415. But to the cross be nails thy enemies,] The enemies of Adam were the law that was against him and the sins of all mankind as springing originally from him, and therefore in some sense chargeable upon him. The author in this passage alludes to Col. ii. 14. Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.

"

424. Thy ransom paid.] The two first editions have Thy (the latter ones The): and Milton's word may be defended, if we suppose that Adam is here spoken of not as a single person, but as one in whose loins all mankind was contained, or as one who was representative of the whole human species. And so the poet speaks again in 427.

this God-like act

Annuls thy doom, &c. Pearce.

432. And fix far deeper in his head their stings

Than temp'ral death shall bruise the victor's heel,] Before we come to a conclusion, it may be proper to remark here once for all, that Milton makes no distinction between then and than, but spells both alike then, which must necessarily occasion some obscurity and confusion. Their too he commonly writes thir, but this greatly offends the eye, we are so much habituated to the other; and at the same time he'frequently uses theirs, and there seems to be no reason why the one should be written differently from the other. It is hoped therefore that these things have been altered for the better.

457-

-exalted bigh

Above all names in Heav'n;] Phil. ii. 9.

469. O goodness infinite, goodness immense ! &c.] The poet has very finely represented the joy and gladness of heart, which rises in Adam upon his discovery of the Messiah. As he sees his day at a distance through types and shadows, he rejoices in it; but when he finds the redemption of man completed, and Paradise again renewed, he breaks forth in rapture and transport. I have hinted before, that an heroic poem, according to the opinion of the best critics, ought to end happily, and leave the mind of the reader, after having conducted it through many doubts, fears, sorrows and disquietudes, in a state of tranquility and satisfaction. Milton's fable, which had so many other qualifications to recommend it, was deficient in this particular. It

is here, therefore, that the poet has shewn a most exquisite judgment, as well as the finest invention, by finding out a method to supply this natural defect in his subject. Accordingly he leaves the adversary of mankind, in the last view which he gives us of him, under the lowest state of mortification and disappointment. We see him chewing ashes, groveling in the dust, and loaden with supernumerary pains and torments. On the contrary our two first parents are comforted by dreams and visions, cheared with promises of salvation, and in a manner raised to a greater happiness, than that which they had forfeited: In short, Satan is represented miserable in the heighth of his triumphs, and Adam triumphant in the heighth of misery. Addison. 487. The promise of the Father,] Luke xxiv. 49. 490. To guide them in all truth,] John xvi. 13. "When Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth” and also arm

490.

With spiritual armour, able to resist

Satan's assaults, and quench bis fiery darts,] Alluding to Iph. vi. II, &c. "Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil--wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." 507.-but in their room, as they forewarn,

Wolves shall succeed &c]. So St. Paul had forewarned the elders of the church at Meletus, to which the author here alludes, Acts xx. 29. "For I knew this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." See too his Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Christian Church. Vol. i. p. 563. edit. 1738. Not long after, as the Apostle foretold, hirelings like wolves came in by herds, &c.

514. Though not but by the Spirit understood.] I do not think Milton in all his writings ever gave a stronger proof of his enthusiastical spirit than in this line. Warburton.

I suppose he alluded to 1 Cor. ii. 14. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

522.

-laws which none shall find &c.] Laws neither agreeable to revealed or natural religion, neither to be found in

holy Scripture, or written on their hearts by the Spirit of God, according to that divine promise, Jer. xxxi. 33. “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."

526. His consort liberty?] "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, 2 Cor. iii. 17.

532. On all who in the worship persevere

Of spirit and truth;] He alludes to John iv. 23. "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." 459. New Heav'ns, new Earth,] The very words of St. Peter, 2 Pet. iii. 13. "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Heavens and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

568. Subverting worldly strong, &c. 1 Cor. i. 27. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty."

574. To whom thus also th` last Angelreply'd.] This is the last speech of the Angel, as the foregoing one was the last speech of Adam; and they are both introduced in the same manner. It was said before,

"thus Adam last reply'd:"

and here it is said again,

-thus also the Angel last reply'd." This repetition is not below our notice. 581. -only add &c.] See 2 Pet. i. 5, &c. "And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." A text that the reader may have the pleasure of seeing excellently explained and illustrated in a most ingenious discourse by Mr. Warburton.

