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Above the highest hills: then shall this mount
Of Paradise by might of waves be moved
Out of his place, push'd by the horned flood,
With all his verdure spoil'd, and trees adrift,
Down the great river to the opening gulf,
And there take root, an island salt and bare,
The haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mews' clang;
To teach thee that God attributes to place
No sanctity, , if none be thither brought
By men who there frequent, or therein dwell.
And now, what farther shall ensue, behold.

He look'd, and saw the ark hull on the flood,
Which now abated; for the clouds were fled,
Driven by a keen north wind, that, blowing dry,
Wrinkled the face of deluge, as decay'd;

e

b Then shall this mount Of Paradise.

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It is the opinion of many learned men, that Paradise was destroyed by the deluge; and Milton describes it in a very poetical manner:-Push'd by the horned flood: so that it was before the flood became universal; and while it poured along like a vast river; for rivers, when they meet with anything to obstruct their passage, divide themselves, and become horned, as it were; and hence the ancients have compared them to bulls.NEWTON.

Orcs, a species of whale.-TODD.

No sanctity.

c Orcs.

& God attributes to place

Milton omits no opportunity of lashing what he thought superstitious. These lines may serve as one instance; and I think he plainly here alludes to the manner of consecrating churches used by archbishop Laud, which was prodigiously clamoured against by people of our author's way of thinking, as superstitious and popish.-THYER.

• Wrinkled the face of deluge.

The circumstances of this description of the abating of the flood are few, but selected with great judgment, and expressed with no less spirit and beauty. In this respect it must be owned, Milton greatly excels the Italians, who are generally too prolix in their descriptions, and think they have never said enough while anything remains unsaid. When once enough is said to excite in the reader's mind a proper idea of what the poet is representing; whatever is added, however beautiful, serves only to tease the fancy, instead of pleasing it; and rather cools than improves that glow of pleasure which arises in the mind upon its first contemplation of any surprising scene of nature well painted out.-THYER.

Again I have to observe, that Mr. Addison's remarks upon the book before us are similar to such as are to be found in the notes of subsequent commentators already copied it is probable that the originality lay with Addison, who, not having produced them detached, but as parts of one critique, has given them in a more popular form. Still, when the matter of them is so anticipated, I must forbear to repeat them at length: I shall, however, notice them in a summary way. He observes, that the acceptance of the prayers of Adam and Eve at the beginning of this eleventh book is formed upon that beautiful passage in Holy Writ:-" And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne; and the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God." He then notices the poetical beauty of the vision of the angels to Ezekiel, where "every one had four faces; all their shape spangled with eyes;" next, the assembly of the angels to hear the judgment passed upon man; then the conference of Adam and Eve, and the subsequent morning notice of the signs of the changes about to take place in all the creation surrounding them. The next striking passage is the description of the appearance of the archangel Michael, sent to expel them from Paradise.

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And the clear sun on his wide watery glass
Gazed hot, and of the fresh wave largely drew,
As after thirst; which made their flowing shrink
From standing lake to tripping ebb, that stole
With soft foot towards the deep; who now had stopt
His sluices, as the heaven his windows shut.
The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground,
Fast on the top of some high mountain fix'd.
And now the tops of hills, as rocks, appear;
With clamour thence the rapid currents drive,
Towards the retreating sea, their furious tide.
Forthwith from out the ark a raven flies;
And, after him, the surer messenger,
A dove, sent forth once and again to spy

Green tree or ground, whereon his foot may light:
The second time returning, in his bill
An olive-leaf he brings, pacific sign:
Anon dry ground appears, and from his ark
The ancient sire descends, with all his train:
Then with uplifted hands, and eyes devout,
Grateful to Heaven, over his head beholds
A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow
Conspicuous with three listed colours gay,
Betokening peace from God, and covenant new:
Whereat the heart of Adam, erst so sad,
Greatly rejoiced; and thus his joy broke forth:
O thou, who future things canst represent
As present, heavenly instructor! I revive
At this last sight; assured that man shall live,
With all the creatures, and their seed preserve.
Far less I now lament for one whole world
Of wicked sons destroy'd, than I rejoice
For one man found so perfect, and so just,
That God vouchsafes to raise another world

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From him, and all his anger to forget.

But say, what mean those colour'd streaks in heaven
Distended, as the brow of God appeased?

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To whom the archangel: Dextrously thou aim'st;

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So willingly doth God remit his ire,
Though late repenting him of man depraved;
Grieved at his heart, when looking down he saw

Addison gives the full measure of praise to Eve's complaint on receiving the notice that she must quit Paradise, and the more masculine and elevated speech of Adam.

The critic then commends that noble part, where the angel leads Adam to the highest mount of Paradise, and lays before him a whole hemisphere, as a proper stage for those visions which were to be represented on it. The image of death in the second vision is represented in all its varieties and attitudes: then, by way of contrast, comes a scene of mirth, love, and jollity. The deluge is drawn with the most powerful and masterly hand.

