'I'hat opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way;
A broad and amy 'e road, whose dust is gold
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest

And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just: thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!

"So sung they, and the empyrean rung
With hallelujahs: thus was sabbath kept.
And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked

Powdered with stars. And now on earth the How first this world and face of things began, seventh

And what before thy memory was done

From the beginning; that posterity,
Informed by thee, might know: if else thou
seekest

Of Heaven's high seated top, th' imperial throne Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.”

Of Godhead fixed for ever firm and sure,

The filial power arrived, and sat him down
With his great Father: for he also went
Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege
Hath omnipresence,) and the work ordained,
Author and end of all things; and, from work
Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh
day,

As resting on that day from all his work,
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work, and rested not; the solemn pipe
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
Choral or unison: of incense clouds,
Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount.
Creation and the six days' acts they sung:
Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite

Thy power! what thought can measure thee or
tongue

Relate thee! greater now in thy return
Than from the giant angels: thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.
Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,
Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might: his evil
Thou usest, and from thence createst more good.
Witness this new made world, another Heaven
From Heaven gate not far, founded in view
In the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation; but thou knowest
Their seasons: among these the seat of men,
Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused,
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy

men,

BOOK VIII.

THE ARGUMENT.

Adam inquires concerning celestial motions; is doubtfully of knowledge; Adam assents; and, still desirous to detain answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy

Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own creation; his placing in Paradise; his talk with God concern. ing solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve; his discourse with the angel thereupon; who, after at monitions repeated, departs.

THE angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice, that he a while
Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to
hear;

Then, as new waked, thus gratefully replied.
"What thanks sufficient, or what recompense
Equal have I to render thee, divine
Historian, who thus largely hast allayed
The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed
This friendly condescension to relate
Things, else by me unsearchable, now heard
With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,
With glory attributed to the high
Creator? something yet of doubt remains,
Which only thy solution can resolve.
When I behold this goodly frame, this world,
Of Heaven and earth consisting, and compute
Their magnitudes; this earth, a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the firmament compared
And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible (for such
Their distance argues, and their swift return
Diurnal) merely to officiate light
Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot,
One day and night, in all their vast survey
Useless besides; reasoning, I oft admire
How nature, wise and frugal, could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many noble bodies to create,
Greater so manifold, to this one use

And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced! For aught appears, and on their orbs impos

Created in his image, there to dwell

And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his works on carth, in sea, or air,

Such restless revolution, day by-day

Repeated; while the sedentary earth,

That better might with far less compass nove,

Or bright infers not excellence: the earth,
Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small,
Nor glistering, may of solid good contain
More plenty than the sun that barren shines,

Served by more noble than herself, attains
Her end without least motion, and receives,
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails." | Whose virtue on itself works no effect,
So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed
Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which
Eve

Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,
With lowliness majestic from her seat,
And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,
Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers,
To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,
Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,
And, touched by her fair tendance, gladlier grew.
Yet went she not, as not with such discourse
Delighted, or not capable her ear

Of what was high: such pleasure she reserved,
Adam relating, she sole auditress;
Her husband the relator she preferred
Before the angel, and of him to ask

Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix
Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses; from his lip

Net words alone pleased her. O who meet now
Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?
With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,
Not unattended, for on her, as queen,
A pomp of winning graces waited still,
And from about her shot darts of desire
Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight.

And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt proposed,
Benevolent and facile thus replied.

But in the fruitful earth; there first received,
His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.
Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee, earth's habitant.
And for the Heaven's wide circuit, let it speak
The Maker's high magnificence, who built
So spacious, and his line stretched out so far;
That man may know he dwells not in his own;
An edifice too large for him to fill,
Lodged in a small partition, and the rest
Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.
The swiftness of those circles attribute,
Though numberless, to his omnipotence,
That to corporeal substances could add
Speed almost spiritual: me thou thinkest not slow
Who since the morning hour set out from Heaver
Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived.
In Eden, distance inexpressible

