in This Consciousness, and the Hopes of a Candid Acceptance from Those I have Endeavour'd to Serve, and of Somthing of Succefs, I do Already Rejoice; and withal that I have Finish'd This Work, which though Very Delightful and Edifying, has been Long, Difficult, and Laborious; it has requir'd great Intenseness, Variety and Compass of Thought; and That many times from One thing to Another of Very Different Kinds with Sudden Tranfitions. Not that I Now Purpose to be Idle: I have indeed no further Defign upon the Publick, (Unless perhaps Somthing may come to them after Men fhall fee my Face no more) but as from my Infancy I have Always known How to Crowd every Particle of Time with Somthing not to be Blush'd at upon a Retrofpect, (if Purity of Intention Secures Thought, Word, and Action; with the Supream Judge I Truft it will) I Resolve to go On in the Old Track as Vigorously as I Can; Thought,Books, the Pencil, the Pen, Enough will beReady Fully to Employ my Many Beloved Retir'd Hours, as doing what Good Offices of Benevolence and Friendship I am able, Converfation, Exercise and Refreshment will be Sufficient to Fill All the Reft, Except what Higher Obligations Demand; and This till the time fhall Come, which Now cannot be at any great Distance, it Cannot be Long before Health, Vigour, Hands and Eyes fhall Begin to Decay; it cannot Now be Long before he caufe Dark ness, nefs, and before my Feet Stumble upon the Dark Mountains. Reader, be fo Good to Forgive Me, I fear I have Talk'd Too much of My Self, and am Sure I have Not Said as Well as I Should what More Concerns You; Chiefly have the Wisdom Your Selves to make Your Utmoft Advantage of My Best Intention; That's Your Principal Affair; as it was Mine, How Unequal Soever to the Undertaking. Adieu, PARADISE LOST EXPLAINED. 2 F BOOK I Orbidden Tree, that it was an Apple-Tree is commonly fancy'd, but upon no folid Foundation; Milton has however gone into the common Opinion: 'twas for the Beauty of his Poem to Fix it, and he was at Liberty as a Poet fo to do. 'tis done IX. 585. ibid Brought Death, Mortal Tafte Tautologies of This Kind are common with the Antients; Milton has Here and Elsewhere done as They. Such may add a Force to the Idea on the Mind of the Reader. 4 Eden, 'tis the Name of the Region in which was the Garden, or Paradife fo call'd; fuppos'd to be the fame as Mefopotamia, a Province of Afia, in which Babylon was. See III. 742. IV. 126. 210, &c. ibid. 'till one Greater Man Reftore us, and Regain the Blissful Seat as 'tis a Greater Man, 'tis a Happier Eden. That Litteral Eden was Not Regain'd, but the Blissful Seat, the Happy State Was, and with Advantage XII. 464, 587. And fo Milton Explains this Paffage Parad. Reg. I. 1. I who e'erwhile the happy Garden fung, and Eden rais'd in the waft Wilderness. 6 the fecret Top Of Oreb or of Sinai These are not two Mountains, but feveral Parts of the Same; the highest is call'd Sinai, from Thence the Law was given; Another Horeb or Oreb; There God appeared to Mofes in the Burning Bush, and There he entered into Covenant with his People; the Other has no Name. Whoever knows not the Hiftory of this Infpiration will infallibly be Caught by this Epithet Secret; his Head will be upon a Mountain whofe Top is envellop'd and hid in Clouds and Mifts, and loft in Distant Air; and if he can Imagine well, he will fee a fine Picture of That Kind; but all this is quite out of the Way; we have nothing to do to en quire whether the Top of this Mountain was Naturally apt to be Hid or not; the Infpiration here spoken of had this remarkable Circumstance, that it was in Secret. The Top of this Mount was Hid with Clouds, Thick Clouds and Fire, and the Smoak afcended as Smoak of a Furnace; and the Sight of the Glory of the Lord was like devouring Fire on the Top of the Mount in the Eyes of the Children of Ifrael, See Exod. xix. and xxiii. And thus MoJes, the Perfon Infpir'd, was Hid with God, whofe Holy Spirit wrought the Inspiration; he was Thus in Secret with him at feveral Times, and once for Forty Days together. 'Twas this great Circumftance Milton intended to mark, and not to make a common Landscape. This Epithet Thus understood, unavoidably conveys the Idea of Sacredness, Holiness, being Set apart and Confecrated to God; when one confiders the Hiftory the Mind must receive fuch Impreflions of Awe and Reverence without any other Help than knowing thus much of it; but the fame Account alfo tells us this Whole Mountain was Sacred and Sequefter'd, and the Epithet it felf alfo includes this. Milton is very remarkable for ufing Words in the Learned and an Uncommon Senfe; Secretus in Latin fignifies Seperated, Set apart to a Religious Purpofe; fo that this fingle Word Secret conveys the whole Idea the Poet had to do withall, and 'tis a Noble B 2 one; |