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in his Purpofe, excites all his Thoughts of Mifchief:

WHITHER, my Thoughts, have you led me! how fweetly carried me into fuch a Tranfport, as could make me forget what brought me hither! Love brought me not, but Hate; not the Hope to tafte Pleasure here, and exchange PARADISE for Hell, but to deftroy all Pleasure, excepting that which I take in Destruction; all other Joy is loft to me! then don't let me flip the Opportunity which now fo favourably offers. Behold the Woman alone, liable to all Attempts! and her Hufband (for I can fee far round) not near her; whofe better Understanding I rather fhun, as well as his Strength, he being of a haughty Courage, though made of Earth, yet compofed of Limbs heroic and not weak, and as I cannot wound him nor touch his Body, no inconfiderable Foe: It is not fo with me, fo much hath Hell debafed, and Pain weakened me to what I was in Heaven, and I am liable to all: She is divinely fair, and fit Love for Gods, not terrible; though Terror be in Love and Beauty, unless it is approached by a Mind armed with Hate as mine is; a Hate the greater, as it is disguised under diffembled Love, which is the Way I propofe to take to bring her Ruin to pass.

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THUS fpake the great Enemy of MANKIND, having poffeffed the Serpent, and made his Way towards Eve; not prone and waving upon the Ground, as Serpents are 1:ow, but rifing from his Tail in Circles one above another: He had upon his Head a Creft, which he bore aloft, and his Eyes resembled Carbuncles; his Neck a bright Grafs green, finely touched up (as Painters exprefs it) with Gold, rifing up in circling Spirits from his Body, which lay and floated about upon the Grafs; his Shape was very

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lovely and pleafing, never fince of Serpent-kind was more beautiful; nor thofe that HERMIONE (0) and CADMUS (p) were feigned to be changed into, in ILLYRIA; or the God worshipped in EPIDAURUS (q) = nor thofe to which it was pretended JUPITER AM

(0) Hermione; Lat. Gr. from the Heb. i. e. The Eaft; from M. Hermon in the East of Ca. naan, where he was born. She was the Daughter of Mars and Penus, and the Wife of Cadmus, of which the Poets made many Fables.

(p) Cadmus ; Lat. Gr. Heb. i. e. The Eaft: An antient Phenician, born at Sidon, faid to be the Son, rather the General, of Agenor, King of Phænicia, about A. M. 2660. But more likely he was a Cadomite, about M. Hermon. The Cadomites are mentioned, Gen. xv. 19. About the Time of Joshua, Cadmus fled from his victorious Arms, came into Greece, settled a Colony of the Old Phenicians there, built Thebes in Boetia, taught the Greeks the Ufe of Letters, Steel, Copper, Brafs, and other Arts; for which he was highly celebrated. He married Hermione, flew a terrible Serpent that lay by the Well Dirce, which deftroyed Man and Beaft thereabour, and all his own Men, but 'five; and at laft both his Wife and he was changed into Serpents: Because he killed one, that was facred to Mars. The Truth is, Cadmus was a Hivite, Heb. i. e. a Serpent, the restoring his Men to Life is, to enlift them into his Army; the Spears of Brass were faid to be the Teeth

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of the Serpent, i. e. of Cadmus the Hivite, the Inventor of, or Worker in Brass; and the Hebrew Word, which fignifies V. fignifies alfo an armed Man.

(q) Epidaurus, or Epitaurus'; as Eufatius and Strabo call it; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Near the Bull. An antient City of Agria, a fmall Region of the Peloponnefus or Morea, upon the Egean Sea; built by Darius, the Son of Hyftafpes, according to Pliny, Lib. vi. c. 27. But by Titon, the Father of Memnon, who came to affift at the Siege of Troy, according to Strabo, about A. M. 2976, and fo called in Memory of Jupiter's carrying Europa from Phenice into Greece, and landing there, about A.M. 2660. There Efculapius was born, buried and worshipped; now called Efculapio after him: Thither the Sick reforted for Cures. The Romans were directed in a raging Plague, to fetch him, in the Year 461. The Epidaurians were unwilling to part with their God, in the mean time an huge Serpent fwam in to their Ship, and wound itfelf round in the Stern, which they took for the God, and carried him to Rome. There it quitted the Ship, and went into a little Ifle in the River Tiber; the Peftilence abated; and therefore they erected a Temple to Efculapius without the M m Walls;

MON (r) was transformed, when he begot ALEXANDER the Great upon OLYMPIA (s); or JUPITER CAPITOLINE (t), when he affumed fuch a Shape, to enjoy the Mother of SCIPIO (u), the Glory of ROME (x).

Walls; and worshipped him under that Form. The People of this Place are celebrated by Virgil for their useful Art of taming Horfes. There is another City of the Name in Dal matia, near the Gulph of Ve

nice.

() Jupiter Ammon; Ham, the Son of Noah, who had Africa for his Share. In the fandy hot Defarts of Lybia, a famous Temple and Oracle were erected to his Memory, whom the Greeks called Jupiter Hammon.

