VIII-1. The Angel ended, and in Adams Eare / So Charming left his voice, that he a while / Thought him still speaking, still stood fixt to hear;

VIII-4. Then as new wak't thus gratefully repli'd.

VIII-5. What thanks sufficient, or what recompence / Equal have I to render thee, Divine / Hystorian, who thus largely hast allayd / The thirst I had of knowledge, and voutsaf't / This friendly condescention to relate / Things else by me unsearchable, now heard

VIII-11. With wonder, but delight, and, as is due, / With glorie attributed to the high

VIII-13. Creator; something yet of doubt remaines, / Which onely thy solution can resolve.

VIII-15. When I behold this goodly Frame, this World / Of Heav'n and Earth consisting, and compute, / Thir magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a graine, / An Atom, with the Firmament compar'd / And all her numberd Starrs, that seem to rowle / Spaces incomprehensible (for such / Thir distance argues and thir swift return / Diurnal) meerly to officiate light / Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot, / One day and night; in all thir vast survey

VIII-25. Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire, / How Nature wise and frugal could commit / Such disproportions, with superfluous hand / So many nobler Bodies to create, / Greater so manifold to this one use, / For aught appeers, and on thir Orbs impose / Such restless revolution day by day / Repeated, while the sedentarie Earth, / That better might with farr less compass move, / Serv'd by more noble then her self, attaines / Her end without least motion, and receaves, / As Tribute such a sumless journey brought / Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light; / Speed, to describe whose swiftness Number failes.

VIII-39. So spake our Sire, and by his count'nance seemd / Entring on studious thoughts abstruse, which Eve / Perceaving where she sat retir'd in sight,

VIII-42. With lowliness Majestic from her seat, / And Grace that won who saw to wish her stay,

VIII-44. Rose, and went forth among her Fruits and Flours, / To visit how they prosper'd, bud and bloom, / Her Nurserie; they at her coming sprung / And toucht by her fair tendance gladlier grew.

VIII-48. Yet went she not, as not with such discourse / Delighted, or not capable her eare

VIII-50. Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv'd, / Adam relating, she sole Auditress;

VIII-52. Her Husband the Relater she preferr'd / Before the Angel, and of him to ask / Chose rather: hee, she knew would intermix / Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute / With conjugal Caresses, from his Lip

VIII-57. Not Words alone pleas'd her. O when meet now / Such pairs, in Love and mutual Honour joyn'd?

VIII-59. With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went; / Not unattended, for on her as Queen / A pomp of winning Graces waited still,

VIII-62. And from about her shot Darts of desire / Into all Eyes to wish her still in sight.

VIII-64. And Raphael now to Adam's doubt propos'd / Benevolent and facil thus repli'd.

VIII-66. To ask or search I blame thee not, for Heav'n / Is as the Book of God before thee set, / Wherein to read his wondrous Works, and learne

VIII-69. His Seasons, Hours, or Dayes, or Months, or Yeares:

VIII-70. This to attain, whether Heav'n move or Earth, / Imports not, if thou reck'n right, the rest

VIII-72. From Man or Angel the great Architect / Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge / His secrets to be scann'd by them who ought

VIII-75. Rather admire; or if they list to try / Conjecture, he his Fabric of the Heav'ns / Hath left to thir disputes, perhaps to move / His laughter at thir quaint Opinions wide / Hereafter, when they come to model Heav'n / And calculate the Starrs, how they will weild / The mightie frame, how build, unbuild, contrive / To save appeerances, how gird the Sphear / With Centric and Eccentric scribl'd o're, / Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb:

VIII-85. Alreadie by thy reasoning this I guess,

VIII-86. Who art to lead thy ofspring, and supposest / That bodies bright and greater should not serve / The less not bright, nor Heav'n such journies run, / Earth sitting still, when she alone receaves

VIII-90. The benefit: consider first, that Great

VIII-91. Or Bright inferrs not Excellence: the Earth / Though, in comparison of Heav'n, so small, / Nor glistering, may of solid good containe / More plenty then the Sun that barren shines, / Whose vertue on it self workes no effect,

VIII-96. But in the fruitful Earth; there first receavd / His beams, unactive else, thir vigour find.

VIII-98. Yet not to Earth are those bright Luminaries / Officious, but to thee Earths habitant.

VIII-100. And for the Heav'ns wide Circuit, let it speak / The Makers high magnificence, who built / So spacious, and his Line stretcht out so farr; / That Man may know he dwells not in his own; / An Edifice too large for him to fill, / Lodg'd in a small partition, and the rest / Ordain'd for uses to his Lord best known.

