The SPECTATOR.

-major rerum mihi nafcitur ordo. {A larger Scene of Action is difplay'd.

Saturday, March 15, 1712.

Virg.

Dryden.}

E were told in the foregoing Book how the
Evil Spirit practifed upon Eve as she lay
afleep, in order to infpire her with
Thoughts of Vanity, Pride and Ambition.

The Author, who fhews a wonderful Art throughout his whole Poem, in preparing the Reader for the feveral Occurrences that arife in it, founds upon the above-mentioned Circumstance the first part of the Fifth Book. Adam upon his awaking, finds Eve still asleep, with an unusual Discompofure in her Looks. The Pofture in which he regards her, is described with a wonderful Tenderness [not to be expreffed*]†, as the Whisper with which he awakens her, is the fofteft that ever was conveyed to a Lover's Ears

His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve
With Treffes difcompos'd and glowing cheek
As through unquiet reft: he on his side
Leaning half rais'd, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar Graces; then with voice
Mild, as when Zephyrus or Flora breathes,
Her hand foft touching, whisper'd thus. Awake
My fairefl, my efpous'd, my latest found,
Heav'ns laft beft gift, my ever new delight,
Awake, the morning fhines, and the fresh field

+ See Errata, at the end of No. 369, in the original issue.

Calls us, we lofe the prime, to mark how fpring
Our tended plants, how blows the Citron Grove,
What drops the Myrrhe, and what the balmie Reed,
How Nature paints her colours, how the Bee
Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid fweet.
Such whifpring wak'd her, but with flartled Eye,
On Adam, whom embracing thus fhe fpake.

O Sole in whom my thoughts find all repoje,
My Glory, my perfection, glad I fee

Thy face, and morn return'd

I cannot but take notice that Milton, in his Conferences between Adam and Eve, had his Eye very frequently upon the Book of Canticles, in which there is a noble Spirit of Eastern Poetry, and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally placed near the Age of Solomon. I think there is no question but the Poet in the preceding Speech remembred those two Paffages which are spoken on the like occafion, and fill'd with the fame pleafing Images of Nature.

My beloved fpake, and faid unto me, Rife up, my love, my fair one, and come away; For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the Flowers appear on the earth; the time of the finging of birds is come, and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land. The Fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the Vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arife, my love, my fair one, and come away.

Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the Field; let us get up early to the Vineyards, let us fee if the Vine flourish, whether the tender Grape appear, and the Pomegranates bud forth.

His preferring the Garden of Eden to that

Where the Sapient King

Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian Spouse,

shews that the Poet had this delightful Scene in his Mind.

Eve's Dream is full of thofe high Conceits engendring Pride, which we are told the Devil endeavoured to inftil into her. Of this kind is that part of it where she fancies her self awaken'd by Adam in the following beautiful Lines.

Why fleep ft thou, Eve? now is the pleafant time,
The cool, the filent, fave where filence yields
To the night-warbling bird, that now awake
Tunes fweeteft his Love-labour'd song; now reigns
Full orb'd the moon, and with more pleafing light
Shadowy fets off the face of things; in vain
If none regard; Heav'n wakes with all his eyes,
Whom to behold but thee, Natures defire,

In whofe fight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty fill to gaze.

An injudicious Poet would have made Adam talk through the whole Work, in such Sentiments as this [thefe]. But Flattery and Falfhood are not the Courtship of Milton's Adam, and cou'd not be heard by Eve in her State of Innocence, excepting only in a Dream produced on purpose to taint her Imagination. Other vain Sentiments of the fame kind in this relation of her Dream, will be obvious to every Reader. Tho' the Catastrophe of the Poem is finely prefaged on this occafion, the Particulars of it are fo artfully shadow'd, that they do not anticipate the Story which follows in the Ninth Book. I fhall only add, that tho' the Vision it felf is founded upon Truth, the Circumstances of it are full of that Wildness and Inconsistency which are natural to a Dream. Adam, conformable to his fuperior Character for Wisdom, inftructs and comforts Eve upon this occafion.

So chear'd he his fair Spoufe, and fhe was chear'd,
But filently a gentle tear let fall

From either eye, and wiped them with her hair;
Two other precious drops that ready flood,

Each in their chryflal fluice, he e'er they feli

Kifs'd as the gracious Signs of fweet remorfe
And pious awe, that fear'd to have offended.

The Morning Hymn is written in Imitation of one of thofe Pfalms, where, in the Overflowings of his Gratitude and Praise, the Pfalmift calls not only upon the Angels, but upon the most confpicuous parts of the inanimate Creation, to join with him in extolling their Common Maker. Invocations of this Nature fill the Mind with glorious Ideas of God's Works, and awaken that Divine Enthusiasm, which is so natural to Devotion. But if this calling upon the dead parts of Nature, is at all times a proper kind of Worship, it was in a particular manner fuitable to our first Parents, who had the Creation fresh upon their Minds, and had not seen the various Dispensations of Providence, nor confequently could be acquainted with those many Topicks of Praise which might afford matter to the Devotions of their Pofterity. I need not remark that* [the] beautiful Spirit of Poetry which runs through this whole Hymn, nor the Holiness of that Refolution with which it concludes.

Having already mentioned thofe Speeches which are affigned to the Perfons in this Poem, I proceed to the Description which the Poet gives us* of Raphael. His Departure from before the Throne, and his Flight thro' the Quires [Choirs] of Angels, is finely imaged. As Milton every where fills his Poem with Circumstances that are marvellous and astonishing, he describes the Gate of Heaven as framed after fuch a manner, that it open'd of it felf upon the approach of the Angel who was to pass through it.

-'till at the gate
Of Heav'n arriv'd, the gate felf-open'd wide,
On golden Hinges turning, as by work
Divine the Sovereign Architect had fram'd.

The Poet here seems to have regarded two or three Paffages in the eighteenth Iliad, as that in particu

lar where, fpeaking of Vulcan, Homer fays, that he had made Twenty Tripodes, running on Golden Wheels, which, upon Occasion, might go of themselves to the Affembly of the Gods, and, when there was no more use for them, return again after the same manner. Scaliger has rallied Homer very feverely upon this Point, as Monf. Dacier has endeavoured to defend it. I will not pretend to determine, whether in this Particular of Homer, the Marvellous does not lofe sight of the Probable. As the miraculous Workmanship of Milton's Gates is not fo extraordinary as this of the Tripodes, fo I am perfwaded he would not have mentioned it, had not he been supported in it by a Paffage in the Scripture, which speaks of Wheels in Heaven that had Life in them, and moved of themselves, or stood still, in Conformity with the Cherubims, whom they accompanied.

There is no queftion but Milton had this Circumftance in his Thoughts, because in the following Book he describes the Chariot of the Meffiah with living Wheels, according to the Plan in Ezekiel's Vifion.

Forth rush'd with whirlwind found

The Chariot of Paternal Deity,

Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn, It felf inflinct with Spirit——

I question not but Boffu, and the two Daciers, who are for vindicating every thing that is cenfured in Homer, by fomething Parallel in Holy Writ, would have been very well pleafed had they thought of confronting Vulcan's Tripodes with Ezekiel's Wheels.

Raphael's Defcent to the Earth, with the Figure of his Perfon, is reprefented in very lively Colours. Several of the French, Italian, and English Poets have given a loose to their Imaginations in the Defcription of Angels: But I do not remember to have met with any, fo finely drawn and so conformable to the Notions which are given of them in Scripture, as this in Milton. After having fet him forth in all his Heavenly Plumage,