The dry land, Earth; and the great receptacle Of congregated waters, he call'd Seas:

And saw that it was good; and said, Let the Earth
Put forth the verdant grafs, herb yielding feed,
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, 311
Whofe feed is in herself upon the Earth.
Hefcarce had faid, when the bare Earth, till then
Defart and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grafs, whose verdure clad
Her univerfal face with pleasant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that fudden flower'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bofom, smelling fweet: and, these scarce
blown,

316

"Dinanzi a me non fur cofe create,

"Se non eterne, ed io eterno duro."

And thus in Sir David Lyndfay's Monarchie, Works, edit.
Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 352.

"And [God] gave, be divyne fapience,
"Till every fter thair influence;
"With motioun continuall,

"Quhilk doth indure perpetuall." TODD.

Ver. 307. These are again the words of Genefis formed into verfe, i. 10, 11. But when he comes to the descriptive part, he then opens a finer vein of poetry. NEWTON.

Ver. 317,

that fudden flower'd

Opening their various colours, &c.] Compare the account of the creation, 11 Efdras, vi. 44. "Immediately there was great and innumerable fruit, and many and divers pleasures. for the tafte, and flowers of unchangeable colour, and odours of wonderful fmell," Topp.

Forth flourish'd thick the clustering vine, forth

crept

The fwelling gourd, up ftood the

corny reed

320

Ver. 321. The fwelling gourd,] So the author gave it; as Propertius, iv. ii. 43. "Cæruleus cucumis tumidóque cucurbita ventre." Thofe, who ftiffly maintain that smelling was Milton's word and interpret it the melon, feem not to attend that he had the word fmelling two lines before, and would not have doubled it fo foon again; and that he does not name here any particular plant, but whole tribes and fpecies; the vine, the gourd, the reed, the thrub, the bufh, the tree. Gourds are as numerous a family, as most of the other, and include the melon within the general name; which, though it fmells, fwells likewife.

BENTLEY.

Dr. Bentley very juftly reads, "The Swelling gourd:" And, to the reafon which he gives, may be added, that Milton here affigns to each of the other tribes or fpecies, an epithet which fuits with all the fame fpecies: But Smelling, though it fuits with fome kinds of the gourd, does not fuit with all the particulars of that tribe, as welling does. PEARCE.

The mistake was eafy of w for m: And Dr. Bentley's emendation was certainly right. To the authority which he has brought from Propertius, may be added another from Virgil, Georg. iv. 121. "tortúfque per herbam

66

Crefceret in ventrem cucumis."

But I have not altered the text, as the common reading makes fenfe, though not fuch good fenfe as the other. NEWTON.

The common reading, "The smelling gourd," is juftly supposed by Dr. Bentley to be a mere mistake of the printer: And it is an act of justice due to the poet and the critick, to admit the emendation into the text. TODD.

Ibid. the corny reed] The horny reed ftood upright, Mr. Hume obferves, among the undergrowth of nature, like a grove of fpears, or a battalion with its pikes aloft. But his reference to Virgil's cornea, Æn. iii. 22, is not to the prefent purpofe, The word corny, however, I find in Lifle's Du

Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair implicit : Laft
Rofe, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or
gemm'd

325

Their bloffoms: With high woods the hills were crown'd;

With tufts the valleys, and each fountain fide; With borders long the rivers: that Earth now

Bartas, 4to. 1625, p. 14, where, fpeaking of rain, the tranflator fays it

"downward gan to rave,

"And drown'd the corny rankes." TODD.

Ver. 322. Embattled] This refemblance is fo ftrong, that Philip de Comines mentions, in his Memoirs, a ridiculous miftake made by a corn field being taken for an army.

Ver. 323.

STILLINGFLEET.

with frizzled hair implicit :] Hair, coma in Latin, is ufed for leaves, twigs, and branches; and implicit fignifies entangled. The fubject is low, and therefore he is forced to raise the expreffion. NEWTON.

