[pare?

470

475

At Heav'n's high feasts to' have fed: yet what comTo whom the winged Hierarch reply'd: O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom All things proceed, and up to him return, If not depraved from good, created all Such to perfection, one first matter all, Endued with various forms, various degrees Of substance, and in things that life, of life: But more refined, more spirituous, and pure, As nearer to him placed, or nearer tending Each in their sev'ral active spheres assign'd, Till body up to spirit work, in bounds Proportion'd to each kind. So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves More aery, last the bright consummate flow'r Spirits odorous breathes: flow'rs and their fruit, Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, To vital spirits aspire, to animal,

481

To intellectual: give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding; whence the soul
Reason receives, and reason is her being
Discursive or intuitive: discourse

485

Is oftest yours; the latter most is ours,

Diff'ring but in degree; of kind the same.

490

Wonder not then, what God for you saw good,

If I refuse not, but convert, as you,

To proper substance: time may come, when Men
With Angels may participate, and find
No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare;
And from these corp'ral nutriments, perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improved by tract of time, and wing'd ascend
Ethereal, as we, or may at choice
Here or in heav'nly Paradises dwell;

495

500

If ye be found obedient, and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire,
Whose progeny you are.

Mean while enjoy

Your fill what happiness this happy state

478. The reader may very profitably consult a volume of ser mons lately published by Dr. A. Clarke, in which he will find some excellent observations on Milton's materialism. I am inclined, however, to believe that the poet meant to convey no other idea than that derived from 1 Cor. xv. 44.

503. Acts xvii. 28.

Can comprehend, incapable of more.

To whom the patriarch of mankind reply'd:

O favourable Spirit, propitious guest,

Well hast thou taught the way that might direct

505

Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set

From centre to circumference, whereon

510

In contemplation of created things,

By steps we may ascend to God. But say,

What meant that caution join'd, If ye be found
Obedient? Can we want obedience then

To him, or possibly his love desert,

515

Who form'd us from the dust, and placed us here
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
Human desire can seek or apprehend?

To whom the Angel: Son of Heav'n and Earth, Attend. That thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continuest such, owe to thyself; That is, to thy obedience: therein stand. This was that caution giv'n thee; be advised, God made thee perfect, not immutable; And good he made thee; but to persevere

520

525

He left it in thy pow'r; ordain'd thy will

By nature free, not over-ruled by fate
Inextricable, or strict necessity,
Our voluntary service he requires,
Not our necessitated: such with him

530

Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how

Can hearts, not free, be try'd whether they serve

Willing or no, who will but what they must

By destiny, and can no other choose?

Myself and all th' angelic host, that stand

535

In sight of God enthroned, our happy state
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds :
On other surety none. Freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not: in this we stand or fall:
And some are fall'n, to disobedience fall'n,

540

512. Every part of the vast system of the universe, is not only connected with the rest by a kind of natural necessity, but the connexion is apparent to the contemplative eye of reason, and hence having become acquainted with the lowest circumstance in it, the mind is carried gradually and easily on till it looks down from the highest point on the whole grand creation of the Almighty God.

And so from Heav'n to deepest Hell. O fall,
From what high state of bliss into what woe!
To whom our great progenitor: Thy words
Attentive, and with more delighted ear,
Divine Instructor, I have heard, than when
Cherubic songs by night from neighb'ring hills
Aëreal music send: nor knew I not

To be both will and deed created free;

Yet that we never shall forget to love

545

550

Our Maker, and obey him whose command
Single is yet so just, my constant thoughts
Assured me', and still assure: tho' what thou tell'st
Hath pass'd in Heav'n, some doubt within me move,
But more desire to hear, if thou consent,
The full relation, which must needs be strange,
Worthy of sacred silence to be heard;

555

And we have yet large day; for scarce the Sun
Hath finish'd half his journey', and scarce begins
His other half in the great zone of Heav'n.
Thus Adam made request: and Raphael,

560

After short pause, assenting, thus began:

High matter thou enjoin'st me', O prime of men, Sad task and hard; for how shall I relate To human sense th' invisible exploits

565

This is dispensed; and what surmounts the reach
Of human sense, I shall delineate so,
By lik'ning spiritual to corp'ral forms,

As may express them best: though what if Earth
Be but the shadow' of Heav'n, and things therein 575
Each to' other like, more than on earth is thought?
As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild
Reign'd where these Heav'ns now roll, where Earth

now rests

Upon her centre poised; when on a day (For time, though in eternity, apply'd

To motion, measures all things durable

580

551. In allusion to the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge.

By present, past, and future) on such day

585

As Heav'n's great year brings forth, th' empyreal host
Of angels by imperial sunimons call'd,
Innumerable before th' Almighty's throne
Forth with from all the ends of Heav'n appear'd
Under their Hierarchs in order bright:
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced,
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees;
Or in their glitt'ring tissues bear emblazed
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love
Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs
Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
Orb within orb, the Father infinite,
By whom in bliss imbosom'd sat the Son,

590

595

Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top

Brightness had made invisible, thus spake :

Hear, all ye Angels, progeny of light,

600

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Pow'rs,
Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand:
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son; and on this holy hill

Him have anointed, whom ye now behold

605

At my right hand; your Head I him appoint;

And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow

All knees in Heav'n, and shall confess him Lord :
Under his great vicegerent reign abide
United as one individual soul,

610

For ever happy. Him who disobeys,

Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day

Cast out from God, and blessed vision, falls
Into' utter darkness, deep ingulph'd, his place
Ordain'd without redemption, without end.

615

So spake th' Omnipotent: and with his words All seem'd well pleased; all seem'd, but were not all. That day, as other solemn days, they spent

583. Milton is believed to have had Plato's idea in this expression, the latter making the great year to be the revolution of all the spheres. See also Job i. 6. 1 Kings xxii. 19.

589. A gonfalon, a streamer or banner.

598. Exodus xix.

600. This, as the former speech, is mostly derived from Scrip ture. See Ps. ii. 6, 7. Gen. xxii. 16. Phil. ii. 10, 1.

In song and dance about the sacred hill;
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere

620

Of planets and of fix'd, in all her wheels
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolved, yet régular

Then most, when most irregular they seem;

And in their motions harmony divine

625

So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear

Listens delighted. Ev'ning now approach'd

(For we have also' our ev'ning and our morn,

We ours for change delectable, not need)

Forth with from dance to sweet repast they turn 630

Desirous; all in circles as they stood,

Tables are set, and on a sudden piled

With angels' food, and rubied nectar flows

In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold,

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heav'n. 035 On flow'rs reposed, and with fresh flow'rets crown'd, They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy, secure

641

Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds
Excess, before th' All-bounteous King, who show'r'd
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.
Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled
From that high mount of God, whence light and shade
Spring both, the face of brightest Heav'n had chang'd
To grateful twilight (for night comes not there

In darker veil) and roseate dews disposed

All but th' unsleeping eyes of God to rest:

Wide over all the plain, and wider far

64!

Than all this globous earth in plain outspread
(Such are the courts of God) th' angelic throng, 650
Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend

By living streams among the trees of life,
Pavilions numberless, and sudden rear'd,
Celestial tabernacles, where they slept

Fann'd with cool winds; save those who in their course
Melodious hymns about the sov'reign throne

656

625. It was the opinion of the Pythagorean philosophers, that a most exquisite music was produced by the motion of the spheres, some allusion to it is made in Job xxxviii. 37.

633. Rubied nectar; borrowed from Homer. 637. And with refection sweel, in the first edition. 647. Ps. cxxi. 4.

642. Ambrosial, an Homeric epithet.