1023

"Our own begotten; and of our loins to bring
"Into this cursed world a woful race,
"That after wretched life must be at last
"Food for so foul a monster;) in thy power
"It lies, yet ere conception, to prevent
"The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.
"Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death
"Shall be deceiv'd his glut, and with us two
"Be forc'd to satisfy his rav'nous maw.
"But if thou judge it hard and difficult,
"Conversing—looking—loving, to abstain
"From love's due rites—nuptial embraces sweet,
"And with desire to languish without hope,
"Before the present object languishing
"With like desire, which would be misery
"And torment less than none of what we dread;
แ Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free
"From what we fear for both, let us make short—
"Let us seek Death; or, he not found, supply
"With our own hands his office on ourselves.
"Why stand we longer shiv'ring under fears
"That show no end but death, and have the power
"Of many ways to die ?—the shortest choosing,
"Destruction with destruction to destroy?"
She ended here; or vehement despair

Broke off the rest: so much of death her thoughts
Had entertain'd, as dyed her cheeks with pale.1
But Adam, with such counsel nothing sway'd,
To better hopes his more attentive mind
Labouring had rais'd; and thus to Eve replied:

"Eve! thy contempt of life and pleasure seems
"To argue in thee something more sublime
"And excellent, than what thy mind contemns :
"But self-destruction, therefore sought, refutes
"That excellence thought in thee; and implies,
"Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret
"For loss of life and pleasure overlov'd.
"Or if thou covet death, as utmost end
"Of misery, so thinking to evade

"The penalty pronounc'd, doubt not but God
"Hath wiselier arm'd his vengeful ire, than so

i Virgil, En. Iv. 644:

Interfusa genas, et pallida morte futura,"

"Macullsque tremeotes

1066

"To be forestall'd:' much more I fear lest death,
"So snatch'd, will not exempt us from the pain
"We are by doom to pay; rather, such acts
"Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
"To make death in us live. Then let us seek
"Some safer resolution; which methinks

“ I have in view, calling to mind with heed
"Part of our sentence, that Thy seed shall bruise
'The serpent's head.' Piteous amends! unless
"Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe,
"Satan; who, in the serpent, hath contriv'd
"Against us this deceit : to crush his head
"Would be revenge indeed! which will be lost
"By death brought on ourselves, or childless days
"Resolv'd, as thou proposest; so our foe
"Shall 'scape his punishment ordain'd, and we
"Instead shall double ours upon our heads.
"No more be mention'd then of violence
"Against ourselves; and wilful barrenness
“ That cuts us off from hope; and savours only
"Rancour and pride, impatience and despite,
"Reluctance against God and his just yoke
"Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild
"And gracious temper he both heard, and judg'd,
"Without wrath, or reviling: we expected
"Immediate dissolution, which we thought
"Was meant by death that day; when lo! to thee
"Pains only in childbearing were foretold,
́ ́ ́ And bringing forth; soon recompens'd with joy,
"Fruit of thy womb: on me the curse aslope
"Glanc'd on the ground; with labour I must earn
"My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse •
"My labour will sustain me. And, lest cold
"Or heat injure us, his timely care

"Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands
"Cloth'd us unworthy, pitying while he judg'd:
"How much more, if we pray him, will his ear
"Be open, and his heart to pity incline?

"And teach us further by what means to shun
"The inclement seasons—rain, ice, hail, and snow?
"Which now the sky, with various face, begins
"To show us in this mountain; while the winds
"Blow moist and keen, shatt'ring the graceful locks

i Ibis word was formerly used, as here, in the sense or hindered, prevented. So Cor iis, 1S2.—{Wart. )

"Of these fair-spreading trees: * which bids us seek
"Some better shroud, some better warmth, to cherish
"Our limbs benumb'd; ere this diurnal star 2
"Leave cold the night, how we his gather'd beams
"Reflected may with matter seres foment;

"Or, by collision of two bodies, grind

"The air attrite to fire; as late the clouds

"Justling, or push'd with winds, rude in their shock,

"Tine' the slant lightning; whose thwart flame driv'n down, "Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine,

"And sends a comfortable heat from far

"Which might supply the sun.

