In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold;
Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash

Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors
Cross-barred and bolted fast fear no assault,
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles:
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
So since into his church lewd hirelings climb.
Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,
Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life
Thereby regained, but sat devising death

To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only used

186

190

195

For prospect what well used had been the pledge 200 Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

The good before him, but perverts best things
To worst abuse or to their meanest use.
Beneath him with new wonder now he views,
To all delight of human sense exposed,
In narrow room Nature's whole wealth, yea more,
A heaven on Earth; for blissful Paradise
Of God the garden was, by him in the east
Of Eden planted; Eden stretched her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,

186. hurdled, fenced about with sticks or twigs closely interwoven. -secure. See II. 399.

192. So clomb. See John x. 1. 193. lewd meant originally belonging to the laity, hence ignorant, in which sense it is perhaps used here.

"The

194. the Tree of Life. tree of life also in the midst of the garden." Genesis ii. 9.

196. cormorant. The cormo

205

210

198. virtue, peculiar power or properties.

200. For prospect, as a place from which to look abroad. had been, would have been.

210. Eden. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden." Genesis ii. 8.

211-214. Auran, or Haran (also called Charran), was a city in the northwestern part of Mesopotamia, the name anciently given

cant is a kind of sea-fowl, ex- to the country lying between the tremely voracious.

rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

Or where the sons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordained :
Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;
And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life

Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy
Passed underneath ingulfed; for God had throw
That mountain as his garden mould high raised
Upon the rapid current, which, through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Watered the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood
Which from his darksome passage now appears,
And now divided into four main streams
Runs diverse wandering many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account;
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell

How, from that sapphire fount the crispéd brooks,

Seleucia was a city in the southeastern part of Mesopotamia, on the river Tigris, built near the ancient Telassar, by Seleucus, a Macedonian general who became king of Syria and the founder of a line of Grecian kings. - The exact situation of the Garden of Eden has always been a matter of conjecture. pleasant soil. The word Eden means pleasure, delight.

218. all amid them, "in the midst of the garden." Genesis ii. 9.-blooming, blooming with. 221. the Tree of Knowledge.

240

Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold
With mazy error under pendent shades,
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierced shade
Imbrowned the noon-tide bowers. Thus was this place
A happy rural seat of various view;

245

Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,
Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,

If true, here only, and of delicious taste.
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,
Or palmy hillock, or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant meanwhile murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills dispersed, or in a lake,
That to the fringèd bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,

238. orient, eastern; such as is found in the East.

239. error, wandering course. 241. nice Art, nice Art had set. 242. boon, bountiful.

245. unpierced, not penetrated by the rays of the sun.

246. Imbrowned, darkened. 247. of various view, presentng various scenes.

250

255

260

265

250. amiable. lovely or pleasing to the sight. See Psalm lxxxiv. 1.- Hesperian fables. See III. 568. - true, proved true.

261. or connects fall and unite. 264. quire, choir. - apply, add; or, ply; employ.

265. attune, make tuneful.

266. universal Pan. Pan was the god of shepherds and flocks.

1

Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on the eternal Spring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis

Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world; nor that sweet
Of Daphne by Orontes, and the inspired
Castalian spring, might with this Paradise
Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle
Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove,
Hid Amalthea and her florid son,

Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye;
Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard,
Mount Amara, though this by some supposed
True Paradise, under the

As the word Pan in Greek signifies all, he is sometimes supposed to typify all Nature. He often led the dances of the Nymphs.

267. the Graces, three in number, were the attendants of Venus, the goddess of beauty, and sometimes of other deities.-the Hours were the goddesses of the seasons, whose course was represented in their dance.

269-272. Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, was seized by Pluto, or Dis, the god of the infernal regions, while she was gathering flowers in the fertile plain of Enna in Sicily, and borne away by him to be the queen of the lower world. Her mother, in ignorance of her fate, sought her through the world.

273. Daphne. The city of Antioch, in Syria, was situated not far from the sea in the beautiful valley of the river Orontes. Near it was a celebrated grove, called Daphne and consecrated to Apollo.

274. Castalian spring. Castalia was a fountain on Mount Parnassus, sacred to Apollo and the

Ethiop line

Muses. The spring that w the grove of Daphne was a called.

275-279. that Nyseian Nysa or Nyssa in Africa, the god Bacchus was said t been brought up. Cha Ham, was a name given to ter Ammon, who was worsh in Libya, in the north of A

Amalthea was sometime sidered as the mother of Bad

Rhea here seems to be the as Cybele, who is called the er of all the gods.

280-285. Mount Amara v Ethiopia, near the Equin line. In the midst of the of which the ridge was comp or on the summit of the tain, there was said to be a and beautiful plain. Her children of the kings of sinia were kept confined, un the death of their father o them was taken from this " py Valley" to succeed hi The hill of Amara was said a whole day's journey his Nilus head, the source of Nile.

By Nilus' head, enclosed with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden, where the Fiend
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind
Of living creatures new to sight and strange.

Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native honor clad
In naked majesty seemed lords of all,
And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure
(Severe, but in true filial freedom placed),
Whence true authority in men; though both
Not equal, as their sex not equal, seemed ;
For contemplation he and valor formed,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;/
He for God only, she for God in him.
His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
She, as a veil, down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
Subjection, but required with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best received,
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet reluctant amorous delay.

Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed;

292. image. "God created man in his own image." Genesis i. 27.

300. front, forehead. — sublime, elevated; noble.

301. hyacinthine, probably dark

285

290

295

300

305

310

brown or black. The ancient poets used the word to represent different colors.

308. required is here a partici

ple.