VIII-107. The swiftness of those Circles attribute, / Though numberless, to his Omnipotence, / That to corporeal substances could adde

VIII-110. Speed almost Spiritual; mee thou thinkst not slow, / Who since the Morning hour set out from Heav'n / Where God resides, and ere mid-day arriv'd / In Eden, distance inexpressible

VIII-114. By Numbers that have name. But this I urge, / Admitting Motion in the Heav'ns, to shew / Invalid that which thee to doubt it mov'd; / Not that I so affirm, though so it seem / To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.

VIII-119. God to remove his wayes from human sense, / Plac'd Heav'n from Earth so farr, that earthly sight, / If it presume, might erre in things too high,

VIII-122. And no advantage gaine. What if the Sun / Be Centre to the World, and other Starrs / By his attractive vertue and their own / Incited, dance about him various rounds? / Thir wandring course now high, now low, then hid, / Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

VIII-128. In six thou seest, and what if sev'nth to these / The Planet Earth, so stedfast though she seem, / Insensibly three different Motions move?

VIII-131. Which else to several Spheres thou must ascribe, / Mov'd contrarie with thwart obliquities,

VIII-133. Or save the Sun his labour, and that swift / Nocturnal and Diurnal rhomb suppos'd, / Invisible else above all Starrs, the Wheele / Of Day and Night; which needs not thy beleefe, / If Earth industrious of her self fetch Day / Travelling East, and with her part averse / From the Suns beam meet Night, her other part

VIII-140. Still luminous by his ray. What if that light / Sent from her through the wide transpicuous aire, / To the terrestrial Moon be as a Starr / Enlightning her by Day, as she by Night

VIII-144. This Earth? reciprocal, if Land be there, / Fields and Inhabitants: Her spots thou seest / As Clouds, and Clouds may rain, and Rain produce / Fruits in her soft'nd Soile, for some to eate

VIII-148. Allotted there; and other Suns perhaps / With thir attendant Moons thou wilt descrie / Communicating Male and Femal Light, / Which two great Sexes animate the World, / Stor'd in each Orb perhaps with some that live.

VIII-153. For such vast room in Nature unpossest / By living Soule, desert and desolate, / Onely to shine, yet scarce to contribute / Each Orb a glimps of Light, conveyd so farr / Down to this habitable, which returnes / Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.

VIII-159. But whether thus these things, or whether not, / Whether the Sun predominant in Heav'n / Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the Sun, / Hee from the East his flaming rode begin, / Or Shee from West her silent course advance / With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps / On her soft Axle, while she paces Eev'n, / And beares thee soft with the smooth Air along, / Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,

VIII-168. Leave them to God above, him serve and feare;

VIII-169. Of other Creatures, as him pleases best,

VIII-170. Wherever plac't, let him dispose: joy thou / In what he gives to thee, this Paradise

VIII-172. And thy faire Eve; Heav'n is for thee too high / To know what passes there; be lowlie wise: / Think onely what concernes thee and thy being; / Dream not of other Worlds, what Creatures there / Live, in what state, condition or degree,

VIII-177. Contented that thus farr hath been reveal'd / Not of Earth onely but of highest Heav'n.

VIII-179. To whom thus Adam cleerd of doubt, repli'd. / How fully hast thou satisfi'd me, pure / Intelligence of Heav'n, Angel serene, / And freed from intricacies, taught to live / The easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughts / To interrupt the sweet of Life, from which / God hath bid dwell farr off all anxious cares, / And not molest us, unless we our selves / Seek them with wandring thoughts, and notions vain.

VIII-188. But apt the Mind or Fancy is to roave / Uncheckt, and of her roaving is no end; / Till warn'd, or by experience taught, she learne, / That not to know at large of things remote / From use, obscure and suttle, but to know / That which before us lies in daily life, / Is the prime Wisdom, what is more, is fume, / Or emptiness, or fond impertinence, / And renders us in things that most concerne / Unpractis'd, unprepar'd, and still to seek.

VIII-198. Therefore from this high pitch let us descend / A lower flight, and speak of things at hand / Useful, whence haply mention may arise / Of somthing not unseasonable to ask / By sufferance, and thy wonted favour deign'd.

VIII-203. Thee I have heard relating what was don / Ere my remembrance: now hear mee relate / My Storie, which perhaps thou hast not heard;

VIII-206. And Day is yet not spent; till then thou seest / How suttly to detaine thee I devise,

VIII-208. Inviting thee to hear while I relate, / Fond, were it not in hope of thy reply: / For while I sit with thee, I seem in Heav'n,

VIII-211. And sweeter thy discourse is to my eare / Then Fruits of Palm-tree pleasantest to thirst / And hunger both, from labour, at the houre

VIII-214. Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill, / Though pleasant, but thy words with Grace Divine / Imbu'd, bring to thir sweetness no satietie.

VIII-217. To whom thus Raphael answer'd heav'nly meek. / Nor are thy lips ungraceful, Sire of men, / Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee / Abundantly his gifts hath also pour'd / Inward and outward both, his image faire: / Speaking or mute all comliness and grace / Attends thee, and each word, each motion formes

VIII-224. Nor less think wee in Heav'n of thee on Earth / Then of our fellow servant, and inquire / Gladly into the wayes of God with Man: / For God we see hath honour'd thee, and set

VIII-228. On Man his Equal Love: say therefore on; / For I that Day was absent, as befell, / Bound on a voyage uncouth and obscure, / Farr on excursion toward the Gates of Hell; / Squar'd in full Legion (such command we had) / To see that none thence issu'd forth a spie, / Or enemie, while God was in his work,

VIII-235. Least hee incenst at such eruption bold, / Destruction with Creation might have mixt. / Not that they durst without his leave attempt, / But us he sends upon his high behests / For state, as Sovran King, and to enure

VIII-240. Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut / The dismal Gates, and barricado'd strong; / But long ere our approaching heard within

VIII-243. Noise, other then the sound of Dance or Song, / Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

VIII-245. Glad we return'd up to the coasts of Light / Ere Sabbath Eev'ning: so we had in charge.

VIII-247. But thy relation now; for I attend, / Pleas'd with thy words no less then thou with mine.

VIII-249. So spake the Godlike Power, and thus our Sire.

VIII-250. For Man to tell how human Life began / Is hard; for who himself beginning knew? / Desire with thee still longer to converse

VIII-253. Induc'd me. As new wak't from soundest sleep / Soft on the flourie herb I found me laid / In Balmie Sweat, which with his Beames the Sun / Soon dri'd, and on the reaking moisture fed.

VIII-257. Strait toward Heav'n my wondring Eyes I turnd,

VIII-258. And gaz'd a while the ample Skie, till rais'd / By quick instinctive motion up I sprung, / As thitherward endevoring, and upright

VIII-261. Stood on my feet; about me round I saw / Hill, Dale, and shadie Woods, and sunnie Plaines, / And liquid Lapse of murmuring Streams; by these,

VIII-264. Creatures that livd, and movd, and walk'd, or flew,

VIII-265. Birds on the branches warbling; all things smil'd, / With fragrance and with joy my heart oreflow'd.

VIII-267. My self I then perus'd, and Limb by Limb / Survey'd, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran / With supple joints, as lively vigour led:

VIII-270. But who I was, or where, or from what cause,

VIII-271. Knew not; to speak I tri'd, and forthwith spake, / My Tongue obey'd and readily could name

VIII-273. What e're I saw. Thou Sun, said I, faire Light, / And thou enlight'nd Earth, so fresh and gay, / Ye Hills and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plaines, / And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell, / Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here?

VIII-278. Not of my self; by some great Maker then, / In goodness and in power prĉeminent; / Tell me, how may I know him, how adore, / From whom I have that thus I move and live, / And feel that I am happier then I know.

VIII-283. While thus I call'd, and stray'd I knew not whither, / From where I first drew Aire, and first beheld / This happie Light, when answer none return'd,

VIII-286. On a green shadie Bank profuse of Flours / Pensive I sate me down; there gentle sleep / First found me, and with soft oppression seis'd / My droused sense, untroubl'd, though I thought

VIII-290. I then was passing to my former state / Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:

VIII-292. When suddenly stood at my Head a dream, / Whose inward apparition gently mov'd / My Fancy to believe I yet had being, / And livd: One came, methought, of shape Divine,

VIII-296. And said, thy Mansion wants thee, Adam, rise, / First Man, of Men innumerable ordain'd / First Father, call'd by thee I come thy Guide / To the Garden of bliss, thy seat prepar'd.

