In either hand the hastening Angel caught Wav'd over by that flaming brand; the gate Dunfter rightly refers to Du Bartas's defcription of the flaming fword, placed at the entrance of the garden of Eden, after the expulfion of our firft parents. See Sylvefter, edit. 1621, p. 199. "For the Almighty set before the door "A waving fword, whofe body fhined bright "Like flaming comet in the midst of night." TODD. Ver. 635. And vapour] Horace, Epod. iii. 15. "Nec tantus unquam fiderum infedit vapor "Siticulofæ Apuliæ." RICHARDSON. Ver. 640. To the fubjected plain;] The plain below. This meaning of subjected may be illuftrated by Shakspeare, Troil. and Creffid. A. i. S. ii. "the eastern tower, "Whofe height commands as fubject all the vale.” And by Spenfer, Faer. Qu. i. xi. 19. "Long he them bore above the fubject plaine." TODD. Ver. 643. Wav'd over by that flaming brand;] Brand here fignifies a fword; as in Spenfer, Faer. Qu. i. iii. 3, v. i. 9, and ix. 30. Fairfax ufes the word in his translation of Taffo, C. vii. ft. 72, and in feveral other places. In Italian too, brando fignifies a fword. NEWTON. Of brand for fword take the following explication from Hickes. "In the fecond part of the Edda Islandica, among other appellations, a fword is denominated brand; and glad or glod, that is, With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms: Some natural tears they dropt, but wip'd them foon; 64 The world was all before them, where to choof Their place of reft, and Providence their guide: They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and flow, Through Eden took their folitary way. titio, torris, pruna ignita; and the hall of Odin is faid to be il luminated by drawn fwords only. A writer of no less learning than penetration, N. Salanus Weftmannus, in his Differtation entitled Gladius Scythicus, pag. 6, 7, obferves, that the ancient formed their fwords in imitation of a flaming fire; and thus from brand a fword, came our English phrase, to BRANDISH Sword, gladium ftrictum vibrando corufcare facere." T. WARTON. Sylvefter's expreffion in the note on ver. 634, may be compared; as may Drummond's, in his Hymn on the Fairest Fair: "Near to thy other fide refiftlefs Might, "From head to foot in burnish'd armour dight "That rings about him, with a waving brand, "And watchful eye, great centinel doth stand." TODD. Ver. 646. The world was all before them,] Shakspeare, Rich. II. A. i. S. iii. -"all the world's my way." JOHNSON. Ver. 648. They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and flow,] The melancholy turn of this line is very obfervable; and bears fome fimiliarity to a very plaintive paffage in Petrarch, Son. xxxviii. parte feconda : "Ond' io fon fatto un animal filveftro "Che co' pie vaghi, folitari, e lassi, "Porto 'l cor grave, e gli occhi umidi e bassi "Al mondo ch'è per me un deferto alpeftro." TODD. Ibid. They, hand in hand, with wandering Steps and flow, Through Eden took their folitary way.] Addison would reject these two last lines of the book, and close it with the verse before. He feems to have been induced to this by a mistake of he printer, They, hand in hand; which reading does indeed nake the last diftich feem loofe, unconnected, and abfcinded from he reft. But the author gave it "Then hand in hand:" which Continues the prior fentence, "Some natural tears they dropt, but wip'd them foon; "Then hand in hand." For can these two verfes poffibly be fpared from the work; for vithout them Adam and Eve would be left in the territory and uburbane of Paradife, in the very view of the dreadful faces. Apparent diræ facies, inimicáque Trojæ "Numina magna Deûm." They must therefore be difmiffed out of Eden, to live thenceforward in fome other part of the world. And yet this distich, as Addifon well judges, falls very much below the foregoing passage. It contradicts the poet's own fcheme; nor is the diction unexceptionable. He tells us before, That Adam, upon hearing Michael's predictions, was even furcharged with joy, ver. 372; was replete with joy and wonder, ver. 468; was in doubt, whether he should repent of or rejoice in his fall, ver. 475; was in great peace of thought, ver. 558; and Eve herself not fad, but full of confolation, ver. 620. Why then does this diftich difmifs our firft parents in anguish, and the reader in melancholy? And how can the expreffion be juftified, with wandering steps and flow? Why wandering? Erratick steps? Very improper: when, in the line before, they were guided by Providence. And why Now? when even Eve profeffed her readiness and alacrity for the journey, v. 614; " but now lead on; "In me is no delay." And why their folitary way? All words