Out of defpair, joy, but with fear yet link'd; Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd. 140 Eve, eafily may faith admit, that all

The good which we enjoy, from Heav'n defcends; But that from us ought should ascend to Heaven So prevalent as to concern the mind

Of God high-bleft, or to incline his will,

145

Hard to belief may feem; yet this will prayer
Or one short figh of human breath, upborne
Ev'n to the feat of God. For fince I fought

And having felt the cold damps of the night before, he is confidering how they may provide themselves with fome better warmth and fire before another night comes, ver. 1069.

ere this diurnal kar

Leave cold the night. That other night we must now fuppofe to be paft, fince the morning here appears again

To refalute the world with facred light:

So that according to the best calculation we can make, this is the eleventh day of the poem, we mean of that part of it which is tranfacted within the fphere of day. Mr. Addifon reckons only ten days to the action of the poem, that is he fuppoles that our first parents were expell'd out of Paradife the very next day after the fall; and indeed at first

By pray'r th' offended Deity to' appease,

Kneel'd and before him humbled all my heart, 150 Methought I saw him placable and mild,

Bending his ear; perfuafion in me grew

That I was heard with favor; peace return'd
Home to my breaft, and to my memory

His promife, that thy feed shall bruise our foe; 155
Which then not minded in difmay, yet now

Affures me that the bitterness of death

On bird, beast, air, air fuddenly eclips'd

After short blush of morn; nigh in her fight
The bird of Jove, ftoop'd from his aery tour, 18;
Two birds of gayeft plume before him drove:
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, purfu'd a gentle brace,
Goodlieft of all the foreft, hart and hind;
Direct to th' eastern gate was bent their flight. 190
Adam obferv'd, and with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmov'd to Eve thus fpake.

O Eve, fome further change awaits us nigh, Which Heav'n by these mute figns in nature shows, Forerunners of his purpose, or to warn

And fo Shakespear in Meafure for
Measure, A& II.

Admit no other way to fave his life,
As I fubfcribe not that.

184.-nigh in her fight] Dr. Bentley fays, Milton gave it, nigh in their fight, not in Eve's only, but in the fight of both. But it should rather be in her fight here, because it is faid afterwards Adam obferv'd &c.

185. The bird of Jove, foop'd from

bis aery tour, &c.] The bird of Jove, Jovis ales, the eagle. Stoop'd is a participle here, and a term of falconry. Such omens are not unufual in the poets, Virg. Æn. I. 393. Afpice bis fenos lætantes agmine

cycnos,

195

Js haply too fecure of our discharge

From penalty, because from death releas'd

Come days; how long, and what till then our life, Who knows, or more than this, that we are duft, And thither must return and be no more?

Why elfe this double object in our fight

200

Of flight purfu'd in th' air, and o'er the ground,
One way
the self-fame hour? why in the east
Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning light
More orient in yon western cloud, that draws
D'er the blue firmament a radiant white,

205

And flow defcends, with something heav'nly fraught? He err'd not, for by this the heav'nly bands

For fudden, in the fiery tracts above, Appears in pomp th' imperial bird of Jove :

A plump of fowl he fpies, that fwim the lakes,

And o'er their heads his founding pinions shakes.

Then stooping on the fairest of the train &c. Dryden.

Down

eastern gate of Paradife; as Adam and Eve were to be driven out by the Angel at the eastern gate of Paradise.

204. Darkness ere day's mid-courfe,] Et noctis faciem nebulas feciffe volucres

Sub nitido mirata die.

204.

Ov. Met. I. 602. Hume.

But these omens have a fingular eauty here, as they show the change I think it would not be amifs to reand morning light &c.] hat is produc'd among animals, as fer the curious reader to Marino's well as the change that is going to e made in the condition of Adam defcription of the defcent of the three Goddeffes upon mount Ida, nd Eve; and nothing could be in- C. 2. St. 67. which is a fcene of the ented more appofite and proper for fame fort with this, and painted, I his purpose. An eagle, purfuing two think, even in livelier colors than eautiful birds, and a lion chafing a this of Milton's. Thyer. ne hart and hind; and both to the

213. Not

Down from a sky of jafper lighted now
In Paradife, and on a hill made halt,

A glorious apparition, had not doubt
And carnal fear that day dimm'd Adam's eye.
Not that more glorious, when the Angels met
Jacob in Mahanaim, where he faw

210

The field pavilion'd with his guardians bright; 215
Nor that which on the flaming mount appear'd
In Dothan, cover'd with a camp of fire,
Against the Syrian king, who to surprise
One man, affaffin like, had levied war,
War unproclam'd. The princely Hierarch

In their bright stand there left his Pow'rs to feife
Poffeffion of the garden; he alone,

To find where Adam fhelter'd, took his way,
Not unperceiv'd of Adam, who to Eve,

213. Not that more glorious, &c.] That was not a more glorious apparition of Angels, which appear'd to Jacob in Mahanaim. Gen. XXXII. 1, 2. And Jacob went on his way, and the Angels of God met him: And when Jacob faw them, he faid, This is God's hoft; and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Nor that which appear'd on the flaming mount in Dothan against the king of Syria, when he levied war againit a fingle man not like a generous enemy, but

220

While

like a base affaffin endevor'd to take him by surprise, namely Elisha, for having difclos'd the defigns of the king of Syria to the king of Ifrael, 2 Kings VI. 13, &c. And it was told him, faying, Behold he is in De than. Therefore fent be thither barfe, and chariots, and a great hoft: mi they came by night and compassed the city about. And when the fervant of the man of God was rifen early, and gone forth, behold an hoft compan the city bath with horses and charists:

and