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To objects distant far, whereby he soon
Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,

The same whom John saw also in the sun :

His back was turn'd, but not his brightness hid;
Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar

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Circled his head, nor less his locks behind

Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings

Lay waving round; on some great charge employ
He seem'd, or fix'd in cogitation deep.

Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope

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To find who might direct his wandering flight

To Paradise, the happy seat of Man,

His journey's end and our beginning woe.

But first he casts to change his proper shape,

Which else might work him danger or delay:

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And now a stripling Cherub he appears,

Not of the prime, yet such as in his face

Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb

Suitable grace diffused, so well he feign'd:

Under a coronet his flowing hair

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In curls on either cheek play'd; wings he wore

Of many a colour'd plume, sprinkled with gold;
His habit fit for speed succinct, and held
Before his decent steps a silver wand.

He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright,
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turn'd,
Admonish'd by his ear, and straight was known
The Archangel Uriel, one of the seven
Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne,
Stand ready at command, and are his eyes

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That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth

Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,

O'er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts:

Uriel, for thou of those seven Spirits that stand

In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright, 655
The first art wont his great authentic will,
interpreter through highest Heaven to bring.
Where all his sons thy embassy attend;

And here art likeliest by supreme decree
Like honour to obtain, and as his eye

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To visit oft this new creation round;

Unspeakable desire to see and know

All these his wondrous works, but chiefly Man,
His chief delight and favour, him for whom
All these his works so wondrous he ordain'd,
Hath brought me from the choirs of Cherubim
Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph, tell
In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none,
But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
That I may find him, and with secret gaze

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Or open admiration him behold,

On whom the great Creator hath bestowed

Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces pour'd;
That both in him and all things, as is meet,

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The universal Maker we may praise;

Who justly hath driven out his rebel focs
To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,
Created this new happy race of Men

To serve him better: Wise are all his ways.
So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
For neither Man nor Angels can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks

Invisible, except to God alone,

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By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps 686 At Wisdom's gate, and to Simplicity

Resigns her charge, while Goodness thinks no ill

Where no ill seems; which now for once beguiled
Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
The sharpest sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;
Who to the fraudulent impostor foul,

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In his uprightness, answer thus return'd:

Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know

'The works of God, thereby to glorify

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The great Workmaster, leads to no excess

That reaches blame, but rather merits praise

The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,

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To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps,
Contented with report, hear only in Heaven:
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight
But what creative mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite
That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep
I saw when at his word the formless mass,
This world's material mould, came to a heap:
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung:
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire;
And this etherial quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward, spirited with various forms,
That roll'd orbicular, and turn'd to stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move.
Each had his place appointed, each his course;
The rest in circuit walls this universe.
Look downward on that globe, whose hither side
With light from hence, though but reflected, shines;
That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that light
His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,
Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon
(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
Timely interposes, and her monthly round

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Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven,
With borrow'd light her countenance triform
Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth,
And in her pale dominion checks the night.
That spot, to which I point, is Paradise,

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Adam's abode; those lofty shades, his bower.
Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires. 735
Thus said, he turn'd; and Satan, bowing low,
As to Superior Spirits is wont in Heaven,
Where honour due and reverence none neglects,
Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath,
Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, 740
Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel;
Nor staid, till on Niphates' top he lights,

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK IV.

Satan, now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where ho must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alono against God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil; journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation are described; overleaps the bounds; sits in the shape of a cormorant on the tree of life, as highest in the garden, to look about him. The garden described; Satan's first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their discourse: thence gathers that the tree of knowledge was forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death; and thercon intends to found his temptation by seducing them to transgress: Then leaves them awhile to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel descending an a sunbeam warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil Spirit had escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape of a good Angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his furious gestures on the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: Their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel, drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong Angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil Spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping: there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel: by whom questioned, he scornfully answers; prepares resistance; but, hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Pa radise

O FOR that warning voice, which he who saw
The Apocalypse, heard cry in Heaven aloud,
Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,
Came furious down to be revenged on men,
Woe to the inhabitants on earth! that now,
While time was, our first parents had been warn'd
The coming of their secret foe, and scaped-
Haply so scaped his mortal snare: For now
Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,

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The tempter ere the accuser of mankind,
To wreak on innocent frail Man his loss

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Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell

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