For us created, needs with us must fail, power Triumph and fay; Fickle their ftate whom God 946 950 Certain to undergo like doom; if death 955 The bond of nature draw me to my own, My own in thee, for what thou art is mine; So Adam, and thus Eve to him reply'd. 960 ones will, I dare fay, look upon it fentment have made agreeable to as a proof of our author's exquifite us. Thyer. knowledge of human nature. Reafon is but too often little better than a flave ready at the beck of the will to dress up in plaufible colors any opinions that our intereft or re 929. — bainous] So Milton fpells this word, which is right and agreeable to its derivation from the French haineux. It is wrong to write it, as it is commonly written, heinous. We take O glorious trial of exceeding love, Illustrious evidence, example high! Of thy perfection, how shall I attain, Adam? from whofe dear fide I boaft me fprung, 965 One heart, one foul in both; whereof good proof Rather than death or ought than death more dread To undergo with me one guilt, one crime, Direct, or by occafion) hath prefented This happy trial of thy love, which else So eminently never had been known. Were it I thought death menac'd would enfue 970 975 The The worst, and not perfuade thee, rather die Deferted, than oblige thee with a fact Pernicious to thy peace, chiefly affur'd 989 Remarkably fo late of thy so true, Far otherwise th' event, not death, but life And fear of death deliver to the winds. 990 So faying, the embrac'd him, and for joy Tenderly wept, much won that he his love Had fo ennobled, as of choice to' incur Divine displeasure for her fake, or death. In recompenfe (for such compliance bad Such recompense best merits) from the bough 995 She gave him of that fair enticing fruit With liberal hand: he fcrupled not to eat groan, 1000 Original; while Adam took no thought, Eating his fill, nor Eve to iterate Her former trespass fear'd, the more to footh As with new wine intoxicated both 1005 998. not deceiv'd, But fondly overcome with female charm.] According to the hiftorical relation of Mofes, he did not plead for himself, that he was deceiv'd (the excufe of Eve cheated by the Serpent) but rather entic'd and perfuaded by her: The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, fhe gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Gen. III. 12. Whence St. Paul, Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the tranfgreffion, 1 Tim. II. 14. Overcome with female charm, which the holy page ftiles, Hearkening unto the voice of his wife, Gen. III. 17. Improbe amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis? Virg En, IV.412. Hume. They 1000. Earth trembled from her en trails,] When Dido in the fourth Eneid yielded to that fatal temptation which ruin'd her, Virgil tells us the Earth trembled, the Heavens were filled with flashes of lightning, and the Nymphs howled upon the mountain tops. Milton, in the fame poetical fpirit, has defcribed all Nature as disturb'd upon Eve's eating the forbidden fruit, ver. 780. So faying, her rafh hand in evil hour pluck'd, the eat: Earth felt the wound, and Nature Sighing, through all her works gave They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel ΠΟΙΟ Wherewith to fcorn the earth: but that false fruit Far other operation first display'd, Carnal defire inflaming; he on Eve Began to caft lafcivious eyes, fhe him guilt, the whole creation appears a fecond time in convulfions. As all Nature fuffer'd by the guilt of our first parents, these symptoms of trouble and confternation are wonderfully imagin'd, not only as prodigies, but as marks of her sympathizing in the fall of Man. Addifon. 1002. Sky lour'd, and muttering thunder,] It is not meant that thunder alfo lour'd, but Sky lour'd, and muttering thunder in the ablative cafe absolute, some sad drops wept at completing of the mortal fin. It was not loud claps of thunder, but muttering thunder, melancholy and mournful. The paffage alluded to in Virgil is this. En. IV. 166. Prima et Tellus et pronuba Juno Dant fignum: fulfere ignes et confcius æther 1015 1020 Yield |