In Eden on the humid flowers, that breathed
Their morning incense, when all things, that breathe, From the earth's great altar send up silent praise To the Creator, and his nostrils fill
With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, And join'd their vocal worship to the quire Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs: Then commune, how that day they best may ply Their growing work; for much their work outgrew The hands' dispatch of two, gardening so wide; And Eve first to her husband thus began:
Adam, well may we labour still to dress This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, Our pleasant task enjoin'd; but, till more hands Aid us, the work under our labour grows, Luxurious by restraint: what we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, One night or two with wanton growth derides, Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise, Or hear what to my mind first thoughts present: Let us divide our labours; thou, where choice Leads thee, or where most needs; whether to wind The woodbine round this arbour, or direct The clasping ivy where to climb: while I, In yonder spring of roses intermix'd With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: For, while so near each other thus all day Our task we choose, what wonder if so near Looks intervene and smiles, or object new Casual discourse draw on; which intermits Our day's work, brought to little, though begun Early, and the hour of supper comes unearn'd? To whom mild answer Adam thus return'd: Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond Compare above all living creatures dear!
Well hast thou motion'd, well thy thoughts employ'd
How we might best fulfil the work which here
God hath assign'd us; nor of me shalt pass Unpraised; for nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote. Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed Labour, as to debar us when we need
Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,
Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse
Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow,
To brute denied, and are of love the food;
196 and 197. In the style of Eastern poetry. See Gen. viii. 21.
He made us, and delight to reason join'd.
These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide
As we need walk; till younger hands ere long Assist us: but if much converse perhaps Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield; For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return. But other doubt possesses me, lest harm Befall thee sever'd from me; for thou know'st What hath been warn'd us; what malicious foe, Envying our happiness, and of his own Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame By sly assault; and somewhere nigh at hand Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find His wish and best advantage, us asunder; Hopeless to circumvent us join'd, where each To other speedy aid might lend at need: Whether his first design be to withdraw Our fealty from God; or to disturb Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss Enjoy'd by us excites his envy more;
Or this, or worse, leave not the faithful side
That gave thee being, still shades thee, and protects.
The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,
Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,
Who guards her, or with her the worst endures. To whom the virgin majesty of Eve,
As one who loves, and some unkindness meets,
With sweet austere composure thus replied:
Offspring of heaven and earth, and all earth's lord!
That such an enemy we have, who seeks
Our ruin, both by thee inform'd I learn,
And from the parting angel overheard,
As in a shady nook I stood behind,
Just then return'd at shut of evening flowers.
But that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt
His fraud is then thy fear; which plain infers
Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced;
Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy breast, Adam, misthought of her to thee so dear?
270. Virgin. The ancients used the word virgin (virgo) with more latitude than we, as Virgil calls Pasiphæ virgo, after she had had three children. It is put to denote beauty, bloom, sweetness,
modesty, and all the amiable characters which are usually found in a virgin, and these with matron majesty. What a picture!-RICHARDSON.
To whom with healing words Adam replied: Daughter of God and man, immortal Eve!
For such thou art; from sin and blame entire: Not diffident of thee, do I dissuade
Thy absence from my sight; but to avoid
The attempt itself, intended by our foe.
For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses The tempted with dishonour foul; supposed Not incorruptible of faith, not proof Against temptation: thou thyself with scorn And anger wouldst resent the offer'd wrong, Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then, If such affront I labour to avert
From thee alone, which on us both at once The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare; Or daring, first on me the assault shall light. Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn: Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels; nor think superfluous others' aid. I, from the influence of thy looks, receive Access in every virtue; in thy sight
More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were
Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on,
Shame to be overcome or overreach'd,
Would utmost vigour raise, and raised unite.
Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel
When I am present, and thy trial choose
With me, best witness of thy virtue tried? So spake domestic Adam in his care
And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought Less áttributed to her faith sincere,
Thus her reply with accent sweet renew'd:
If this be our condition, thus to dwell In narrow circuit straiten'd by a foe, Subtle or violent, we not endued Single with like defence, wherever met; How are we happy, still in fear of harm? But harm precedes not sin: only our foe, Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem Of our integrity: his foul esteem
Sticks no dishonour on our front, but turns
Foul on himself; then wherefore shunn'd or fear'd
By us? who rather double honour gain
From his surmise proved false; find peace within,
Favour from Heaven, our witness, from the event.
