Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Second to me or like, equal much less.

How have I then with whom to hold converse
Save with the creatures which I made, and those
To me inferior, infinite descents

Beneath what other creatures are to thee?

He ceas'd, I lowly answer'd. To attain
The highth and depth of thy eternal ways
All human thoughts come short, Supreme of things;
Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee
Is no deficience found; not so is man,

But in degree, the cause of his desire
By conversation with his like to help,

Or solace his defects. No need that thou
Should'st propagate, already infinite,

410

415

420

And through all numbers absolute, though one;

But man by number is to manifest

His single imperfection, and beget
Like of his like, his image multiplied,
In unity defective, which requires
Collateral love, and dearest amity.
Thou in thy secresy although alone,
Best with thyself accompanied, seek'st not

413. The highth and depth of thy eternal ways &c.] Rom. xi. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

421. And through all numbers absolute,] A Latin expression, omnibus numeris absolutus, as Cicero says, and means perfect in all its parts, and complete in

425

every thing; quod expletum sit omnibus suis numeris et partibus, as Cicero elsewhere expresses it: but there seems to be a low conceit in the expression,

And through all numbers absolute, though one.

423. His single imperfection,] That is, the imperfection of him single. A frequent way of speaking in Milton. Pearce.

Social communication, yet so pleas'd,

Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt
Of union or communion, deified;

I by conversing cannot these erect

From prone, nor in their ways complacence find.
Thus I imbolden'd spake, and freedom us'd
Permissive, and acceptance found, which gain'd
This answer from the gracious voice divine.

Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleas'd,
And find thee knowing not of beasts alone,
Which thou hast rightly nam'd, but of thyself,
Expressing well the spi'rit within thee free,
My image, not imparted to the brute,
Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee
Good reason was thou freely should'st dislike,
And be so minded still; I, ere thou spak'st,

430

435

440

440. Expressing well the spirit peculiar to Milton; for I find

within thee free,

My image,]

Milton is upon all occasions a strenuous advocate for the freedom of the human mind against the narrow and rigid notions of the Calvinists of that age, and here in the same spirit supposes the very image of God in which man was made to consist in this liberty. The sentiment is very grand, and this sense of the words is, in my opinion, full as probable as any of those many which the commentators have put upon them, in as much as no property of the soul of man distinguishes him better from the brutes, or assimilates him more to his Creator. This notion, though uncommon, is not

Clarius, in his remark upon this passage of Scripture, referring to St. Basil the Great for the same interpretation. See Clarius amongst the Critici Sacri. Thyer.

444. -I, ere thou spak'st, Knew it not good for man to be

alone,]

For we read, Gen. ii. 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him : and then ver. 19 and 20. God brings the beasts and birds before Adam, and Adam gives them names, but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him; as if Adam had now discovered it himself likewise: and from this little hint our author has raised this dia

Knew it not good for man to be alone,
And no such company as then thou saw'st
Intended thee, for trial only brought,

To see how thou could'st judge of fit and meet :
What next I bring shall please thee, be assur'd,
Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,
Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.

He ended, or I heard no more, for now
My earthly by his heav'nly overpower'd,

445

450

Which it had long stood under, strain'd to th' highth In that celestial colloquy sublime,

As with an object that excels the sense

Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair
Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, call'd
By nature as in aid, and clos'd mine eyes.
Mine eyes he clos'd, but open left the cell

logue between Adam and his Maker. And then follows both in Moses and in Milton the account of the formation of Eve and institution of marriage.

453. My earthly by his heav'nly overpower'd,] The Scripture says only, that the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, Gen. ii. 21. and our author endeavours to give some account how it was effected: Adam was overpowered by conversing with so superior a Being, his faculties having been all strained and exerted to the highth, and now he sunk down quite dazzled and spent, and sought repair of sleep, which instantly fell on him, and closed his eyes. Mine eyes he closed, says he again, turning the words, and making sleep a per

455

460

son, as the ancient poets often do.

460. Mine eyes he clos'd, &c.] Adam then proceeds to give an account of his second sleep, and of the dream in which he beheld the formation of Eve. The new passion that was awakened in him at the sight of her is touched very finely. Adam's distress upon losing sight of this beautiful phantom, with his exclamations of joy and gratitude at the discovery of a real creature, who resembled the apparition which had been presented to him in his dream; the approaches he makes to her, and his manner of courtship, are all laid together in a most exquisite propriety of sentiments. Though this part of the poem is worked up with

Of fancy my internal sight, by which

465

Abstract as in a trance methought I saw,
Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape
Still glorious before whom awake I stood:
Who stooping open'd my left side, and took
From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,
And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,
But suddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd:
The rib he form'd and fashon'd with his hands;
Under his forming hands a creature grew,

great warmth and spirit, the love which is described in it is every way suitable to a state of inno

cence.

If the reader compares the description which Adam here gives of his leading Eve to the nuptial bower, with that which Mr. Dryden has made on the same occasion in a scene of his Fall of Man, he will be sensible of the great care which Milton took to avoid all thoughts on so delicate a subject, that might be offensive to religion or good manners. The sentiments are chaste, but not cold; and convey to the mind ideas of the most transporting passion, and of the greatest purity. Addison.

462. Abstract as in a trance] For the word, that we translate a deep sleep, Gen. ii. 21. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, the Greek interpreters render by trance or ecstasy, in which the person is abstract, is withdrawn as it were from himself, and still sees things, though his senses are all locked up. So that Adam sees his wife, as he did Paradise, first in vision.

470

465. —open'd my left side, and took

From thence a rib,-wide was the wound,

But suddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd:]

Gen. ii. 21. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. The Scripture says only one of his ribs, but Milton follows those interpreters who suppose this rib was taken from the left side, as being nearer to the heart.

469. -fashon'd] Spelt after the French façon.

470. Under his forming hands a creature grew, &c.] This whole account of the formation of Eve, and of the first meeting and nuptials of Adam and Eve, is delivered in the most natural and easy language, and calls to mind an observation of Mr. Pope upon Milton's style, in his Postscript to the Odyssey. "The "imitators of Milton, like most "other imitators, are not copies "but caricatures of their origi"nal; they are a hundred times

more obsolete and cramp than "he, and equally so in all places:

Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair,

That what seem'd fair in all the world, seem'd now Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her contain'd

"whereas it should have been "observed of Milton, that he is "not lavish of his exotic words " and phrases every where alike, "but employs them much more "where the subject is marvel"lous, vast, and strange, as in the

[ocr errors]

scenes of heaven, hell, chaos, "&c. than where it is turned to "the natural and agreeable, as "in the pictures of Paradise, the "loves of our first parents, the "entertainments of angels, and "the like. In general, this un"usual style better serves to "awaken our ideas in the de"scriptions and in the imaging " and picturesque parts, than it 66 agrees with the lower sort of "narrations, the character of "which is simplicity and purity. "Milton has several of the lat"ter, where we find not an antiquated, affected, or uncouth "word, for some hundred lines " together; as in his fifth book, "the latter part of the eighth, "the former of the tenth and "eleventh books, and in the "narration of Michael in the "twelfth. I wonder indeed that "he, who ventured (contrary "to the practice of all other epic poets) to imitate Homer's "lownesses in the narrative,

"

"should not also have copied "his plainness and perspicuity " in the dramatic parts: since in "his speeches (where clearness "above all is necessary) there "is frequently such transposi"tion and forced construction, "that the very sense is not to

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »