V-1. Now Morn her rosie steps in th' Eastern Clime / Advancing, sow'd the earth with Orient Pearle, / When Adam wak't, so customd, for his sleep

V-4. Was Aerie light, from pure digestion bred, / And temperat vapors bland, which th' only sound leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan, / Lightly dispers'd, and the shrill Matin Song / Of Birds on every bough; so much the more

V-9. His wonder was to find unwak'nd Eve / With Tresses discompos'd, and glowing Cheek, / As through unquiet rest: he on his side

V-12. Leaning half-rais'd, with looks of cordial Love / Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld / Beautie, which whether waking or asleep, / Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice / Milde, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,

V-17. Her hand soft touching, whisperd thus. Awake / My fairest, my espous'd, my latest found, / Heav'ns last best gift, my ever new delight, / Awake, the morning shines, and the fresh field / Calls us, we lose the prime, to mark how spring

V-22. Our tended Plants, how blows the Citron Grove, / What drops the Myrrhe, and what the balmie Reed, / How Nature paints her colours, how the Bee / Sits on the Bloom extracting liquid sweet.

V-26. Such whispering wak'd her, but with startl'd eye / On Adam, whom imbracing, thus she spake.

V-28. O Sole in whom my thoughts find all repose, / My Glorie, my Perfection, glad I see / Thy face, and Morn return'd, for I this Night,

V-31. Such night till this I never pass'd, have dream'd, / If dream'd, not as I oft am wont, of thee, / Works of day pass't, or morrows next designe, / But of offense and trouble, which my mind / Knew never till this irksom night; methought

V-36. Close at mine ear one call'd me forth to walk / With gentle voice, I thought it thine; it said,

V-38. Why sleepst thou Eve? now is the pleasant time, / The cool, the silent, save where silence yields / To the night-warbling Bird, that now awake / Tunes sweetest his love-labor'd song; now reignes / Full Orb'd the Moon, and with more pleasing light / Shadowie sets off the face of things; in vain,

V-44. If none regard; Heav'n wakes with all his eyes, / Whom to behold but thee, Natures desire, / In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment / Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.

V-48. I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;

V-49. To find thee I directed then my walk; / And on, methought, alone I pass'd through ways / That brought me on a sudden to the Tree

V-52. Of interdicted Knowledge: fair it seem'd, / Much fairer to my Fancie then by day:

V-54. And as I wondring lookt, beside it stood / One shap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heav'n / By us oft seen; his dewie locks distill'd / Ambrosia; on that Tree he also gaz'd;

V-58. And O fair Plant, said he, with fruit surcharg'd, / Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet, / Nor God, nor Man; is Knowledge so despis'd? / Or envie, or what reserve forbids to taste? / Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold / Longer thy offerd good, why else set here?

V-64. This said he paus'd not, but with ventrous Arme / He pluckt, he tasted; mee damp horror chil'd / At such bold words voucht with a deed so bold:

V-67. But he thus overjoy'd, O Fruit Divine, / Sweet of thy self, but much more sweet thus cropt, / Forbidd'n here, it seems, as onely fit / For God's, yet able to make Gods of Men: / And why not Gods of Men, since good, the more / Communicated, more abundant growes, / The Author not impair'd, but honourd more?

V-74. Here, happie Creature, fair Angelic Eve, / Partake thou also; happie though thou art, / Happier thou mayst be, worthier canst not be: / Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods / Thy self a Goddess, not to Earth confind, / But somtimes in the Air, as wee, somtimes / Ascend to Heav'n, by merit thine, and see / What life the Gods live there, and such live thou.

V-82. So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held, / Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part / Which he had pluckt; the pleasant savourie smell / So quick'nd appetite, that I, methought,

V-86. Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the Clouds / With him I flew, and underneath beheld / The Earth outstretcht immense, a prospect wide / And various: wondring at my flight and change / To this high exaltation; suddenly / My Guide was gon, and I, me thought, sunk down,

V-92. And fell asleep; but O how glad I wak'd / To find this but a dream! Thus Eve her Night / Related, and thus Adam answerd sad.

V-95. Best Image of my self and dearer half, / The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep / Affects me equally; nor can I like / This uncouth dream, of evil sprung I fear;

V-99. Yet evil whence? in thee can harbour none, / Created pure. But know that in the Soule

V-101. Are many lesser Faculties that serve / Reason as chief; among these Fansie next / Her office holds; of all external things,

V-106. Which the five watchful Senses represent, / She forms Imaginations, Aerie shapes, / Which Reason joyning or disjoyning, frames / All what we affirm or what deny, and call / Our knowledge or opinion; then retires / Into her private Cell when Nature rests. / Oft in her absence mimic Fansie wakes

V-111. To imitate her; but misjoyning shapes, / Wilde work produces oft, and most in dreams,

V-Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.