And what is faith, love, virtue, unassay'd
Alone, without exteriour help sustain❜d? Let us not then suspect our happy state Left so imperfect by the Maker wise, As not secure to single or combined.
320. Less: Too little; less than there should be.
Frail is our happiness, if this be so; And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed.
To whom thus Adam fervently replied: O woman, best are all things as the will Of God ordain'd them: his creating hand Nothing imperfect or deficient left
Of all that he created: much less man, Or aught that might his happy state secure, Secure from outward force: within himself The danger lies, yet lies within his power: Against his will he can receive no harm: But God left free the will; for what obeys Reason, is free; and reason he made right, But bid her well be ware, and still erect; Lest, by some fair-appearing good surprised, She dictate false, and misinform the will To do what God expressly hath forbid.
Not then mistrust, but tender love enjoins,
That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me.
Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve;
Since reason not impossibly may meet
Some specious object by the foe suborn'd,
And fall into deception unaware,
Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warn'd. Seek not temptation then, which to avoid Were better, and most likely if from me Thou sever not: trial will come unsought. Wouldst thou approve thy constancy? approve First thy obedience; the other who can know? Not seeing thee attempted, who attest? But if thou think trial unsought may find
Us both securer than thus warn'd thou seem'st Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more; Go in thy native innocence, rely
On what thou hast of virtue; summon all: For God towards thee hath done his part; do thine. So spake the patriarch of mankind; but Eve Persisted; yet submiss, though last, replied:
With thy permission then, and thus forewarn'd Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words Touch'd only; that our trial, when least sought, May find us both perhaps far less prepared; The willinger I go, nor much expect
A foe so proud will first the weaker seek; So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse.
342. Throughout this whole conversa- | sketch out the defects peculiar, in genetion, which the poet has in every respectral, to the female mind! And after all, worked up to a faultless perfection, there is the most exact observance of justness and propriety of character. With what strength is the superior excellence of man's understanding here pointed out, and how nicely does our author here
what great art has he shown in making Adam, contrary to his better reason, grant his spouse's request-beautifully verify. ing what he had made our general an cestor a little before observe to the angel' Book viii. 546 and following.- THYER.
Thus saying, from her husband's hand her hand Soft she withdrew, and, like a wood-nymph light, Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's train, Betook her to the groves; but Delia's self In gait surpass'd, and goddess-like deport, Though not as she with bow and quiver arm'd, But with such gardening-tools as art, yet rude, Guiltless of fire, had form'd, or angels brought. To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorn'd, Likest she seem'd; Pomona, when she fled Vertumnus; or to Ceres in her prime, Yet virgin of Proserpina from Ĵove. Her long with ardent look his eye pursued Delighted, but desiring more her stay. Oft he to her his charge of quick return Repeated: she to him as oft engaged To be return'd by noon amid the bower, And all things in best order to invite Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. O, much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve, Of thy presumed return! event perverse! Thou never from that hour in Paradise Found'st either sweet repast or sound repose;
Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers and shades, Waited with hellish rancour imminent
To intercept thy way, or send thee back Despoil'd of innocence, of faith, of bliss!
For now, and since first break of dawn, the fiend, Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come; And on his quest, where likeliest he might find The only two of mankind, but in them The whole included race, his purposed prey. In bower and field he sought, where any tuft Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, Their tendance, or plantation for delight;
By fountain or by shady rivulet
He sought them both, but wish'd his hap might find
Eve separate; he wish'd, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanced; when to his wish, Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies, Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,
386. Like a wood-nymph. As this is the last description of Eve in a state of innocence, Milton has bestowed upon her the richest colours of his poetry, and has compared her to every thing most beautiful of the kind to be found in ancient fable, with which he thought it necessary to adorn even his Christian poem.-LORD MONBODDO.
387. Oread: (From the Greek oros, a mountain,) a mountain nymph. Dryad: drus, an oak.) a nymph of the groves. Delia: A name of Diana, from the island Delos, where she was born.
396. Virgin of Proserpina, &c. "That is, a virgin not having yet conceived Proserpina, who was begot by Jove.”— WARBURTON. "The expression is cer tainly not common English, and many will deny it to be English at all; but let any man try to express the same thought otherwise, and he will be convinced how much Milton has raised and ennobled his style by an idiom so uncommon, but which is, notwithstanding, sufficiently intelligible."-LORD MONBODDO.
441. Laertes' son: Ulysses, who was entertained by Alcinous, at his garden.
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