Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her Hand foft touching, whisper'd thus: Awake
My Faireft, my Efpous'd, my latest found,
Heav'n's laft beft Gift, my ever new Delight!
Awake: the Morning fhines, and the fresh Field
Calls us, we lofe the Prime, to mark how spring
Our tended Plants. how blows the Citron Grove,
What drops the Myrrh, and what the balmy Reed,
How Nature paints her Colours, how the Bee
Sits on the Bloom, extracting liquid Sweet.

Such whispering wak'd her, but with startled Eye
On Adam, whom embracing, thus fhe fpake:
Sole in whom my Thoughts find all Repose,
My Glory, my Perfection! glad I fee
Thy Face, and Morn return'd-

I cannot but take notice that Milton, in the Conferences between Adam and Eve, had his Eye very frequently upon the Book of Canticles, in which there is a noble Spirit of Eastern Poetry; and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally placed near the Age of Solomon. I think there is no queftion but the Poet in the preceding Speech remember'd thofe two Paffages which are fpoken on the like occafion, and fill'd with the fame pleating Images of Nature.

My Beloved fpake, and faid unto me, Rife up, my Love, my Fair one, and come away; for lo the Winter is past, the Rain is over and gone, the Flowers appear on the Earth. the Time of the finging of Birds is come, and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land. The Fig-tree putteth forth her green Figs, and the Vines with the tender Grape give a good Smell. Arife my Love, my Fair-one, and come away.

Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the Field; let us get up early to the Vineyards, let us fee if the Vine flourish, whether the tender Grape appear, and the Pomegranates bud forth.

HIS preferring the Garden of Eden, to that

-Where the Sapient King

Held Dalliance with his fair Egyptian Spouse,

fhews that the Poet had this delightful Scene in his mind. EVE's Dream is full of thofe high Conceit's engendring Pride, which, we are told, the Devil endeavour'd to inftill into her. Of this kind is that Part of it where the fancies herself awaken'd by Adam in the following beautiful Lines.

Why fleep'ft thou Eve? now is the pleafant Time,
The cool, the filent, fave where Silence yields
To the night-warbling Bird, that now awake
Tunes fweeteft his love labour'd Song; now reigns
Full orb'd the Moon, and with more pleafing Light
Shadowy fets off the Face of things: In vain,
If none regard. Heav'n wakes with all bis Eyes,
Whom to behold but thee, Nature's Defire,
In whofe fight all things joy, with Ravishment,
Attracted by thy Beauty ftill to gaze!

AN injudicious Poet would have made Adam talk thro' the whole Work in fuch Sentiments at thefe: But Flattery and Falfhood are not the Courtship of Milton's Adam, and could not be heard by Eve in her State of Innocence, excepting only in a Dream produc'd on purpofe to taint her Imagination. Other vain Sentiments of the fame kind in this Relation of her Dream, will be obvious to every Reader. Tho' the Catastrophe of the Poem is finely prefag'd on this Occafion, the Particulars of it are fo artfully fhadow'd, that they do not anticipate the Story which follows in the ninth Book. I fhall only add, that tho' the Vifion it felf is founded upon Truth, the Circumstances of it are full of that Wildness and Inconfiftency which are natural to a Dream. Adam, conformable to his fuperior Character for Wisdom, inftructs and comforts Eve upon this occafion.

So chear'd be his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd,
But filently a gentle Tear let fall

From either Eye, and wiped them with her hair;
Two other precious Drops, that ready ftood
Each in their chryftal Sluice, he ere they fell
Kif'd, as the gracious Signs of fweet Remorfe
And pious Awe, that fear'd to have offended.

THE Morning Hymn is written in Imitation of one of thofe Pfalms, where, in the overflowings of Gratitude and Praife, the Pfalmift calls not only upon the Angels, but upon the moft confpicuous Parts of the inanimate Creation, to join with him in extolling their common Maker. Invocations of this nature fill the Mind with glorious Ideas of God's Works, and awaken that Divine Enthusiasm, which is so natural to Devotion. But if this calling upon the dead Parts of Nature, is at all times a proper kind of Worship, it was in a particular manner fuitable to our firft Parents, who had the Creation fresh upon their Minds, and had not seen the various Difpenfations of Providence, nor confequently could be acquainted with thofe many Topicks of Praife which might afford Matter to the Devotions of their Pofterity. I need not remark the beautiful Spirit of Poetry, which runs through this whole Hymn, nor the Holiness of that Refolution with which it concludes.