Ver. 325.

or gemm'd

Their blooms:] Dr. Bentley thinks it plain that Milton gave it "Or gemm'd with bloffoms;" taking gemm'd for a participle, as hung is. But gemm'd may be a verb, as spread is. And to gem their blossoms is an expreffion of the fame poetical aft with that in B. iv. 219, blooming ambrofial fruit. PEARCE.

Hume obferves, that gemm'd is from the Latin gemmare, to bud forth. And Mr. Bowle cites the following paffage from Barberini Poemata, p. 27, v. 35. "Gemmata novis prata coloribus." I may add from the Adamo of Andreini, ed. Milan, 1617, p. 61. "Ecco il frutto gemmato." TODD.

Seem'd like to Heaven, a feat where Gods might

dwell,

Or wander with delight, and love to haunt . 330
Her facred shades: though God had yet not rain'd
Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground
None was; but from the Earth a dewy mist
Went up, and water'd all the ground, and each
Plant of the field; which, ere it was in the Earth,
God made, and every herb, before it
grew 336
On the green stem: God faw that it was good:
So even and morn recorded the third day.
Again the Almighty spake, Let there be lights

Ver. 329.

a feat where Gods might dwell, Or wander with delight,] A manifeft allufion to Homer, where he defcribes Mercury furveying the delightful bower of Calypfo, Odys. v. 73.

— ἔνθα κ' ἔπειτα καὶ ἀθάνατὸς περ ἐπελθὼν

Θιήσαιτο ἰδῶν, καὶ τερφθείη φρεσὶν ἦσιν. STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. 331.

though God had yet not rain'd &c.] This

is not taken, as the reft, from the first, but from the fecond, chapter of Genefis: But the poet was ftudious to weave in all that Mofes had written of the Creation. NEWTON.

Ver. 338.

recorded] Recorded, celebrated, caufed to be remembered. This was done by the even and morning chorus, v. 275, with evening harps and matin, v. 450. What is done by the voices and inftruments, is poetically afcribed to the time in which they were employed. RICHARDSON.

Ver. 339. Again the Almighty Spake, Let there be lights &c.] See Gen. i. 14, 15. When Milton makes the Divine Perfon fpeak, he ftill keeps close to Scripture; but afterwards he indulges a greater latitude of thought, and gives freer fcope to his imagination, NEWTON.

340

High in the expanfe of Heaven, to divide
The day from night; and let them be for signs,
For feafons, and for days, and circling years;
And let them be for lights, as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of Heaven,
To give light on the Earth; and it was fo. 345
And God made two great lights, great for their use
To Man, the greater to have rule by day,
The lefs by night, altern; and made the stars,

Ver. 346. And God made two great lights,] The very words of Mofes Not that they were greater than all other stars and planets, but are only greater lights with reference to Man; and therefore Milton judiciously adds,

great for their ufe

"To Man, the greater to have rule by day,
"The lefs by night, altern;"

that is, alternate, a word added to Mofes's account, as in their ciciffitude are afterwards. See Gen. i. 16, 17, 18. So far, he keeps clofe to Scripture, but then he launches out, and says that, of celestial bodies, the fun was first fram'd, and then the moon and ftars; obferving this order of creation, we fuppofe, according to the degrees of usefulness to men. The fun, he fays, was unlightSome first; and it is moft probable, that the bodies of the fun and moon, &c. were formed at the fame time as the body of the earth on the first day, but they were not made those complete luminous bodies, they did not fhine out in their luftre and glory till the fourth day, the air perhaps or atmosphere not being fufficiently clear to tranfmit their rays to the earth. Milton's hypothesis is different. He fays, that the light was tranfplanted from her cloudy fhrine or tabernacle, wherein she had fojourned the three first days, and on the fourth day was placed in the fun's orb, which was become now the great palace of light. But let it be remembered, that this is all hypothefis, and that the Scripture determines nothing one way or other. NEWTON.