V-114. Som such resemblances methinks I find / Of our last Eevnings talk, in this thy dream,

V-116. But with addition strange; yet be not sad. / Evil into the mind of God or Man / May come and go, so unapprov'd, and leave

V-119. No spot or blame behind: Which gives me hope / That what in sleep thou didst abhorr to dream, / Waking thou never wilt consent to do.

V-122. Be not disheart'nd then, nor cloud those looks / That wont to be more chearful and serene / Then when fair Morning first smiles on the World, / And let us to our fresh imployments rise / Among the Groves, the Fountains, and the Flours / That open now thir choicest bosom'd smells / Reservd from night, and kept for thee in store. / So cheard he his fair Spouse, and she was cheard,

V-130. But silently a gentle tear let fall / From either eye, and wip'd them with her haire; / Two other precious drops that ready stood, / Each in thir Chrystal sluce, hee ere they fell / Kiss'd as the gracious signs of sweet remorse / And pious awe, that feard to have offended.

V-136. So all was cleard, and to the Field they haste. / But first from under shadie arborous roof,

V-138. Soon as they forth were come to open sight / Of day-spring, and the Sun, who scarce up risen / With wheels yet hov'ring o're the Ocean brim, / Shot paralel to the earth his dewie ray, / Discovering in wide Lantskip all the East / Of Paradise and Edens happie Plains,

V-144. Lowly they bow'd adoring, and began / Thir Orisons, each Morning duly paid / In various style, for neither various style / Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise / Thir Maker, in fit strains pronounc't or sung / Unmeditated, such prompt eloquence / Flowd from thir lips, in Prose or numerous Verse,

V-151. More tuneable then needed Lute or Harp / To add more sweetness, and they thus began.

V-153. These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, / Almightie, thine this universal Frame, / Thus wondrous fair; thy self how wondrous then!

V-157. Unspeakable, who sitst above these Heavens / To us invisible or dimly seen / In these thy lowest works, yet these declare / Thy goodness beyond thought, and Power Divine:

V-160. Speak yee who best can tell, ye Sons of Light, / Angels, for yee behold him, and with songs / And choral symphonies, Day without Night, / Circle his Throne rejoycing, yee in Heav'n, / On Earth joyn all ye Creatures to extoll / Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.

V-166. Fairest of Starrs, last in the train of Night, / If better thou belong not to the dawn, / Sure pledge of day, that crownst the smiling Morn / With thy bright Circlet, praise him in thy Spheare / While day arises, that sweet hour of Prime.

V-171. Thou Sun, of this great World both Eye and Soule, / Acknowledge him thy Greater, sound his praise / In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st, / And when high Noon hast gaind, and when thou fallst.

V-175. Moon, that now meetst the orient Sun, now fli'st / With the fixt Starrs, fixt in thir Orb that flies, / And yee five other wandring Fires that move / In mystic Dance not without Song, resound / His praise, who out of Darkness call'd up Light.

V-180. Aire, and ye Elements the eldest birth / Of Natures Womb, that in quaternion run / Perpetual Circle, multiform; and mix / And nourish all things, let your ceasless change / Varie to our great Maker still new praise.

V-185. Ye Mists and Exhalations that now rise / From Hill or steaming Lake, duskie or grey, / Till the Sun paint your fleecie skirts with Gold, / In honour to the Worlds great Author rise, / Whether to deck with Clouds th' uncolourd skie, / Or wet the thirstie Earth with falling showers, / Rising or falling still advance his praise.

V-192. His praise ye Winds, that from four Quarters blow, / Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye Pines, / With every Plant, in sign of Worship wave.

V-195. Fountains and yee, that warble, as ye flow, / Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.

V-197. Joyn voices all ye living Souls; ye Birds, / That singing up to Heaven Gate ascend, / Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise; / Yee that in Waters glide, and yee that walk / The Earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep; / Witness if I be silent, Morn or Eeven, / To Hill, or Valley, Fountain, or fresh shade / Made vocal by my Song, and taught his praise.

V-205. Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still / To give us onely good; and if the night / Have gathered aught of evil or conceald, / Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.

V-209. So pray'd they innocent, and to thir thoughts / Firm peace recoverd soon and wonted calm.

V-211. On to thir mornings rural work they haste / Among sweet dewes and flours; where any row

V-213. Of Fruit-trees overwoodie reachd too farr / Thir pamperd boughes, and needed hands to check / Fruitless imbraces: or they led the Vine / To wed her Elm; she spous'd about him twines / Her marriageable arms, and with her brings / Her dowr th' adopted Clusters, to adorn

V-219. His barren leaves. Them thus imploid beheld

V-220. With pittie Heav'ns high King, and to him call'd / Raphael, the sociable Spirit, that deign'd / To travel with Tobias, and secur'd / His marriage with the seaventimes-wedded Maid.

