Thee lastly, nuptial bower! by me adorned
With what to sight or smell was sweet! from thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower world, to this obscure

And wild? How shall we breathe2 in other air
Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits ?"
Whom thus the angel interrupted mild:-
"Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign
What justly thou hast lost; nor set thy heart,
Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine:
Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound;
Where he abides, think there thy native soil."
Adam by this from the cold sudden damp
Recovering, and his scattered spirits returned,
To Michael thus his humble words addressed:

"Celestial! whether among the thrones, or named
Of them the highest ;-for such of shape may seem+
Prince above princes! gently hast thou told
Thy message, which might else in telling wound,
And in performing end us; what besides
Of sorrow and dejection, and despair,

Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring;
Departure from this happy place, our sweet
Recess, and only consolation left

Familiar to our eyes; all places else
Inhospitable appear, and desolate;

Nor knowing us, nor known: and, if by prayer
Incessant I could hope to change the will
Of Him who all things can, I would not cease

To this-i. e. compared to this.

"fruits"

2 How shall we breathe, &c.-The antithesis between "air" and does not appear very apt, but there is an evident ellipsis, the sense of which may perhaps be thus given:-how shall we breathe the gross air [which nourishes only mortal fruits] after being accustomed, &c.

3 Celestial, &c.-" Adam's speech," says Addison, "abounds with thoughts which are equally moving [with those in Eve's complaint,] but of a more masculine and elevated turn. Nothing can be conceived more sublime and poetical than the following passage in it. "This most afflicts me, &c."

4 Such of shape, &c.-Such in appearance may he be who is a prince over princes.

5 What besides, &c.-i. e. thou hast executed thy mission gently, and in so doing, thou hast foreborne to wound or kill us-but setting this aside, ("besides,") thy tidings involve the extreme of sorrow, dejection, &c.

To weary him with my assiduous cries:
But prayer against his absolute decree

No more avails than breath against the wind,
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth:
Therefore to his great bidding I submit.
This most afflicts me, that, departing hence,
As from his face I shall be hid, deprived
His blessed countenance; here I could frequent
With worship place by place where he vouchsafed
Presence divine, and to my sons relate ;-
On this mount he appeared-under this tree
Stood, visible-among these pines his voice
I heard here with him at this fountain talked ;-
So many grateful altars I would rear

Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone
Of lustre from the brook, in memory1
Or monument to ages, and thereon

Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers.
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or footstep trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet, recalled
To life prolonged and promised race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory; and far off his steps adore."

To their fixed station,3 all in bright array,
The cherubim descended; on the ground
Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist

4

Risen from a river o'er the marish5 glides,
And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel
Homeward returning. High in front advanced,
The brandished sword of God before them blazed,

1 In memory, &c.-As a memorial to himself; or as a monument to others, for ages.

2 The lines which conclude the poem, rise in a most glorious blaze of poetical expressions:" Addison.

3 Their fixed station-i e. to the position Michael had ordered them to occupy. 4 Meteorous-like meteors, seeming as it were noiselessly to sweep the ground.

5 Marish-an old word for, marsh.

Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan air adust,1
Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain;2 then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful3 faces thronged, and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon:
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They, hand in hand,+ with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.

1

Adust-from the Latin adustus, burnt up-parched, scorching.

2 Subjected plain-a Latinism-the plain below.

3 With dreadful, &c.-a very magnificent line.

4 They, hand in hand, &c.-The poem closes with a simplicity worthy of its greatness; the conception, expression, and versification, all eminently conducing to the effect.

The following remarks upon the moral of "Paradise Lost," may not unsuitably close the notes upon that poem. "The moral which reigns in Milton is the most universal and most useful that can be imagined. It is in short this, that obedience to the will of God makes men happy, and that disobedience makes them miserable. This is visibly the moral of the principal fable, which turns upon Adam and Eve, who continued in Paradise, while they kept the command that was given them, and were driven out of it as soon as they had transgressed. This is likewise the moral of the principal episode, which shows us how an innumerable multitude of angels fell from their state of bliss, and were cast into hell upon their disobedience. Besides this great moral, which may be looked upon as the soul of the fable, there are an infinity of under morals, which are to be drawn from the several parts of the poem, and which make this work more useful and instructive than any other poem in any language:" Addison.

EXTRACTS FROM PARADISE REGAINED.1

THE BANQUET.2

HE spake no dream; for as his words had end,
Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes,

beheld

In ample space, under the broadest shade,
A table richly spread, in regal mode,

With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort
And savour, beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,
Gris-amber-steamed; 3 all fish from sea or shore,
Freshet,+ or purling brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drained
Pontus, and Lucrine bay,5 and Afric coast.
(Alas! how simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!)
And at a stately side-board, by the wine
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue

"Paradise Regained" was published in 1671, and was, singularly enough, preferred by its author to "Paradise Lost," "a prejudice which," says Dr. Johnson, "Milton had to himself." The great critic afterwards remarks :"Had this poem been written not by Milton, but by some imitator, it would have claimed and received universal praise."-One of the main hindrances, it may be suggested, to its popularity, is its obvious theological deficiency. According to Milton, Paradise is regained by the Saviour's triumph over the temptation of Satan, as recited in the first eleven verses of the fourth chapter of Matthew, while no reference whatever is made throughout the poem to the death of Christ, as an atonement for sin.

2 "Our Lord is an hungered,' and through that appetite tempted of the devil. Narrow as this ground is, for Milton it is enough; and he forthwith raises a table in the wilderness, furnished from Pontus and Lucrine lake and Attic coast;' and the charming pipes are heard to play, and Arabian odours and early flowers breathe around, and nymphs and naiads of Diana's train are summoned forth to dance beneath the shade; and the whole is combined into one of those splendid banquets with which nothing but a most perfect knowledge of antiquity could have supplied him:"-Qaarterly Review, vol. xxxvi, p. 55.

3

Gris-amber-steamed-seasoned or flavoured with ambergris, which is said to have been formerly much employed in culinary operations.

4 Freshet-a stream of fresh water.

5 Lucrine bay-this Italian bay was famous for its oysters.

6 Diverted-" is here used," says Dr. Newton, " in the Latin signification of to turn aside.""

divertor,

Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more
Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades,

With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,1
And ladies of the Hesperides,2 that seemed
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
Of faery damsels met in forest wide
By knights of Logres,3 or of Lyones,3
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore :

And all the while harmonious airs were heard
Of chiming strings, or charming pipes; and winds
Of gentlest gale Arabian odors fanned

From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.

GLORY, 5

FOR what is glory but the blaze of fame,
The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?
And what the people but a herd confused,
A miscellaneous rabble, who extol

Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the
praise?

They praise and they admire they know not what,
And know not whom, but as one leads the other;
And what delight to be by such extolled,

To live upon their tongues and be their talk,
Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise?
His lot who dares be singularly good.
The intelligent among them and the wise
Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.

1 Amalthea's horn-see note 7, p. 32.

2 Ladies of the Hesperides--the Hesperides were fabulous islands, where fruittrees bore golden apples, and where the nymphs called Hesperides lived. See also note 1, p. 334.

3 Logres, Lyones-the former an ancient name of England generally; the latter of Cornwall.

4 Lancelot, &c.-the names of persons famous in the old romance of " Morte d'Arthur."

5 This fine discourse is put into the mouth of our Saviour, in answer to Satan's temptation to the pursuit of glory.

"How admirably," remarks Thyer, "does Milton in this speech expose the emptiness and uncertainty of a popular character, and found true glory upon its only basis, the approbation of the God of Truth"