Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth: Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set 323. But of the tree &c.] This being the great hinge on which the whole poem turns, Milton has marked it strongly. But of the tree-Remember what I warn thee-he dwell expatiates upon it from ver. 323 to 336, repeating, enforcing, fixing every word; it is all nerve and energy. Richardson. 330. inevitably thou shalt die,] In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, as it is expressed Gen. ii. 17. that is, 325 330 335 340 from that day thou shalt become mortal, as our poet immediately afterwards explains it. 335. Yet dreadful in mine ear,] The impression, which the interdiction of the tree of life left in the mind of our first parent, is described with great strength and judgment; as the image of the several beasts and birds passing in review before him is very beautiful and lively. Addison. After their kinds; I bring them to receive As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold I found not what methought I wanted still; 353. with such knowledge -but in these 345 350 855 gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field: but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And from this short account our author has raised what a noble episode! and what a divine dialogue from the latter part only! 357. O by what name, &c.] Adam in the next place describes a conference which he held with his Maker upon the subject of solitude. The poet here represents the Supreme Being, as making an essay of his own work, and putting to the trial that reasoning faculty, with which he had indued his creature. Adam urges in this divine colloquy the impossibility of his being happy, though he was the inhabitant of Paradise, and lord of the whole creation, without G Above mankind, or ought than mankind higher, Adore thee, Author of this universe, 360 And all this good to man? for whose well being So amply, and with hands so liberal Thou hast provided all things: but with me the conversation and society of O by what name, Virg. Æn. i. 327. 357. O by &c.] It is an unreasonable as well as untheolo 365 370 gical supposition, that God gave man the inspired knowledge of the natures of his fellow-creatures before the nature of his Creator; yet this our poet supposes. What seems to have misled him was, that in the ordinary way of acquiring knowledge we rise from the creature to the Creator. Warburton. 372. -know'st thou not Their language and their ways?] That brutes have a kind of language among themselves is evident and undeniable. There is a treatise in French of the language of brutes: and our author supposes that Adam understood this language, and was of knowledge superior to any of his descendants, and besides was assisted by inspiration, with such knowledge God indued his sudden Their language and their ways? they also know, 375 Let not my words offend thee, heav'nly Power, My Maker, be propitious while I speak. 380 Hast thou not made me here thy substitute, And these inferior far beneath me set? Can sort, what harmony or true delight? Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove apprehension. He is said by the 379. Let not my words offend thee,] Abraham thus implores leave to speak, and makes intercession for Sodom with the like humble deprecation, Gen. xviii. 30. Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. 386. but in disparity &c.] But in inequality, such as is between brute and rational; the 385 390 one intense, man high, wound up, and strained to nobler understanding, and of more lofty faculty; the other still remiss, the animal let down, and slacker, grovelling in more low and mean perceptions; can never suit together. A musical metaphor, from strings, of which the stretched and highest give a smart and sharp sound, the slack a flat and heavy one. Hume. Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl Whereto th' Almighty answer'd not displeas'd. Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice Of thy associates, Adam, and wilt taste What think'st thou then of me, and this my state? Of happiness, or not? who am alone 395. Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl So well converse, nor with the ox the ape; Worse then can man with beast, &c.] Dr. Bentley would have us read thus, But ox with ape cannot so well con But this reading is faulty in the diction; for it names or and ape without the article the before them. When Milton speaks of general things, as bird, beast, and fish, he drops the article; but he always uses it when particular kinds are mentioned; and this grammar requires. Well, but what is the fault of the common reading? The Doctor says that the or is nearer to the ape than bird is to beast, &c. so that the disharmony diminishes by the order of the phrase, instead of increasing. This objection will 395 400 405 be removed by considering the Second to me or like,] |