34 Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd, Brought forth the tender grafs, whofe verdure clad 315 Her univerfal face with pleasant green, Then herbs of every leaf, that fudden flow'rd And bush with frizled hair implicit: last Rofe as in dance the stately trees, and spread 324 Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd Thofe, that ftifly maintain that smel ling was Milton's word and interpret it the melon, feem not to attend, that he had the word fmelling two lines before, and would not have doubled it fo foon again: and that he does not name here any particular plant, but whole tribes and fpecies; the vine, the gourd, the reed, the fhrub, the bush, the tree. Gourds are as numerous a family, as molt of the other, and include the melon within the general name; which tho' it fmells, it fwells likewife. Bentley. Their Dr. Bentley very juftly reads here The fwelling gourd: and to the reafons which he gives, may be added, that Milton here affigns to each of the other tribes or fpecies, an epithet which fuits with all of the fame fpecies: but fmelling, tho' it fuits with fome kinds of the gourd, does not fuit with all the particulars of that tribe, as wel ling does. Pearce. The mistake was caly of w for m: and Dr. Bentley's emendation is certainly right; and to the authority which he has brought from Propertius we may add another from Virgil, Georg. IV. 121. tortufque per herbam Crefceret in ventrem cucumis. But we have not alter'd the text, as the common reading makes fense, tho' not fuch good fenfe as the other. 321.- the Their bloffoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd, With tufts the valleys, and each fountain fide, With borders long the rivers: that earth now Seem'd like to Heav'n, a feat where Gods might dwell, Or wander with delight, and love to haunt 339 Her facred fhades: though God had yet not rain'd Upon the earth, and man to till the ground None was, but from the earth a dewy mist Went up and water'd all the ground, and each Plant of the field, which ere it was in th' earth 335 God made, and every herb, before it grew On Dr. Bentley thinks it plain that Milton gave it or gemm'd with blossoms; taking gemm'd for a participle as hung is. But gemm'd may be a verb, as spread is. And to gem their blof foms is an expreffion of the fame poetical caft with that in IV. 219. blooming ambrofial fruit. Pearce. 331. though God had yet not rain'd&c.] This is not taken, as the reft, from the firft, but from the fecond chapter of Genefis; but the poet was ftudious to weave in all that Mofes had written of the creation. Gen. II. 4, 5, 6. In the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there Cz On the green ftem; God faw that it was good: Their office in the firmament of Heaven 340 To give light on the earth; and it was fo. 345 And God made two great lights, great for their use To Man, the greater to have rule by day, The earth: and it was fo. We fee, when he makes the divine Person speak, he ftill keeps close to Scripture; but afterwards he indulges a greater latitude of thought, and gives freer fcope to his imagination. 346. And God made two great lights,] The feveral glories. of the Heavens make their appearance on the fourth day. Addison. The very words of Mofes, And God made two great lights; not that they were greater than all other stars and planets, but are only greater lights with reference to Man, and therefore Milton judiciously adds, The less by night altern; and made the stars, To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day 350 And light from darkness to divide. God faw, A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first, 355 And fow'd with stars the Heav'n thick as a field; fitude is afterwards; the greater light to rule the day, and the leffer light to rule the night: be made the ftars alfo. And God Jet them in the firmament of the Heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God far that it was good. Gen. I. 16, 17, 18. So far, we fee, he keeps clofe to Scripture, but then he lanches out, and fays that of celestial bodies the fun was firft fram'd, and then the moon and fars, obferving this order of creation, we fuppofe, according to the degrees of usefulness to men. The fan, he fays, was unlightfome firft: and it is moft probable, that the bodies of the fun and moon &c were formed at the fame time as the body of the earth on the first day, but they were not made those complete Luminous bodies, they did not fhine Of out in their full luftre and glory till the fourth day, the air perhaps or atmosphere not being fufficiently clear'd before to tranfmit their rays to the earth. Milton's hypothefis is different. He fays that the light was transplanted from her cloudy forine or tabernacle, wherein she had fojourn'd the three first days, and on the fourth day was plac'd in the fun's orb, which was become now the great palace of light. But let it be remember'd that this is all hypothefis, and that the Scripture determins nothing one way or another. Of light by far the greater part he took, Tranfplanted from her cloudy fhrine, and plac'd 360 And drink the liquid light, firm to retain Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, 365 And Cernere feminibus denfis, totifque quently repeated, than to vary it by phrafes and circumlocutions. micare Floribus: retain Her gather'd beams,] Porous yet firm. Milton feems to have taken this thought from what is faid of the Bologna ftone, which being plac'd in the light will imbibe, and for fome time retain it fo as to inlighten a dark place. Richardfon. 362. And drink the liquid light,] Dr Bentley finds fault with the word light being repeated fo often, and in two places fubftitutes fome other expreffion in the room of it; but when Milton was defcribing the creation of light, it was better (as Dr. Pearce judiciously obferves) to keep frictly to the word, tho' fre In the first edition it was his horns, 370. Firft in his eaft the glorious lamp was feen,] It is indeed a little inaccurate to make this as well as the former verfe conclude with the word feen; but this is not fo bad as when both verfes rime together, as in II. 220. |