So spake our Mother Eve, and Adam heard
  Well pleas’d, but answered not; for now too nigh
  Th’ Archangel stood, and from the other Hill
  To their fix’d Station, all in bright Array
  The Cherubim descended; on the Ground
  Gliding meteorous, as evening Mist
  Ris’n from a River, o’er the Marish glides,
  And gathers ground fast at the Lab’rer’s Heel
  Homeward returning.  High in Front advanced,
  The brandishd Sword of God before them blaz’d
  Fierce as a Comet—­

The Author helped his Invention in the following Passage, by reflecting on the Behaviour of the Angel, who, in Holy Writ, has the Conduct of Lot and his Family.  The Circumstances drawn from that Relation are very gracefully made use of on this Occasion.

  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, &c.

The Scene [1] which our first Parents are surprized with, upon their looking back on Paradise, wonderfully strikes the Reader’s Imagination, as nothing can be more natural than the Tears they shed on that Occasion.

  They looking back, all th’ Eastern side beheld
  Of Paradise, so late their happy Seat,
  Wav’d over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
  With dreadful Faces throng’d and fiery Arms: 
  Some natural Tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
  The World was all before them, where to chuse
  Their Place of Rest, and Providence their Guide.

If I might presume to offer at the smallest Alteration in this divine Work, I should think the Poem would end better with the Passage here quoted, than with the two Verses which follow: 

  They hand in hand, with wandering Steps and slow,
  Through Eden took their solitary Way.

These two Verses, though they have their Beauty, fall very much below the foregoing Passage, and renew in the Mind of the Reader that Anguish which was pretty well laid by that Consideration,

  The world was all before them, where to chuse
  Their Place of Rest, and Providence their Guide.

The Number of Books in Paradise Lost is equal to those of the AEneid.  Our Author in his first Edition had divided his Poem into ten Books, but afterwards broke the seventh and the eleventh each of them into two different Books, by the help of some small Additions.  This second Division was made with great Judgment, as any one may see who will be at the pains of examining it.  It was not done for the sake of such a Chimerical Beauty as that of resembling Virgil in this particular, but for the more just and regular Disposition of this great Work.