to reprefent a forrowful parting when even their former walks in Paradife were as folitary, as their way now; there being no body befides them two both here and there. Shall I therefore, after fo many prior prefumptions, prefume at laft to offer a diftich, as clofe as may be to the author's words, and entirely agreeable to his scheme? "Then hand in hand with social steps their way As the poem clofes with these two verfes, fo Dr. Bentley finishes his labour with remarks upon them. He obferves that Addison declared for ejecting them both out of the poem; and fuppofes him to have been induced to this by a mistake of the printer. "They hand in hand:" which reading (the Doctor thinks) makes the laft diftich feem loofe, unconnected, and abfcinded from the reft. But Addifon was too good a judge of Milton's way of writing, to eject them upon that account only. He gave us another reafon for his readiness to part with them, and faid that they renew in the mind of the reader that anguish, which was pretty well laid by the confideration of the two foregoing verses. But it has been said more justly by another gentleman (who seems well qualified to give a judgement in the case) that, confidering the moral and chief defign of this poem, Terrour is the last passion to be left upon the mind of the reader. Effay on Pope's Odyffey, Part ii. p. 89. However this be, the Doctor's reafon for keeping these two verfes is extraordinary he fays that, unless they are kept, Adam and Eve would be left in the territory and fuburbane of Paradife, in the very view of the dreadful faces: and he adds that they muft therefore be difmiffed. out of Eden, to live thenceforward in fome other part of the world. And yet both in the common reading, and in the Doctor's too, they are left in Eden, only taking their way through it. But this by the by. Let us fee how the Doctor would mend the matter; and then I will give my objections to this reading, and afterwards answer his objections to Milton's. He proposes to read thus, "Then hand in hand with focial steps their way "Through Eden took, with heav'nly comfort chear'd." To this reading we may object, that the verb wants the word they before it; for it is too far to fetch it from ver. 645, when two verses of a quite different construction are inserted between. Again, chear'd with comfort feems tautologous, for comfort is implied in chear'd, without its being mentioned. Lastly, if they went hand in hand, there is no need to tell us, that their steps were Social; they could not be otherwife. So much for the Doctor's reading. We are now to confider the objections which the Doctor makes to the prefent reading. It contradicts (fays he) the poet's own fcheme, and the diction is not unexceptionable. With regard to the diction, he afks, Why were the steps wandering ones, when Providence was their guide? But it might be their guide, without pointing out to them which way they should take at every step: The words Providence their guide fignify, that now fince Michael, who had hitherto conducted them by the hand, was departed from them, they had no guide to their steps, only the general guidance of Providence to keep them fafe and unhurt. Eve (it is plain) expected that her fteps would be wandering ones, when, upon being told that she was to leave Paradife, the breaks out into these words, B. xi. 282. "How fhall I part? and whither wander down "Into a lower world?" Again the Doctor afks, Why flow fteps; when Eve profefs'd her readiness and alacrity for the journey, ver. 614? But that readiness was not an abfolute one, it was a choofing rather to go than to ftay behind there without Adam, ver. 615, &c. In that view the was ready to go: but, in the view of leaving the delights of Paradife, they were both backward and even linger'd, ver. 638. Their fteps therefore were flow. And why (fays the Doctor) is their way called folitary, when their walks in Paradife were as folitary as their way now, there being nobody betides them two both here and there? It may be answered, that their way was folitary, not in regard to any companions, whom they had met with elfewhere; but because they were here to meet with no objects of any kind that they were acquainted with: Nothing here was familiar to their eyes, and (as Adam, then in Paradife, well expreffes it in B. xi. 305.) "all places elfe "Inhofpitable appear, and defolate; "Nor knowing us, nor known." [And may we not, fays Dr. Newton, by folitary underftand farther their being now left by the Angel?] The laft, but the main objection which the Doctor makes, is that this diftich contradicts the poet's own fcheme. To fupport this charge, he has referred us to |