He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native soil,
Ur of Chaldæa, passing now the ford
To Haran: after him a cumb'rous train
Of herds, and flocks, and numerous servitude;
Not wand'ring poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains: I see his tents
Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighb'ring plain
Of Morch; there, by promise, he receives.
Gift to his progeny of all that land,

From Hamath northward to the Desert south

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135

commentators seem to suppose, but a mode of speaking natural to the angel, to whom all the future was revealed.

It is well observed by Addison, that, as the principal design of this episode was to give Adam an idea of the holy person who was to reinstate human nature in that happiness and perfection from which it had fallen, the poet confines himself to the line of Abraham, whence the Messiah was to descend. The angel is described as seeing the patriarch actually travelling towards the land of promise, which gives a particular liveliness to this part of the narrative.

Our poet, sensible that this long historical description might grow irksome, has varied the manner of representing it as much as possible, beginning first with supposing Adam to have a prospect of it before his eyes, next by making the angel the relator of it, and lastly, by imitating the two former methods, and making Michael see it as in a vision, and give a rapturous enlivened account of it to Adam. This gives great ease to the languishing attention of the reader.-THYER.

130. Ur: Situated in Mesopotamia, near the Euphrates, and about four hundred wiles northeast from Jerusalem. A short distance from Ur was Haran, to which Abraham first removed. Ur signifies light or fire, and received this name from the worship of the sun and its symbol, fire, being there practised.

132. And numerous servitude: Many servants. crete.-N.

The abstract for the con

139. Hamath: Quite famous in the Bible as the northern limit of the land of Israel. According to Coleman, it is a narrow pass between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, at the head of the great Valley Cocle-Syria, above Baalbec, at the head waters of the Orontes, which runs north and west one hundred and fifty miles into the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean.

This river forms the natural boundary of the kingdom of Hamath on the south, and the limit of the land promised to Israel on the north.

(Things by their names I call, tho' yet unnamed),
From Hermon east to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder sea; each place behold
In prospect, as I point them: on the shore
Mount Carmel: here the double-founted stream
Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons
Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the earth
Shall in his seed be blest. By that seed
Is meant the great Deliv'rer, who shall bruise
The Serpent's head: whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch blest,
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call

140

145

150

144. Doubled-founted: The Jordan has its origin among the mountains thirty or forty miles north of the Sea of Galilee. The original source is a large fountain just above Hasbeiya, twenty miles from Banias, or Cæsarea Philippi, and the ancient idolatrous city of Dan, where again are large fountains, which have usually been regarded as the head waters of the Jordan. -COLEMAN'S Geography of the Bible.

145. True limit eastward: Though the name of Canaan sometimes includes the whole land possessed by the twelve tribes, yet it appropriately belongs to no more than the country westward of the River Jordan; and the Jews themselves make a distinction between the land promised to their fathers, and the lands of Sihon and Og, which were to the eastward of the river. Moses does the same, Deut. ii. 29, and the land on this side Jordan was esteemed more holy than the land on the other.

146. Senir: Hermon, Deut. iii. 9, lying not far eastward of the sources of the Jordan, moistened with copious dews. It stands pre-eminent among the mountains of the land. It is thus described by an American missionary, Mr. Thompson: “Old Jebel Esh-Sheihh (the modern name), like a venerable Turk, with his head wrapped in a snowy turban, sits yonder on his throne in the sky, surveying with imperturbable dignity the fair lands below; and all around, east, west, north, south, mountain meets mountain to guard and gaze upon the lovely vale of the Huleh. What a constellation of venerable names: Lebanon and Hermon, Bashan and Gilead, Moab and Judah, Samaria and Galilee !”

152. Abraham: See Gen. xvii. 5. It means a father of many nations. His name previously was Abram, signifying a great father.

The grandchild with twelve sons increased, departs
From Canaan to a land hereafter call'd

Egypt, divided by the river Nile..

