To the Creator, and his noftrils fill With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake 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, 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: 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 He made us, and delight to reason join'd. 240 245 These paths and bow'rs doubt not but our joint hands 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 Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame 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, |