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 may'st 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 unapparent deep:
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 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 invention 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 though
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,
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
Up hither, under long obedience tried;
And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to
One kingdom, joy and union without end. [Earth,
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.
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,

Sc 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 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
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, winged spirits, and chariots wing'd
From th' armoury 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, & from the shore
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss,
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 highth, and with the centre mix the pole.
"Silence, ye troubled waves ! & thou deep, peace.
Said then the omnific Word, 'your discord end.
Nor stay'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 stay'd the fervid wheels, & in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared

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 bounds
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,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth,
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs,
Adverse to life then founded, then conglobed
Eke things to like, the rest to several place.
Departed, and between spun out the air,
And earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung.

"Let there be light,' said God; & forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep, and, from her native east,
To journey through the airy 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
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;
Birth-day of Heaven and earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, & hymning, prais'd God and his works, Creator him they sung, Both when first evening was, and when first morn. 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
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,
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes,

Contiguous, might distemper the whole frame:
And Heaven he nam'd the firmament: so even
And morning chorus sung the second day.

"The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon immature involved, Appear'd not over all the face of earth Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm 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, & their broad bare backs upheave Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky: So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters: thither they Hastened with glad precipitance, uproll'd, As drops on dust conglobing from the dry; Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, [press'd For haste; such flight the great command imOn the swift floods: as armies at the call Of trumpet, for of armies thou hast heard, Troop to their standard, so the watery throng, Wave rolling after wave, where way they found; If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain, Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill, But they, or under ground, or circuit wide With serpent error wandering, found their way, And on the washy ooze deep channels wore, Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry; All but within those banks, where rivers now Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train. The dry land, earth, and the great receptacle Of congregated waters, he call'd seas: And saw that it was good; & said, Let the earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, And fruit-tree yielding fruit, after her kind, Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.' He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd, Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad Her universal face with pleasant green; Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd, Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom, smelling sweet: & these scarce blown,