V-224. Raphael, said hee, thou hear'st what stir on Earth / Satan from Hell scap't through the darksom Gulf / Hath raisd in Paradise, and how disturbd / This night the human pair, how he designes / In them at once to ruin all mankind.

V-229. Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend / Converse with Adam, in what Bowre or shade / Thou find'st him from the heat of Noon retir'd, / To respit his day-labour with repast,

V-233. Or with repose; and such discourse bring on, / As may advise him of his happie state, / Happiness in his power left free to will, / Left to his own free Will, his Will though free,

V-237. Yet mutable; whence warne him to beware / He swerve not too secure: tell him withall / His danger, and from whom, what enemie / Late falln himself from Heav'n, is plotting now / The fall of others from like state of bliss;

V-242. By violence, no, for that shall be withstood,

V-243. But by deceit and lies; this let him know, / Lest wilfully transgressing he pretend / Surprisal, unadmonisht, unforewarnd.

V-246. So spake th' Eternal Father, and fulfilld / All Justice: nor delaid the winged Saint / After his charge receivd; but from among

V-249. Thousand Celestial Ardors, where he stood / Vaild with his gorgeous wings, up springing light / Flew through the midst of Heav'n; th' angelic Quires / On each hand parting, to his speed gave way

V-253. Through all th' Empyreal road; till at the Gate / Of Heav'n arriv'd, the gate self-opend wide / On golden Hinges turning, as by work / Divine the sov'ran Architect had fram'd.

V-257. From hence, no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight, / Starr interpos'd, however small he sees, / Not unconform to other shining Globes, / Earth and the Gard'n of God, with Cedars crownd

V-261. Above all Hills. As when by night the Glass / Of Galileo, less assur'd, observes / Imagind Lands and Regions in the Moon: / Or Pilot from amidst the Cyclades / Delos or Samos first appeering kenns

V-266. A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight / He speeds, and through the vast Ethereal Skie / Sailes between worlds and worlds, with steddie wing / Now on the polar windes, then with quick Fann

V-270. Winnows the buxom Air; till within soare

V-271. Of Towring Eagles, to all the Fowles he seems / A Phœnix, gaz'd by all, as that sole Bird / When to enshrine his reliques in the Sun's / Bright Temple, to Ægyptian Theb's he flies.

V-275. At once on th' Eastern cliff of Paradise / He lights, and to his proper shape returns

V-277. A Seraph wingd; six wings he wore, to shade / His lineaments Divine; the pair that clad / Each shoulder broad, came mantling o're his brest / With regal Ornament; the middle pair / Girt like a Starrie Zone his waste, and round

V-282. Skirted his loines and thighes with downie Gold / And colours dipt in Heav'n; the third his feet / Shaddowd from either heele with featherd maile / Skie-tinctur'd grain. Like Maia's son he stood, / And shook his Plumes, that Heav'nly fragrance filld

V-287. The circuit wide. Strait knew him all the Bands / Of Angels under watch; and to his state, / And to his message high in honour rise; / For on Som message high they guessd him bound.

V-291. Thir glittering Tents he passd, and now is come / Into the blissful field, through Groves of Myrrhe, / And flouring Odours, Cassia, Nard, and Balme; / A Wilderness of sweets; for Nature here / Wantond as in her prime, and plaid at will / Her Virgin Fancies, pouring forth more sweet, / Wilde above Rule or Art; enormous bliss.

V-298. Him through the spicie Forrest onward com / Adam discernd, as in the dore he sat / Of his coole Bowre, while now the mounted Sun / Shot down direct his fervid Raies, to warme / Earths inmost womb, more warmth then Adam needs;

V-303. And Eve within, due at her hour prepar'd / For dinner savourie fruits, of taste to please / True appetite, and not disrelish thirst / Of nectarous draughts between, from milkie stream,

V-307. Berrie or Grape: to whom thus Adam call'd. / Haste hither Eve, and worth thy sight behold / Eastward among those Trees, what glorious shape / Comes this way moving; seems another Morn

V-311. Ris'n on mid-noon; Som great behest from Heav'n

V-312. To us perhaps he brings, and will voutsafe / This day to be our Guest. But goe with speed, / And what thy stores contain, bring forth and poure / Abundance, fit to honour and receive / Our Heav'nly stranger; well we may afford / Our givers thir own gifts, and large bestow / From large bestowd, where Nature multiplies / Her fertil growth, and by disburd'ning grows / More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare.

V-321. To whom thus Eve. Adam, earths hallowd mould, / Of God inspir'd, small store will serve, where store, / All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk; / Save what by frugal storing firmness gains / To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:

V-326. But I will haste and from each bough and break, / Each Plant and juiciest Gourd will pluck such choice / To entertain our Angel guest, as hee / Beholding shall confess that here on Earth / God hath dispenst his bounties as in Heav'n.

