Stood visible, among these pines his voice I heard, here with him at this fountain talk'd: Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone Or monument to ages, and thereon Offer sweet smelling gums and fruits and flowers : 325 330 Adam, thou know'st heav'n his, and all the earth, Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread From all the ends of th' earth, to celebrate 337. and every kind that lives,] The construction is, his omnipresence fills every kind that lives which, if true, says Dr. Bentley, was not the author's intention. But how it can be proved that it was not the author's intention, when his words so clearly express it, I am at a loss to apprehend: and if the Doctor could really question the truth of the assertion, it must be said that the poet had nobler and more worthy conceptions of God's omnipresence than the divine; for in him we live, and move, and have our being, Acts xvii. 28. Another poet has enlarged upon the same sentiment, with great sublimity of thought, and as great force of language. Essay on Man, i. 259, &c. 335 340 345 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent, Breathes in our soul, informs our As full as perfect, in a hair, as heart, mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns; To him, no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. Nay, an heathen poet has a remarkable passage to this purpose, to which no doubt Milton alluded. Lucan, ix. 578. Estne Dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus, et aer, Et cœlum, et virtus? Superos quid quærimus ultra? Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris. 344. -and had hither come] So the first editions, and not thither, which is in most of the later ones. And reverence thee their great progenitor. But this preeminence thou' hast lost, brought down To dwell on even ground now with thy sons: Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain God is as here, and will be found alike 350 360 Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirm'd 355 Ascend 365 poems, is entertained with a sight of all those who are to descend from him; but though that episode is justly admired as one of the noblest designs in the whole Eneid, every one must allow that this of Milton is of a much higher nature. Adam's vision is not confined to any particular tribe of mankind, but extends to the whole species. Addison. This hill; let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes) 370 Thou lead'st me', and to the hand of Heav'n submit, However chast❜ning, to the evil turn My obvious breast, arming to overcome By suffering, and earn rest from labour won, 375 If so I may attain. So both ascend In the visions of God: It was a hill Stretch'd out to th' amplest reach of prospect lay. 380 367. let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes) Here sleep below,] It may be asked, why Eve was not permitted to see this vision, as she had no less occasion than Adam thereby to learn true patience but Milton here only continues the same decorum which he had before observed, when he made Eve retire upon Raphael's beginning his conference with Adam, Book viii. Besides, the tenderness of the female mind could not be supposed able to bear the shocking scenes which were going to be represented. Thyer. 367. Drenched with the dews of sleep. Compare Comus, 996. -drenches with Elysian dew. Quicquid erit, superanda omnis for tuna ferendo est. 377. In the visions of God:] A Scripture expression, Ezek. viii. 3. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem. And again, Ezek. xl. 2. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain. And these may very properly be called the visions of God, not only for discovering things future, but likewise for the extensiveness of the prospect, such as no human eye could reach. For upon the highest mountain the eye can command only a small part of the hemisphere by reason of the roundness of the earth; but here a whole hemisphere lay stretched out to view at once like a plain. Not high'er that hill nor wider looking round, To shew him all earth's kingdoms and their glory. Of mightiest empire, from the destin❜d walls 381. Not high'er that hill &c.] That hill was not higher, whereon the devil set our Saviour (the second man, 1 Cor. xv. 47. the last Adum, ver. 45.) to show him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, Matth. iv. 8. The prospects are well compared together, and the first thought of the one might probably be taken from the other: and as the one makes part of the subject of Paradise Lost, so doth the other of Paradise Regained. 387. from the destin'd walls Of Cambalu, &c.] He first takes a view of Asia, and there of the northern parts, the destined walls, not yet in being, but designed to be, (which is to be understood of all the rest,) of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, the principal city of Cathay, a province of Tartary, the ancient seat of the Chams, and Samarchand by Oxus, the chief city of Zagathaian Tartary, near the river Oxis, Temir's throne, the birth-place and royal residence of Tamerlane; and from the northern he passes to the eastern and southern parts of Asia, to Paquin or Pekin of Sinaan kings, the royal city of China, the country of the ancient Sinæ mentioned by Pto 385 lemy, and thence to Agra and Lahor, two great cities in the empire of the great Mogul, down to the golden Chersonese, that is, Malacca, the most southern promontory of the East-Indies, so called on account of its riches, to distinguish it from the other Chersoneses or peninsulas, or where the Persian in Ecbatan sat, Ecbatana, formerly the capital city of Persia, or since in Hispahan, the capital city at present, or where the Russian Ksar, the Czar of Muscovy, in Moscow, the metropolis of all Russia, or the Sultan in Bizance, the Grand Signior in Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, Tur chestan-born, as the Turks came from Turchestan, a province of Tartary; he reckons these to Asia, as they are adjoining, and great part of their territories lie in Asia. He passes now into Africa; nor could his eye not ken th' empire of Negus, the Upper Ethiopia, or the land of the Abyssinians, subject to one sovereign, styled in their own language Negus or king, and by the Europeans Prestor John, to his utmost port Ercoco, or Erquico on the Red Sea, the north-east boundary of the Abyssinian empire, and the less maritime kings, the lesser kingdoms |