By numbers that have name. But this I urge,
Admitting motion in the Heavens, to show
Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved:
Not that I so affirm, though so it seem
To thee who hast thy dwelling here on earth.
God, to remove his ways from human sense,
Placed Heaven from earth so far, that earthly sight,
If it presume, might err in things too high,
And no advantage gain. What if the sur
Be centre to the world, and other stars,

"To ask or search I blame thee not; for Heaven By his attractive virtue and their own Is as the book of God before thee set,

Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn
His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:
This to attain, whether Heaven move or earth,
Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest
From man or angel the great Architect
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge
His secrets to be scanned by them who ought
Rather admire; or, if they list to try
Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heavens
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to model Heaven
And calculate the stars, how they will wield
The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive
To save appearances, how gird the sphere
With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb:

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,
Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest
That bodies bright and greater should not serve
The less not bright, nor Heaven such journeys
run,

Earth sitting stil', when she alone receives
The benefit: consider first, that great

Incited, dance about him various rounds?
Their wandering course now high, now low, then
hid,

Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

In six thou seest; and what if seventh to these
The planet earth, so steadfast though she seem,
Insensibly three different motions move?
Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,
Moved contrary with thwart obliquities;
Or save the sun his labour, and that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,
Invisible else above all stars, the wheel
Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,
If earth, industrious of herself, fetch day
Travelling east, and with her part averse
From the sun's beam meet night, her other part
Still luminous by his ray. What if that light,
Sent from her through the wide transpicuous ai
To the terrestrial moon be as a star,
Enlightening her by day, as she by night
This earth? reciprocal, if land be there.
Fields and inhabitants: her spots thou seest
As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produc
Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat
Allotted there; and other suns perhaps,

With their atter Jant moons, thus wilt descry,
Communicating male and female light;
Which too great sexes animate the world,
Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.
For such vast room in nature unpossessed
By living soul, desert and desolate,
Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute
Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far
Down to this habitable, which returns
Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.
But whether thus these things, or whether not;
Whether the sun, predominant in Heaven,
Rise on the earth; or earth rise on the sun;
He from the east his flaming road begin;
Or she from west her silent course advance,
With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle, while she paces even,
And bears thee soft with the smooth air along;
Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid;
Leave them to God above; him serve and fear;
Of other creatures, as him pleases best,
Wherever placed, let him dispose: joy thou
In what he gives to thee, this Paradise
And thy fair Eve; Heaven is for thee too high
To know what passes there; be lowly wise:
Think only what concerns thee and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition or degree;
Contented that thus far hath been revealed,
Not of earth only, but of highest Heaven."
To whom thus Adam, cleared of doubt, replied,
"How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure
Intelligence of Heaven, angel serene?
And, freed from intricacies, taught to live
The easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughts
To interrupt the sweet of life, from which
God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,
And not molest us unless we ourselves

How subtly to detain thee I devise,
Inviting thee to hear while I relate,
Fond, were it not in hope of thy reply;
For while 1 sit with thee, I seem in Heaven.
And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear
Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst
And hunger both, from labour, at the hour
Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill,
Though pleasant; but thy words, with grace di
vine

Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety."

To whom thus Raphael answered, heaventy
meek:

"Nor are thy lips ungraceful, sire of men,
Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee
Abundantly his gifts hath also poured
Inward and outward both, his image fair:
Speaking or mute, all comeliness and grace
Attends thee, and each word, each motion forms
Nor less think we in Heaven of thee on earth
Than our fellow-servant, and inquire
Gladly into the ways of God with man:
For God, we see, hath honoured thee and set
On man his equal love: say therefore on;
For I that day was absent, as befell,
Bound on a voyage uncouth and obscure,
Far on excursion toward the gates of hell;
Squared in full legion (such command we had)
To see that none thence issued forth a spy,
Or enemy, while God was in his work;
Lest he, incensed at such eruption bold,
Destruction with creation might have mixed;
Not that they durst without his leave attempt,
But us he sends upon his high behests
For state, as sovereign King, and to insure
Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shɩ:
The dismal gates, and barucadoed strong;
But long ere our approaching heard within

Seek them with wand'ring thoughts, and notions Noise other than the sound of dance or song,

vain.

But apt the mind or fancy is to rove
Unchecked, and of her roving is no end;

Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn,
That not to know at large of things remote
From use, obscure and subtle, but, to know
That which before us lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom: what is more, is fume,
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence,

And renders us, in things that most concern,
Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek.
Therefore from this high pitch let us descend
A lower flight, and speak of things at hand
Useful; whence haply mention may arise
Of something not unseasonable to ask,
By sufferance, and thy wonted favour, deigned.
Thee I have heard relating what was done
Ere my remembrance: now hear me relate
My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard;
And day is vet not spent; till then thou seest

Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.
Glad we returned up to the coasts of light
Ere sabbath evening: so we had in charge.
But thy relation now; for I attend,

Pleased with thy words no less than thou wite
mine."

So spake the godlike power, and thus our sire
For man to tell how human life began,

Is hard; for who himself beginning knew?
Desire with thee still longer to converse
Induced me. As new waked from soundest sleep
Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid,
In balmy sweat, which with his beams the sun
Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed.
Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes i
turned

And gazed awhile the ample sky; till, raised
By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung,
As thitherward endeavouring, and upright
Stood on my feet: about me round I saw

Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these,
Creatures that lived and moved, and walked, or
flew;

Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;
With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.
Myself I then perused, and limb by limb

Said mildly, Author of all this thou seest
Above, or round about thee, or beneath,
This Paradise I give thee, count it thine
To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat:
Of every tree that in the garden grows
Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth
But of the tree whose operation brings

Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set

With supple joints, as lively vigour led:

But who I was, or where, or from what cause,

The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,
Amid the garden by the tree of life,

Knew not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake; | Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,

My tongue obeyed, and readily could name

And shun the bitter consequence: for know,

Whate'er I saw,' Thou sun,' said I, 'fair light,The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command

And thou enlightened carth, so fresh and gay,
Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains,
And ye that live and move, fair creatures, tell,
Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here?
Not of myself; by some great Maker then,
In goodness and in power pre-eminent:
Tell me, how may I know him, how adore,
From whom I have that thus I move and live,
And feel that I am happier than I know.'

Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die,
From that day mortal, and this happy state
Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world
Of wo and sorrow.' Sternly he pronounced
The rigid interdiction, which resounds
Yet dreadful in mine ear, though my choice
Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect
Returned, and gracious purpose thus renewed.
'Not only these fair bounds, but all the earth

While thus I called, and strayed, I knew not whi- To thee and to thy race I give: as lords
ther,

From where I first drew air, and first beheld
This happy light, when, answer none returned,
On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers
Pensive I sat me down; there gentle sleep
First found me, and with soft oppression seized
My drowsed sense, untroubled, though I thought
I then was passing to my former state
Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:
When suddenly stood at my head a dream,
Whose inward apparition gently moved
My fancy to believe I yet had being,
And lived: one came, methought, of shape divine,
And said, 'Thy mansion wants thee Adam; rise,
First man, of men innumerable ordained
First father! called by thee, I come thy guide
To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.'
So saying, by the hand he took me raised,
And over fields and waters, as in air
Smooth sliding without step, last led me up
A woody mountain; whose high top was plain,
A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees
Planted, with walks, and bowers, that what I saw
Of earth before scarce pleasant seemed. Each
tree,

Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to the eye
Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite
To pluck and eat; whereat I waked, and found
Before mine eyes all real, as the dream
Had lively shadowed: here had new begun
My wandering, had not he, who was my guide
Up hither, from among the trees appeared,
Presence divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,
In adoration at his feet I fell

Possess it, and all things that therein live,
Or live in sea, or air; beast, fish, and fowl.
In sign whereof each bird and beast behold
After their kinds; I bring them to receive
From thee their names, and pay thee fealty
With low subjection; understand the same
Of fish within their watery residence,
Not hither summoned, since they can not change
Their element, to draw the thinner air.'
As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold
Approaching two and two; these cowering low
With blandishment; each bird stooped on hu
wing.

I named them, as they passed, and understood
Their nature, with such knowledge God endued
My sudden apprehension: but in these

I found not what methought I wanted still:
And to the heavenly vision thus presumed.

