But of offense and trouble, which my mind
Knew never till this irksome night: methought 35
Close at mine ear one call'd me forth to walk
With gentle voice, I thought it thine; it faid,
Why sleep'st thou Eve? now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the filent, fave where filence yields
To the night-warbling bird, that now awake
Tunes sweetest his love-labor'd fong; now reigns

florifh, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranate bud forth. His preferring the garden of Eden to that,

where the fapient king Held dalliance with his fair EgyPtian spouse, IX. 443. fhows that the poet had this delightful scene in view. Addifon. 35. -methought

Clofe at mine ear &c.] Eve's dream is full of thofe high conceits ingendring pride, which we are told the Devil endevor'd to inftil 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'st thou Eve? &c.

An injudicious poet would have made Adam talk thro' the whole work in fuch fentiments as thefe: but flattery and falfhood are not the courtship of Milton's Adam, and could not be heard by Eve in her ftate of innocence, excepting

40

Full

only in a dream produced on pur pofe to taint her imagination. Other vain fentiments of the fame kind in this relation of her dream will be obvious to every reader. Tho' finely prefaged on this occafion, the catastrophe of the poem is the particulars of it are so artfully fhadowed, that they do not anticipate the ftory which follows in the ninth book. I fhall only add, that tho' the vision itself is founded upon truth, the circumftances of it are full of that wildness and inconfiftency, which are natural to a dream. Addifon.

41. Tunes fweeteft his love-labor'd

Jong;] Spenfer in his Epithalamion, a poem which Milton feems often to imitate, has it " the "bird's love-learned fong. We muft farther obferve that our author takes great liberties in his ufe of the genders, fometimes making him and her and it of the fame thing or creature. We have a very remark. able inftance in VI. 878.

eyes,

Full orb'd the moon, and with more pleasing light
Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain,
If none regard; Heav'n wakes with all his
Whom to behold but thee, Nature's defire?
In whose fight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.

I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
To find thee I directed then my walk;

45

And on, methought, alone I pafs'd through ways 50
That brought me on a fudden to the tree
Of interdicted knowledge: fair it seem'd,
Much fairer to my fancy than by day:
And as I wond'ring look'd, befide it stood

One fhap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heaven

By us oft feen; his dewy locks distill'd

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Ambrofia; on that tree he also gaz'd;
And O fair plant, faid he, with fruit furcharg'd,
Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet,
Nor God, nor Man? is knowledge fo defpis'd?
Or envy', or what referve forbids to taste?

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Forbid who will, none fhall from me withhold
Longer thy offer'd good, why elfe set here?
This faid, he paus'd not, but with ventrous arm
He pluck'd, he tasted; me damp horror chill'd 65
At fuch bold words vouch'd with a deed fo bold:
But he thus overjoy'd, O fruit divine,

Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt,
Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit

For Gods, yet able to make Gods of Men:

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And why not Gods of Men, fince good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows,

The author not impair'd, but honor'd more?
Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve,
Partake thou alfo; happy though thou art,
Happier thou may'ft be, worthier canst not be:
Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods
Thyfelf a Goddefs, not to earth confin'd,
But fometimes in the air, as we, sometimes
Afcend to Heav'n, by merit thine, and see

What life the Gods live there, and such live thou.
So faying, he drew nigh, and to me held,

Ev'n to my mouth of that fame fruit held part

Which he had pluck'd; the pleasant savory smell
So quicken'd appetite, that I, methought,

Could not but tafte, Forthwith

Forthwith up to the clouds

With him I flew, and underneath beheld

The earth outstretch'd immense, a profpect wide

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89

85

And various; wond'ring at my flight and change
To this high exaltation; fuddenly

My guide was gone, and I, methought, funk down,
And fell asleep; but O how glad I wak'd
To find this but a dream! Thus Eve her night
Related, and thus Adam anfwer'd fad.

Best image of myself and dearer half,
The trouble of thy thoughts this night in fleep
Affects me equally; nor can I like

This uncouth dream, of evil sprung I fear;
Yet evil whence? in thee can harbour none,

Created

pure.

But know that in the foul

Are many leffer faculties, that ferve
Reafon as chief; among these fancy next
Her office holds; of all external things,
Which the five watchful fenfes represent,
She forms imaginations, aery shapes,
Which reafon joining or disjoining, frames
All what we' affirm or what deny,

and call

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Our