As to' a fuperior nature, bowing low, 360 Thus faid. Native of Heav'n, for other place None can than Heav'n fuch glorious fhape contain; Those happy places thou haft deign'd a while Be over, and the fun more cool decline. Whom thus th' angelic Virtue answer'd mild. 370 Adam, Turbaque miratur matrum, et as he is fitting: See my note on II. 917. Pearce. Adam, I therefore came, nor art thou fuch 375 They came, that like Pomona's arbor fmil'd 380 Stood to' entertain her gueft from Heav'n; no veil Bestow'd, the holy falutation us'd Long after to bleft Mary, fecond Eve. Hail Mother of Mankind, whofe fruitful womb Shall fill the world more numerous with thy fons, Than with these various fruits the trees of God 390 Have heap'd this table. Rais'd of graffy turf Their table was, and moffy feats had round, And on her ample fquare from fide to fide All autumn pil'd, though fpring and autumn here Danc'd hand in hand. A while discourse they hold; No fear left dinner cool; when thus began 396 Our author. Heav'nly ftranger, please to tafte These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom All perfect good, unmeasur'd out, descends, is 384. virtue proof] Proof ufed in the old poets for armour, Shakespear, Rom. & Jul. A&t I. And in ftrong proof of chastity well arm'd, From love's weak childish bow fhe lives unharm'd. 385. On whom the Angel Hail &c.] The natural majefty of Adam, and at the fame time his fubmiffive behaviour to the fuperior being, who had vouchfafed to be his gueft; the folemn Hail, which the Angel beftows upon the mother of mankind, with Το the figure of Eve miniftring at the table, are circumftances which deferve to be admired. Addison. See Luke I. 28. She is call'd fecond 387. to Mary, fecond Eve.] Eve, as Chrift is fometimes called Second Adam. 394. All autumn pil'd,] The table had moffy feats round it, and all autumn pil'd upon it; that is the So in Virg. fruits of autumn. Georg. II. 5. -pampineo gravidus autumno Floret ager. 399. perfect] Milton writes Kk 4 it To us for food and for delight hath caus'd To spiritual natures; only this I know, 400 To whom the Angel. Therefore what he gives (Whose praise be ever fung) to Man in part Spiritual, may of pureft Spirits be found pure 405 As doth your rational; and both contain 410 Of fenfe, whereby they hear, fee, smell, touch, taste, Tafting concoct, digeft, affimilate, it perfet after the French parfait or the Italian perfetto; our ufual way of fpelling it is after the Latin perfectus; and very rightly, efpecially as we make ufe likewife of the word perfection. And in the general it is better furely to derive our language from the original Latin, than to make it only the copy of a copy: 407. No ingrateful food:] There being mention made in Scripture of Angels food, Pfal. LXXVIII. 25. that is foundation enough for a poet to build upon, and advance these notions of the Angels eating. 415.-of elements &c.] Dr. Bentley is for omitting here eleven lines together, but we cannot agree with And him in thinking them the editer's, tho' we entirely agree with him in wifhing, that the author had taken more care what notions of philofophy he had put into the mouth of an Arch-Angel. It is certainly a great mistake to attribute the spots in the moon (which are owing to the inequalities of her furface, and to the different nature of her conftituent parts, land and water) to attribute them, I fay, to vapors not yet turn'd into her fubftance. It is certainly very unphilofophical to say that the fun fups with the ocean, but it is not unpoetical. And whatever other faults are found in these lines, they are not so properly the faults of Milton, as of his times, and And corporeal to incorporeal turn. For know, whatever was created, needs 415 The groffer feeds the purer, earth the fea, Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale and of thofe fyftems of philofophy which he had learned in his younger years. If he had written after the late difcoveries and improvements in fcience, he would have written in another manner. It is allow'd by all philofophers, that the fun and fixed ftars receive Η γη μελαινα πινει. Πινει θάλασα δ' αρος, 420 425 Sups |