To the Creator, and his noftrils 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 sents and airs: 200
Then commune how that day they best may ply
Their growing work: for much their work outgrew
The hands dispatch of two gard'ning fo wide,
And Eve first to her husband thus began.
Adam, well may we labor ftill to drefs

197. With grateful smell,] This is in the ftile of the eastern poetry. So it is faid Gen. VIII. 21. The Lord fmelled a fweet favor.

199.—that done,] Our author always fuppofes Adam and Eve to employ their first and their last hours in devotion. And they are only would-be-wits, who do not believe and worship a God. The greatest geniufes in all ages from Homer to Milton appear plainly by their writings to have been men of piety and religion.

205 This

66

fo he was himself an early rifer. See what he fays of himself in his Apology for Smedtymnuus. p. 109. Vol. 1. Edit. 1738. My morning haunts are where they should be, at home, "not fleeping, or concocting the 200. The season, prime for fweeteft" furfeits of an irregular feaft, but fents and airs:] Sents, lo " up and stirring, in winter often Milton fpells it, doubtless from the "ere the found of any bell awake Latin fentiendo. And fo Skinner fpells men to labor, or to devotion; in it, and this is the true way of Ipel-"fummer as oft with the bird that ling it. I prefume, it was firft fpelt "first roufes, or not much tardier, with a cfcent, to diftinguish it from "to read good authors, or caufe the participle fent miffus; but the "them to be read, till the attention fenfe will fufficiently distinguish the "be weary, or memory have its one from the other. And in like "full fraught.

213. Or

210

This garden, ftill to tend plant, herb and flower,
Our pleasant task injoin'd, but till more hands
Aid us, the work under our labor grows,
Luxurious by reftraint; 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 bear what to my mind first thoughts present;
Let us divide our labors, thou where choice
Leads thee, or where moft needs, whether to wind 215
The woodbine round this arbor, or direct

The clafping ivy where to climb, while I

213. Or bear what to my mind So the fecond edition has it; in the first it is Or hear. Either will do, and we find fometimes the one and fometimes the other in the following editions.

226. To whom mild anfver Adam

thus return'd.] The difpute which follows between our two first parents is represented with great art: It proceeds from a difference of judgment, not of paflion, and is manag'd with reason, not with heat: It is fuch a difpute as we may fuppofe might have happen'd in Paradife, had Man continued happy and innocent. There is a great delicacy in the moralities which are interfperfed in Adam's difcourfe, and which the most ordinary reader cannot but take notice of. That force

In yonder fpring of rofes intermix'd

220

With myrtle, find what to redress till noon:
For while fo near each other thus all day
Our task we choose, what wonder if so near
Looks intervene and smiles, or object new
Casual difcourfe draw on, which intermits
Our day's work brought to little, though begun
Early, and th' hour of fupper comes unearn'd. 225
To whom mild answer Adam thus return'd.

Sole Eve, affociate fole, to me beyond

Compare above all living creatures dear,

Well haft thou motion'd, well thy thoughts employ'd

fome curfed fraud Of enemy hath beguil'd thee &'c: The beginning of this fpeech, and the preparation to it, are animated with the fame spirit as the conclufion which I have here quoted. Addifon.

227. Sole Eve, affociate fole,] Sole affociate (fays Dr. Bentley) is very well, but Sole Eve would deferve in reply Sole Adam: he therefore pronounces that Milton gave it O Eve, and quotes two paffages for the legality of this interjection O, join'd to Eve. But as fhe had her name Eve upon account of her being the mother of all living Gen. III. 20. the epithet fole is as properly applied to Eve as to affeciate. Pearce. 227. beyond Compare] I think we took notice before, that VOL. II.

How

Milton fometimes uses the substantive for an adjective, and an adjective for a fubftantive. And here we may obferve, that fometimes he makes a verb of a noun, and again a noun of a verb. A noun of a verb as here, beyond compare, and VI. 549.

Inftant without disturb they took alarm.

And a verb of a noun, as in VII.412.

Tempest the ocean.

And in like manner he makes the adjective a verb, as in VI. 440.

to better us, and worse our foes; and again the verb an adjective, as in VIII. 576.

Made so adorn. Several other inftances in each kind might be cited. 239. — Smiles

K

235

How we might best fulfil the work which here 230
God hath affign'd us, nor of me fhalt pafs
Unprais'd: for nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to ftudy houfhold good,
And good works in her husband to promote.
Yet not fo ftrictly hath our Lord impos'd
Labor, as to debar us when we need
Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,
Food of the mind, or this fweet intercourfe
Of looks and fmiles, for fmiles from reafon flow,
To brute deny'd, and are of love the food,
Love not the lowest end of human life.
For not to irksome toil, but to delight

He made us, and delight to reason join'd.

240

245

These paths and bow'rs doubt not but our joint hands
Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide
As we need walk, till younger hands ere long
Affift us: but if much converfe perhaps
Thee fatiate, to short abfence I could yield:

For folitude fometimes is beft fociety,

And short retirement urges fweet return.

But other doubt poffeffes me, left harm

Befall thee fever'd from me; for thou know'ft
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 fly affault; and fomewhere nigh at hand
Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find
His wifh and beft advantage, us afunder,
Hopeless to circumvent us join'd, where each
To other speedy aid might lend at need;
Whether his first design be to withdraw
Our feälty 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 fide

259

255

260

265

That gave thee be'ing, still shades thee and protects. The wife, where danger or difhonor lurks,