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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 unapparent Deep

Or if the star of evening and the moon

Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring 105
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?

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Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve 115 To glorify the 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

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Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :

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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, and into fraud

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more: Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

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Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains

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 fondly deem'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

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Up hither, under long obedience tried;

And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth

One kingdom, joy and union without end.

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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
I send 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.

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Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire,

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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 procéss of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.

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Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,

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When such was heard declared the Almighty's will;

Glory they sung to the Most High, good will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace;
Glory to Him, whose just avenging ire
Had driven out the ungodly from his sight
And the habitations of the just; to Him

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Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create; instead

Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd

Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones,

And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots wing'd
From the armory of God; where stand of oid
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,

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Attendant on their Lord: Heaven open'd wide
Her ever during gates, harmonious sound,

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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 immeasurable abyss

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Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
Silence, ye troubled Waves, and, thou Deep, peace,
Said then the Omnific Word; your discord end!
Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;

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For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train

Follow'd in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.

Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand

He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe

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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 bounds, 230

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 Spirit of God outspread, 235
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
Throughout 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.

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Let there be Light, said God; and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

Sprung from the deep; and from her native east 245

To journey through the aery gloom began,

Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun

Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good,

And light from darkness by the hemisphere

Divided: light the Day, and darkness Night,

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He named. Thus was the first day even and morn⚫
Nor pass'd uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the celestial choirs, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

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Birthday of Heaven and Earth; with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised God and his works; Creator him they sung,

Both when first evening was, and when first morn. 260 Again, God said, Let there be firmament

Amid the waters, and let it divide

The waters from the waters; and God made
The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused

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In circuit to the uttermost convex

Of this great round; partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, so he the world

The Earth was form'd, but, in the womb as vet

Of waters, embryon immature involved,

Appear'd not over all the face of Earth

Main ocean flow'd, not idle; but, with warm

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Prolific humour softening all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture; when God said,
Be gather'd now, ye waters under Heaven,
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky;

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