The same whom John saw also in the Sun.
His back was turn'd, but not his brightness hiả :
Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar

625
Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings
Lay waving round. On some great charge employ'd
He seem'd, or fix'd in cogitation deep.
Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope 630
To find who might direct his wand'ring flight
To Paradise, the happy seat of Man,
His journey's end, and our heginning woe.
But first he casts to change his proper shape,
Which else might work him danger or delay: 635
And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth smiled celestial, and to ev'ry limb
Suitable grace diffused, so well he feign'd:
Under a coronet his flowing hair

640 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, 645 Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turu'd, Admonish'd by his ear, and straight was known Th’ Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the seven Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his eyes 650 That run through all the Heav'ns, or down to th’ Earth Bear his swift errands over moist and dry, O'er sea and land : him Satan thus accosts :

Uriel, for thou of those sev'n Spirits that stand In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright, 655 The first art wont his great authentic will Interpreter through highest Heav'n to bring, Where all his sons thy embassy attend; And here art likeliest, by Supreme decree, Like honour to obtain, and as his eye

€90 To visit oft this new creation round;

623. See Rev, xix. 17.
6:27. Instead of fledged for softness,

643. Snecinct ready or prepared. 644. Decent, used in the Latin sense, graceful and beaatiful.

650. Zech. iv. 10. Tobit xii. 15, Rev. i. 4. v. 6. viii, 2.

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, 665
Hath brought me from the choirs of Cherubim
Alone thus wand'ring. 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; 670
That I may find him, and with secret gaze
Or open admiration him behold,
On whom the great Creator bath bestow'd
Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces pour'd;
That both in him and all things, as is meet,

075
The Universal Maker we may praise,
Who justly hath driv'n out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell; and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of Men
To serve him better: wise are all his ways. 680

So spake the false Dissembler unperceived ; For neither Man nor Angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By his permissive will, thro' leav'n and Earth : 685 And oft though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps 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 690 The sharpest sighted Spiri* of all in Heav'n ; Who to the fraudulent imposior foul In his uprightness answer thus return'd:

Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know The works of God, thereby to glorify

695 The great Work-Master, 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, To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps 706 Jontented with report hear only' in Heav'n: For wonderful indeed are all his works, Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all Had in remembrance always with delight:

710

But what created mind can comprehend

705 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 fred, Light shone, and Order from Disorder sprung: Swift to their sev'ral quarters hasted then The cumbrous elements, Earth, Flood, Air, Fire ; 715 And this ethereal quintessence of Heav'n Flew upward, spirited with various formis, That rollid orbicular, and turn'd to stars Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move: Each had his place appointed, each his course; 720 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 th' other hemisphere, 725 Night would invade; but there the neighb'ring moon (So call that opposite fair star) her aid Timely interposes, and her monthly round Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heav'n, With borrow'd light her countenance triform 730 Hence fills and empties to enlighten th' Earth, And in her pale dominion checks the night. That spot to which I point is Paradise, Adam's abode, those lofty shades his bow'r. Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires. 735

BOOK IV

THE ARGUMENT.

Satan now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone agaiust 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 l'aradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described, overleaps the bounds, sits in the shape of a cormorant on the Tree of Lile, as highest in the garden, to look about him. The garden desi ribed : 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 thereon intends to found his temptation, hy seducing them to transgress; then leaves them a while, to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel, descending on a sun-beam, warns Gabriel, who had in charge the rate of Paradise, that some evil Spirit had escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape of a good Angel Jowa to Paradise, discovered after by bis furious gestures in the Mount. Gabriel promises to hin ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: their bower described ; their evening worship." Gubriel drawing forth leis bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two i trong Angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil Spirit should be there doing some harm to Adani or Ereskeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, in Gabriel; by whoni questioned, he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but hindered by a sign trom Heaven, Hies out of Paradise.

() for that warning voice, which he who saw
Th’ Apocalypse heard cry in Heav'n aloud,
Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,
Came furious down to be revenged on men,

Woe to th' inhabitants on earth !' that now, 5
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,
The tempter ere th' accuser of mankind,

10 To wreck on innocent frail man his loss Gf that first battle, and his flight to Hell : Yet not rejcicing in his speed, though bold

1. There is great propriety in the opening of the present book. The grand subject of the relation which St. Johu gave of the Apocalypse or Revelation he received, in the overthrow of Satan, whose first attempts upon Man's purity and happiness for the ground work of this part of the poem.

Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,
Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth 15
Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast,
And, like a dev'lish engine, back recoils
Upon himself: horror and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The Hell within him; for within him Hell 20
He brings, and round about him; nor from Hell
One step no more than from himself can fly
By change of place: now Conscience wakes Despair
That slumber'd, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be 25
Worse ; of worse deeds worse suff'rings must ensue.
Sometimes tow'rds Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;
Sometimes tow'rds Heav'n and the full-blazing Sun,
Which now sat high in his meridian tow'r: 30
Then much revolving, thus in sighs began :

O thon that with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God
Of this new world ; at whosè sight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call, 35
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down 40
Warring in Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless King:
Ah wherefore! he deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard. 45
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high,
I sdeign'd subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me high'st, and in a moment quit 51
The debt immense of endless gratitude,

24. Memory is here used in the sense of reflection or consideration.

32. Milton first thought of writing a tragedy on the Loss of P& radise, and the first ten lines of this speech formed its opening.

so. Sdeign'd, for disdain'd, from the Italian, sdegnare.