Myself I then, perus'd, and limb by limb

Survey'd, and fometimes went, and fometimes ran
With fupple joints, as lively vigor led:

But who I was, or where, or from what cause, 270
Knew not; to fpeak I try'd, and forthwith spake;
My tongue obey'd, and readily could name
Whate'er I faw. Thou Sun, faid I, fair light,
And thou inlighten'd Earth, so fresh and gay,
Ye Hills, and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains,
And ye
that live and move, fair Creatures tell,
Tell, if ye faw, how came I thus, how here?
Not of myself; by fome great Maker then,
In goodness and in pow'r præeminent;

Tell me,

276

how may I know him, how adore, 280 From

rounder, the cadence more mufical, and the expreffion more poetical. By fragrance Milton has endevor'd to give an idea of that exquifite and delicious joy of heart Homer so often expreffes by avere, a word that fignifies the fragrance that flowers emit after a fhower or dew. Milton has used a like expreffion in his treatife of Reformation. p. 2. Edit. 1738. Methinks a fovran and 661 reviving joy must needs rush into "the bofom of him that reads or hears, and the fweet odor of the retorning Gospel imbath his foul ff with the fragrance of Heaven." Richardjon.

Mr. Richardfon might have further obferved, that Milton himself had expreffed the fame thought with more beauty if poffible in IV. 153. where speaking of Satan's approach to the garden of Paradise he fays,

And of pure now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart infpires

Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

All fadness but defpair. Thyer.

269. -as lively vigor led:] We have printed it after the firft edition, though the second represents it thus,

and

From whom I have that thus I move and live,
And feel that I am happier than I know.

While thus I call'd, and stray'd I knew not whither,
From where I firft drew air, and firft beheld
This happy light, when answer none return'd, 285
On a green shady bank profufe of flowers
Penfive I fat me down; there gentle fleep
First found me, and with foft oppreffion feis'd
My droufed fenfe, untroubled, though I thought
I then was paffing to my former state
Infenfible, and forthwith to diffolve:

When suddenly stood at my head a dream,
Whose inward apparition gently mov'd

My fancy to believe I yet had being,

290

And liv'd: One came, methought, of shape divine,

And faid, Thy manfion wants thee, Adam, rife, 296 Firft Man, of men innumerable ordain'd

300

Firft Father, call'd by thee I come thy guide
To the garden of blifs, thy feat prepar'd.
So faying, by the hand he took me rais'd,
And over fields and waters, as in air
Smooth fliding without step, last led me up
A woody mountain; whofe high top was plain,
A circuit wide, inclos'd, with goodliest trees 304
Planted, with walks, and bow'rs, that what I faw
Of earth before scarce pleasant feem'd. Each tree
Loaden with faireft fruit, that hung to th' eye

Tempting, ftirr'd in me fudden appetite

To pluck and eat; whereat I wak'd, and found
Before mine eyes all real, as the dream

Had lively fhadow'd: Here had new begun
My wand'ring, had not he who was my guide
Up hither, from among the trees appear'd,
Prefence divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,
In adoration at his feet I fell

310

315

Submifs: he rear'd me', and Whom thou fought'ft I am,

Said mildly, Author of all this thou feest

Above, or round about thee, or beneath.

This Paradife I give thee, count it thine
To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat :

320

· Of

juftify it. It gives a greater strength to the fenfe, as it confines the awe to the rejoicing, and thereby expresses that mixture of joy and reverence, which the Scriptures so often recommend to us in our approaches to the divine Being. Thyer.

320. To till and keep,] Dr. Bentley fays that Paradife was not to be till'd, but the common earth after the fall: he therefore fays that Milton defign'd it To drefs and keep, as in Gen. II. 15. to drefs it and to keep it. This looks like a juft objection, and yet is not fo in reality: for if he had confulted the original, he would have found that Adam was to till as well before as after the fall: while he continued in that garden,

he

Of every tree that in the garden grows

!

Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:
But of the tree whofe operation brings
Knowledge of good and ill, which I have fet
The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,
Amid the garden by the tree of life,
Remember what I warn thee, fhun to taste,
And shun the bitter confequence: for know,
The day thou eat'ft thereof, my fole command
Tranfgrefs'd, inevitably thou fhalt die,
From that day mortal, and this happy state
Shalt lofe, expell'd from hence into a world
Of woe and forrow. Sternly he pronounc'd
The rigid interdiction, which refounds

he was to till that; after his expulfion from thence he was to till the common earth. Our poet feems here to have approv'd of the opinion of Fagius (a favorite annotator of his) who in his note on Gen. II. 9. thinks that Adam was to have plough'd and fow'd in Paradife, if he had continued there: And Milton here follows Ainsworth's tranflation, which has in Gen. II. 15. to till it and to keep it: And Ainfworth's tranflation is more exact than that of our common bible; for not only the original word y here ufed is the very fame with that ufed in Chap. III. 23. and which is there

325

339

Yet

render'd to till: but the LXX. likewife employ one and the fame word pa in both places, as the Vulgar Latin does operari: and the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin word alike fignify to labor, cultivate, or till. In Chap. III. 23. our tranflators render it till, and they might as well have render'd it fo Chap. II. 15. fince that word in the common acceptation fignifies no more than to cultivate; and therefore Ainfworth has till, and Le Clerc colere in both places. Our English tranflators chofe to ufe drefs here, as imagining it (I fuppofe) more applicable to a garden. But Dr. Bent

ley