And guard all passage to the tree of life : To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey, With whose stol'n fruit Man once more to delude. 125 130 and their hands, and their wings, were full of eyes round about: the poet expresses it by a delightful metaphor, all their shape spangled with eyes, and then adds by way of comparison, more numerous than those of Argus, a shepherd who had an hundred eyes, and more wakeful than to drowse, as his did, charmed with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed, that is, the pastoral pipe made of reeds, as was that of Hermes or Mercury, who was employed by Jupiter to lull Argus asleep and kill him, or his opiate rod, the caduceus of Mercury, with which he could give sleep to whomsoever he pleased. With this pipe and this rod he lulled Argus asleep, and cut off his head. It is an allusion to a celebrated story in Ovid, Met. i. 625, &c. Centum luminibus cinctum caput Leucothea wak'd, and with fresh dews imbalm'd 135 The earth, when Adam and first matron Eve Etheris Auroram defert, et lumina pandit. And from Matuta is derived Matutinus, early in the morning. This is the last morning in the poem, the morning of the fatal day, wherein our first parents were expelled out of Paradise. It is impossible to say, how much time is taken up in the action of this poem, since a great part of it lies beyond the sphere of day; and for that part which lies within the sphere of day, it is not easy to state and define the time exactly, since our author himself seems not to have been very exact in this particular. Satan came to earth about noon, when the full-blazing sun sat high in his meridian tower, iv. 30. The evening of that first day is described iv. 598. Now came still evening on &c. That night Satan tempts Eve in her dream, is discovered close at her ear, and flies out of Paradise, iv. 1015. -and with him fled the shades of night. Seven days after that he was coasting round the earth, but always in the shade of night, ix. 62. -thence full of anguish driven, The space of sev'n continued nights he rode With darkness. But we have no farther account of any of these days excepting the first, which begins at the beginning of book v. Now morn her rosy steps in th' east- Eve there relates her dream to Adam; they go to work. Raphael is ordered to go, and converse with Adam half this day as friend with friend, v. 229. He comes to Paradise at midnoon, ver. 311. and 300. -while now the mounted sun Had ended now their orisons, and found eighth he returned, ix. 67. at Now when as sacred light began to dawn &c. Eve is prevailed upon to eat of the forbidden fruit a little before noon, ix. 739. Mean while the hour of noon drew Adam eats likewise; they sleep, they wake; and Adam reproaches Eve with her desire of wandering this unhappy morn, ix. 1136. In the cool of the evening the Messiah comes down to judge them, x. 92. Now was the sun in western cadence low From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now wak'd, and usher in The evening cool; when he from wrath more cool Came the mild Judge and Intercessor both To sentence Man. Satan fled from his presence, but returned by night, ver. 341. -return'd In his return to Hell he meets Sin and Death in the morning, ver. 329. -while the sun in Aries rose. After Sin and Death had arrived in Paradise, the angels are commanded to make several alterations in the heavens and elements: and Adam is represented as lamenting aloud to himself, ver. 846. Through the still night, not now, as ere Man fell, Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black air Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom. "Adam is afterwards made to talk somewhat confusedly, in one place as if it was still the day of the fall, ver. 962. Since this day's death denounc'd, if ought see, Will prove no sudden, but a slowpac'd evil. And in another place as if it was some day after the fall, ver. 1048. -we expected Immediate dissolution, which we thought Was meant by death that day, &c. And having felt the cold damps of the night before, he is con By night, and list'ning where the sidering how they may provide hapless pair themselves with some better warmth and fire before another night comes, ver. 1069. ere this diurnal star Leave cold the night. That other night we must now Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet link'd; The good which we enjoy, from heav'n descends; suppose to be past, since the morning here appears again To resalute the world with sacred light: 140 143 150 which bids us seek Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish Our limbs benumn'd, ere this diurnal star Leave cold the night. But indeed the author is not very exact in the computation of time, and perhaps he affected some obscurity in this particular, and did not choose to define, as the Scripture itself has not defined, how soon after the fall it was that our first parents were driven out of Paradise. 150. Kneel'd and before him humbled all my heart,] "Such So that according to the best is the force of the word kneeled "in that situation, that we ac"tually see Adam upon his "knees before the offended "Deity; and by the conclusion "of this paragraph, Bending "his ear, infinite goodness is visibly as it were represented "to our eyes as inclining to "hearken to the prayers of his "penitent creature." See Let 4 Methought I saw him placable and mild, Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee, Man is to live, and all things live for Man. To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek. Ill worthy I such title should belong That I who first brought death on all, am grac'd 155 160 165 170 she was taken out of Ish, Man, -Woman is her name, of Man as it is expressed, viii. 496. But |