VIII-300. So saying, by the hand he took me rais'd, / And over Fields and Waters, as in Aire / Smooth sliding without step, last led me up

VIII-303. A woodie Mountain; whose high top was plaine, / A Circuit wide, enclos'd, with goodliest Trees

VIII-305. Planted, with Walks, and Bowers, that what I saw / Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemd. Each Tree

VIII-307. Load'n with fairest Fruit, that hung to the Eye / Tempting, stirr'd in me sudden appetite

VIII-309. To pluck and eate; whereat I wak'd, and found / Before mine Eyes all real, as the dream

VIII-311. Had lively shadowd: Here had new begun / My wandring, had not hee who was my Guide / Up hither, from among the Trees appeer'd,

VIII-314. Presence Divine. Rejoycing, but with aw, / In adoration at his feet I fell

VIII-316. Submiss: he rear'd me, and Whom thou soughtst I am, / Said mildely, Author of all this thou seest / Above, or round about thee or beneath.

VIII-319. This Paradise I give thee, count it thine / To Till and keep, and of the Fruit to eate:

VIII-321. Of every Tree that in the Garden growes / Eate freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth: / But of the Tree whose operation brings / Knowledg of good and ill, which I have set / The Pledge of thy Obedience and thy Faith, / Amid the Garden by the Tree of Life,

VIII-327. Remember what I warne thee, shun to taste, / And shun the bitter consequence: for know, / The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command / Transgrest, inevitably thou shalt dye;

VIII-331. From that day mortal, and this happie State / Shalt loose, expell'd from hence into a World / Of woe and sorrow. Sternly he pronounc'd

VIII-334. The rigid interdiction, which resounds / Yet dreadful in mine eare, though in my choice / Not to incur; but soon his cleer aspect / Return'd and gracious purpose thus renew'd.

VIII-338. Not onely these fair bounds, but all the Earth / To thee and to thy Race I give; as Lords / Possess it, and all things that therein live, / Or live in Sea, or Aire, Beast, Fish, and Fowle.

VIII-342. In signe whereof each Bird and Beast behold / After thir kindes; I bring them to receave / From thee thir Names, and pay thee fealtie / With low subjection; understand the same

VIII-346. Of Fish within thir watry residence, / Not hither summon'd, since they cannot change / Thir Element to draw the thinner Aire.

VIII-349. As thus he spake, each Bird and Beast behold / Approaching two and two, These cowring low / With blandishment, each Bird stoop'd on his wing.

VIII-352. I nam'd them, as they pass'd, and understood / Thir Nature, with such knowledg God endu'd / My sudden apprehension: but in these

VIII-355. I found not what me thought I wanted still; / And to the Heav'nly vision thus presum'd.

VIII-357. O by what Name, for thou above all these, / Above mankinde, or aught then mankinde higher,

VIII-359. Surpassest farr my naming, how may I / Adore thee, Author of this Universe, / And all this good to man, for whose well being / So amply, and with hands so liberal

VIII-363. Thou hast provided all things: but with mee / I see not who partakes. In solitude / What happiness, who can enjoy alone, / Or all enjoying, what contentment find?

VIII-367. Thus I presumptuous; and the vision bright, / As with a smile more bright'nd, thus repli'd.

VIII-369. What call'st thou solitude, is not the Earth / With various living creatures, and the Aire / Replenisht, and all these at thy command / To come and play before thee; know'st thou not / Thir language and thir wayes? They also know, / And reason not contemptibly; with these / Find pastime, and beare rule; thy Realm is large. / So spake the Universal Lord, and seem'd / So ordering. I with leave of speech implor'd, / And humble deprecation thus repli'd.

VIII-379. Let not my words offend thee, Heav'nly Power, / My Maker, be propitious while I speak. / Hast thou not made me here thy substitute, / And these inferiour farr beneath me set? / Among unequals what societie / Can sort, what harmonie or true delight? / Which must be mutual, in proportion due / Giv'n and receiv'd; but in disparitie / The one intense, the other still remiss

VIII-388. Cannot well suite with either, but soon prove / Tedious alike: Of fellowship I speak / Such as I seek, fit to participate / All rational delight, wherein the brute / Cannot be human consort; they rejoyce

VIII-393. Each with thir kinde, Lion with Lioness; / So fitly them in pairs thou hast combin'd; / Much less can Bird with Beast, or Fish with Fowle / So well converse, nor with the Ox the Ape; / Wors then can Man with Beast, and least of all.

VIII-398. Whereto th' Almighty answer'd, not displeas'd. / A nice and suttle happiness I see / Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice / Of thy Associates, Adam, and wilt taste / No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitarie.

