In mentioning the necessary labour of Adam and Eve, in maintaining the fertility and beauty of Paradise, he observes—

In brief, it was a pleasant exercise,

A labour-lik'd, a pain much like the guise
Of cunning Dancers,-who again, full merry,
Renew their dance, of dancing never weary,
Or else of Hunters, that, with happy luck,
Rousing betimes some often-breathed buck,
Spur on and spare not, following their desire,
Themselves unweary, though their hacknies tire.
W. 2. D. 1. P. I.

Here the close presents us with one of those cadences, so frequently met with in modern poetry, and which, though pleasing, has been almost repeated to satiety.

The poet next enumerates the recreations, which Adam derived from the rural variety around him, for

-yet in league with Heaven and Earth he lives, Enjoying all the goods th' Almighty gives

Here, underneath a fragrant hedge reposes, Full of all kinds of sweet all-colour'd Roses ;Anon he walketh in a level lane

On either side beset with shady plane,

ANON HE STALKETH WITH AN EASY STRIDE, BY SOME CLEAR-RIVER'S LILLY-PAVED SIDE, WHOSE SANDS PURE GOLD, WHOSE PEBBLES

PRECIOUS GEMS,

AND LIQUID SILVER ALL THE CURLING

STREAMS:

And th'artless bridges over-thwart this torrent,
Are rocks self-arched by the eating current:

Now, far from noise, he creepeth covertly
Into a cave of kindly porphyry;

There, laid at ease, a cubit from the ground,
Upon a jasper fring'd with ivy round,

Purfled with veins, thick thrumm'd with mossy beaver,

He falls asleep fast by a silent river,

Whose captive streams, thro' crooked pipes still rushing,

Make sweetest music with their gentle gushing;Musing, anon through crooked walks he wanders, Round-winding rings, and intricate meanders; THEN, UP AND DOWN A FOREST THICK HE

these couplets, which, as here thrown together, form a beautiful and connected whole. The cave of porphyry, however, and the couch of jasper, must be considered as a little outré.

In a subsequent part of the work and after the Fall, Adam and Eve are represented as clothing themselves with the produce of the groves, a description which, as possessing some merit, and closing with a spirited and well woven couplet, is entitled to insertion.

Sometimes they do the far-spread gourd unleave, Sometimes the fig-tree of his branch bereave: Sometimes the plane, sometimes the vine they sheer, Choosing their fairest tresses here and there :Sometimes the ivy's climbing stems they strip,Which with green lace in artificial order The wrinkled bark of th' acorn tree doth border, And with his arms his slender twigs entwining, A many branches in one tissue joining,

Frames a loose "net-work," whose light nimble quaking

Wagg'd by the winds, is like the wanton shaking Of golden spangles that in stately pride

Dance on the tresses of a noble bride.

W. 2. D, 1. P. .4.

In the first book of Paradise Lost, Milton, after enumerating the male and female deities of the Heathen world, whom he supposes to have been Demons, attributes certain privileges to spiritual agency.

-Spirits when they please

Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their essence pure,
Not ty'd or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,

Can execute their aery purposes,

And works of love or enmity fulfil.

B. 1. L. 423.

Bishop Newton has supposed these notions. to have been borrowed from a dialogue of Michael Psellus, concerning the operation of Demons, but I think it is more probable they were suggested by a parallel passage in Sylvester.

-Devils, having bodies light,

Quick, nimble, active, apt to change with sleight,
In shapes or shews,-

In brief, like the air whereof they are compos'd:
For, as the air, with scattered clouds bespread,
Is here and there, black, yellow, white and red,

Resembling armies, monsters, mountains, dragons,
Rocks, fiery castles, forests, ships and waggons,
And such to us thro' glass transparent clear
From form to form varying it doth appear:
So, these seducers can grow great, or smail,
Or round, or square, or strait, or short, or tall,
As fits the passions they are moved by.

W. 2. D. 1. P. 2.

The Invention of Music, a topic well calculated to arouse the feelings and exertions of a poet, has given little elevation to the Muse of Sylvester, and the subjoined lines, which ascribe the origin of the Lute to Jubal, are the best I could select; of these, the last couplet, which is admirably descriptive, has been quoted by Mr. Dunster.

-he found

An open Tortoise lying on the ground,
Within the which there nothing else remain'd
Save three dry sinews on the shell stiff-strain'd:
This empty house Jubal doth gladly bear,
Strikes on those strings, and lends attentive ear;
And by this mould frames the melodious lute
That makes woods harken, and the winds be mute,
Lions be tame, and tempests quickly fade-

-Echo rings

Mid rocky concaves of the babbling vales,
And bubbling rivers roll'd with gentle gales.
W. 2. D. 1. P. 4.