Of horses led, and grooms besmear'd with gold
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape.
Nearer his presence, Adam, though not awed,
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,
As to a superior nature, bowing low,
Thus said: "Native of heaven, for other place
None can than heaven such glorious shape contain;
Since by descending from the thrones above,
Those happy places thou hast deign'd awhile
To want, and honour these; vouchsafe with us
Two only, who yet by sovereign gift possess
This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower
To rest; and, what the garden choicest bears,
To sit and taste, till this meridian heat
Be over, and the sun more cool decline."
Whom thus the angelic Virtue answer'd mild : Adam, I therefore came; nor art thou such Created, or such place hast here to dwell, As may not oft invite, though spirits of heaven, To visit thee: lead on, then, where thy bower O'ershades; for these mid hours, till evening rise, I have at will." So to the sylvan lodge
They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled, With flow'rets deck'd, and fragrant smells; but Eve,
Undeck'd, save with herself, more lovely fair Than wood nymph, or the fairest goddess feign'd Of three that in mount Ida naked strove,
Stood to entertain her guest from heaven; no veil She needed, virtue proof; no thought infirm Alter'd her cheek. On whom the angel "Hail!"
Bestow'd, the holy salutation used,
Long after, to blest Mary, second Eve:
"Hail! mother of mankind, whose fruitful womb
Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons,
Than with these various fruits the trees of God
Have heap'd this table." Raised of grassy turf
Their table was, and mossy seats had round,
And on her ample square, from side to side,
All autumn piled, though spring and autumn here
Danced hand in hand. Awhile discourse they hold,
No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began
Our author: "Heavenly stranger, please to taste
These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom
All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends,
To us for food and for delight hath caused
The earth to yield; unsavoury food, perhaps.
To spiritual natures; only this I know,
That one celestial Father gives to all."
To whom the angel: "Therefore, what he gives (Whose praise be ever sung) to man, in part Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found
No ingrateful food: and food alike those pure,
Intelligential substances require,
As doth your rational: and both contain
Within them every lower faculty
Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste;
Tasting, concoct, digest, assimilate,
And corporeal to incorporeal turn.
For know, whatever was created, needs
To be sustain'd and fed: of elements
The grosser feeds the purer; earth the sea;
Earth and the sea feed air; the air those fires
Ethereal, and as lowest, first the moon;
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged
Vapours not yet into her substance turn'd.
Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale
From her moist continent to higher orbs.
The sun, that light imparts to all, receives
From all his alimental recompense
In humid exhalations, and at even
Sups with the ocean. Though in heaven the trees
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines
Yield nectar; though from off the boughs, each morn,
We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground
Cover'd with pearly grain; yet God hath here
Varied his bounty so, with new delights,
As may compare with heaven; and to taste
Think not I shall be nice." So down they sat,
And to their viands fell; nor seemingly
The angel, nor in mist-the common gloss
Of theologians; but with keen dispatch
Of real hunger, concoctive heat
To transubstantiate; what redounds, transpires
Through spirits with ease; nor wonder, if by fire
Of sooty coal the empiric alchymist
Can turn, or holds it possible to turn,
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
As from the mine. Meanwhile, at table, Eve
Minister'd naked, and their flowing cups
With pleasant liquors crown'd; O innocence,
Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,
Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
Enamour'd at that sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reign'd, nor jealousy
Was understood, the injured lover's hell.
Thus, when with meats and drinks they had
Not burden'd nature, sudden mind arose
In Adam, not to let the occasion pass,
Given him by this great conference, to know
Of things above his world, and of their being
Who dwell in heaven, whose excellence he saw
Transcend his own so far; whose radiant forms,
Divine effulgence, whose high power, so far
Exceeded human; and his wary speech
Thus to the empyreal minister he framed:
Inhabitant with God, now know I well Thy favour, in this honour done to man; Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste, Food not of angels, yet accepted so,
As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
At heaven's high feasts to have fed: yet what
compare?"
To whom the winged hierarch replied:
"O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom
All things proceed, and up to him return,
If not depraved from good, created all
Such to perfection, one first matter all,
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and, in things that live, of life;
But more refined, more spirituous, and pure,
As nearer to him placed, or nearer tending,
Each in their several active spheres assign'd
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportion'd to each kind. So from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the
More aëry, last the bright consummate flower
Spirits odorous breathes: flowers and their fruit,
Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed,
To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
To intellectual; give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding; whence the soul
Reason receives, and reason is her being,
Discursive, or intuitive; discourse
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours,
Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
Wonder not, then, what God for you saw good
If I refuse not, but convert, as you,
To proper substance. Time may come, when men
With angels may participate, and find
No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare;
And from these corporal nutriments, perhaps,
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improved by tract of time, and wing'd ascend,
Ethereal, as we; or may, at choice,
Here or in heavenly paradises dwell,
ye be found obedient, and retain,
Unalterably firm, his love entire,
Whose progeny you are.
Your fill, what happiness this happy state
Can comprehend, incapable of more."
|