Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
Disburden'd Heav'n rejoiced, and soon repair'd
Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd.
Sole victor from th' expulsion of his foes,
Messiah his triumphal chariot turn'd:
To meet him, all his saints, who silent stood
Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,

With jubilee advanced; and as they went,

830

Shaded with branching palm, each order bright, 885
Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King,

Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
Worthiest to reign. He celebrated rode

Triumphant through mid Heav'n, into the courts
And temple of his Mighty Father throned
On high; who into glory him received;
Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss.

890

Thus measuring things in Heav'n by things on

Earth,

At thy request, and that thou may'st beware
By what is past, to thee I have reveal'd
What might have else to human race been hid;
The discord which befel, and war in Heav'n
Among th' Angelic Pow'rs, and the deep fall,
Of those too high aspiring, who rebell'd
With Satan; he who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience, that with him
Bereaved of happiness thou may'st partake
His punishment, eternal misery:
Which would be all his solace and revenge,
As a despite done against the Most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
But listen not to his temptations, warn
Thy weaker; let it profit thee to' have heard,
By terrible example, the reward

895

900

905

910

Of disobedience. Firm they might have stood,
Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.

888. Rev. iv. 11.

900. Him is understood after envies-or, it is after he.

THE ARGUMENT.

Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created: that God after the expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory and attendance of Angels to perform the work of creation in six days; the Angels celebrate with hymns the per formance thereof, and his reascension into Heaven.

5

DESCEND from Heav'n, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine
Following, above th' Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegaséan wing.
The meaning, not the name I call; for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st, but heav'nly born:
Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of th' Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
Into the Heav'n of Heav'ns I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy temp'ring. With like safety guided down, 15
Return me to my native element;

Lest from this flying steed, unrein'd (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime),

10

1. Milton has, throughout his poem, shewn the most admirable skill in adapting to his purpose, such parts of the classical mythology as he wished to employ. He has been much blamed for his frequent, and, as it is thought, affected display of learning in this particular; but there is a circumstance which has not, I believe, struck the minds of his commentators, which goes far to justify him in this respect. Milton's imagination, filled with the rich antiquity of his theme, was necessarily frequently occupied by the splendid pomps with which superstition crowds her temple, but he could not contemplate a single part of his subject, without putting the truth of nature and revelation in juxta position with the corruptions of both. Hence many of his most beautiful ideas are mixed up with these allusions, and it can hardly fail the notice of a reflecting reader, that the mind never once losing sight of the various forms under which the enemies of God have ap peared, comprehends the compass of the poem more closely than it could otherwise have done.

8 Proverbs viii. 24.

18. Bellerophon; he attempted, it is said, to mount to heaven on the winged horse Pegasus, and fell in the Aleian field or in Cilicia.

Dismounted, on th' Aleian field I fall

Erroneous, there to wander and forlorn.

20

Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere;

Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou
Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or whed morn
Purples the east: still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few;
But drive far off the barb'rous dissonance
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the savage clamour drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her son.
So fail not thou, who thee implores;
For thou art heav'nly, she an empty dream.

25

30

35

Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphaël,

40

The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn'd

Adam, by dire example, to beware

Apostasy, by what befel in Heav'n

To those apostates, lest the like befal

In Paradise to Adam or his race,

Charged not to touch the interdicted tree,

If they transgress. and slight that sole command,

So easily obey'd amid the choice

Of all tastes else to please their appetite,

45

Though wand'ring. He with his consorted Eve 50 The story heard attentive, and was fill'd

With admiration and deep muse, to hear

Of things so high and strange, things to their thought

So unimaginable as hate in Heav'n,

And war so near the peace of God in bliss

21. Half of the Episode, or Raphael's account.

55

25. An allusion to the condition of himself m the profligate and Irreligious times of Charies the Second, during which blind and neglected, he lived in an obscure retreat, but probably in danger of persecution for his principles.

33. Orpheus, the Thracian band was torn to pieces by the votaries of Bacchus, in Rhodope, a mountain of Thrace.

With such confusion: but the evil soon

Driv'n back, redounded as a flood on those

From whom it sprung, impossible to mix

With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repeal'd
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know

60

What nearer might concern him; how this world
Of Heav'n and Earth conspicuous, first began;
When, and whereof created; for what cause
What within Eden or without was done
Before his memory, as one whose drouth

65

Yet scarce allay'd, still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his heav'nly guest:

Great things, and full of wonder in our ears,
Far diff'ring from this world, thou hast reveal'd,
Divine interpreter, by favour sent

Down from the empyréan, to forewarn

70

76

Us timely' of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:
For which to th' 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 80
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 Heav'n 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 may'st unfold

85

90

What we, not to explore the secrets, ask

95

92. A question often since asked. but well answered by the consideration, that whenever the world had been created there would have been an eternity before its existence.

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 Heav'n,

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 ev'ning and the moon

100

Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring 105
Silence, and sleep list'ning to thee will watch;
Or we can bid his absence, till thy soug
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought;
And thus the God-like 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?

110

Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve

To glorify the Maker, and infer

116

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 th' invisible King,
Only omniscient, bath suppress'd in night;
To none communicable in Earth or Heav'n :
Enough is left besides to search and know:
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temp'rance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to foily', as nourishment to wind.
Know then, that after Lucifer from Heav'n
(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, th' Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

103. Gen. i. 2.

122. Invisible, so in Scripture.