See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
Into the sea. To sojourn in that land

He comes, invited by a younger son,

155

160

In time of dearth; a son whose worthy deeds

Raise him to the second in that realm

Of Pharaoh. There he dies, and leaves his race
Growing into a nation, and now grown

Suspected to a sequent King, who seeks

165

To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests

Too num'rous; whence of guests he makes them slaves

Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:

Till by two brethren (those two brethren call

Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim

170

His people from inthralment, they return.

With glory and spoil back to their promised land.
But first the lawless tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or message to regard,

Must be compell'd by signs and judgments dire.
To blood unshed the rivers must be turn'd;
Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill
With loath'd intrusion, and fill all the land;
His cattle must of rot and murrain die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,
And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail,
Hail mix'd with fire, must rend th' Egyptian sky,

175

180

And wheel on th' earth, devouring where it rolls ;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain
A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down

185

155. A Latin form of expression, as Plaut. "Cumque es aucta liberis." 158. See where it flows, &c.: This pointing to the river adds a loveliness to the narrative, and the ancient poets seldom mention the river without taking notice of its seven mouths, Virg. Æn. vi. 800; Ovid Met. i. 422; ii. 256. -N.

179. Murren: The spelling conforms to the Latin word murrena.-N. 183. Wheel: Exod ix. 23-4.

Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green :
Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,
Palpable darkness, and blot out three days;
Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born
Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds
The river-dragon tamed, at length submits
To let his sojourners depart, and oft

Humbles his stubborn heart: but still as ice
More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the sea

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195

Swallows him with his host; but them lets pass
As on dry land, between two crystal walls,

Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand

Divided, till his rescued gain'd their shore.

Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend,

200

Though present in his Angel, who shall go

Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire
(By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire),
To guide them in their journey, and remove
Behind them, while th' obdurate king pursues.
All night he will pursue; but his approach
Darkness defends between till morning watch
Then through the fiery pillar and the cloud
God, looking forth, will trouble all his host,

205

And craze their chariot-wheels: when by command

210

Moses once more his potent rod extends

Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;

On their embattled ranks the waves return

188. Palpable: In the expressive language of the Bible, "Darkness that
may be felt." In the Latin Vulgate it reads, "Tam densæ ut palpari que-
aat." Hence our author's word palpable.

191. The river-dragon is an allusion to the crocodile, the chief inhabitant
of the Nile. It was probably suggested by a sublime passage in the pro-
phecy of Ezekiel, commencing with, "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I am
against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon," &c.

207. Darkness defends between, &c.: Darkness between them keeps off his
approach till, &c., Exod. xiv. 19, 20.

210. Craze: Crush, from the French ecraser.

And overwhelm their war: the race elect

Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance
Through the wild desert, not the readiest way,
Lest, ent'ring on the Canaanite, alarm'd,
War terrify them inexpert, and fear

215

Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather

Inglorious life with servitude; for life

220

To noble and ignoble is more sweet

Untrain'd in arms, where rashness leads not on.
This also shall they gain by their delay

In the wide wilderness; there they shall found

Their government, and their great senate choose

225

Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordain'd.
God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
Shall tremble, he descending, will himself
In thunder, lightning, and-loud trumpets' sound,
Ordain them laws; part such as appertain
To civil justice, part religious rites

230

Of sacrifice, informing them, by types
And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise
The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of G·
To mortal ear is dreadful! They beseech
That Moses might report to them his will,

235

And terror cease. He grants what they besought,

Instructed that to God is no access

Without Mediator, whose high office now

240

Moses in figure bears, to introduce

One greater, of whose day he shall foretell;

214. War: Army.

216. The political cause of their long wanderings is given by Milton; the moral cause is omitted, for it was the design of the angel to comfort and not to distress Adam by this recital, Exod. xiii. 17, 18.

227. Whose gray top: It received this hue from the snow smoke which enveloped it, Exod. xix.

clouds, and

230. Part such as appertain, &c.: It is singular that Milton here omits all mention of the moral law, the delivery of which formed so impressive and important a part of the proceedings at Sinai.

241. In figure: As a type or representative.