HAVING already mentioned those Speeches which are affigned to the Perfons in this Poem, I proceed to the Defcription which the Poet gives us of Raphael. His Departure from before the Throne, and his Flight thro' the Choirs of Angels, is finely imaged. As Milton every where fills his Poem with Circumftances that are marvellous and aftonishing, he defcribes the Gate of Heaven as framed after fuch a manner, that it open'd of it felf upon the Approach of the Angel who was to pafs through it.

Till at the Gate

Of Heav'n arriv'd, the Gate felf-open'd wide,
On golden Hinges turning, as by Work
Divine, the Sovereign Architect had framed.

THE Poet here feems to have regarded two or three Paffages in the 18th Iliad, as that in particular, where fpeaking of Vulcan, Homer fays, that he had made twenty Tripodes running on Golden Wheels; which, upon occafion, might go of themselves to the Affembly of the Gods, and, when there was no more Ufe for them, return again after the fame manner. Scaliger has rallied Homer very feverely upon this Point, as M. Dacier has endeavoured to defend it. I will not pretend to determine, whether in this particular of Homer, the Marvellous does not lofe fight of the Probable. As the miraculous Workmanship of Milton's Gates is not fo extraordinary as this of the Tripodes, fo Im perfuaded he would not have mentioned it, had not he been fupported in it by a Paffage in the Scripture, which fpeaks of Wheels in Heaven that had Life in them, and moved of themfelves, or stood still, in conformity with the Cherubims, whom they accompanied.

THERE is no question but Milton had this Circumftance in his Thoughts, because in the following Book he describes the Chariot of the Meffiah with living Wheels, according to the Plan in Ezekiel's Vifion.

-Forth rufh'd with Whirlwind found

The Chariot of paternal Deity

Flashing thick flames, Wheel within Wheel undrawn,
Itfelf instinct with Spirit.

I question not but Boffu, and the two Daciers, who are for vindicating every thing that is cenfured in Homer, by fomething parallel in Holy Writ, would have been very well pleafed had they thought of confronting Vulcan's Tripodes with Ezekiel's Wheels.

RAPHAEL's Defcent to the Earth, with the Figure of his Perfon, is reprefented in very lively Colours. Se

veral of the French, Italian and English Poets have given a Loose to their Imaginations in the Description of Angels: But I do not remember to have met with any fo finely drawn, and fo conformable to the Notions which are given of them in Scripture, as this in Milton. After having fet him forth in all his Heavenly Plumage, and reprefented him as alighting upon the Earth, the Poet concludes his Defcription with a Circumstance, which is altogether new, and imagined with the greatest Strength of Fancy.

Like Maia's Son he stood,
And fhook his Plumes, that Heav'nly Fragrance fill'd
The Circuit wide.

RAPHAEL'S Reception by the Guardian Angels; his paffing through the Wilderness of Sweets; his diftant Appearance to Adam, have all the Graces that Poetry is capable of beftowing. The Author afterwards gives us a particular Description of Eve in her Domeftick Employ

ments.

So faying, with difpatchful Looks in hafte
She turns, on hofpitable Thoughts intent,
What Choice to chufe for Delicacy beft,
What Order, fo contriv'd, as not to mix
Taftes, not well join'd, inelegant, but bring
Tafte after Tafte, upheld with kindlieft Change;
Beftirs her then, &c.

THOUGH in this, and other Parts of the fame Book, the Subject is only the Housewifry of our firft Parent, it is fet off with fo many pleafing Images and ftrong Expreffions, as make it none of the leaft agreeable Parts in this Divine Work.

THE natural Majefty of Adam, and at the fame time his fubmiffive-Behaviour to the Superior Being, who had vouchfafed to be his Gueft; the folemn Hail which the Angel bestows upon the Mother of Mankind, with the VOL. V.

C

Figure