Tho this Part of the Poem is work’d up with great Warmth and Spirit, the Love which is described in it is every way suitable to a State of Innocence.  If the Reader compares the Description which Adam here gives of his leading Eve to the Nuptial Bower, with that which Mr. Dryden has made on the same occasion in a Scene of his Fall of Man, he will be sensible of the great care which Milton took to avoid all Thoughts on so delicate a Subject, that might be offensive to Religion or Good-Manners.  The Sentiments are chaste, but not cold; and convey to the Mind Ideas of the most transporting Passion, and of the greatest Purity.  What a noble Mixture of Rapture and Innocence has the Author join’d together, in the Reflection which Adam makes on the Pleasures of Love, compared to those of Sense.

  Thus have I told thee all my State, and brought
  My Story to the sum of earthly Bliss,
  Which I enjoy; and must confess to find
  In all things else Delight indeed, but such
  As us’d or not, works in the Mind no Change
  Nor vehement Desire; these Delicacies
  I mean of Taste, Sight, Smell, Herbs, Fruits, and Flowers,
  Walks, and the Melody of Birds:  but here
  Far otherwise, transported I behold,
  Transported touch; here Passion first I felt,
  Commotion strange! in all Enjoyments else
  Superiour and unmov’d, here only weak
  Against the Charms of Beauty’s powerful Glance. 
  Or Nature fail’d in me, and left some Part
  Not Proof enough such Object to sustain;
  Or from my Side subducting, took perhaps
  More than enough; at least on her bestowed
  Too much of Ornament in outward shew
  Elaborate, of inward less exact.

 —­When I approach
  Her Loveliness, so absolute she seems
  And in herself compleat, so well to know
  Her own, that what she wills to do or say
  Seems wisest, vertuousest, discreetest, best: 
  All higher Knowledge in her Presence falls
  Degraded:  Wisdom in discourse with her
  Loses discountenanced, and like Folly shews;
  Authority and Reason on her wait,
  As one intended first, not after made
  Occasionally:  and to consummate all,
  Greatness of Mind, and Nobleness their Seat
  Build in her loveliest, and create an Awe
  About her, as a Guard angelick plac’d.

These Sentiments of Love, in our first Parent, gave the Angel such an Insight into Humane Nature, that he seems apprehensive of the Evils which might befall the Species in general, as well as Adam in particular, from the Excess of this Passion.  He therefore fortifies him against it by timely Admonitions; which very artfully prepare the Mind of the Reader for the Occurrences of the next Book, where the Weakness of which Adam here gives such distant Discoveries, brings about that fatal Event which is the Subject of the Poem.  His Discourse, which follows the gentle Rebuke he received from the Angel, shews that his Love, however violent it might appear, was still founded in Reason, and consequently not improper for Paradise.