Smooth lake, that to me seem'd another sky.
As I bent down to look, juft oppofit

A shape within the watry gleam appear'd,
Bending to look on me: I started back,

460

465

It started back; but pleas'd I foon return'd,
Pleas'd it return'd as foon with anfw'ring looks
Of fympathy and love: there I had fix'd
Mine eyes till now, and pin'd with vain defire,
Had not a voice thus warn'd me, What thou feest,
What there thou feeft, fair Creature, is thyself;
With thee it came and goes: but follow me,

And I will bring thee where no fhadow stays

470

Thy coming, and thy foft embraces, he
Whose image thou art; him thou shalt enjoy
Infeparably thine, to him shalt bear

farcaftically enough,(Spectator, Vol. 5. N° 325.) whether fome moral is not couch'd under this place, where the poet lets us know, that the firft woman immediately after her creation ran to a looking-glafs, and became fo enamour'd of her own face, that fhe had never removed to view any of the other works of nature, had not the been led off to a man. However that be, this account that Eve gives of her coming to a lake, and there falling in love with her own image, when

Multitudes like thyself, and thence be call'd

Mother of human race. What could I do, 475 But follow strait, invifibly thus led?

Till I efpy'd thee, fair indeed and tall,

Under a platan; yet methought less fair,
Less winning soft, less amiably mild,

Than that smooth watry image: back I turn'd; 480
Thou following cry'dft aloud, Return fair Eve,
Whom fly'st thou? whom thou fly'ft, of him thou art,
His flesh, his bone; to give thee be'ing I lent
Out of my fide to thee, nearest my heart
Subftantial life, to have thee by my fide
Henceforth an individual folace dear;
Part of my foul I feek thee, and thee clame
My other half: with that thy gentle hand

Cumque ego porrexi tibi brachia,

porrigis ultro: Cum rifi, arrides: lacrymas quoque fæpe notavi Me lacrymante tuas.

Ifta repercuffae, quam cernis, imaginis umbra eft:

Nil habet ifta fui: tecum venitque manetque ;

Tecum difcedet, fi tu difcedere poffis.

478. Under a platan;] The plane tree so named from the breadth of

485

Seis'd mine; I yielded, and from that time fee
How beauty is excell'd by manly grace
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.

So fpake our general mother, and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreprov'd,

And meek furrender, half embracing lean'd

On our first father; half her fwelling breast
Naked met his under the flowing gold
Of her loose treffes hid: he in delight

492. So fpake our general mother,

and with eyes Of conjugal attraction unreprov'd, &c.] Spenfer, Fairy Queen,

B. 2. Cant. 7. St. 16.

But with glad thanks and unreproved truth.

What a charming picture of love and innocence has the poet given us in this paragraph! There is the greatest warmth of affection, and yet the most exact delicacy and decorum. One would have thought that a scene of this nature could not with any confiftency have been introduced into a divine poem, and yet our author has fo nicely and judiciously cover'd the foft defcription with the veil of modefty, that the pureft and chafteft mind can find no room for offenfe. The meek furrender and the half-embracement are circumftances inimitable. An Italian's imagination would have hurried him the length of

490

495

Both

ten or a dozen ftanzas upon this occafion, and with its luxuriant wildnefs chang'd Adam and Eve into a Venus and Adonis. Thyer.

494. embracing] Milton fometimes fpells the word embrace after the French embraffer, and fometimes imbrace after the Italian imbracciare; but the former has now prevail'd univerfally.

499. as Jupiter &c.] As the Heaven fmiles upon the air, when it makes the clouds and every thing fruitful in the fpring. This feems to be the meaning of the allegory; for Jupiter is commonly taken for the Heaven or æther, and Juno for the air, tho' fome underftand by them the air and earth. However that be, the congrefs of Jupiter and Juno was accounted the great caufe of fruitfulness. Homer in the fourteenth book of the Iliad inlarges much upon the ftory of their loves, more than enough to give occafion to this

fimile,

Both of her beauty and submiffive charms mil'd with fuperior love, as Jupiter

500

On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds
That fhed May flow'rs; and prefs'd her matron lip
Vith kiffes pure: afide the Devil turn'd

3

or envy, yet with jealous leer malign

y'd them afkance, and to himself thus plain'd. Sight hateful, fight tormenting! thus these two 505 nparadis'd in one another's arms,

Magnus alit, magno commixtus
corpore, fœtus.

For then almighty Jove defcends,
and pours
Into his buxom bride his fruitful

show'rs;

And mixing his large limbs with

hers, he feeds Her births with kindly juice, and fofters teeming feeds. Dryden. hat expreffion of the clouds fhedding ow'rs is very poetical, and not un VOL. I.

The

like that fine one in the Pfalms of the clouds dropping fatness, Pfal. LXXV. 12. and it is faid May fou'rs to fignify that this is done in the fpring, as Virgil defcribes it, And then follows and prefs'd her matron lip, where the construction is Adam Smil'd with fuperior love, and prefs'd her matron lip, the fimile being to be understood as included in a parenthefis.

Her matron lip evidently fignifies her married lip, in diftinction from a maiden or a virgin lip, as Ovid Faft. II. S28. fpeaking of Lucretia then married, fays matron cheeks,

Et matronales erubuere gena.

It implies that she was married to

him, and that therefore their kifles were lawful and innocent. It was the innocence of their loves that

made the Devil turn afide for envy,

506. Imparadis'd in one another's arms,] Imparadis'd has been remark'd as a word first, coin'd by Ee Milton

The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill
Of blifs on blifs; while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least,
Still unfulfill'd with pain of longing pines.

510

Yet let me not forget what I have gain'd

From their own mouths: all is not theirs it seems;
One fatal tree there ftands of knowledge call'd,
Forbidden them to tafte: Knowledge forbidden? 515
Sufpicious, reafonlefs. Why should their Lord
Envy them that? can it be fin to know?
Can it be death? and do they only stand

By ignorance? is that their happy state,

The proof of their obedience and their faith?
O fair foundation laid whereon to build
Their ruin! Hence I will excite their minds

Milton. But Sir Philip Sidney has it in Arcadia, p. 109. So this imparadis'd neighbourhood made Zelmane's foul cleave unto her. And the Italians had prior poffeffion Imparadifato. Bentley.

509. Where neither joy nor love,] This fentence has no exit, unless you'll fay without fenfe, where neither joy nor love pines. He gave it therefore

520

With