V-331. So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste / She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent / What choice to chuse for delicacie best, / What order, so contriv'd as not to mix / Tastes, not well joynd, inelegant, but bring / Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change, / Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk

V-338. Whatever Earth all-bearing Mother yields / In India East or West, or middle shoare / In Pontus or the Punic Coast, or where / Alcinous reign'd, fruit of all kindes, in coate, / Rough, or smooth rin'd, or bearded husk, or shell / She gathers, Tribute large, and on the board / Heaps with unsparing hand; for drink the Grape

V-345. She crushes, inoffensive moust, and meathes / From many a berrie, and from sweet kernels prest / She tempers dulcet creams, nor these to hold

V-348. Wants her fit vessels pure, then strews the ground / With Rose and Odours from the shrub unfum'd.

V-350. Mean while our Primitive great Sire, to meet / His god-like Guest, walks forth, without more train

V-352. Accompanied then with his own compleat / Perfections; in himself was all his state, / More solemn then the tedious pomp that waits / On Princes, when thir rich Retinue long / Of Horses led, and Grooms besmeard with Gold / Dazles the croud, and sets them all agape.

V-358. Neerer his presence Adam though not awd, / Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek, / As to a superior Nature, bowing low,

V-361. Thus said. Native of Heav'n, for other place / None can then Heav'n such glorious shape contain;

V-363. Since by descending from the Thrones above, / Those happie places thou hast deignd a while / To want, and honour these, voutsafe with us / Two onely, who yet by sov'ran gift possess / This spacious ground, in yonder shadie Bowre / To rest, and what the Garden choicest bears / To sit and taste, till this meridian heat / Be over, and the Sun more coole decline.

V-371. Whom thus the Angelic Vertue answerd milde. / Adam, I therefore came, nor art thou such / Created, or such place hast here to dwell, / As may not oft invite, though Spirits of Heav'n / To visit thee; lead on then where thy Bowre / Oreshades; for these mid-hours, till Eevning rise / I have at will. So to the Silvan Lodge

V-378. They came, that like Pomona's Arbour smil'd / With flourets deck't and fragrant smells; but Eve

V-380. Undeckt, save with her self more lovely fair / Then Wood-Nymph, or the fairest Goddess feign'd / Of three that in Mount Ida naked strove, / Stood to entertain her guest from Heav'n; no vaile / Shee needed, Vertue-proof, no thought infirme

V-385. Alterd her cheek. On whom the Angel Haile / Bestowd, the holy salutation us'd / Long after to blest Marie, second Eve. / Haile Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful Womb / Shall fill the World more numerous with thy Sons / Then with these various fruits the Trees of God

V-391. Have heap'd this Table. Rais'd of grassie terf / Thir Table was, and mossie seats had round, / And on her ample Square from side to side / All Autumn pil'd, though Spring and Autumn here

V-395. Danc'd hand in hand. A while discourse they hold; / No fear lest Dinner coole; when thus began

V-397. Our Authour. Heav'nly stranger, please to taste / These bounties which our Nourisher, from whom / All perfet good unmeasur'd out, descends, / To us for food and for delight hath caus'd / The Earth to yeild; unsavourie food perhaps / To spiritual Natures; only this I know, / That one Celestial Father gives to all.

V-404. To whom the Angel. Therefore what he gives / (Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part / Spiritual, may of purest Spirits be found

V-407. No ingrateful food: and food alike those pure / Intelligential substances require / As doth your Rational; and both contain / Within them every lower facultie / Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, / Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate, / And corporeal to incorporeal turn.

V-414. For know, whatever was created, needs / To be sustaind and fed; of Elements / The grosser feeds the purer, Earth the Sea, / Earth and the Sea feed Air, the Air those Fires / Ethereal, and as lowest first the Moon; / Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurg'd / Vapours not yet into her substance turnd. / Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale / From her moist Continent to higher Orbes. / The Sun that light imparts to all, receives / From all his alimental recompence / In humid exhalations, and at Even

V-426. Sups with the Ocean: though in Heav'n the Trees / Of life ambrosial frutage bear, and vines / Yield Nectar, though from off the boughs each Morn / We brush mellifluous Dewes, and find the ground / Cover'd with pearly grain: yet God hath here / Varied his bounty so with new delights, / As may compare with Heaven; and to taste

V-433. Think not I shall be nice. So down they sat, / And to thir viands fell, nor seemingly

V-435. The Angel, nor in mist, the common gloss / Of Theologians, but with keen dispatch / Of real hunger, and concoctive heate

V-438. To transubstantiate; what redounds, transpires

V-439. Through Spirits with ease; nor wonder; if by fire / Of sooty coal the Empiric Alchimist / Can turn, or holds it possible to turn / Metals of drossiest Ore to perfet Gold

V-443. As from the Mine. Mean while at Table Eve / Ministerd naked, and thir flowing cups

V-445. With pleasant liquors crown'd: O innocence / Deserving Paradise! if ever, then, / Then had the Sons of God excuse to have bin / Enamour'd at that sight; but in those hearts / Love unlibidinous reign'd, nor jealousie / Was understood, the injur'd Lovers Hell.

