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Kindled through agitation to a flame,

Which oft, they say, some evil spi'rit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,

Misleads th' amazed night-wand'rer from his way 640
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallow'd up and lost, from succour far,
So glister'd the dire snake, and into fraud
Led Eve our credulous mother, to the tree
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;

Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.
Serpent, we might have spar'd our coming hither,
Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to' excess,
The credit of whose virtue rest with thee,
Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects.
But of this tree we may not taste nor touch;
God so commanded, and left that command
Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we live

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or forbidden tree.

E.

645

650

648. Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess,] Besides the jingle, the same word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense, as in Bion, Idyl. i. 16, 17.

Αγριον αγριον ἑλκος έχει κατα μπρον
Αδωνις,

Μειζον δ' & Κυθέρεια φέρει ποτι καρδιαν
έλκος.

And not unlike is that in Virgil, Æn. vii. 295.

Num capti potuere capi ?.

653. Sole daughter of his voice ;] Another Hebraism.

Bath Kol, The daughter of a voice, is a noted phrase among

An Hebraism for the prohibited the Jews, and they understand

by it a voice from heaven; and

Law to ourselves, our reason is our law.

To whom the Tempter guilefully replied.
Indeed? hath God then said that of the fruit
Of all these garden trees ye shall not eat,
Yet lords declar'd of all in earth or air?

655

Of the fruit

660

To whom thus Eve yet sinless.
Of each tree in the garden we may eat,
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

this command is called the sole
daughter, as it is the only com-
mand that we read of, that was
given to our first parents in
Paradise. Thus Adam says, iv.
426.

-for well thou know'st God hath pronounc'd it death to taste that tree,

The only sign of our obedience left

&c.

-Then let us not think hard One easy prohibition.

653. the rest, we live Law to ourselves,] The rest, as for what remains, in all things else. A Grecism, and common in Latin. So Virgil, Æn. iii. 594. cætera Graius. We live law to ourselves. Rom. ii. 14. These having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Richard

son.

656. Indeed? hath God then

said that of the fruit Of all these garden trees ye shall not eat,] Gen. iii. 1. Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? In which our author has followed the Chaldee paraphrase interpreting the He

brew particle, Indeed. Is it true that God has forbid you to eat of the fruits of Paradise? as if he had forbidden them to taste, not of one, but of all the trees; another of Satan's sly insinuations. The Hebrew particle, Yea or Indeed, plainly shews that the short and summary account that Moses gives of the Serpent's temptation, has respect to some previous discourse, which could in all probability be no other than what our poet has pitched upon. Hume.

659. Of the fruit &c.] This is exactly the answer of Eve in Genesis iii. 2, 3. put into verse. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And it shews great art and judgment in our author, in knowing so well when to adhere to the words of Scripture, and when to amplify and enlarge upon them, as he does in Satan's reply to Eve.

She scarce had said, though brief, when now more bold

The Tempter, but with shew of zeal and love

To Man, and indignation at his wrong,

665

New part puts on, and as to passion mov'd,
Fluctuates disturb'd, yet comely and in act
Rais'd, as of some great matter to begin.
As when of old some orator renown'd
In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence
Flourish'd, since mute, to some great cause address'd
Stood in himself collected, while each part,

673. Stood in himself collected,] This beautiful and nervous expression, which Milton has used in several places, was, I fancy, adopted from the Italian in se raccolto. I do not remember to have met with it in any English writer before his time. Thyer.

673. Stood in himself collected,

while each part, Motion, each act won audience

ere the tongue,] Dr. Bentley says that this passage has not Milton's character nor turn. Motion, he thinks, should have each before it as

well as part and act: and he asks, What is each part and each act, before he had spoke a word? He therefore would have it,

Stood in himself collected whole,

while each

Motion, each air won audience ere

the tongue.

But act is right, and is explained by Milton himself in ver. 668. to be what an orator puts himself into, before he begins to speak;

-in act

670

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Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue,
Sometimes in highth began, as no delay

Of preface brooking through his zeal of right:
So standing, moving, or to highth up grown,
The Tempter all impassion'd thus began.

O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant,
Mother of science, now I feel thy power
Within me clear, not only to discern
Things in their causes, but to trace the ways
Of highest agents, deem'd however wise.
Queen of this universe, do not believe

Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die :
How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge; by the threat'ner? look on me,
Me who have touch'd and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfect have attain'd than fate

ear would be offended by the
harshness of whole and while
coming together. So that not-
withstanding these objections,
he prefers the common reading
to any of the emendations pro-
posed; and would only offer this
small alteration,

while each part, Motion, and act

673. There seems to be no necessity for any alteration; the expression may be somewhat unusual, but it is easy to understand each before motion: each part, each motion, each act won audience; and each succeeding word is more expressive, and more definite, than the one which precedes it. E.

675. Sometimes in highth began,
as no delay
Of preface brooking through his
zeal of right:]

675

680

685

Thus Cicero in his first oration against Catiline, Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? &c. Thyer.

685. -ye shall not die:] Gen. iii. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. And it is very artfully contrived by our author to make the Serpent give an instance in himself.

686. How should ye? by the
fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge; by the threat'ner?
look on me,]

So the passage should evidently
be pointed. It was printed very
wrong in Milton's own editions
thus:

How should ye? by the fruit? it gives you life

To knowledge? By the threat'ner, look on me.

lot.

690

Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire

For such a petty trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounc'd, whatever thing death be,
Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt you, and be just ;
Not just, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd:
Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,
His worshippers; he knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd, and ye shall be as Gods,
Knowing both good and evil as they know.
That ye shall be as Gods, since I as man,
Internal man, is but proportion meet;

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695

700

705

710

705. -he knows that in the day &c.] Gen. iii. 5. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. So that where the author comments and enlarges upon Scripture, he still preserves as much as may be the very words of Scripture.

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