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Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

quantity of fyllables, and the fenfe variously drawn out from one verje into another.

1. Of Man's firft difobedience,
My side. Iliad.

Ανδρα μοι εννεπε. Odyff.
Arma virumque cano. Eneid.

In all these inftances, as in Milton,
the fubject of the poem is the very
first thing offer'd to us, and pre-
cedes the verb with which it is con-
nected. It must be confeffed that
Horace did not regard this, when
he tranflated the firft line of the
Odyffey, Dic mihi Mufa virum, &c.
De Art. Poet. 141. And Lucian,
if I remember right, makes a jeft
of this obfervation, where he in-
troduces the fhade of Homer as
exprefsly declaring that he had no
other reafon for making the word
un the first in his poem, but
that it was the first which came in-
to his head. However the uniform

practice of Homer, Virgil, and Milton in this particular, feems to prove that it was not accidental, but a thing really defign'd by them. 4. With lofs of Eden,] But Eden was not loft, and the laft that we read of our firft parents is that they were still in Eden,

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fure, and the country is fuppofed to be the fame that was afterwards called Mefopotamia; particularly by our author in IV. 210. &c. Here the whole is put for a part, as fometimes a part for the whole, by a figure called Synecdoche.

4. till one greater Man Refore us, and regain the blissful

feat,] As it is a greater Man, fo it is a happier Paradife which our Saviour promis'd to the penitent thief, Luke XXIII. 43. This day fhalt thou be with me in Paradife. But Milton had a notion that after the conflagration and the general judgment the whole Earth would be made a Paradife, XII. 463.

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for then the Earth Shall all be Paradise, far happier place

Than this of Eden, and far happier days.

It fhould feem that the author, fpeaking here of regaining the blifsful feat, had at this time formed fome defign of his poem of Paradife Regain'd. But however that be, in the beginning of that poem he manifeftly alludes to the beginning of this, and there makes Paradife to be regain'd by our Sa

Through Eden took their folitary viour's foiling the tempter in the wilderness.

way.

With lofs of Eden therefore means no more than with lofs of Paradife, which was planted in Eden, which word Eden fignifies delight or plea

I who ere-while the happy garden fung,

By one Man's disobedience loft, now fing

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Restore us, and regain the blifsful feat, Sing heav'nly Mufe, that on the secret top

Recover'd Paradise to all mankind,

By one Man's firm obedience fully try'd,

And Eden rais'd in the waste wildernefs.

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Dr. Bentley fays that Milton dictated facred top: his reafons are fuch as follow: The ground of Horeb is faid to be boly, Exod. III. 5. and Horeb is called the mountain of God, 1 Kings XIX. 8. But it may be anfwer'd, that tho' that place of Horeb, on which Mofes ftood, was boly, it does not follow that the top of the mountain was then kely too: and by the mountain of God (Dr. Bentley knows) may be meant only, in the Jewish ftile, a very great mountain: Befides let the mountain be never fo boly, yet according to the rules of good poetry, when Milton fpeaks of the top of the mountain, he should give us an epithet peculiar to the top only, and not to the whole mountain. Dr. Bentley fays farther that the epithet Jecret will not do here, because the top of this mountain is vifible feveral leagues off. But Sinai and Horeb are the fame mountain, with two feveral eminences, the higher of them called Sinai and of Sinai Jofephus in his Jewish Antiquit. Book 3. Chap. 5. fays that it is fo bigb, that the top of it cannot be jeen without ftraining the eyes.

In

5

Of

this fenfe therefore (tho' I believe it is not Milton's fente) the top of it may be well faid to be fecret. In Exod. XVII. it is faid that the Ifraelites, when incamp'd at the foot of Horeb, could find no water; from whence Dr. Bentley concludes, that Horeb had no clouds or mifts about its top; and that therefore fecret top cannot be here meant as implying that high mountains against rainy weather have their heads Jurrounded with mifts. I never thought that any reader of Milton would have understood fecret top in this fenfe. The words of Horeb or of Sinai imply a doubt of the poet, which name was propereft to be given to that mountain, on the top of which Moses receiv'd his infpiration; because Horeb and Sinai are used for one another in Scripture, as may be feen by comparing Exod. III 1. with Acts VII. 30. but by naming Sinai laft, he feems to incline rather to that. Now it is well known from Exod. XIX. 16. Ecclus. XLV. 5. and other places of Scripture, that when God gave his laws to Mofes on the top of Sinai, it was cover'd with clouds, dark clouds, and thick Smoke; it was therefore fecret at that time in a peculiar fenfe: and the fame thing feems intended by the epithet which our poet ufes upon the very fame occafion in XII. 227.

God from the mount of Sinai, whose
gray top
Shall tremble, he defcending, &c.
B 4

Dr.

Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen feed,
In the beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rofe out of Chaos: Or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd

Dr. Bentley fhows that facred bill is common among the poets in feveral languages; from whence I fhould conclude that facred is a general epithet: whereas fecret, in the fenfe which I have given it, is the most peculiar one that can be: and therefore (to ufe Dr. Bentley's words) if, as the best poets have adjudg'd, a proper epithet is to be preferr'd to a general one, I have fuch an efleem for our poet, that which of the two words is the better, That I fay (viz. fecret) was dictated by

Milton. Pearce.

We have given this excellent note at length, as we have met with feveral perfons who have approved of Dr. Bentley's emendation. It may be too that the poet had a farther meaning in the ufc of this epithet in this place; for being accustomed to make ufe of words in the fignification that they bear in the learned languages, he may very well be fuppofed to ufe the word fecret in the fame fenfe as the Latin fecretus, fet apart or jeparate, like the fecretofque pios in Virgil, En. VIII. 670. and it appears from Scripture, that while Mofes was with God in the mount, the people were not to come near it or touch it, till after a fignal given, and then they were only to ap

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Faft

proach, and not to afcend it, nor pafs the bounds fet for them upon pain of death, Exod. XIX. So that upon all accounts fecret is the most proper epithet, that could have been chofen.

For Mofes kept the flock of Jethro 8. That shepherd, who firft &c.] bis father-in-law. Exod. III. 1. And he is very properly faid to have first taught the chofen feed, being the moft ancient writer among cient that is now extant in the the Jews, and indeed the most an

world.

9. In the beginning how the Heav'ns first words of Genefis. and Earth] Alluding to the

11. and Siloa's brook] Siloa was a small river that flow'd near the temple at Jerufalem. It is mention'd Ifai. VIII. 6. So that in effect he invokes the heavenly Mufe, that infpir'd David and the Prophets on mount Sion, and at Jerufalem, as well as Mofes on mount Sinai.

15. Above th' Aonian mount,] A poetical expreffion for foaring to a highth above other poets. T'he mountains of Boeotia, anciently called Aonia, were the haunt of the Mufes, and thus Virgil, Ecl. VI. 65.

Aonas

Fast by the oracle of God; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my adventrous fong,

That with no middle flight intends to foar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in profe or rhime.

Aonas in montes ut duxerit una fororum,

And again Georg, III. 11,

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And

It is evident enough that by rhime in this place is meant verse in general; but I fuppofe Milton thought it would found too low

Aonio rediens deducam vertice Mu- and familiar to the ear to say in

fas;

though afterwards, I know not by what fatality, that country was famous for the dulnefs of its inhabitants.

16. Things unattempted yet in profe

or rhime.] Milton appears to have meant a different thing by rhime here, from rime in his preface, where it is fix times mention'd, and always fpelt without an; whereas in all the editions, till Dr. Bentley's appear'd, rhime in this place of the poem was fpell'd with an b. Milton probably meant a difference in the thing, by making fo conftant a difference in the fpelling; and intended that we fhould here underftand by rhime, not the jingling found of like endings, but verfe in general; the word being deriv'd from rythmus, pos. Ariofto had faid

Cofa non detta in prosa mai, ne

in rima,

which is word for word the fame with what Milton fays here.

Pearce.

profe or verfe, and therefore chofe rather to fay in profe or rhime. When he fays in profe or verfe, he adds an epithet to take off from the commonnefs of the expreffion, as in V. 150.

fuch prompt eloquence Flow'd from their lips, in profe or numerous verse.

It is faid that Milton took the first hint of this poem from an Italian tragedy called Il Paradifo perfo; and it is pretended that he has borrow'd largely from Mafenius, a German Jefuit, and other modern authors; but it is all a pretence, he made ufe of all authors, fuch was his learning; but fuch is his genius, he is no copyer, his poem is plainly an original, if ever there was one. His fubject indeed of the fall of Man together with the principal epifodes may be faid to be as old as Scripture, but his manner of handling them is entirely new, with new illustrations and new beauties of his own; and he may as justly boast of the novelty of his poèm, as any of the antient poets

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And chiefly Thou, O Spi'rit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,

Inftruct me, for Thou know'ft; Thou from the first
Waft prefent, and with mighty wings outfpread 20
Dove-like fatft brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad'ft it pregnant: what in me is dark

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Illumin,

This addrefs therefore is no mere formality. Yet fome may think that he incurs a worfe charge of enthufiafm, or even profanenefs, in vouching infpiration for his performance: but the Scriptures reprefent infpiration as of a much larger extent than is commonly apprehended, teaching that every good gift, in naturals as well as in morals, defcendeth from the great Father of lights, Jam. I. 17. And an extraordinary skill even in mechanical arts is there afcribed to the illumination of the Holy Ghoft. It is faid of Bezaleël who was to make the furniture of the tabernacle, that the Lord had filled him with the Spirit of God, in wifdem, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, and to devije curious works, &c. Exod. XXXV. 31. Heylin.

It may be observed too in justification of our author, that other facred poems are not without the like invocations, and particularly Spenfer's Hymns of Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty, as well as fome modern Latin poems. But I conceive that Milton intended fomething more, for I have been informed

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