V-451. Thus when with meats and drinks they had suffic'd / Not burd'nd Nature, sudden mind arose / In Adam, not to let th' occasion pass / Given him by this great Conference to know / Of things above his World, and of thir being / Who dwell in Heav'n, whose excellence he saw / Transcend his own so farr, whose radiant forms / Divine effulgence, whose high Power so far / Exceeded human, and his wary speech

V-460. Thus to th' Empyreal Minister he fram'd. / Inhabitant with God, now know I well / Thy favour, in this honour done to man, / Under whose lowly roof thou hast voutsaf't / To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,

V-468. Food not of Angels, yet accepted so, / As that more willingly thou couldst not seem / At Heav'n's high feasts to have fed: yet what compare? / To whom the winged Hierarch repli'd. / O Adam, one Almightie is, from whom / All things proceed, and up to him return, / If not deprav'd from good, created all

V-472. Such to perfection, one first matter all, / Indu'd with various forms, various degrees / Of substance, and in things that live, of life;

V-475. But more refin'd, more spiritous, and pure, / As neerer to him plac't or neerer tending / Each in thir several active Sphears assignd, / Till body up to spirit work, in bounds

V-479. Proportiond to each kind. So from the root / Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves / More aerie, last the bright consummate floure / Spirits odorous breathes: flours and thir fruit

V-483. Mans nourishment, by gradual scale sublim'd / To vital Spirits aspire, to animal, / To intellectual, give both life and sense, / Fansie and understanding, whence the Soule / Reason receives, and reason is her being,

V-488. Discursive, or Intuitive; discourse / Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, / Differing but in degree, of kind the same.

V-491. Wonder not then, what God for you saw good / If I refuse not, but convert, as you,

V-493. To proper substance; time may come when men / With Angels may participate, and find / No inconvenient Diet, nor too light Fare: / And from these corporal nutriments perhaps / Your bodies may at last turn all to Spirit,

V-498. Improv'd by tract of time, and wingd ascend / Ethereal, as wee, or may at choice / Here or in Heav'nly Paradises dwell; / If ye be found obedient, and retain / Unalterably firm his love entire

V-503. Whose progenie you are. Mean while enjoy / Your fill what happiness this happie state / Can comprehend, incapable of more.

V-506. To whom the Patriarch of mankind repli'd, / O favourable spirit, propitious guest, / Well hast thou taught the way that might direct / Our knowledge, and the scale of Nature set / From center to circumference, whereon / In contemplation of created things / By steps we may ascend to God. But say,

V-513. What meant that caution joind, if ye be found / Obedient? can we want obedience then / To him, or possibly his love desert / Who formd us from the dust, and plac'd us here / Full to the utmost measure of what bliss / Human desires can seek or apprehend?

V-519. To whom the Angel. Son of Heav'n and Earth, / Attend: That thou art happie, owe to God; / That thou continu'st such, owe to thy self, / That is, to thy obedience; therein stand. / This was that caution giv'n thee; be advis'd.

V-524. God made thee perfet, not immutable; / And good he made thee, but to persevere / He left it in thy power, ordaind thy will / By nature free, not over-rul'd by Fate / Inextricable, or strict necessity;

V-529. Our voluntarie service he requires, / Not our necessitated, such with him / Finds no acceptance, nor can find, for how / Can hearts, not free, be tri'd whether they serve / Willing or no, who will but what they must / By Destinie, and can no other choose? / Myself and all th' Angelic Host that stand / In sight of God enthron'd, our happie 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:

V-541. And Som are fall'n, to disobedience fall'n, / And so from Heav'n to deepest Hell; O fall / From what high state of bliss into what woe!

V-544. To whom our great Progenitor. Thy words / Attentive, and with more delighted eare / Divine instructer, I have heard, then when / Cherubic Songs by night from neighbouring Hills / Aereal Music send: nor knew I not / To be both will and deed created free;

V-550. Yet that we never shall forget to love / Our maker, and obey him whose command / Single, is yet so just, my constant thoughts

V-553. Assur'd me and still assure: though what thou tellst / Hath past in Heav'n, Som 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; / And we have yet large day, for scarce the Sun / Hath finisht half his journey, and scarce begins / His other half in the great Zone of Heav'n. / Thus Adam made request, and Raphael

V-562. After short pause assenting, thus began. / High matter thou injoinst me, O prime of men, / Sad task and hard, for how shall I relate / To human sense th' invisible exploits / Of warring Spirits; how without remorse / The ruin of so many glorious once / And perfet while they stood; how last unfould / The secrets of another World, perhaps

V-570. Not lawful to reveal? yet for thy good / This is dispenc't, and what surmounts the reach / Of human sense, I shall delineate so, / By lik'ning spiritual to corporal forms,

V-574. As may express them best, though what if Earth / Be but the shaddow of Heav'n, and things therein / Each to other like, more then on earth is thought?