(s) Capitoline; of the Capitols Lat. i. e. the Head of Tolus, which was found buried there, when they dug for the Foundation of it. The Capitol is the grand Caftle of Rome, where Jupiter Capitolinus was worshipped in a most stately and rich Temple, who under the Form of another Serpent is faid to have conversed with the Mother of Scipio Africanus: This Temple was begun by Tarquin I. the fifth King of Rome, A. M. 3372. upon the Mount Tarpeias, and finished by his Nephew Tarquin the Proud. It was burnt under Vitellius, and rebuilt by Vefpafian, again under Titus, and rebuilt by Domitian, with great Pomp.

(1) Olympia; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. All Light; her firft

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Name was Myrtalis; Lat. Gr. i. e. A Myrtle tree, Jeftin. Lib.9. 7. 13. the Wife of Philip, King of Macedon, and Mother of Alexander the Great: She is faid to have conceived him, not of her own Hufband, but of another huge Serpent. Hence, the flattering Greeks perfuaded Alexander, that Jupiter Hammon, in the Form of a Serpent, was his real Father: Therefore he marched through the vast Defart of Lybia to vifit him, which the cunning. Prieft confirmed, and called him, the Son of Jupiter. This is related by Justin, Pliny, 2 Curtius, &c.

(u) Scipio; Lat. i. e. A Staff. This was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, who conquered Hannibal, razed Carthage, added Africa to the Roman Empire, and advanced it to the Height of all its Glory: for which the Senate decreed that he fhould be ftiled, The best Man. But it was reported, that he was the Son of Jupiter Capitolinus, who converfed with his Mother in the Form of another Serpent allo. Liv. Decad. 3. L. 6.

(x) Rome; Heb. i. e. High; being built on feven Hills; or Gr. i. e. Strength and Power, The chief City of Italy upon both Sides of the Tyber, ten

Miles

At first like one who wanted Access, and yet was afraid to interrupt, he worked his Way fidelong and winding about: Juft as when a Ship brought on by fome skilful Pilot, near to a River's Mouth or Foreland, where the Wind veers often, fhifts Sail accordingly; fo he varied his Motions, and made many a wanton Curl of his crooked Train in the Sight of EVE, in Hopes to allure her Eye. She being bufy, though fhe heard the Sound of Leaves ruftling, took no Notice, as being used often to have the Beasts sport before her through the Field, they all being obedient to her Call. He now grown bolder, though uncalled, food before her, but teemed only gazing on her in Admiration He often bowed his Head, and his fleek fhining Neck like Enamel; and fawning licked the Ground fhe trod upon: At length his gentle dumb Expreffion drawed the Eye of Eve to take Notice of his Play: He glad that he had gained her Attention, making the Serpent's Tongue or Impulfe of vocal Air an Inftrument of Speech, thus began his fraudulent Temptation:

SOVEREIGN Miftrefs! (who alone art wonderful) wonder not, much lefs arm thy mild Looks with Difdain, nor be difpleafed that I approach thee thus,

Miles from the Sea, and eight count. Yet it was taken ten hundred and forty Miles from London; the Seat of the Roman Empire, and for a long Time, the Miflrefs of the World; having had the greatest Part of Europe, Afia and Africa under her. It was built by Romulus, at the End of the third Year of the fixth Olympiad, A. M. 3031; 431 after the Destruction of Troy; and 753 before the Incarnation, according to the most exact Ac

Times; 1ft, by the Gauls; zd, by Alaric King of the Goths; 3d, by Genferic King of Vandals; 4th, by Totila King of the Goths; 5th, by Odoacer King of the He uli; by Theodericus King of the Goths; 7th, by Gundebald King of the Burgundians; 8th, by the Moors; 9th, by Henry VI. Em. peror of Germany; 10th, by Charles Duke of Bourbon, A. D. 1528.

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and gaze on thee continually without thinking I can ever gaze enough; nor have I (thus fingly) feared thy awful Brow, much more awful now retired. Fairest Refemblance of thy fair Maker! all Things living gaze on thee, being thine by Gift, and adore thy heavenly Beauty, which they behold with Tranfport! beft to be beheld where it might be univerfally admired; but here among thefe Beafts, in this wild Inclosure, (who are but rude Beholders, and incapable of difcerning Half what is fair in thee) except one MAN, who fees thee? And what is one, for thee, who shouldest be feen a Goddefs among Gods, and be adored and ferved by numberlefs Angels, and have them in thy daily Train.

So flattered the Tempter, and introduced himself: His Words made fome Impreffion upon the Heart of EVE, though the marvelled much at the Voice; at Length, not without Amazement, the replied:

WHAT can be the Meaning of this? Do I hear the Language of MAN and human Senfe, expressed by the Tongue of a Brute? Language, at leaft I thought, had been denied to Beafts, whom GOD, on the Day of their Creation, created mute to all articuJate Sound: That they may indeed have Understanding I debate within myself, for much Reafon often appears both in their Looks and Actions. I knew thee to be the fubtleft Beast of the Field, but did not know that Serpents were endued with human Voice, Do this Miracle once more, and fay how thou becameft capable of Speech; and why thou art grown fo friendly to me above the reft of the Beafts that are daily in Sight? This tell me! for the Relation of fuch a Wonder will demand due Attention.

To whom the deceitful Tempter replied thus: Refplendent EVE! Emprefs of this fair World! it is

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