18th Iliad, as that in particular, where speaking of Vulcan, Homer fays, that he had made twenty tripodes running on golden wheels; which upon occafion might 235 His go of themfelves to the affembly of the Gods, and, when there was no more ufe for them, returned again after the fame manner. Scaliger has rallied Homer very feverely upon this point, as M. Dacier has endevor'd to defend it. I will not pretend to determin, whether in this particular of Homer, the marvelous does not lofe fight of the probable. As the miracalous workmanship of Milton's gates is not fo extraordinary as this of the tripodes, fo I am perfuaded he would not have mention'd it, had not he been fupported in it by a paffage in the Scripture, which peaks of wheels in Heaven that had life in them, and moved of themfelves, or ftood ftill, in conformity with the Cherubims, whom they accompany'd. There is no question |