V-577. As yet this World was not, and Chaos Wilde / Reignd where these Heav'ns now rowl, where Earth now rests / Upon her Center pois'd, when on a day / (For Time, though in Eternitie, appli'd / To motion, measures all things durable / By present, past, and future) on such day / As Heav'ns great Year brings forth, th' Empyreal Host

V-584. Of Angels by Imperial summons call'd, / Innumerable before th' Almighties Throne / Forthwith from all the ends of Heav'n appeerd / Under thir Hierarchs in orders bright

V-588. Ten thousand thousand Ensignes high advanc'd, / Standards and Gonfalons twixt Van and Reare / Streame in the Aire, and for distinction serve / Of Hierarchies, of Orders, and Degrees; / Or in thir glittering Tissues bear imblaz'd / Holy Memorials, acts of Zeale and Love

V-594. Recorded eminent. Thus when in Orbes / Of circuit inexpressible they stood, / Orb within Orb, the Father infinite, / By whom in bliss imbosom'd sat the Son, / Amidst as from a flaming Mount, whose top / Brightness had made invisible, thus spake.

V-600. Hear all ye Angels, Progenie of Light, / Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Vertues, Powers, / Hear my Decree, which unrevok't shall stand.

V-603. This day I have begot whom I declare / My onely Son, and on this holy Hill / Him have anointed, whom ye now behold

V-606. At my right hand; your Head I him appoint; / And by my Self have sworn to him shall bow / All knees in Heav'n, and shall confess him Lord: / Under his great Vice-gerent Reign abide / United as one individual Soule

V-611. For ever happie: him who disobeyes / Mee disobeyes, breaks union, and that day / Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls / Into utter darkness, deep ingulft, his place / Ordaind without redemption, without end.

V-616. So spake th' Omnipotent, and with his words / All seemd well pleas'd, all seem'd, but were not all.

V-618. That day, as other solemn dayes, they spent / In song and dance about the sacred Hill,

V-620. Mystical dance, which yonder starrie Spheare / Of Planets and of fixt in all her Wheeles / Resembles nearest, mazes intricate, / Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular / Then most, when most irregular they seem, / And in thir motions harmonie Divine

V-626. So smooths her charming tones, that Gods own ear

V-627. Listens delighted. Eevning now approach'd / (For wee have also our Eevning and our Morn, / Wee ours for change delectable, not need)

V-630. Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn / Desirous, all in Circles as they stood, / Tables are set, and on a sudden pil'd / With Angels Food, and rubied Nectar flows / In Pearl, in Diamond, and massie Gold, / Fruit of delicious Vines, the growth of Heav'n.

V-636. On flours repos'd, and with fresh flourets crownd,

V-637. They eate, they drink, and in communion sweet / Quaff immortalitie and joy, secure / Of surfet where full measure onely bounds / Excess, before th' all bounteous King, who showrd / With copious hand, rejoycing in thir joy.

V-642. Now when ambrosial Night with Clouds exhal'd / From that high mount of God, whence light and shade / Spring both, the face of brightest Heav'n had changd / To grateful Twilight (for Night comes not there

V-646. In darker veile) and roseat Dews dispos'd / All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest,

V-648. Wide over all the Plain, and wider farr / Then all this globous Earth in Plain out spred, / (Such are the Courts of God) th' Angelic throng / Disperst in Bands and Files thir Camp extend / By living Streams among the Trees of Life, / Pavilions numberless, and sudden reard, / Celestial Tabernacles, where they slept

V-655. Fannd with coole Winds, save those who in thir course / Melodious Hymns about the sovran Throne

V-657. Alternate all night long: but not so wak'd

V-658. Satan, so call him now, his former name

V-659. Is heard no more in Heav'n; he of the first, / If not the first Arch-Angel, great in Power,

V-661. In favour and præeminence, yet fraught / With envie against the Son of God, that day / Honourd by his great Father, and proclaimd / Messiah King anointed, could not beare / Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaird. / Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain,

V-667. Soon as midnight brought on the duskie houre / Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolv'd / With all his Legions to dislodge, and leave / Unworshipt, unobey'd the Throne supream / Contemptuous, and his next subordinate / Awak'ning, thus to him in secret spake.

