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For us created, needs with us must fail,
Dependent made; fo God fhall uncreate,
Be fruftrate, do, undo, and labor lose,
Not well conceiv'd of God, who though his
Creation could repeat, yet would be loath
Us to abolish, left the Adversary

power

Triumph and fay; Fickle their ftate whom God
Most favors; who can please him long? Me first
He ruin'd, now Mankind; whom will he next?
Matter of fcorn, not to be giv'n the Foe.
However I with thee have fix'd my lot,

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Certain to undergo like doom; if death
Confort with thee, death is to me as life;
So forcible within my heart I feel

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The bond of nature draw me to my own,

My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;
Our state cannot be fever'd, we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.

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!
Engaging me to emulate, but short

Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,

Adam? from whofe dear fide I boaft me fprung, 965
And gladly of our union hear thee speak,

One heart, one foul in both; whereof good proof
This day affords, declaring thee refolv'd,

Rather than death or ought than death more dread
Shall feparate us, link'd in love fo dear,

To undergo with me one guilt, one crime,
If any be, of tafting this fair fruit,
Whose virtue (for of good ftill good proceeds,

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
This my attempt, I would fuftain alone

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The

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The worst, and not perfuade thee, rather die

Deferted, than oblige thee with a fact

Pernicious to thy peace, chiefly affur'd

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Remarkably fo late of thy so true,
So faithful love unequal'd; but I feel

Far otherwise th' event, not death, but life
Augmented, open'd eyes, new hopes, new joys, 985
Taste so divine, that what of sweet before
Hath touch'd my fenfe, flat feems to this, and harsh,
On my experience, Adam, freely taste,

And fear of death deliver to the winds.

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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

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With liberal hand: he fcrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge, not deceiv'd,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
Earth trembled from her entrails, as again
In pangs, and Nature gave a fecond
Sky lour'd, and muttering thunder, fome fad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal fin

groan,

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Original; while Adam took no thought,

Eating his fill, nor Eve to iterate

Her former trespass fear'd, the more to footh
Him with her lov'd fociety, that now

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
Forth reaching to the fruit, fhe

pluck'd, the eat:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature
from her feat

Sighing, through all her works gave
figns of woe,
That all was loft.
Upon Adam's falling into the fame

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They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings

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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
As wantonly repaid; in luft they burn:
Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move.
Eve, now I fee thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of fapience no fmall part,
Since to each meaning favor we apply,
And palate call judicious; I the praise

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

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