To luxury and riot, feast and dance;
Marrying or prostituting, as befell,
Rape or adultery, where passing fair

Allured them; thence from cups to civil broils.
At length a reverend sire among them came,
And of their doings great dislike declared,
And testified against their ways: he oft
Frequented their assemblies, whereso met,
Triumphs or festivals; and to them preach'd
Conversion and repentance, as to souls
In prison, under judgments imminent;

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But all in vain: which when he saw, he ceased
Contending, and removed his tents far off:
Then, from the mountain hewing timber tall,
Began to build a vessel of huge bulk ;

Measured by cubit, length, and breadth, and highth;
Smear'd round with pitch; and in the side a door
Contrived; and of provisions laid in large,
For man and beast: when, lo, a wonder strange!
Of every beast, and bird, and insect small,
Came sevens and pairs, and enter'd in as taught
Their order: last the sire and his three sons,

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With their four wives; and God made fast the door.
Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings
Wide-hovering, all the clouds together drove
From under heaven; the hills to their supply
Vapour, and exhalation, dusk and moist,
Sent up amain: and now the thicken'd sky
Like a dark ceiling stood; down rush'd the rain
Impetuous; and continued, till the earth

740

No more was seen the floating vessel swum

Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow

Rode tilting o'er the waves; all dwellings else
Flood overwhelm'd, and them with all their pomp
Deep under water roll'd: sea cover'd sea,
Sea without shore; and in their palaces,
Where luxury late reign'd, sea-monsters whelp'd
And stabled; of mankind, so numerous late,
All left in one small bottom swum imbark'd.
How didst thou grieve then, Adam, to behold
The end of all thy offspring, end so sad,
Depopulation! Thee another flood,

Of tears and sorrow a flood, thee also drown'd,
And sunk thee as thy sons; till, gently rear'd
By the angel, on thy feet thou stood'st at last,

7 Conversion and repentance.

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This account of Noah's preaching is founded chiefly on St. Peter, 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20; as what follows of his desisting, when he found his preaching ineffectual, and of removing into another country, is taken from Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. i. c. 3.-NEWTON,

U

700

Though comfortless; as when a father mourns
His children all in view destroy'd at once;

And scarce to the angel utter'dst thus thy plaint :
O visions ill foreseen! better had I
Lived ignorant of future; so had borne
My part of evil only, each day's lot
Enough to bear; those now, that were dispensed
The burden of many ages, on me light

At once, by my foreknowledge gaining birth
Abortive, to torment me ere their being,

With thought that they must be. Let no man seek
Henceforth to be foretold, what shall befall
Him or his children; evil he may be sure,
Which neither his foreknowing can prevent;
And he the future evil shall no less
In apprehension than in substance feel,
Grievous to bear: but that care now is past;
Man is not whom to warn: those few escaped
Famine and anguish will at last consume,
Wandering that watery desert: I had hope,
When violence was ceased, and war on earth,

All would have then gone well; peace would have crown'd
With length of happy days the race of man;

But I was far deceived; for now I see

Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste.
How comes it thus? unfold, celestial guide,
And whether here the race of man will end.

783

To whom thus Michael: Those, whom last thou saw'st

And great exploits, but of true virtue void;

700

Who, having spilt much blood, and done much waste,
Subduing nations, and achieved thereby

Fame in the world, high titles, and rich prey;

Shall change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth,

793

Surfeit, and lust; till wantonness and pride

Raise out of friendship hostile deeds in peace.

The conquer'd also, and enslaved by war,
Shall, with their freedom lost,2 all virtue lose
And fear of God; from whom their piety feign'd a

Freedom lost.

Milton every where shows his love of liberty; and here he observes very rightly, that the loss of liberty is soon followed by the loss of all virtue and religion. There are such sentiments in several parts of his prose works, as well as in Aristotle, and other masters of politics.-NEWTON.

a Piety feign'd.

I conceive this to be unquestionably political. Milton was, it has been supposed, well aware of the feign'd piety of many of his own party, whom he had once considered as saints; and whose temporising at the Restoration completed in his mind the hypocrisy of their character. Hypocrisy, it may be observed, Milton, in various parts of his branded as the most abominable of crimes.-DUNSTER.

рост,

ha

1

In sharp contest of battel found no aid

Against invaders; therefore, cool'd in zeal,
Thenceforth shall practise how to live secure,
Worldly or dissolute, on what their lords

Shall leave them to enjoy ; for the earth shall bear
More than enough, that temperance may be tried:
So all shall turn degenerate, all depraved;
Justice and temperance, truth and faith forgot;
One man except, the only son of light
In a dark age, against example good,
Against allurement, custom, and a world
Offended fearless of reproach and scorn,
Or violence, he of their wicked ways

Shall them admonish; and before them set

The paths of righteousness, how much more safe,
And full of peace; denouncing wrath to come

On their impenitence; and shall return

Of them derided, but of God observed
The one just man alive by his command
Shall build a wondrous ark, as thou beheldst,
To save himself and household, from amidst
A world devote to universal wrack.
No sooner he, with them of man and beast
Select for life, shall in the ark be lodged,
And shelter'd round, but all the cataracts
Of heaven set open on the earth shall pour
Rain, day and night; all fountains of the deep,
Broke up, shall heave the ocean to usurp
Beyond all bounds; till inundation rise
Above the highest hills: then shall this mount
Of Paradise by might of waves be moved
Out of his place, push'd by the horned flood,
With all his verdure spoil'd, and trees adrift,
Down the great river to the opening gulf,
And there take root, an island salt and bare,
The haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mews' clang;
To teach thee that God attributes to place
No sanctity, if none be thither brought

b Then shall this mount

Of Paradise.

