Or man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our wo,
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing heavenly muse; that, on the secret top
Of Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of chaos. Or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That, with no middle flight, intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it
pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer,
Before all temples, the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st. Thou, from the first,
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant. What in me is dark,
Illumine; what is low, raise and support;
That, to the height of this great argument,
I may assert eternal providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
Say first, for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
Nor the deep tract of hell; say first, what cause
Moved our grand parents, in that happy_state
Favour'd by Heaven so highly, to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress his will,
For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?—
The infernal serpent. He it was whose guile
Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host
Of rebel angels; by whose aid, aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equall'd the Most High,
If he opposed; and, with ambitious aim,
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurl'd headlong, flaming, from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion; down
To bottomless perdition; there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,-
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms!
WHAT prodigies can power Divine perform
More grand, than it produces year by year,
And all in sight of inattentive man?
Familiar with the effect, we slight the cause,
And, in the constancy of nature's course,
And regular return of genial months,
And renovation of a faded world,
See nought to wonder at. Should God again,
As once in Gibeon, interrupt the race
Of the undeviating and punctual sun,
How would the world admire! but speaks it less
An agency Divine, to make him know
The moment when to sink, and when to rise,
Age after age, than to arrest his course?
All we behold is miracle: but, seen
So duly, all is miracle in vain.
Where now the vital energy that moved,
While summer was, the pure and subtile lymph,
Through the imperceptible meandering veins
Of leaf and flower? It sleeps: and the icy touch
Of unprolific winter has impress'd
A cold stagnation on the intestine tide.
But, let the months go round, a few short months,
And all shall be restored. These naked shoots,
Barren as lances, among which the wind
Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes,
Shall put their graceful foliage on again,
And more aspiring, and with ampler spread,
Shall boast new charms, and more than they have lost.
From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,
Is Nature's progress, when she lectures man
In heavenly truth: evincing, as she makes
The grand transition, that there lives and works
A soul in all things, and that soul is God.
The beauties of the wilderness are his,
That make so gay the solitary place
Where no eye sees them. And the fairer forms,
That cultivation glories in, are his.
He sets the bright procession on its way,
And marshals all the order of the year;
He marks the bounds, which Winter may not pass,
And blunts his pointed fury: in its case,
Russet and rude, folds up the tender germe,
Uninjured, with inimitable art;
And, ere one flow'ry season fades and dies,
Designs the blooming wonders of the next.
O NATURE! all-sufficient! over all!
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works!
Snatch me to heaven: thy rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scatter'd o'er the blue immense,
Show me; their motions, periods, and their laws,
Give me to scan. Through the disclosing deep,
Light my blind way; the mineral strata there;
Thrust blooming thence the vegetable world;
O'er that the rising system, more complex,
Of animals; and, higher still, the mind,
The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,
And where the mixing passions endless shift;
These ever open to my ravish'd eye;
A search the flight of time can ne'er exhaust!
But if to that unequal; if the blood,
In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That best ambition,-under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,
And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin,
Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song,
And let me never, never stray from thee.
BEAUTIES OF NATURE LOST TO THE BLIND.
Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face Divine,
But cloud, instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me: from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off; and, for the book of knowledge fair,
Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom, at one entrance, quite shut out.
Milton.
CONSTANCY AMID GENERAL DEFECTION.
SERVANT of God, well done! Well hast thou fought
The better fight; who single hast maintain'd,
Against revolted multitudes, the cause
Of Truth, in word mightier than they in arms :
And, for the testimony of Truth, hast borne
Universal reproach, far worse to bear
Than violence: for this was all thy care,
To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds Judged thee
DUTY AND HAPPINESS OF MAN.
HENCEFORTH I learn, that to obey is best,
And love, with fear, the only God: to walk
As in his presence; ever to observe
His providence; and on him depend,
Merciful o'er all his works; with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things, by things deem'd weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
By simply weak; that suffering for truth's sake,
Is fortitude to highest victory,
And, to the faithful, death the gate of life;
Taught this by his example, whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer, ever blest.
Nor happy only, but the cause of joy
Which those who never tasted always mourn'd.
What tongue?-no tongue-shall tell, what bliss
o'erflow'd
The mother's tender heart, while round her hung
The offspring of her love, and lisp'd her name:
As living jewels dropt unstain'd from heaven,
That made her fairer far, and sweeter seem,
Than every ornament of costliest hue.
And who hath not been ravish'd as she pass'd,
With all her playful band of little ones,
Like Luna, with her daughters of the sky,
Walking in matron-majesty and grace?
All who had hearts here pleasure found: and oft
Have I, when tired with heavy task, relax'd
My weary thoughts among their guiltless sports,
And led them by their little hands a-field;
And watch'd them run and crop the tender flower,
Which oft unask'd they brought me, and bestow'd
With smiling face, that waited for a look
Of praise, and answer'd curious questions, put
In much simplicity, but ill to solve,
And heard their observations, strange and new,
And settled whiles their little quarrels, soon
Ending in peace, and soon forgot in love.
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