V-673. Sleepst thou, Companion dear, what sleep can close / Thy eye-lids? and remembrest what Decree / Of yesterday, so late hath past the lips

V-676. Of Heav'ns Almightie. Thou to me thy thoughts / Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart; / Both waking we were one; how then can now

V-679. Thy sleep dissent? new Laws thou seest impos'd; / New Laws from him who reigns, new minds may raise / In us who serve, new Counsels, to debate / What doubtful may ensue; more in this place / To utter is not safe. Assemble thou / Of all those Myriads which we lead the chief; / Tell them that by command, ere yet dim Night / Her shadowie Cloud withdraws, I am to haste, / And all who under me thir Banners wave, / Homeward with flying march where we possess / The Quarters of the North, there to prepare

V-690. Fit entertainment to receive our King / The great Messiah, and his new commands, / Who speedily through all the Hierarchies / Intends to pass triumphant, and give Laws.

V-694. So spake the false Arch-Angel, and infus'd / Bad influence into th' unwarie brest / Of his Associate; hee together calls, / Or several one by one, the Regent Powers, / Under him Regent, tells, as he was taught, / That the most High commanding, now ere Night, / Now ere dim Night had disincumberd Heav'n,

V-702. The great Hierarchal Standard was to move; / Tells the suggested cause, and casts between / Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound

V-704. Or taint integritie; but all obey'd / The wonted signal, and superior voice / Of thir great Potentate; for great indeed / His name, and high was his degree in Heav'n; / His count'nance, as the Morning Starr that guides / The starrie flock, allur'd them, and with lyes

V-710. Drew after him the third part of Heav'ns Host:

V-711. Mean while th' Eternal eye, whose sight discernes / Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy Mount / And from within the golden Lamps that burne / Nightly before him, saw without thir light / Rebellion rising, saw in whom, how spred / Among the sons of Morn, what multitudes / Were banded to oppose his high Decree; / And smiling to his onely Son thus said.

V-719. Son, thou in whom my glory I behold / In full resplendence, Heir of all my might, / Neerly it now concernes us to be sure / Of our Omnipotence, and with what Arms / We mean to hold what anciently we claim / Of Deitie or Empire, such a foe / Is rising, who intends to erect his Throne / Equal to ours, throughout the spacious North; / Nor so content, hath in his thought to try / In battel, what our Power is, or our right.

V-729. Let us advise, and to this hazard draw / With speed what force is left, and all imploy / In our defense, lest unawares we lose / This our high place, our Sanctuarie, our Hill.

V-733. To whom the Son with calm aspect and cleer / Light'ning Divine, ineffable, serene, / Made answer. Mightie Father, thou thy foes / Justly hast in derision, and secure / Laugh'st at thir vain designes and tumults vain, / Matter to mee of Glory, whom thir hate / Illustrates, when they see all Regal Power / Giv'n me to quell thir pride, and in event / Know whether I be dextrous to subdue / Thy Rebels, or be found the worst in Heav'n.

V-743. So spake the Son, but Satan with his Powers / Far was advanc't on winged speed, an Host / Innumerable as the Starrs of Night, / Or Starrs of Morning, Dew-drops, which the Sun / Impearls on every leaf and every flouer.

V-748. Regions they pass'd, the mightie Regencies / Of Seraphim and Potentates and Thrones / In thir triple Degrees, Regions to which / All thy Dominion, Adam, is no more / Then what this Garden is to all the Earth, / And all the Sea, from one entire globose / Stretcht into Longitude; which having pass'd

V-755. At length into the limits of the North

V-756. They came, and Satan to his Royal seat / High on a Hill, far blazing, as a Mount / Rais'd on a Mount, with Pyramids and Towrs / From Diamond Quarries hew'n, and Rocks of Gold,

V-760. The Palace of great Lucifer, (so call / That Structure in the Dialect of men / Interpreted) which not long after, he

V-763. Affecting all equality with God, / In imitation of that Mount whereon / Messiah was declar'd in sight of Heav'n, / The Mountain of the Congregation call'd;

V-767. For thither he assembl'd all his Train, / Pretending so commanded to consult / About the great reception of thir King, / Thither to come, and with calumnious Art / Of counterfeted truth thus held thir ears.

V-772. Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Vertues, Powers, / If these magnific Titles yet remain / Not meerly titular, since by Decree / Another now hath to himself ingross't / All Power, and us eclipst under the name

V-777. Of King anointed, for whom all this haste / Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here, / This onely to consult how we may best / With what may be devis'd of honours new / Receive him coming to receive from us / Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile, / Too much to one, but double how endur'd, / To one and to his image now proclaim'd?

V-785. But what if better counsels might erect / Our minds and teach us to cast off this Yoke?

V-787. Will ye submit your necks, and chuse to bend

V-788. The supple knee? ye will not, if I trust / To know ye right, or if ye know your selves

V-790. Natives and Sons of Heav'n possest before / By none, and if not equal all, yet free, / Equally free; for Orders and Degrees / Jarr not with liberty, but well consist.