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It is the opinion of many learned men, that Paradise was destroyed by the deluge; and Milton describes it in a very poetical manner:-Push'd by the horned flood: so that it was before the flood became universal; and while it poured along like a vast river; for rivers, when they meet with anything to obstruct their passage, divide themselves, and become horned, as it were; and hence the ancients have compared them to bulls.-NEWTON.

Orcs, a species of whale.-TODD.

No sanctity.

c Orcs.

d God attributes to place

Milton omits no opportunity of lashing what he thought superstitious. These lines may

By men who there frequent, or therein dwell.
And now, what farther shall ensue, behold.

He look'd, and saw the ark hull on the flood,
Which now abated; for the clouds were fled,
Driven by a keen north wind, that, blowing dry,
Wrinkled the face of deluge, as decay'd;
And the clear sun on his wide watery glass
Gazed hot, and of the fresh wave largely drew,
As after thirst; which made their flowing shrink
From standing lake to tripping ebb, that stole
With soft foot towards the deep; who now had stopt
His sluices, as the heaven his windows shut.
The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground,
Fast on the top of some high mountain fix'd.
And now the tops of hills, as rocks, appear;
With clamour thence the rapid currents drive,
Towards the retreatingsea, their furious tide.
Forthwith from out the ark a raven flies;
And, after him, the surer messenger,

A dove, sent forth once and again to spy

Green tree or ground, whereon his foot may light:
The second time returning, in his bill
An olive-leaf he brings, pacific sign:

Anon dry ground appears, and from his ark
The ancient sire descends, with all his train :
Then with uplifted hands, and eyes devout,
Grateful to Heaven, over his head beholds
A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow
Conspicuous with three listed colours gay,
Betokening peace from God, and covenant new:
Whereat the heart of Adam, erst so sad,

Greatly rejoiced; and thus his joy broke forth:

serve as one instance; and I think he plainly here alludes to the manner of consecrating churches used by archbishop Laud, which was prodigiously clamoured against by people of our author's way of thinking, as superstitious and popish.-THYER.

e Wrinkled the face of deluge.

The circumstances of this description of the abating of the flood are few, but selected with great judgment, and expressed with no less spirit and beauty. In this respect it must be owned, Milton greatly excels the Italians, who are generally too prolix in their descriptions, and think they have never said enough while anything remains unsaid. When once enough is said to excite in the reader's mind a proper idea of what the poet is representing; whatever is added, however beautiful, serves only to tease the fancy, instead of pleasing it; and rather cools than improves that glow of pleasure which arises in the mind upon its first contemplation of any surprising scene of nature well painted out -THYER.

Again I have to observe, that Mr. Addison's remarks upon the book before us are similar to such as are to be found in the notes of subsequent commentators already copied : it is probable that the originality lay with Addison, who, not having produced them detached, but as parts of one critique, has given them in a more popular form. Still, when the matter of them is so anticipated, I must forbear to repeat them at length: I shall, how. notice them in a summary way. He observes, that the acceptance of the prayers of

ever,

O thou, who future things canst represent
As present, heavenly instructor! I revive
At this last sight; assured that man shall live,
With all the creatures, and their seed preserve.
Far less I now lament for one whole world
Of wicked sons destroy'd, than I rejoice
For one man found so perfect, and so just,
That God vouchsafes to raise another world
From him, and all his anger to forget.

But say, what mean those colour'd streaks in heaven
Distended, as the brow of God appeased?

Or serve they, as a flowery verge, to bind
The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud,
Lest it again dissolve, and shower the earth?

To whom the archangel: Dextrously thou aim'st;
So willingly doth God remit his ire,
Though late repenting him of man depraved;
Grieved at his heart, when looking down he saw
The whole earth fill'd with violence, and all flesh
Corrupting each their way; yet, those removed,
Such grace shall one just man find in his sight,
That he relents, not to blot out mankind;
And makes a covenant never to destroy
The earth again by flood; nor let the sea

Surpass his bounds; nor rain to drown the world,
With man therein or beast; but, when he brings
Over the earth a cloud, will therein set
His triple-colour'd bow, whereon to look,
And call to mind his covenant: day and night,
Seed time and harvest, heat and hoary frost,

Shall hold their course; till fire purge all things new,
Both heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell.

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Adam and Eve at the beginning of this eleventh book is formed upon that beautiful passage in Holy Writ :-" And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne; and the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God." He then notices the poetical beauty of the vision of the angels to Ezekiel, where "every one had four faces: all their shape spangled with eyes;" next, the assembly of the angels to hear the judgment passed upon man; then the conference of Adam and Eve, and the subsequent morning notice of the signs of the changes about to take place in all the creation surrounding them. The next striking passage is the description of the appearance of the archangel Michael, sent to expel them from Paradise.

Addison gives the full measure of praise to Eve's complaint on receiving the notice that she must quit Paradise, and the more masculine and elevated speech of Adam.

The critic then commends that noble part, where the angel leads Adam to the highest mount of Paradise, and lays before him a whole hemisphere, as a proper stage for those visions which were to be represented on it. The image of death in the second vision is represented in all its varieties and attitudes: then, by way of contrast, comes a scene of mirth, love, and jollity. The deluge is drawn with the most powerful and masterly hand.