ortending good, and all her spi'rits compos'd o meek fubmiffion: thou at season fit 600 et her with thee partake what thou hast heard, He ended, and they both defcend the hill; Whence thou return'ft, and whither went'ft, I 613 For God is alfo' in fleep, and dreams advise, 611 I carry hence; though all by me is loft, 611. For God is alfo in sleep, and dreams advife,] Is alfo in fleep, and admonishes by dreams as well as by vifions, according to Numb. XII. 6. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vifion, and I will speak unto him in a dream. And thus Homer, Iliad. I. 63. Ko γαρ τ' οναρ εκ ΔιΘ- εςιν. Nam et fomnium quoque ab Jove eft. And the application is very elegant in this place, as Adam's was a vifion, and Eve's a dream, and God was in the one as well as in the other. 615. In me is no delay;] In memora non erit ulla. Virg. Ecl. III. 52. 616. Is to stay here; &c.] She is now come to that temper of mind, as to think it Paradife, wherever 620 Th' Arch-Angel Arcod,] Our poet obferves the το προπον, the decorum to the laft degree, making our firft parents fuch perfect patterns of modefty, as to forbear their indear ments, y me the promis'd Seed shall all restore. So fpake our mother Eve, and Adam heard Well pleas'd, but answer'd not; for now too nigh 625 h' Arch-Angel ftood, and from the other hill 'o their fix'd station, all in bright array 'he Cherubim defcended; on the ground liding meteorous, as evening mist is'n from a river o'er the marish glides, nd gathers ground faft at the lab'rer's heel Homeward returning. High in front advanc'd 'he brandish'd fword of God before them blaz'd ierce as a comet; which with torrid heat, 630 And turned again to the marish of fordan, Our ile be made a marish of falt tears. ents, though but in words, at the ngel's approach. Hume. 629. Gliding meteorous,] Helioorus in his Ethiopics acquaints us, at the motion of the Gods differs om that of mortals, as the former o not ftir their feet, nor proceed Eep by step, but flide o'er the furace of the earth by an uniform wimming of the whole body. The And throughout the course of our wimming of the whole body. The remarks we have been the more wileader may obferve with how poetial a defcription Milton has attri-ling to explain and illuftrate our author by fimilar expreflions and fenouted the fame kind of motion to caufe Milton was a great reader and timents in Shakespear, not only beadmirer of his works, but also becaufe we conceive Shakespear and Milton to be two of the most extraordinary geniufes and greatest poets, whom any country or any time has produced. E e 4 he Angels who were to take pof- 635. And And vapor as the Libyan air aduft, 635 Began to parch that temp'rate clime; whereat 640 Vav'd over by that flaming brand, the gate ome natural tears they dropt, but wip'd them foon; 645 The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and flow, Through Eden took their solitary way. neet alfo with the word in fo late a the blushing fand. Brando in Italian too fignifies a fword. Direxere acies: non jam certamine præuftis; Sed ferro ancipiti decernitur. Virg. Æn. VII. 523. 648. They hand in hand, with wan d'ring fteps and flow, Through Eden took their folitary way.] If I might prefume to offer at the smallest alteration in this divine work, I fhould think the poem would end better with the foregoing paffage, than with the two The world was all before them, If I might prefume, fays an ingenious have prefum'd to make so many? But Jacta eft alea, and Non injuffa cecini: |