The whole earth fill'd with violence, and all flesh
Corrupting each their way; yet, those removed,
Such grace shall one just man find in his sight,
That he relents, not to blot out mankind;
And makes a covenant never to destroy
The earth again by flood; nor let the sea

Surpass his bounds; nor rain to drown the world,
With man therein or beast; but, when he brings
Over the earth a cloud, will therein set
His triple-colour'd bow, whereon to look,
And call to mind his covenant: day and night,
Seed time and harvest, heat and hoary frost,
Shall hold their course; till fire purge all things new,
Both heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell.

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BOOK XII.*

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

THE present twelfth book being only one half of the original and then concluding tenth, the revelations of the archangel Michael were to be continued from the flood, at which the eleventh book closes: and indeed it was a fortunate circumstance that Milton, previously to the division, had changed the medium of impression from vision to narration; because it bestows a feature of novelty and distinction upon his concluding book.

It is therefore with some surprise that we meet with any objection to this arrangement of the poet, and the wish that he had imparted all his disclosures in the way of picture and vision, in which they commenced: but Mr. Dunster goes at once to the "heart of the mystery," and inquires Whether all the coming subjects were equally suited to the specular mount? The plagues of Egypt, as he observes, so represented, must have been tedious. How was the delivery of the law to have been represented, under all its sublime circumstances, in vision? How could the great miracle (related with concise sublimity) of the heavenly bodies standing still at the command of Joshua, be exhibited in vision? Could the nativity, the life and death of our blessed Lord, or his resurrection (each related in a few lines of exquisite beauty) have been so clearly or adequately displayed in picture? or could his ascension, and resumption of his heavenly seat, and his coming again to judge the world, have been adequately exhibited at all?

The pictures even of the eleventh book were of necessity accompanied by some verbal explanations. In the remainder of the history, as Mr. Dunster remarks, “the accruing materials come too thick to be represented in visions: the task would have been laborious to the artist, who would have fatigued and disgusted those whom he wished to inform and delight." Here, therefore, the poet judiciously reversed his plan. But there is another topic of remark which the concluding book of Milton's divine poem suggests; it is his comparative affluence of invention. The sentence upon Adam might have been attended by immediate expulsion: but how gracious is the divine condescension, to allow some interval of reflection; and, previously to ejectment, to fortify the minds of the repentant pair with anticipated knowledge and distant consolation! Thus the interest of the poem is kept alive with the reader to the last line. The whole of the twelfth book closely relates to Adam and his posterity; and so delightfully are these soothing hopes of happiness administered by the archangel, that we, equally with Adam, forget that we are to quit Paradise; and are, like him, heartstruck by the sudden warning, that "the hour is come, the very minute of it;" and attend the "hastening angel; to the gates of exclusion, with all the sad and lingering acquiescence of our first parents."

* The first edition was in ten books. In the second edition, the seventh and the tenth books, being greatly beyond the rest in the number of the verses, were divided each into two; so that the seventh became the eighth also; the eighth of the first edition then stood ninth; the ninth, tenth; and the tenth of the first edition became of course, when divided, the present eleventh and twelfth.

ARGUMENT.

THE angel Michael continues, from the Flood, to relate what shall succeed; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees to explain who that seed of the woman shall be which was promised Adam and Eve in the Fall; his incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; the state of the church till his second coming. Adam, greatly satisfied and recomforted by these relations and promises, descends the hill with Michael; wakens Eve, who all this while had slept, but with gentle dreams composed to quietness of mind and submission. Michael in either hand leads them out of Paradise; the fiery sword waving behind them, and the cherubim taking their stations to guard the place.

As one who on his journey bates at noon,
Though bent on speed; so here the archangel paused
Betwixt the world destroy'd and world restored,
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;
Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes:
Thus thou hast seen one world begin, and end;
And man, as from a second stock, proceed.
Much thou hast yet to see; but I perceive
Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine
Must needs impair and weary human sense:
Henceforth what is to come I will relate;
Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.

This second source of men, while yet but few,
And while the dread of judgment past remains
Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,

a

With some regard to what is just and right
Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace;
Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn, wine, and oil; and, from the herd or flock,
Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,

b

With large wine-offerings pour'd, and sacred feast,
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed; and dwell
Long time in peace, by families and tribes,
Under paternal rule: till one shall rise

Of proud ambitious heart; who not content

With fair equality, fraternal state,

Will arrogate dominion undeserved

Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

Concord and law of nature from the earth;

Hunting, (and men not beasts shall be his game,)

a With some regard.

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This answers to the silver age of the poets; the paradisiacal state is the golden one; that of iron begins soon, v. 24.-RICHARDSON.

b Wine-offerings.

See Exodus, xxix. 40.-TODD.

e Till one shall rise.

It is generally agreed that the first governments in the world were patriarchal, "by families and tribes;" and that Nimrod was the first who laid the foundation of kingly government among mankind. Milton, therefore, (who was no friend to kingly government at the best,) represents him in a very bad light, as a most wicked and insolent tyrant; but he has great authorities, both Jewish and Christian, to justify him for so doing.-NEWTON.

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