Of noxious efficacy; and when to join
In synod unbenign: and taught the fixed
Their influence malignant when to shower;
Which of them, rising with the sun, or falling,
Should prove tempestuous. To the winds they sot
Their corners; when with bluster to confound
Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aërial hall.
Some say he bid his angels turn askance
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed
Oblique the centric globe: some say1 the sun

opposite; which last is said to be of noxious efficacy, because the planets so opposed are thought to strive, debilitate, and overcome one another; deemed of evil consequence to those born under or subject to the influence of the distressed star.-Hume.

1 It was eternal spring before the fall, and he is now accounting for the change of seasons after the fall, and mentions the two famous hypotheses. Some say it was occasioned by altering the position of the earth, by turning the poles of the earth above 20 deg. aside from the sun's orb: "he bid his angels turn askance the poles of earth twice ten degrees and more from the sun's axle ;" and the poles of the earth are about 23 deg. distant from those of the ecliptic; "they with labour pushed oblique the centric globe," it was erect before, but is oblique now; the obliquity of a sphere is the proper astronomical term, when the pole is raised any number of degrees less than 90; the "centric globe" fixed on its centre, and therefore moved with labour and difficulty, or rather centric, as being the centre of the world, according to the Ptolemaic system, which our author usually follows. Some say, again, this change was occasioned by altering the course of the sun, "the sun was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road," in which he had moved before, "like distant breadth" in both hemispheres; "to Taurus with the seven Atlantic sisters," the constellation Taurus, with the seven stars in his neck, the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas ;" and the Spartan twins," the sign Gemini, Castor and Pollux, twin brothers, and sons of Tyndarus king of Sparta; "up to the tropic crab," the tropic of cancer, the sun's farthest stage northwards; "thence down amain," Dr. Bentley reads as much," as much on one side of the equator as the other, but if any alteration were necessary, is it easier to read " thence down again by Leo and the Virgin," the sign Virgo; "and the scales," the con stellation Libra; as deep as Capricorn," the tropic of Capricorn, which is the sun's farthest progress southwards. This motion of the sun in the ecliptic occasions the variety of seasons, "else had the spring perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers," if the sun had continued to move in the equator. It is likewise Dr. Burnet's assertion, that the primitive earth enjoyed a perpetual spring, and for the same reason of the sun's moving in the equator. But though this notion of a perpetual spring may be very pleasing in poetry, yet

66

Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road
Like distant breadth to Taurus, with the seven
Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins,
Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain
By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales,
As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring
Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun,
To recompense his distance, in their sight
Had rounded still the horizon, and not known
Or east, or west, which had forbid the snow
From cold Estotiland,' and south as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
The sun, as from Thyéstean banquet, turned
His course intended; else how had the world
Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,
Avoiding pinching cold and scorching heat?
These changes in the heavens, though slow, produced
Like change on sea and land; sideral blast,
Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and pestilent: now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,*

Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice,
And snow, and hail, and stormy gust, and flaw; 5
Boreas, and Cæcias, and Argestes loud,

it is very false in philosophy; and this position of the earth, so far from being the best, is one of the worst it could have, as Dr. Kell hath proved excellently well in the fourth chapter of his "Examina tion of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth."-Newton.

1 A tract of North America, towards the Arctic Circle and Hudson's Bay.

2 In South America, so called from its discoverer, Fred. Magellan, in 1520.

3 In N. America.

4 In the N. E. of Muscovy, upon the Frozen Ocean. 5 The same as 66

to break.

'gust," but of stronger signification, from pláw,

6 The north wind; "Cacias," the north-west; "Argestes," the northeast; Thracias," blowing from Thrace, northward of Greece. "Notus," the south wind; "Afer," or Africus, the south-west from Africa. 66 From Serraliona " or Lion Mountains, a range of moun tains so called because of the perpetual storms there roaring like lion. These are to the south-west of Africa, within a few leagues of

And Thrascias rend the woods, and seas upturn;
With adverse blasts upturns them from the south,
Notus, and Afer black with thunderous clouds
From Serraliona; thwart of these, as fierce,
Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds,
Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,
Sirocco and Libecchio. Thus began

Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,
Daughter of Sin, among the irrational,

Death introduced, through fierce antipathy:
Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe
Of man, but fled him, or with countenance grim
Glared on him passing. These were, from without
The growing miseries, which Adam saw

66

Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To sorrow abandoned; but worse felt within,
And, in a troubled sea of passion tossed,
Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint:
'Oh, miserable of happy! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accursed, of blessed? Hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness! Yet well, if here would end
The misery; I deserved it, and would bear
My own deservings: but this will not serve.
All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,
Is propagated curse. Oh, voice once heard
Delightfully, Increase and multiply,'
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply but curses on my head?
Who of all ages to succeed, but, feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will curse
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure!
For this we may thank Adam;' but his thanks
Shall be the execration; so besides

Cape Verd, the western point; "Eurus and Zephyr," the east and west, called also "Levant" and "Ponent" winds (rising and setting), the one blowing from whence the sun rises, the other whence it sets. "Sirocco," ventus Syrus, the south-east; and "Libecchio," ventus Lybicus, the south-west: Italian terms, used by seamen of the Mediterranean.-Richardson.

Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me rebound;
On me, as on their natural centre light,
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me? or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurred not to my being, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,
Desirous to resign and render back
All I received, unable to perform

Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I sought not. To the loss of that,
Sufficient penalty! why hast thou added
The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable
Thy justice seems; yet, to say truth, too late
I thus contest; then should have been refused
Those terms, whatever, when they were proposed:
Thou didst accept them. Wilt thou enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son
Prove disobedient, and reproved, retort,

'Wherefore didst thou beget thee? I sought it not:'
Wouldst thou admit, for his contempt of thee,
That proud excuse? Yet him, not thy election,
But natural necessity, begot.

God made thee of choice his own, and of his own
To serve him: thy reward was of his grace;
Thy punishment then, justly, is at his will.
Be it so, for I submit: his doom is fair;
That dust I am, and shall to dust return.
O welcome hour whenever! Why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
Fixed on this day? Why do I over-live?
Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out
To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet
Mortality my sentence, and be earth

Insensible! how glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap! there I should rest
And sleep secure his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears; no fear of worse
To me and to my offspring would torment me

With cruel expectation.

Yet one doubt

Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;'
Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man
Which God inspired, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,
Or in some other dismal place, who knows
But I shall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath
Of life that sinned: what dies but what had life
And sin? The body properly had neither.
All of me then shall die: let this appease
The doubt, since human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,

Is his wrath also? Be it; man is not so,

But mortal doomed. How can he exercise

Wrath without end on man whom death must end?
Can he make deathless death? That were to make
Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impossible is held, as argument

Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,
For anger's sake, finite to infinite

In punished man, to satisfy his rigour
Satisfied never? That were to extend
His sentence beyond dust and nature's law,
By which all causes else according still
To the reception of their matter act,

Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say
That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery
From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and so last
To perpetuity: ay me! that fear

Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head; both Death and I
Am2 found eternal, and incorporate both:
Nor I on my part single: in me all
Posterity stands cursed. Fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, sons. Oh! were I able
To waste it all myself, and leave ye none !
So disinherited, how would ye bless

Me now your curse! Ah! why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemned,

1 From Hor. Od. iii. xxx., 6, “non omnis moriar."
2 Bentley corrects, are.