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
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; 235
But rather to tell how, if art could tell,
How from that saphire fount the crisped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,
Tremuloque alarum remige crispat
Fluctusque fluviosque maris.'
A. Ramsai Poem. Sacr. ed. Lauder, i. p. 3.
238 orient pearl] See Sir D. Lindsay, ed. Chalmers, ii. 327. Lyke orient perlis.'
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 245
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
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.
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. Percussaque sole scuta.' Orl. Fur. c. viii. st. xx. • Percote il sol ardente il vicin colle.' And Psalm (Old Transl.) cxxi. 6. The sun shall not smite thee by day.' Todd.
250 fables] Apples. Bentl. MS.
255 irriguous] Hor. Sat. ii. 4. 16. elutius horto.' Hume.
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
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
262 fringed] See Carew's Poems, p. 204.
Silver floods,
From your channels fring'd with flowers.'
'With various trees we fringe the waters' brink.' 264 apply] Spens. F. Q. iii. 1. 40.
'Sweet birds thereto applide
Their dainty layes,' &c. Bowle.
269 Proserpine] With the same accent in F. Queen, 1. ii.
' And sad Prosérpine's wrath.' Newton.
273 Daphne] See Wernsdorf. Poet. Minor. vol. vii. p. 1105. v. Capitolini vitam M. Antonini Philos. c. viii. p. 44, ed.
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 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
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 295
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.
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 He] See St. Paul, 1 Corinth. xi. 7. He is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.
His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd 300 Absolute rule; and hyacinthin locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clust'ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
She as a veil down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Disshevel'd, but in wanton ringlets wav'd
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
Subjection, but requir'd with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best receiv'd,
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.' This passage seems to justify the old reading, 'God in him,' and rejects Bentley and Pearce's alteration, 'God and him.'
301 hyacinthin] See Dionysii Geograph. ver. 1112. Theocriti Idyll. xviii. 2. Longi Pastor. lib. iv. c. 13, and the note in Dyce's ed. of Collins, Like vernal hyacinths of sullen hue,' p. 180. To which add Nonni Dionysiaca, xvi. ver. 81. ̓Αθρήσας δ' Υακίνθου ἴδον κυανόχροα χαίτην.
as a veil] Carew's Poems, p. 143.
-Whose soft hair,
Fann'd with the breath of gentle air,
O'erspreads her shoulders like a tent,
And is her veil and ornament.'
Spenser's F. Queen, iv. 113.
'Which doft, her golden locks that were unbound
Still in a knot unto her heeles down traced,
And like a silken veil in compasse round
About her backe, and all her bodie wound.'
307 As the vine] See Merrick's Tryphiodorus, ver. 108. 'His flowing train depends with artful twine, Like the long tendrils of the curling vine.'
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