588.

-from this top

Of speculation;] From this visionary heighth, from this hill of prophecy and prediction. Speculation, a watching on a tower or high place, thence a discovery, therefore applied to the prophets in the sacred page, who are called seers and watchmen, speculatores, of specula, Latin, a watch tower; "Son of Man I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel." Ezek. iii. 17, more exactly described chap. xxxiii. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Hume.

So Parad. Reg. iv. 236. This specular mount. Richardson. 609. And thus with words not sad she him receiv'd.] Milton's poem ends very nobly. The last speeches of Adam and the Arch-Angel are full of moral and instructive sentiments. The sleep that fell upon Eve, and the effects it had in quieting the disorders of her mind, produce the same kind of consolation in the reader, who cannot peruse the last beautiful speech, which is ascribed to the mother of mankind, without a secret pleasure and satisfaction. The following lines which conclude the poem, rise in a most glorious blaze of poetical images and expressions. Addison.

611. For God is also in sleep, and dreams advise,] Is also in sleep, and admonishes by dreams as well as by visions, according to Numb. xii. 6. "If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream." And thus Hom. II. i. 63.

616. Is to stay here; &c.] She is now come to that temper of mind, as to think it Paradise, wherever her husband is, as the Angel had taught her before, xi. 290.

Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes

Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound;

Where he abides, think there thy native soil.

So that the Author makes Woman's Paradise to be in company with her husband, but Man's to be in himself, ver. 587. A Paradise within thee, happier far.

The Arch-Angel stood,] Our poet observes the most delicate decorum to the last degree, making our first parents such perfect patterns of modesty, as to forbear their endearments, though but in words, at the Angel's approach. Hume.

629. Gliding meteorous,] Heliodorus in his Ethiopics acquaints us, that the motion of the Gods differs from mortals, as the former do not stir their feet, nor proceed step by step, but slide o'er the surface of the earth by an uniform swimming of the whole body. The reader may observe with how poetical a description Milton has attributed the same kind of motion to the Angels who were to take possession of Paradise.

Addison.

637. In either hand &c.] The author helped his invention in the following passage, by reflecting on the behaviour of the Angel, who, in holy Writ, has the conduct of Lot and his fa

mily. The circumstances drawn from that relation are very gracefully made use of on this occasion. Addison.

641. They looking back, &c.] The scene which our first parents are surprised with, upon their looking back on Paradise, wonderfully strikes the reader's imagination, as nothing can be more natural than the tears they shed on that occasion. Addison. 648. They band in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.] If I might presume to offer at the smallest alteration in this divine work, I should think the poem would end better with the foregoing passage, than with the two verses here quoted. These two verses, though they have their beauty, fall very much below the foregoing passage, and renew in the mind of the reader that anguish which was pretty well laid by that consideration.

The world was all before them where to choose

Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. Addison. If I might presume, says an ingenious and celebrated writer, to offer at the smallest alteration in this divine work. If to make one small alteration appeared to be so presumptuous; what censure must I expect to incur, who have presumed to make so many? But jacta est alea, and Non injussa cecini: The gen tleman would eject these two last lines of the book, and close it with the verse before. He seems to have been induced to this by a mistake of the printer, They band in hand; which reading does indeed make the last distich seem loose, unconnected, and abscinded from the rest. But the author gave it Then band in hand; which continues the prior sentence.

Some natural tears they dropt, but wip'd them soon;

Then hand in hand.

Nor can these two verses possibly be spared from the work; for without them Adam and Eve would be left in the territory and suburbane of Paradise, in the very view of the dreadful faces. They must therefore be dismissed out of Eden, to live thenceforward in some other part of the world. And yet this distich, as the gentleman well judges, falls very much below the foregoing passage. It contradicts the poet's own scheme; nor is the diction unexceptionable. He tells us before, That Adam, upon hearing Michael's predictions, was even surcharged with joy, ver. 372; was replete with joy and wonder ver. 468; was in doubt, whether he should repent of or rejoice

VOL. III.