LOST . A nice and subtle happiness I fee 400 No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary. Of happiness, or not? who am alone Second to me or like, equal much less. How have I then with whom to hold converse Beneath what other creatures are to thee? 405 410 He ceas'd, I lowly anfwer'd. To attain The highth and depth of thy eternal ways Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee Is no deficience found; not fo is Man, 406. none I know Second to me or like,] Nec viget quicquam fimile aut fecundum. Hor. Od. I. XII. 18. 413: The highth and depth of thy eternal ways &c.] Rom. XI. 415 By 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! bouw unfearchable are his judgments, and his ways paft finding out! 421. And through all numbers abJolute,] A Latin expreffion, omnibus By conversation with his like to help, Or folace his defects. No need that thou And through all numbers abfolute, though one; But Man by number is to manifest His fingle imperfection, and beget Best with thyself accompanied, feek'ft not Social communication, yet fo pleas'd, 420 425 Canft raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt 430 Of union or communion, deify'd; I by converfing cannot these erect From prone, nor in their ways complacence find. Thus I imbolden'd spake, and freedom us'd Permiffive, and acceptance found, which gain'd 435 This answer from the gracious voice divine. omnibus numeris abfolutus, as Cicero fays, and means perfect in all its parts, and complete in every thing; quod expletum fit omnibus fuis numeris et partibus, as Cicero elfewhere expreffes it: but there feems to be a low conceit in the expreffion, Thus And through all numbers abfolute, though one. 423. His fingle imperfeЯion.] That is the imperfection of him fingle. A frequent way of speaking in Milton. Pearce. Ga 440. Ex Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleas'd, And no fuch company as then thou faw'st To see how thou could'ft judge of fit and meet: 440. Expreffing well the Spirit within thee free, My image,] Milton is upon all occafions a ftrenuous advocate for the freedom of the human mind against the narrow and rigid notions of the Calvinifts of that age, and here in the fame spirit fuppofes the very image of God in which man was made to confift in this liberty. The fentiment is very grand, and this fenfe of the words is, in my opinion, full as probable as any of thofe many which the commentators have put upon them, in as much as no property of the foul of man diftinguishes him better from the brutes, or affimilates him more to his Creator. This notion, tho' uncommon, is not peculiar to Milton; for I find Clarius, in his remark upon this paf 440 445 What fage of Scripture, referring to St. Bafil the great for the fame interpretation. See Clarius amongst the Critici Sacri. Thyer. 444. 1, ere thou spak'ft, Knew it not good for Man to be alone,] For we read Gen. II, 18. And the Lord God faid, It is not good that the Man fhould be alone; 1 will make him an help meet for him. And then ver. 19. & 20. God brings the beafts and birds before Adam, and Adam gives them names, but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him; as if Adam had now difcover'd it himself likewife: and from this little hint our author has rais'd this dialogue between Adam and his Maker. And then follows both in Mofes and in Milton the account What next I bring shall please thee, be affur'd, He ended, or I heard no more, for now My earthly by his heav'nly overpower'd, 450 Which it had long stood under, ftrain'd to th' highth In that celestial colloquy fublime, As with an object that excels the sense Dazled and spent, funk down, and fought repair By nature as in aid, and clos'd mine eyes. Mine eyes he clos'd, but account of the formation of Eve and inftitution of marriage. 453. My earthly by bis heav'nly overpower'd,] The Scripture fays only, that the Lord God caufed a deep fleep to fall upon Adam, Gen. II. 21. and our author endevors to give fome account how it was effected: Adam was overpower'd by converfing with fo fuperior a being, his faculties having been all ftrain'd and exerted to the highth, and now he funk down quite dazled and spent, and fought repair of fleep, which inftantly fell on him, and clos'd his eyes. Mine eyes be clos'd, fays he again, turning the words, and making fleep a perfon as the ancient poets often do. ~460. Mine eyes be clos'd, &c.] Adam' then proceeds to give an account of open 455 left the cell 460 Of his fecond fleep, and of the dream in which he beheld the formation of Eve. The new paffion that was awaken'd in him at the fight of her is touch'd very finely. Adam's diftrefs upon lofing fight of this beautiful phantom, with his exclamations of joy and gratitude at the discovery of a real creature, who refembled the apparition which had been prefented to him in his dream; the approaches he makes to her, and his manner of courtship, are all laid together in a moft exquifite propriety of fentiments. Tho' this part of the poem is work'd up with great warmth and fpirit, the love which is described in it is every way fuitable to a ftate of innocence. If the reader compares the description which Adam here gives of his leadG 3 ing Of fancy my internal fight, by which Abstract as in a trance methought I saw, Though fleeping, where I lay, and faw the shape ing Eve to the nuptial bower, with that which Mr. Dryden has made on the fame occasion in a scene of his Fall of Man, he will be fenfible of the great care which Milton took to avoid all thoughts on fo delicate a fubject, that might be offenfive to religion or good-manners. The fentiments are chafte, but not cold; and convey to the mind ideas of the molt tranfporting paffion. and of the greatest purity. Addifon. And pofe this rib was taken from the left fide, as being nearer to the heart. 469. fafbon'd] Spelt after the French façon. 470. Under his forming hands a creature grew, &c.] This whole account of the formation of Eve, and of the first meeting and nuptials of Adam and Eve is deliver'd in the moft natural and eafy language, and calls to mind an observation of Mr. Pope upon Milton's ftile, in his Poftfcript to the Ody fley. are a hundred times more obfolete 462. Abstract as in a trance] For the word. that we tranflate a deep,« other imitators, are not copies but "The imitators of Milton, like most fleep, Gen II. 21. The Lord God "caricatura's of their original; they caufed a deep fleep to fall upon Adam, the Greek interpreters render by trance or e ftafy, in which the perfon is abftrat, is withdrawn at it were from himself, and fill fees things, tho' his fenfes are all lock'd up. So that Adam Tees his wife, as he did Paradife, first in vifion. 465. — open'd my left fide, and took From thence a rib, -wide was the wound, But fuddenly with flefb fill'd up and beal'd:] Gen. 11. 21. And he took one of his ribs, and clofed up the flesh inftead thereof. The Scripture fays only one of his ribs, but Milton follows thofe interpreters who fup and cramp than he, and equally "fo in all places: Whereas it fhould "have been obferved of Milton "that he is not lavish of his exotic "words and phrafes every where "alike, but employs them much more where the fubject is mar" velous, vaft and ftrange, as in the "fcenes of Heaven, Hell, Chaos, "&c. than where it is turned to "the natural and agreeable, as in "the pictures of Paradife, the loves "of our first parents, the entertain"ments of Angels and the like. In "general, this unusual file better ferves to awaken our ideas in the "descrip |