V-794. Who can in reason then or right assume / Monarchie over such as live by right / His equals, if in power and splendor less, / In freedome equal? or can introduce / Law and Edict on us, who without law

V-799. Erre not, much less for this to be our Lord, / And look for adoration to th' abuse / Of those Imperial Titles which assert / Our being ordain'd to govern, not to serve?

V-803. Thus farr his bold discourse without controule / Had audience, when among the Seraphim / Abdiel, then whom none with more zeale ador'd / The Deitie, and divine commands obeid, / Stood up, and in a flame of zeale severe / The current of his fury thus oppos'd.

V-809. O argument blasphemous, false and proud! / Words which no eare ever to hear in Heav'n / Expected, least of all from thee, ingrate / In place thy self so high above thy Peeres. / Canst thou with impious obloquie condemne / The just Decree of God, pronounc't and sworn, / That to his only Son by right endu'd / With Regal Scepter, every Soule in Heav'n / Shall bend the knee, and in that honour due

V-818. Confess him rightful King? unjust thou saist / Flatly unjust, to binde with Laws the free, / And equal over equals to let Reigne, / One over all with unsucceeded power.

V-822. Shalt thou give Law to God, shalt thou dispute / With him the points of libertie, who made / Thee what thou art, and formd the Pow'rs of Heav'n / Such as he pleasd, and circumscrib'd thir being?

V-826. Yet by experience taught we know how good, / And of our good, and of our dignitie

V-828. How provident he is, how farr from thought / To make us less, bent rather to exalt / Our happie state under one Head more neer / United. But to grant it thee unjust,

V-832. That equal over equals Monarch Reigne:

V-833. Thy self though great and glorious dost thou count, / Or all Angelic Nature joind in one, / Equal to him begotten Son, by whom

V-836. As by his Word the mighty Father made / All things, ev'n thee, and all the Spirits of Heav'n / By him created in thir bright degrees, / Crownd them with Glory, and to thir Glory nam'd / Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Vertues, Powers,

V-841. Essential Powers, nor by his Reign obscur'd, / But more illustrious made, since he the Head / One of our number thus reduc't becomes, / His Laws our Laws, all honour to him done

V-845. Returns our own. Cease then this impious rage, / And tempt not these; but hast'n to appease / Th' incensed Father, and th' incensed Son, / While Pardon may be found in time besought.

V-849. So spake the fervent Angel, but his zeale / None seconded, as out of season judg'd, / Or singular and rash, whereat rejoic'd / Th' Apostat, and more haughty thus repli'd.

V-853. That we were formd then saist thou? and the work / Of secondarie hands, by task transferd / From Father to his Son? strange point and new! / Doctrin which we would know whence learnt: who saw

V-857. When this creation was? rememberst thou / Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being? / We know no time when we were not as now; / Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd / By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course / Had circl'd his full Orbe, the birth mature / Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons.

V-864. Our puissance is our own, our own right hand / Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try / Who is our equal: then thou shalt behold / Whether by supplication we intend / Address, and to begirt th' Almighty Throne

V-869. Beseeching or besieging. This report, / These tidings carrie to th' anointed King; / And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.

V-872. He said, and as the sound of waters deep / Hoarce murmur echo'd to his words applause / Through the infinite Host, nor less for that / The flaming Seraph fearless, though alone / Encompass'd round with foes, thus answerd bold.

V-877. O alienate from God, O spirit accurst, / Forsak'n of all good; I see thy fall / Determind, and thy hapless crew involv'd / In this perfidious fraud, contagion spred

V-881. Both of thy crime and punishment: henceforth / No more be troubl'd how to quit the yoke / Of Gods Messiah; those indulgent Laws / Will not now be voutsaf't, other Decrees / Against thee are gon forth without recall; / That Golden Scepter which thou didst reject / Is now an Iron Rod to bruise and breake

V-888. Thy disobedience. Well thou didst advise, / Yet not for thy advise or threats I fly / These wicked Tents devoted, least the wrauth / Impendent, raging into sudden flame / Distinguish not: for soon expect to feel / His Thunder on thy head, devouring fire. / Then who created thee lamenting learne, / When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know.

V-896. So spake the Seraph Abdiel faithful found, / Among the faithless, faithful only hee; / Among innumerable false, unmov'd, / Unshak'n, unseduc'd, unterrifi'd / His Loyaltie he kept, his Love, his Zeale; / Nor number, nor example with him wrought / To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind

V-903. Though single. From amidst them forth he passd, / Long way through hostile scorn, which he susteind / Superior, nor of violence fear'd aught;

V-906. And with retorted scorn his back he turn'd / On those proud Towrs to swift destruction doom'd.