As he suppos'd, all unobserv'd, unseen. So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden, where delicious paradise, Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green, As with a rural mound, the champain head Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Access deny'd; and over-head up-grew Insuperable highth of loftiest shade, Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops The verdurous wall of paradise up sprung; Which to our general sire gave prospect large Into his nether empire neighbouring round. And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit, Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colours mixt:
On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams, 150 Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
138 shade] 'shaft.' Bentl. MS. and again, ver. 141. 'Shaft above
141 woody theatre] v. Seneca Troades, ver. 1127.
'Erecta medium vallis includens locum,
Crescit theatri more.'
Virg. Æn. v. 288. and Solini Polyhist. c. xxxviii. v. Lycophr. Cassandra, ver. 600.
151 in] Hume, Bentley, and Warton would read on fair evening cloud.'
When God hath shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd That landscape and of pure now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair: now gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail Beyond the cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Arabie the blest, with such delay
Well pleas'd they slack their course, and many a league Cheer'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles: 165 So entertain❜d those odorous sweets the fiend Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd
162 Sabean odours] See Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xii. c. 42. 19. ‘Magnique Alexandri classibus Arabiam odore primum nuntiatam in altum.' Compare a passage in Ovington's Voyage to Surat, p. 55 (1696). 'We were pleased with the prospect of this island, because we had been long strangers to such a sight; and it gratified us with the fragrant smells which were wafted from the shore, from whence, at three leagues distance, we scented the odours of flowers and fresh herbs; and what is very observable, when after a tedious stretch at sea, we have deemed ourselves to be near land by our observation and course, our smell in dark and misty weather has outdone the acuteness of our sight, and we have discovered land by the fresh smells. before we discovered it with our eyes.' See also Davenport's 'City Night-cap,' act v.
That blow off from the coast, and cheer the sailor With the sweet savour of their spices, want
The delight that flows in thee.'
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume,
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound. Now to th' ascent of that steep savage hill Satan had journied on, pensive and slow; But further way found none, so thick entwin'd, As one continu'd brake, the undergrowth Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd All path of man or beast that past that way. One gate there only was, and that look'd east On th' other side: which when th' arch-felon saw, Due entrance he disdain'd, and in contempt At one slight bound high overleap'd all bound Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve 185 In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold: Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors, Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault, In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles:
183 wolf] Keen as the Evening wolf.'
Benlowe's Theophila, p. 44.
190 Cross-barr'd] Cross-barr'd and double lockt.'
Heywood's Hierarchie, p. 510, folio, (1635).
191 In at the window] v. Spenser's Fairy Queen, lib. i. c. 3. ver. 17.
'He was to weet a stout and sturdy thief,
Then he by cunning slights in at the window crept.'
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold; So since into his church lewd hirelings climb. Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life Thereby regain'd, but sat devising death To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd
For prospect, what well us'd had been the pledge 200 Of immortality. So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts best things To worst abuse, or to their meanest use. Beneath him with new wonder now he views To all delight of human sense expos'd
In narrow room nature's whole wealth, yea more, A heaven on earth: for blissful paradise Of God the garden was, by him in the east Of Eden planted; Eden stretch'd her line From Auran eastward to the royal tow'rs Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, Or where the sons of Eden long before Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd; Out of the fertile ground he caus'd to grow All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste; And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to Life
Our death the Tree of Knowledge grew fast by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill. Southward through Eden went a river large, Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill Pass'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown That mountain as his garden mould, high rais'd 226 Upon the rapid current, which, through veins Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn, Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill Water'd the garden; thence united fell Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood, Which from his darksome passage now appears; And now divided into four main streams Runs divers, wand'ring many a famous realm And country, whereof here needs no account; But rather to tell how, if art could tell, How from that saphire fount the crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, With mazy error under pendent shades Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flow'rs worthy of paradise, which not nice art
'Tremuloque alarum remige crispat
Fluctusque fluviosque maris.'
A. Ramsæi Poem. Sacr. ed. Lauder, i. p. 3. 238 orient pearl] See Sir D. Lindsay, ed. Chalmers, ii. 327. 'Lyke orient perlis.'
And Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5. 'He kissed, the last of many doubled kisses, this orient pearl.'
Orient pearl was esteemed the most valuable. See Don Quixote (Shelton's Transl. vol. iv. p. 64.) 'She wept not tears, but seed pearl, or morning dew: and he thought higher, that they were like oriental pearls.'
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