"O by what name, for thou above all these,
Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher.
Surpasseth far my naming, how may I
Adore thee, Author of this universe,
And all this good to man? for whose well being
So amply, and with hands so liberal,
Thou hast provided all things: but with me
I see not who partakes. In solitude
What happiness, who can enjoy alone,
Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?'
Thus I presumptuous; and the vision bright,
As with a smile more brightened, thus replied:
"What call'st thou solitude? is not the eartt
With various living creatures, and the air,
Replenished, and all these at thy command
To come and plav before thee? knowest thou no

Submiss: he reared me, ' and whom thou sought'st Their language and their ways? they also know

I am,'

And reason not contemptibly: with these

Find pastime and bear rule; thy realm is large.'
So spake the universal Lord, and seemed
So ordering. I, with leave of speech implored,
And humble deprecation, thus replied.

"Let not my words offend thee, heavenly

power:

My Maker, be propitious while I speak.
Hast thou not made me here thy substitute,
And these inferior far beneath me set?
Among unequals what society
Can sort, what harmony or true delight?
Which must be mutual, in proportion due
Given and received; but in disparity,
The one intense, the other still remiss,
Can not well suit with either, but soon prove
Tedious alike; of fellowship I speak
Such as I seek, fit to participate
All rational delight, wherein the brute
Can not be human consort; they rejoice
Each with their kind, lion with lioness;
So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined:
Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl
So well converse, nor with the ox the ape:
Worse then can man with beast, and least of all.'
"Whereto th' Almighty answered, not dis-
pleased.

'A nice and subtle happiness, I see,
Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice
Of thy associates, Adamn, and wilt taste

No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.

Of union or communion, deified:
I, by conversing, can not these erect
From prone; nor in their ways complacence find.
Thus I emboldened spake, and freedom used
Permissive, and acceptance found; which gained
This answer from the gracious voice divine.

"Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased;
And find knowing, not of beasts alone,
Which thou hast rightly named, but of thyself,
Expressing well the spirit within thee free,
My image, not imparted to the brute;
Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee
Good reason wast thou freely shouldst dislike;
And be so minded still: I, ere thou spak'st,
Knew it not good for man to be alone,
And no such company as then thou saw'st
Intended thee, for trial only brought,

To see how thou could'st judge of fit and meet-
What next I bring shall please thee, be assured,
Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,
Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.'

"He ended, or I heard no more; for now
My earthly by his Heavenly overpowered,
Which it had long stood under, strained to th
height

In that celestial colloquy sublime,

As with an object that excels the sense,

Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair

Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, called
By nature, as in aid, and closed mine eyes.

What think'st thou then of me, and this my state? Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell

Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed

Of happiness, or not? who am alone

From all eternity; for none I know

Second to me or like, equal much less.
How have I then with whom to hold converse,
Save with the creatures which I made, and those
To me inferior, infinite descents
Beneath what other creatures are to thee?'

"He ceased; I lowly answered. 'To attain
The height and depth of thy eternal ways
All human thoughts come short, Supreme
things!

Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee
Is no deficience found; not so is man,
But in degree; the cause of his desire
By conversation with his like to help,
Or solace his defects. No need that thou
Should'st propagate, already infinite,

And through all numbers absolute, though one;
But man by number is to manifest
His single imperfection, and beget
Like of his like, his image multiplied,
In unity defective, which require
Collateral love, and dearest amity
Thou in thy secrecy, although alone,

Best with thyself accompanied, seek'st not
Social communication; yet, so pleased,

Of fancy, my internal sight, by which,
Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw,
Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape
Still glorious before whom awake I stood;
Who, stooping, opened my left side, and took
From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,
And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the
wound,

But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed:
The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands;
of Under his forming hands a creature grew,
Manlike, but different sex; so lovely fair,

That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed

now

Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained
And in her looks, which from that time infused
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,
And into all things from her air inspired
The spirit of love and amorous delight.
She disappeared, and left me dark; I waked
To find her, or for ever to deplore
Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned
With what all earth or Heaven could beszow
To make her amiable: on she came,
Led by her Heavenly Maker, though unseen.

Canst raise thy creature to what height thou wilt | And guided by his voice; nor uninformed