of bliss and innocence without it! They had nothing to do but feel their
own happiness, and "know to know no more." "They toiled not, neither
did they spin; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these." All things seem to acquire fresh sweetness, and to be clothed
with fresh beauty in their sight. They tasted as it were for themselves
and us, of all that there ever was pure in human bliss. "In them the
burthen of the mystery, the heavy and the weary weight of all this
unintelligible world, is lightened." They stood awhile perfect, but they
afterwards fell, and were driven out of Paradise, tasting the first
fruits of bitterness as they had done of bliss. But their pangs were
such as a pure spirit might feel at the sight--their tears "such as
angels weep." The pathos is of that mild contemplative kind which arises
from regret for the loss of unspeakable happiness, and resignation to
inevitable fate. There is none of the fierceness of intemperate passion,
none of the agony of mind and turbulence of action, which is the result
of the habitual struggles of the will with circumstances, irritated by
repeated disappointment, and constantly setting its desires most eagerly
on that which there is an impossibility of attaining. This would have
destroyed the beauty of the whole picture. They had received their
unlooked-for happiness as a free gift from their Creator's hands, and
they submitted to its loss, not without sorrow, but without impious and
stubborn repining.

"In either hand the hast'ning angel caught
Our ling'ring parents, and to th' eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappear'd.
They looking back, all th' eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Wav'd over by that flaming brand, the gate