Yet all had heard, with audible lament
Discover'd soon the place of her retire:

"O unexpected stroke, worse than of death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave
Thee, native soil? these happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods? where I had hoped to spend,
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day
That must be mortal to us both? O flowers,
That never will in other climate grow,
My early visitation and my last

At even, which I bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names,
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
Thee, lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorn'd

With what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower world; to this obscure

And wild? How shall we breathe in other air
Less pure, accustom'd to immortal fruits?"
Whom thus the angel interrupted mild:
"Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign
What justly thou hast lost, nor set thy heart,
Thus over fond, on that which is not thine:
Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound;
Where he abides, think there thy native soil."

Adam, by this from the cold sudden damp
Recovering, and his scatter'd spirits return'd,
To Michael thus his humble words address'd:

"Celestial, whether among the thrones, or named

Of them the highest; for such of shape may seem
Prince above princes; gently hast thou told
Thy message, which might else in telling wound,
And, in performing, end us; what besides
Of sorrow, and dejection, and despair,
Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring,
Departure from this happy place (our sweet
Recess, and only consolation left
Familiar to our eyes;) all places else
Inhospitable appear, and desolate,

Nor knowing us, nor known: and if, by prayer
Incessant, I could hope to change the will
Of him who all things can, I would not cease
To weary him with my assiduous cries:
But prayer against his absolute decree

No more avails than breath against the wind,
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth:
Therefore to his great bidding I submit.
This most afflicts me; that, departing hence,
As from his face I shall be hid, deprived
His blessed countenance: here I could frequent,
With worship, place by place where he vouchsafed
Presence divine, and to my sons relate,

'On this mount he appear'd; under this tree
Stood visible; among these pines his voice

I heard; here with him at this fountain talk'd :'
So many grateful altars I would rear

Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone
Of lustre from the brook, in memory

Or monument to ages, and thereon

Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers.

In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or footstep trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet, recall'd
To life prolong'd and promised race, I now
Gladly behold though but, his utmost skirts
Of glory, and far off his steps adore."

To whom thus Michael, with regard benign: Adam, thou know'st heaven his, and all the earth; Not this rock only; his omnipresence fills

Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives,
Fomented by his virtual power, and warm'd:
All the earth he gave thee to possess and rule,
No despicable gift; surmise not, then,
His presence to these narrow bounds confined
Of Paradise, or Eden; this had been,
Perhaps, thy capital seat, from whence had spread
All generations, and had hither come,

From all the ends of the earth, to celebrate
And reverence thee, their great progenitor.
But this pre-eminence thou hast lost, brought down
To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:
Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain,
God is, as here, and will be found alike
Present; and of his presence many a sign
Still following thee, still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love, his face
Express, and of his steps the track divine.
Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirm'd
Ere thou from hence depart, know, I am sent
To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee, and to thy offspring; good with bad

Expect to hear, supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
True patience, and to temper joy with fear
And pious sorrow; equally inured
By moderation either state to bear,
Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead
Safest thy life, and best prepared endure
Thy mortal passage when it comes, Ascend

This hill; let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes) Here sleep below, while thou to foresight wakest, As once thou slept'st, while she to life was form'd." To whom thus Adam gratefully replied:

"Ascend, I follow thee, safe guide, the path
Thou lead'st me, and to the hand of Heaven submit,
However chastening; to the evil turn

My obvious breast, arming to overcome
By suffering, and earn rest from labour won,
If so I may attain." So both ascend

In the visions of God. It was a hill,
Of Paradise the highest, from whose top,
The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken,
Stretch'd out to the amplest reach of prospect, lay.
Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round,
Whereon, for different cause, the tempter set
Our second Adam, in the wilderness,

To show him all earth's kingdoms, and their glory.
His eye might there command wherever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Cham,
And Samarcand by Oxus, Temir's throne,

To Paquin, of Sinæan kings; and thence
To Agra, and Lahor, of Great Mogul,
Down to the golden Chersonese; or where
The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since
In Hispahan; or where the Russian Czar
In Moscow; or the Sultan in Bizance,
Turchestan-born: nor could his eye not ken
The empire of Negus to his utmost port
Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,
Monbaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,
And Sofala (thought Ophir,) to the realm
Of Congo, and Angola farthest south:
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount,
The kingdoms of Almanzor, Fez and Sus,
Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen;

On Europe thence, and where Rome was to

sway

The world: in spirit, perhaps, he also saw

Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume,

And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat
Of Atabalipa, and yet unspoil'd

Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons
Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights

Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
Which that false fruit, that promised clearer sight,
Had bred; then purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see,
And from the well of life three drops instill'd.
So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,
That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes,