Adam the while,

Waiting defirous her Return, had wove
Of choiceft Flow'rs a Garland to adorn
Her Treffes, and her rural Labours crown ;
As Reapers oft are wont their Harvest Queen.
Great Foy he promis'd to his Thoughts, and news
Solace in her Return, fo long delay'd.

BUT particularly in that paffionate Speech, where feeing her irrecoverably loft, he refolves to perish with her rather than to live without her.

-Some curfed Fraud

Or Enemy hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown,
And me with thee hath ruin'd; for with Thee
Certain my Refolution is to die.

How can I live without thee! how forego
Thy Sweet Converfe, and Love fo dearly join'd,
To live again in thefe wild Woods forlorn!
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another Rib afford, yet Lofs of thee

Would never from my Heart: no, no! I feel
The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,
Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State
Mine never fhall be parted, Blifs or Woe.

THE Beginning of this Speech, and the Preparation to it are animated with the fame Spirit as the Conclufion, which I have here quoted.

THE feveral Wiles which are put in practice by the Tempter, when he found Eve feparated from her Hufband, the many pleafing Images of Nature which are intermixed in this Part of the Story, with its gradual and regular Progrefs to the fatal Cataftrophe, are so very remarkable, that it would be fuperfluous to point out their respective Beauties.

I have

I have avoided mentioning any particular Similitudes in my Remarks on this great Work, because I have given a general Account of them in my Paper on the First Book. There is one, however, in this Part of the Poem which I fhall here quote, as it is not only very beautiful, but the closeft of any in the whole Poem; I mean that where the Serpent is defcribed as rolling forward in all his Pride, animated by the Evil Spirit, and conducting Eve to her Deltruction, while Adam was at too great a Distance from her to give her his Affiftance. Thefe feveral Particulars are all of them wrought into the following Similitude:

-Hope elevates, and Jay

Brightens his Creft; as when a wand'ring Fire
Compact of unctuous Vapour, which the Night
Condenfes, and the Cold environs round,
Kindled through Agitation to a Flame,

(Which oft, they fay, fome evil Spirit attends)
Hovering and blazing with delufive Light,
Misleads the amaz'd Night-wanderer from his Way
To Bogs and Mires, and oft thro' Pond or Pool,
There fwallow'd up and loft, from Succour far.

THAT fecret Intoxication of Pleasure, with all thofe tranfient Flufhings of Guilt and Joy which the Poet reprefents in our firft Parents upon their eating the forbidden Fruit, to thofe Flaggings of Spirit, Damps of Sorrow, and mutual Accufations which fucceed it, are conceived with a wonderful Imagination, and described in very natural Sentiments.

WHEN Dido in the fourth Æneid yielded to that fatal Temptation which ruined 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 Spirit, has defcribed all Nature as difturbed upon Eve's eating the forbidden Fruit.

So faying, her rafh Hand in evil Hour
Forth reaching to the Fruit, fhe pluckt, fhe eat:
Earth felt the Wound, and Nature from her Seat
Sighing, thro' all her Works gave Signs of Woe
That all was loft.

UPON Adam's falling into the fame Guilt, the whole Creation appears a fecond Time in Convulfions.

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 Groan;
Sky lowr'd, and, muttering Thunder, fome fad Drops
Wept at completing of the mortal Sin

A S all Nature fuffered by the Guilt of our firft Parents, the Symptoms of Trouble and Confternation are wonderfully imagined, not only as Prodigies, but as Marks of her fympathizing in the Fall of Man.

ADAM's Converfe with Eve, after having eaten the forbidden Fruit, is an exact Copy of that between Jupiter and Juno in the Fourteenth Iliad. Juno there approaches Jupiter with the Girdle which the had received from Venus; upon which he tells her, that fhe appeared more charming and defirable than fhe had ever done before, even when their Loves were at the higheft. The Poet afterwards defcribes them as repofing on a Summit of Mount Ida, which produced under them a Bed of Flowers, the Lotus, the Crocus, and the Hyacinth, and concludes his Defcription with their falling afleep.

LET the Reader compare this with the foilowing Paffage in Milton, which begins with Adam's Speech to Eve.

For

For never did thy Beauty, fince the Day
I faw thee firft and wedded thee, adorn'd
With all Perfections, fo inflame my Senfe
With Ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever, Bounty of this virtuous Tree.
So faid he, and forbore not Glance or Toy
Of amorous Intent, well underflood
Of Eve, whofe Eye darted contagious Fire.
Her Hand be feiz'd, and to a fhady Bank
Thick over-head with verdant Roof embower'd
He led her nothing loth: Flowers were the Couch,
Panfies, and Violets, and Afphodel,

And Hyacinth, Earth's fresheft, ffieft Lap.
There they their fill of Love, and Love's Difport
Took largely, of their mutual Guilt the Seal,
The Solace of their Sin, till dewy Sleep
Oppress'd them

AS no Poet feems ever to have ftudied Homer more, or to have resembled him in the Greatness of Genius, than Milton, I think I fhould have given but a very imperfect Account of his Beauties, if I had not observed the most remarkable Paffages which look like Parallels in thefe two great Authors. I might, in the Courfe of thefe Criticisms, have taken notice of many particular Lines and Expreflions which are tranflated from the Greek Poet; but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purpofely omitted them. The greater Incidents, however, are not only fet off by being fhewn in the fame Light with feveral of the fame Nature in Homer, but by that Means may be alfo guarded against the Cavils of the Taftelefs or Ig

norant.

SPEC

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SPECTATOR, No 357.

-Quis talia fando

Temperet à lachrymis ?.

VIRG.

Who can relate fuch Wees without a Tear?

TH

HE Tenth Book of Paradife Loft has a greater Variety of Perfons in it than any other in the whole Poem. The Author, upon the winding up of his Action, introduces all thofe who had any Concern in it, and fhews with great Beauty the Influence which it had upon each of them. It is like the laft A&t of a well-written Tragedy, in which all who had a Part in it are generally drawn up before the Audience, and reprefented under thofe Circumftances in which the Determination of the Action places them,

I fhall therefore confider this Book under four Heads, in relation to the Celestial, the Infernal, the Human, and the Imaginary Perfons, who have their refpective Parts allotted in it.

TO begin with the Celestial Perfons: The Guardian Angels of Parad fe are defcribed as returning to Heaven upon the Fall of Man, in order to approve their Vigilance; their Arrival, their Manner of Reception, with the Sorrow which appeared in themselves, and in thofe Spirits who are faid to rejoice on the Converfion of a Sinner, are very finely laid together in the following Lines.

Up into Heav'n from Paradife in Hafte
Th' angelic Guards afcended, mute and fad
For Man, for of his State by this they knew ;
Much wond'ring how the fubtle Fiend had ftoln

Entrance