Half what in thee is fair, one man except,

545

Who sees thee'? (and what is one?) who should'st be seen
A Goddess among Gods, ador'd and serv'd
By angels numberless, thy daily train.

So gloz'd the Tempter, and his proem tun'd;
Into the heart of Eve his words made way,
Though at the voice much marvelling; at length
Not unamaz'd she thus in answer spake.

What may this mean? language of man pronounc'd
By tongue of brute, and human sense express'd?
The first at least of these I thought denied
To beasts, whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate sound;

The latter I demur, for in their looks

Much reas'on, and in their actions oft appears.
Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
I knew, but not with human voice indued;
Redouble then this miracle, and say,

550

555

560

556. -whom God on their is to be understood in the former

creation-day

Created mute] This is mere fillings, says Dr. Bentley; for when could they be created, but on their creationday? But this is exactly in the style of Scripture, Gen. ii. 4. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created; in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

563. How cam'st thou speakable of mute,] The word speakable is used in an active as well as in a passive sense, and may signify what can speak as well as what can be spoken. Here it

sense, speakable or able to speak, as comfortable, delectable, passable, &c. signify able to comfort, to delight, to pass, &c. And there are instances of such words used sometimes actively, and sometimes passively, in the best authors. Thus in Horace the word illacrymabilis is used in its passive signification. Od. iv. ix. 26.

-sed omnes illacrymabiles · Urgentur ;

and in its active signification, Od. ii. xiv. 6.

-places illacrymabilem Plutona tauris.

How cam'st thou speakable of mute, and how
To me so friendly grown above the rest
Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight;
Say, for such wonder claims attention due.

To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied.
Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve,
Easy to me it is to tell thee all

565

What thou command'st, and right thou should'st be' obey'd:

I was at first as other beasts that graze

The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low,
As was my food; nor ought but food discern'd
Or sex, and apprehended nothing high;

570

Till on a day roving the field, I chanc'd

A goodly tree far distant to behold

Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mix'd,

Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze;

575

When from the boughs a savoury odour blown,
Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense
Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats
Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even,
Unsuck'd of lamb or kid, that tend their play.
To satisfy the sharp desire I had
Of tasting those fair apples, I resolv'd-

581. -sweetest fennel, or the teats] He mentions such things as were reputed most agreeable to serpents. Feniculum anguibus gratissimum, says Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1. xix. c. 9. sect. 56. They were likewise supposed to suck the teats of ewes and goats.

585. those fair apples,]

580

585

Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
Pow'rful persuaders, quicken'd at the scent
Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keen.
About the mossy trunk I wound me soon,

595

For high from ground the branches would require 590
Thy utmost reach or Adam's: round the tree
All other beasts that saw, with like desire
Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.
Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill
I spar'd not, for such pleasure till that hour
At feed or fountain never had I found.
Sated at length, ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration in me, to degree
Of reason in my inward pow'rs, and speech
Wanted not long, though to this shape retain❜d.
Thenceforth to speculations high or deep

I turn'd my thoughts, and with capacious mind
Consider'd all things visible in heaven,
Or earth, or middle, all things fair and good;

601. shape retain'd.] Bentley would have it restrained. But the word of exactest propriety is retained. For retained signifies the being kept within such and such bounds in a natural state; restrained to be kept within them in an unnatural; but the serpent's being confined to his own shape, was being in his natural state. Warburton.

605. or middle,] In the air, the element placed between, and, as our author says, spun out between, heaven and earth, vii. 241. Hume.

600

605

605. all things fuir and
good;

But all that fair and good in
thy divine
Semblance, and in thy beauty's
heav'nly ray

United 1 beheld;]

This is very like what Adam had said before to the angel, viii. 471.

-so lovely fair,

That what seem'd fair in all the
world, seem'd now
Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her
contain'd

And in her looks.

But all that fair and good in thy divine
Semblance, and in thy beauty's heav'nly ray
United I beheld; no fair to thine
Equivalent or second, which compell'd

Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come
And gaze, and worship thee of right declar'd
Sovran of creatures, universal dame.

So talk'd the spirited sly Snake; and Eve
Yet more amaz'd unwary thus replied.
Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt
The virtue of that fruit, in thee first prov'd:
But say,
where grows the tree, from hence how far?
For many are the trees of God that grow
In Paradise, and various, yet unknown
To us, in such abundance lies our choice,
As leaves a greater store of fruit untouch'd,
Still hanging incorruptible, till men
Grow up to their provision, and more hands
Help to disburden nature of her birth.

610

615

620

Univer

and the Latin domina.
sal dame, Domina universi.

613. So talk'd &c.] Milton has shewn more art and ability in taking off the common objections to the Mosaic history of the temptation by the addition of some circumstances of his own invention, than in any other theologic part of his poem. Warburton.

618. trees of God] A Scripture phrase, as in Psal. civ. 16.

624. birth.] In Milton's own editions this word is spelt bearth in this place, but as in all other places he spells it birth,

To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad.
Empress, the way is ready, and not long,
Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past
Of blowing myrrh and balm; if thou accept
My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon.

Lead then, said Eve. He leading swiftly roll'd
In tangles, and made intricate seem straight,
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy
Brightens his crest; as when a wand'ring fire,
Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,

625

630

635

in my notes on the first book. There is one, however, in this part of the poem, which I shall here quote, as it is not only very beautiful, but the closest of any in the whole poem; I mean that where the serpent is described as rolling forward in all his pride, animated by the evil spirit, and conducting Eve to her destruction, while Adam was at too great a distance from her to give her his assistance. These several particulars are all of them wrought into the following similitude.

-Hope elevates, and joy Brightens his crest; as when a wand'ring fire, &c. Addison.

And there is not perhaps any more philosophic account of the ignis fatuus, than what is contained in these lines. Philosophy and poetry are here mixed together.