Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault, 190 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, 195 Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life Thereby regain'd, but sat devising death To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought Of that life-giving plant, but only us’d For prospect, what well us'd had been the pledge Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

201

The good before him, but perverts best things To worst abuse, or to their meanest use. Beneath him with new wonder now he views 25 To all delight of human sense expos'd In narrow room nature's whole wealth, yea more, A heav'n on earth: for blissful paradise Of GOD the garden was, by him in the east Of Eden planted; Eden stretch'd her line From Auran eastward to the royal tow'rs Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, Or where the sons of Eden long before 190 Cross-barr'd] Cross-barr'd and double lockt.' Heywood's Hierarchie, p. 510, folio, (1635). 191 In at the window] v. Spenser's Fairy Queen, lib. i. c.

3. ver. 17.

Then he by cunning slights in at the window crept.'

210

Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd;
Out of the fertile ground he caus'd 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

215

220

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 chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill
Pass'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown
That mountain as his garden mould, high rais'd
Upon the rapid current, which, through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Water'd the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the neather flood,
Which from his darksome passage now appears;
And now divided into four main streams
Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account; 233
But rather to tell how, if art could tell,

230

How from that saphire fount the crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,

237 crisped brooks]

Tremuloque alarum remige crispat
Fluctusque fluviosque maris.'

A. Rumsai Poem. Sacr. ed. Lauder, i. P. 3.

233 orient pearl] See Sir D. Lindsay, ed. Chalmers, ii. 327.

With mazy error under pendant shades Ran Nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flow'rs worthy of paradise, which not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain Both where the morning sun first warmly smote The open field, and where the unpierc’d shade 24 Imbrown'd the noontide bow'rs. Thus was this A happy rural seat of various view: [place Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and

balm, Others whose fruit burnish'd 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 interpos'd, Or palmy hillock, or the flow'ry lap Of some irriguous valley spread her store, Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose.

2.5

And Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5. ' He kissed the last of many doubled kisses, this orient pearl."

Orient pearl was esteemed the most valuable. See Don Quixote (Shelton's Transl. vol. iv. p. 64) She wept not tears, but seed pearl, or morning dew: and he thought higher, that they were like oriental pearls.' 244 smote] Val. Flacc. I. 496. Orl. Fur. c. viii. st. xx. ‹ Percote il And Psalm (Old Transl.) cxxi. 6. thee by day.' Todd.

·

Percussaque sole scuta. sol ardente il vicin colle. The sun shall not smite

250 fables] Apples. Bentl. MS. 255 irriguous] Hor. Sat. ii. 4. 16. ' elutius horto.' Hume.

Irriguo nihil est

Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant: mean while murmuring waters fall 260
Down the slope hills, dispers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune 265
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on th' eternal spring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flow'rs,
Herself a fairer flow'r, by gloomy Dis

270

Was gather'd, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove
Of Daphne by Orontes and th' inspir'd

Castalian spring might with this paradise

Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle

'With various trees we fringe the waters' brink.'

apply] Spens. F. Q. iii. 1. 40.

'Sweet birds thereto applide

Their dainty layes,' &c. Bowle.

275

239 Proserpine] With the same accent in F. Queen, 1. ii. And sad Proserpine's wrath.' Newton.

13 Daphne] See Wernsdorf. Poet. Minor. vol. vii. p. 1105. v. Capitolini vitam M. Antonini Philos. c. viii. p. 44, ed. Putman.

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, 200
Mount Amara, though this by some suppos'd
True paradise, under the Ethiop line
By Nilus head, enclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden, where the fiend 285
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 honour clad
In naked majesty, seem'd lords of all,
And worthy seem'd: for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure,
Severe, but in true filial freedom plac'd,
Whence true authority in men: though both 235
Not equal, as their sex not equal, seem'd;
For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.

230

281 Amara] See Bancroft's Epigrams (1639), 4to. p. 35 (200). Of the Æthiopian mountain Amara,' and Stradling's Divine Poems (1625), p. 27.

'The famous hill Amara to this clime

Is but a muddie moore of dirt and slime.'

299 Hel See St. Paul, 1 Corinth. xi. 7. He is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.