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Stood visible, among these pines his voice

I heard, here with him at this fountain talk'd:
So many grateful altars I would rear

Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone
Of lustre from the brook, in memory,

Or monument to ages, and thereon

Offer sweet smelling gums and fruits and flowers :
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or foot-step trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet recall'd
To life prolong'd and promis'd race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory, and far off his steps adore.
To whom thus Michael with regard benign.

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Adam, thou know'st heav'n his, and all the earth,
Not this rock only'; his omnipresence fills
Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives,
Fomented by his virtual pow'r and warm'd:
All th' earth he gave thee to possess and rule,
No despicable gift; surmise not then
His presence to these narrow bounds confin'd
Of Paradise or Eden: this had been

Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread
All generations, and had hither come

From all the ends of th' earth, to celebrate

337. and every kind that lives,] The construction is, his omnipresence fills every kind that lives which, if true, says Dr. Bentley, was not the author's intention. But how it can be proved that it was not the author's intention, when his words so clearly express it, I am at a loss to apprehend: and if the Doctor could really question the truth of the assertion, it must be said that the poet had nobler and more worthy conceptions of God's omnipresence than the divine; for in him we live, and move, and have our being, Acts xvii. 28. Another poet has enlarged upon the same sentiment, with great sublimity of thought, and as great force of language. Essay on Man, i. 259, &c.

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Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in

the trees,

Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,

Spreads undivided, operates unspent,

Breathes in our soul, informs our
mortal part,

As full as perfect, in a hair, as heart,
As full, as perfect in vile man that

mourns,

As the rapt seraph that adores and burns;

To him, no high, no low, no great, no small;

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

Nay, an heathen poet has a remarkable passage to this purpose, to which no doubt Milton alluded. Lucan, ix. 578.

Estne Dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus,

et aer, Et cœlum, et virtus? Superos quid quærimus ultra?

Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris.

344. -and had hither come] So the first editions, and not thither, which is in most of the later ones.

And reverence thee their great progenitor.

But this preeminence thou' hast lost, brought down To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:

Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain

God is as here, and will be found alike
Present, and of his presence many a sign
Still following thee, still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love, his face
Express, and of his steps the track divine.

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360

Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirm'd 355
Ere thou from hence depart, know I am sent
To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee and to thy offspring; good with bad
Expect to hear, supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
True patience, and to temper joy with fear
And pious sorrow, equally inur'd
By moderation either state to bear,
Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead
Safest thy life, and best prepar'd indure
Thy mortal passage when it comes.

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Ascend

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poems, is entertained with a sight of all those who are to descend from him; but though that episode is justly admired as one of the noblest designs in the whole Eneid, every one must allow that this of Milton is of a much higher nature. Adam's vision is not confined to any particular tribe of mankind, but extends to the whole species. Addison.

This hill; let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes)
Here sleep below, while thou to foresight wak'st;
As once thou slept'st, while she to life was form❜d.
To whom thus Adam gratefully replied.
Ascend, I follow thee, safe Guide, the path

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Thou lead'st me', and to the hand of Heav'n submit, However chast❜ning, to the evil turn

My obvious breast, arming to overcome

By suffering, and earn rest from labour won,

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If so I may attain. So both ascend

In the visions of God: It was a hill
Of Paradise the highest, from whose top
The hemisphere of earth in clearest ken

Stretch'd out to th' amplest reach of prospect lay. 380

367. let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes)

Here sleep below,] It may be asked, why Eve was not permitted to see this vision, as she had no less occasion than Adam thereby to learn true patience but Milton here only continues the same decorum which he had before observed, when he made Eve retire upon Raphael's beginning his conference with Adam, Book viii. Besides, the tenderness of the female mind could not be supposed able to bear the shocking scenes which were going to be represented. Thyer.

367. Drenched with the dews of sleep. Compare Comus, 996.

-drenches with Elysian dew.

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Quicquid erit, superanda omnis for

tuna ferendo est.

377. In the visions of God:] A Scripture expression, Ezek. viii. 3. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem. And again, Ezek. xl. 2. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain. And these may very properly be called the visions of God, not only for discovering things future, but likewise for the extensiveness of the prospect, such as no human eye could reach. For upon the highest mountain the eye can command only a small part of the hemisphere by reason of the roundness of the earth; but here a whole hemisphere lay stretched out to view at once like a plain.

Not high'er that hill nor wider looking round,
Whereon for different cause the Tempter set
Our second Adam in the wilderness,

To shew him all earth's kingdoms and their glory.
His eye might there command wherever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destin❜d walls

381. Not high'er that hill &c.] That hill was not higher, whereon the devil set our Saviour (the second man, 1 Cor. xv. 47. the last Adum, ver. 45.) to show him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, Matth. iv. 8. The prospects are well compared together, and the first thought of the one might probably be taken from the other: and as the one makes part of the subject of Paradise Lost, so doth the other of Paradise Regained.

387. from the destin'd walls Of Cambalu, &c.]

He first takes a view of Asia, and there of the northern parts, the destined walls, not yet in being, but designed to be, (which is to be understood of all the rest,) of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, the principal city of Cathay, a province of Tartary, the ancient seat of the Chams, and Samarchand by Oxus, the chief city of Zagathaian Tartary, near the river Oxis, Temir's throne, the birth-place and royal residence of Tamerlane; and from the northern he passes to the eastern and southern parts of Asia, to Paquin or Pekin of Sinaan kings, the royal city of China, the country of the ancient Sinæ mentioned by Pto

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lemy, and thence to Agra and Lahor, two great cities in the empire of the great Mogul, down to the golden Chersonese, that is, Malacca, the most southern promontory of the East-Indies, so called on account of its riches, to distinguish it from the other Chersoneses or peninsulas, or where the Persian in Ecbatan sat, Ecbatana, formerly the capital city of Persia, or since in Hispahan, the capital city at present, or where the Russian Ksar, the Czar of Muscovy, in Moscow, the metropolis of all Russia, or the Sultan in Bizance, the Grand Signior in Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, Tur chestan-born, as the Turks came from Turchestan, a province of Tartary; he reckons these to Asia, as they are adjoining, and great part of their territories lie in Asia. He passes now into Africa; nor could his eye not ken th' empire of Negus, the Upper Ethiopia, or the land of the Abyssinians, subject to one sovereign, styled in their own language Negus or king, and by the Europeans Prestor John, to his utmost port Ercoco, or Erquico on the Red Sea, the north-east boundary of the Abyssinian empire, and the less maritime kings, the lesser kingdoms

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