Such fire to use,

"And what may else be remedy or cure

"To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
"He will instruct us praying, and of grace

66

Beseeching him; so as we need not fear
"To pass commodiously this life, suStain'd
"By him with many comforts, till we end
"In dust—our final rest and native home!
"What better can we do, than, to the place
Repairing where he judg'd us, prostrate fall
"Before him reverent; and there confess

66

66

66

"Humbly our faults, and pardon beg? with tears
5
Wat'ring the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
"Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek.
"Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn
"From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
"When angry most he seem'd and most severe,
"What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone?"
So spake our father penitent; nor Eve

toss Felt less remorse: they, forthwith to the place

i "Locks of trees," Newton says, is a Latinism; " arboribusque comæ," Hor. iv. Od. Yii. 2; but Callender says it is a Homeric iigure, pus u+ixo^ou; 11. xxiii. 118.

» The star of day, as in Lycidas: "So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed." So that this was spoken as if it was now day, whereas it was night before, 844.—(N,) There is here an allusion, perhaps, to Homer, 11. viii. 485:

Εν δ' επεσ' ωκεανῳ λαμπρόν φαος ηελίοιο

Ελκον νυκτα μελαιναν επί ζείδωρον αρουραν.(Stil.)

s Dry, or withered, as in Lycidas, "with ivy never sere." This description is according to Yirgil's £n. i. 175:—

"Soscepitque Ipnem folils, atqae arlda circom

Nutriments dedit, rapuilque In fomite nanimam."

"Or by collision," etc. Millon here plainly alludes to Lucretius's account of the origin or fire, v. 1091.—(H.)

From the Saxon tynan, to light, to kindle, whence tinder.—(T.)

So Virg. En. xi. ill, "Spargitur et tellus lachrymis."—"Frequenting," in the occasional sense of frequentans, filling.

Repairing where he judg'd them, prostrate fell
Before him reverent; and both confess'd
Humbly their faults, and pardon begg'd; with tears
Wat'ring the ground, and with their sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
1104 Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek.1

i These seven last verses being a repetition of the former (the mood and tense being changed) is an imitation or Homer and Virgil. This repetition has the air of simplicity and grandeur.—{Benl.) Benlley things "meek humiliation" is lastology, and proposes to read mee(. But Pearce says that "humiliation" here is not humility; it is the act of humbling themselves before God. We find "meek submission," xii. 597.

BOOK XI.

The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them; but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michal's approach; goes out to meet him the angel denounces their departure. Eve's lamentation. Adam pleads, but submits: the angel leads him np to a high hill; scls before him in vision what shall happen till the flood.

Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood
Praying; for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient grace descending had remov'd

2

3

The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead; that sighs now breath'd
Unutterable; which the Spirit of prayer

Inspir'd, and wing'd for heaven with speedier flight
Than loudest oratory: yet their port

5

Not of mean suitors; nor important less

Seem'd their petition, than when the ancient pair
In fables old, less ancient yet than these,

6

Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore

The race of mankind drown'd, before the shrine
Of Themis stood devout. To heaven their prayers

is Flew up, nor miss'd the way, by envious winds

i As ver. 150, and x. 1099, it is said that they kneeled, and fell proitrate; "stood" here, and 14, does not refer to posture, or attitude, but the continuance of an act; or fixed attention. See ii. 55, 56, note; viii. 3. Stelit in Latin, and eσtηxi, in Greek, are often so used.—(P., Gr.)

* Prwveniens, anticipating, preceding; the original meaning of prevent, from prævenire, to go before.

3 Eick. xi. 19, "1 will take the stony heart out of them, and give them an heart of flesh."-T.)

That sighs inexpressible burst forth, which God's holy spirit of supplication and intercession inspired them with, and wafted up to heaven. See St. Paul, Rom. vii. 26.(H.)

8 This yet refers back to the flrst line; the intermediate lines to be taken parenthetically.

* Ov. Mel. i. 388, etc. describes Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, in order to restore mankind after the delug*. as praying at the shrinc of Themis, the goddess of justice. The poet could not have thought of a more apt similitude to illustrate his subject. Though Milton has often alluded to heathen mythology, yet he commonly applies it by way of similitude, and to suit the taste of educated readers; and his partiality for Ovid may result from the fact of Ovid's subjects having, many of them, such as the creation, the deluge, the foreshowing of the destruction of tho world by lire, etc., reference to Scripture history.—(N., D.)