1Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl
And temperate vapours bland, which Aurora's fan
Lightly dispersed the only sound [being] of leaves
And fuming rills, and the shrill matin song
Of birds on every bough ;- —so much the more,
When Adam waked, so customed (for his sleep
Was aëry light, from pure digestion bred),
His wonder was to find unwakened Eve
With tresses discomposed and glowing cheek,
As through unquiet rest! He, on his side
Leaning, half raised, with looks of cordial love,
Hung over her enamoured, and beheld
Beauty which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces. Then with voice
Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her hand soft touching, whispered thus :-

"Awake,

My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever-new delight!
Awake! the morning shines, and the fresh field
Calls us! We lose the prime to mark how spring
Our tended2 plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrrh and what the balmy reed,
How Nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet!”

}

Such whispering waked her; but with startled eye

On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake :—

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The following eight lines seem to me, in the received text, in such confusion-tossed into disorder apparently by some extraordinary fatality—that I have ventured to reconstruct them, and with success I trust. See p. xvii. for detailed elucidation.

2 Some editors prefer tender-mistakenly I think.

Eve's Address to Adam on waking.

"O sole, in whom my thoughts find all repose, My glory, my perfection! glad I see

Thy face and morn returned; for I this night
(Such night till this I never passed) have dreamed
(If dreamed), not as I oft am wont of thee,
Works of day past or morrow's next design,
But of offence and trouble, which my mind
Knew never till this irksome night. Methought,
Close at mine ear, one called me forth to walk

With gentle voice-I thought it thine: it said,

'Why sleep'st thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time,
'The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
'To the night-warbling bird, that now awake
'Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song; now reigns
'Full-orbed the moon, and with more pleasing light
Shadowy sets off the face of things—in vain,
'If none regard. Heaven wakes with all his eyes,
'Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire,
'In whose sight all things joy with ravishment,
Attracted by thy beauty still [ever] to gaze [on]?'
I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
To find thee I directed then my walk,

And on, methought, alone I passed through ways
That brought me on a sudden to the tree
Of interdicted knowledge-fair it seemed,
Much fairer to my fancy than by day ;-
And as I wondering looked, beside it stood.

One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven
By us oft seen (his dewy locks distilled

Ambrosia): on that tree he also gazed,

And, 'O fair plant,' said he, 'with fruit surcharged, 'Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet,

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'Nor god [angel] nor man? Is knowledge so despised? 60 'Or envy or what reserve forbids to taste?

'Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold
'Longer thy offered good-why else set here?'
This said, he paused not, but with venturous arm
He plucked, he tasted. Me damp horror chilled
At such bold words, vouched with a deed so bold!
But he thus, overjoyed: O fruit divine,

PARADISE LOST-BK. V.]

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'Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropped! 'Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit

For gods, yet able to make gods of men!

'And why not gods of men? since good the more Communicated more abundant grows,

'The author not impaired but honoured more.

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'Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve,

'Partake thou also !--happy though thou art,

Happier thou mayst be, worthier canst not be !'Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods,

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Thyself a goddess! not to earth confined,

'But sometimes [be] in the air, as we; sometimes
'Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine, and see
'What life the gods live there, and such live thou !'
So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,
Even to my mouth, of that same fruit-held part
Which he had plucked! The pleasant savoury smell
So quickened appetite, that I, methought,

Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds

With him I flew, and underneath beheld

The earth outstretched immense, a prospect wide

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And various. [while] Wondering at my flight and change

To this high exaltation, suddenly

My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down

And fell asleep; but oh, how glad I waked

To find this but a dream!"

Thus Eve her night}

Related, and thus Adam answered sad :

“Best image of myself and dearer half,

The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep

Affects me equally; nor can I like

This uncouth [strange] dream—of evil sprung I fear :

Yet evil whence? in thee can harbour none,

Created pure.

But know, that in the soul

Are many lesser faculties, that serve

Reason as chief: among these, Fancy1 next

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It has been remarked, that the word " 'Fancy" in Milton's diction stands for conception, that power of creating, combining, and sporting with ideas, which is essentially the faculty of the poet.

Adam pacifies the Fears of Eve.

Her office holds of all external things
Which the five watchful senses represent,
She forms imaginations, aery shapes,
Which Reason, joining or disjoining, frames
All what we affirm or what deny, and call
Our knowledge or opinion-then retires
Into her private cell when Nature rests.

Oft in her [Reason's] absence mimic Fancy wakes
To imitate her, but misjoining shapes,
Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams,
Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.
Some such resemblances, methinks, I find

Of our last evening's talk in this thy dream,
But with addition strange. Yet be not sad--
Evil into the mind of god [angel] or man

May come and go, so [that it is] unapproved, and leave
No spot or blame behind; which gives me hope
That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream,
Waking thou never wilt consent to do.

Be not disheartened, then, nor cloud those looks,
That wont to be more cheerful and serene
Than when fair Morning first smiles on the world;
And let us to our fresh employments rise
Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers,
That open now their choicest bosomed smells,
Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store."

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So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered :

But silently a gentle tear let fall

From either eye, and wiped them with her hair :
Two other precious drops that ready stood,

Each in their crystal sluice, he ere they fell

Kissed, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse [regret]
And pious awe, that feared to have offended.

So all was cleared, and to the field they haste.

But first from under shady arborous roof
Soon as they forth were come to open sight
Of day-spring and the sun-who, scarce uprisen,
With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean brim,
Shot parallel to the earth his dewy ray,
Discovering in wide landscape all the east

PARADISE LOST-BK. V.]

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Of Paradise and Eden's happy plains-
Lowly they bowed adoring, and began
Their orisons, each morning duly paid
In various style: for neither various style
Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise

Their Maker, in fit strains pronounced or sung
Unmeditated-such prompt eloquence

Flowed from their lips-in prose or numerous verse,
More tuneable than needed lute or harp

To add more sweetness; and they thus began:

"These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair: thyself how wondrous then,
Unspeakable! who sitt'st above these heavens
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought and power divine!
Speak, ye who best can tell, ye Sons of Light,
Angels-for ye behold him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, day without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing aye in Heaven!
On Earth join all ye creatures to extol

Him first, him last, him midst, and without end!
Fairest of Stars, last in the train of night-

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If better thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge of day-that crown'st the smiling Morn
With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere,
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime !
Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st!
Moon, that now meet'st the orient sun, now fliest,
With the fixed Stars, fixed in their orb, that rest,
And ye five other wandering Fires that move
In mystic dance, not without song-resound
His praise, who out of darkness called up light!
Air, and ye Elements-the eldest birth
Of Nature's womb-that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix.

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