What within Eden, or without, was done
Before his memory; as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allay'd still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his Heavenly guest.
"Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, Far differing from this world, thou hast reveal'd, Divine interpreter! by favor sent
Down from the empyrean, to forwarn
Us timely of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach;
For which to the infinitely good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive, with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sov'reign will, the end
Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed
Gently, for our instruction, to impart
Things above Earthly thought, which yet concern'd
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seem'd
Deign to descend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known,
How first began this Heaven which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorn'd
Innumerable; and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfused
Embracing round this florid Earth; what cause
Moved the Creator, in his holy rest
Through all eternity, so late to build
In Chaos; and, the work begun, how soon
Absolved; if unforbid thou mayst unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works, the more we know.
And the great light of day yet wants to run
Much of his race though steep; suspense in Heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of nature from the unapparant Deed:
Or if the star of evening and the moon
Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring
Silence; and sleep, listening to thee, will watch;
Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
And thus the Godlike Angel answer'd mild:
"This also thy request, with caution ask'd
Obtain; though to recount Almighty works
What words or tongue of seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?
Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve
To glorify thy maker, and infer
Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing; such commission from above
I have received, to answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain
To ask; nor let thine own inventions hope
Things not reveal'd which the invisible King;
Only omniscient hath suppress'd in night;
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven
Enough is left besides to search and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels than that star the stars among,)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place; and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his saints, the Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :
At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought
All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of deity supreme, us dispossess'd,
He trusted to have seized, into fraud
Dew many, whom their place knows here no more
Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,
Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains their
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites;
But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven,
My damage foundly deeme'd I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost; and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here: till, by degrees of merit raised,
They open to themselves at length the way,
Up hither, under long obedience tried ;
And Earth be changed to Heaven, aud Heaven to Earth
One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Meanwhile inhabit lax, ye powers of Heaven;
And thou my Word, begotten son, by thee
This I perform; speak thou, and be it done!
My overshadowing spirit and might with thee
Is end along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth;
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space,
Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance
Approach not me, and what I will is fate.
So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake
His word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech be told,
So told as Earthly notion can receive.
Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,
When such was heard declared the Almighty's will:
Glory they sung to the Most High, good will
To future men, and in their dwelling peace;
Glory to Him whose just avenging ire
Had driven out the ungodly from his sight
And the habitations of the just; to Him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create; instead
Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.
So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd
Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of Majesty Divine; sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones,
And virtues, wing'd Spirits, and chariots wing'd
From the armory of God; where stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage, and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them spirit lived,
Attendant on their Lord: Heaven open'd wide
Her ever during gates, harmonious sound,
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful word
And spirit coming to create new worlds.
On Heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore They view'd the vast immeasureable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark wastful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves; as mountains, to assault
Heaven's heighth, and with the centre mix the pole, Silence; ye troubled waves; and, thou deep, peace. Said then the Omnific Word; your discord end! Norstain'd; but on the wings of cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into chaos, and the world unborn; For chaos heard his voice: Him all his train Follow'd in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then stain'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepåred In God's eternal store; to circumscribe This universe, and all created things: One foot he centred, and the other turn'd Round through the vast profundity obscure; And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bound This be thy just circumference, O world! Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth Matter unform'd and void: darkness profound Cover'd the abyss, but on the watery calm His brooding wings the Spirits of God outspread, And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth Troughout the fluid mass; but downward purged The black tartareous cold infernal dregs, Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed Like things to like; the rest to several place Disparted, and between spun out the air: And Earth self-balanced on her centre hung.
Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep; and from her native east,
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun
Was not; she in a clondv tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
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