VIII-403. What think'st thou then of mee, and this my State, / Seem I to thee sufficiently possest / Of happiness, or not? who am alone / From all Eternitie, for none I know / Second to mee or like, equal much less.

VIII-408. How have I then with whom to hold converse / Save with the Creatures which I made, and those / To me inferiour, infinite descents / Beneath what other Creatures are to thee?

VIII-412. He ceas'd, I lowly answer'd. To attaine / The highth and depth of thy Eternal wayes / All human thoughts come short, Supream of things; / Thou in thy self art perfet, and in thee / Is no deficience found; not so is Man,

VIII-417. But in degree, the cause of his desire / By conversation with his like to help,

VIII-419. Or solace his defects. No need that thou / Shouldst propagat, already infinite; / And through all numbers absolute, though One;

VIII-422. But Man by number is to manifest / His single imperfection, and beget / Like of his like, his Image multipli'd, / In unitie defective, which requires / Collateral love, and deerest amitie.

VIII-427. Thou in thy secresie although alone, / Best with thy self accompanied, seek'st not / Social communication, yet so pleas'd, / Canst raise thy Creature to what highth thou wilt / Of Union or Communion, deifi'd;

VIII-432. I by conversing cannot these erect / From prone, nor in thir wayes complacence find. / Thus I embold'nd spake, and freedom us'd

VIII-435. Permissive, and acceptance found, which gain'd / This answer from the gratious voice Divine.

VIII-437. Thus farr to try thee, Adam, I was pleas'd,

VIII-438. And finde thee knowing not of Beasts alone, / Which thou hast rightly nam'd, but of thy self, / Expressing well the spirit within thee free,

VIII-441. My Image, not imparted to the Brute, / Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee / Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike,

VIII-444. And be so minded still; I, ere thou spak'st, / Knew it not good for Man to be alone, / And no such companie as then thou saw'st / Intended thee, for trial onely brought, / To see how thou could'st judge of fit and meet:

VIII-449. What next I bring shall please thee, be assur'd, / Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, / Thy wish, exactly to thy hearts desire.

VIII-452. Hee ended, or I heard no more, for now / My earthly by his Heav'nly overpowerd, / Which it had long stood under, streind to the highth / In that celestial Colloquie sublime, / As with an object that excels the sense, / Dazl'd and spent, sunk down, and sought repair / Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, call'd / By Nature as in aide, and clos'd mine eyes.

VIII-460. Mine eyes he clos'd, but op'n left the Cell / Of Fancie my internal sight, by which / Abstract as in a transe methought I saw, / Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape / Still glorious before whom awake I stood;

VIII-465. Who stooping op'nd my left side, and took / From thence a Rib, with cordial spirits warme,

VIII-467. And Life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound, / But suddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd:

VIII-469. The Rib he formd and fashond with his hands; / Under his forming hands a Creature grew,

VIII-471. Manlike, but different sex, so lovly faire,

VIII-472. That what seemd fair in all the World, seemd now

VIII-473. Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her containd

VIII-474. And in her looks, which from that time infus'd / Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before, / And into all things from her Aire inspir'd / The spirit of love and amorous delight.

VIII-478. Shee disappeerd, and left me dark, I wak'd

VIII-479. To find her, or for ever to deplore / Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:

VIII-481. When out of hope, behold her, not farr off, / Such as I saw her in my dream, adornd / With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow

VIII-484. To make her amiable: On she came, / Led by her Heav'nly Maker, though unseen,

VIII-486. And guided by his voice, nor uninformd / Of nuptial Sanctitie and marriage Rites:

VIII-488. Grace was in all her steps, Heav'n in her Eye, / In every gesture dignitie and love.

VIII-490. I overjoyd could not forbear aloud.

VIII-491. This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfill'd / Thy words, Creator bounteous and benigne,

VIII-493. Giver of all things faire, but fairest this / Of all thy gifts, nor enviest. I now see

VIII-495. Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh, my Self / Before me; Woman is her Name, of Man / Extracted; for this cause he shall forgoe / Father and Mother, and to his Wife adhere; / And they shall be one Flesh, one Heart, one Soule.

VIII-500. She heard me thus, and though divinely brought, / Yet Innocence and Virgin Modestie, / Her vertue and the conscience of her worth, / That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won, / Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retir'd,

VIII-505. The more desirable, or to say all, / Nature her self, though pure of sinful thought,

VIII-507. Wrought in her so, that seeing me, she turn'd; / I follow'd her, she what was Honour knew, / And with obsequious Majestie approv'd

VIII-510. My pleaded reason. To the Nuptial Bowre / I led her blushing like the Morn: all Heav'n,

VIII-512. And happie Constellations on that houre / Shed thir selectest influence; the Earth / Gave sign of gratulation, and each Hill; / Joyous the Birds; fresh Gales and gentle Aires / Whisper'd it to the Woods, and from thir wings / Flung Rose, flung Odours from the spicie Shrub, / Disporting, till the amorous Bird of Night / Sung Spousal, and bid haste the Eevning Starr / On his Hill top, to light the bridal Lamp. / Thus I have told thee all my State, and brought / My Storie to the sum of earthly bliss

VIII-523. Which I enjoy, and must confess to find / In all things else delight indeed, but such / As us'd or not, works in the mind no change, / Nor vehement desire, these delicacies / I mean of Taste, Sight, Smell, Herbs, Fruits and Flours, / Walks, and the melodie of Birds; but here

VIII-529. Farr otherwise, transported I behold, / Transported touch; here passion first I felt, / Commotion strange, in all enjoyments else / Superiour and unmov'd, here onely weake / Against the charm of Beauties powerful glance. / Or Nature faild in mee, and left some part

VIII-535. Not proof enough such Object to sustain, / Or from my side subducting, took perhaps

VIII-537. More then enough; at least on her bestow'd / Too much of Ornament, in outward shew / Elaborate, of inward less exact. / For well I understand in the prime end / Of Nature her th' inferiour, in the mind / And inward Faculties, which most excell, / In outward also her resembling less

VIII-544. His Image who made both, and less expressing / The character of that Dominion giv'n

VIII-546. O're other Creatures; yet when I approach / Her loveliness, so absolute she seems / And in her self compleat, so well to know / Her own, that what she wills to do or say, / Seems wisest, vertuousest, discreetest, best; / All higher knowledge in her presence falls / Degraded, Wisdom in discourse with her / Looses discount'nanc't, and like folly shewes; / Authority and Reason on her waite, / As one intended first, not after made / Occasionally; and to consummate all, / Greatness of mind and nobleness thir seat / Build in her loveliest, and create an awe / About her, as a guard Angelic plac't.

VIII-560. To whom the Angel with contracted brow.

VIII-561. Accuse not Nature, she hath don her part; / Do thou but thine, and be not diffident

VIII-563. Of Wisdom, she deserts thee not, if thou / Dismiss not her, when most thou needst her nigh,

VIII-565. By attributing overmuch to things / Less excellent, as thou thy self perceav'st. / For what admir'st thou, what transports thee so,

VIII-568. An outside? fair no doubt, and worthy well / Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love, / Not thy subjection: weigh with her thy self;

VIII-571. Then value: Oft times nothing profits more / Then self esteem, grounded on just and right / Well manag'd; of that skill the more thou know'st, / The more she will acknowledge thee her Head, / And to realities yield all her shows: / Made so adorn for thy delight the more,

VIII-577. So awful, that with honour thou maist love / Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise. / But if the sense of touch whereby mankind / Is propagated seem such dear delight / Beyond all other, think the same voutsaf't / To Cattel and each Beast; which would not be

VIII-583. To them made common and divulg'd, if aught / Therein enjoy'd were worthy to subdue / The Soule of Man, or passion in him move.

VIII-586. What higher in her societie thou findst / Attractive, human, rational, love still; / In loving thou dost well, in passion not,

VIII-589. Wherein true Love consists not; love refines / The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat / In Reason, and is judicious, is the scale / By which to heav'nly Love thou maist ascend,

VIII-593. Not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause / Among the Beasts no Mate for thee was found.

VIII-595. To whom thus half abash't Adam repli'd.

VIII-596. Neither her out-side formd so fair, nor aught / In procreation common to all kindes / (Though higher of the genial Bed by far, / And with mysterious reverence I deem) / So much delights me as those graceful acts, / Those thousand decencies that daily flow / From all her words and actions mixt with Love / And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd / Union of Mind, or in us both one Soule; / Harmonie to behold in wedded pair

VIII-606. More grateful then harmonious sound to the eare. / Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose / What inward thence I feel, not therefore foild, / Who meet with various objects, from the sense / Variously representing; yet still free / Approve the best, and follow what I approve.

VIII-612. To Love thou blam'st me not, for love thou saist / Leads up to Heav'n, is both the way and guide;

VIII-614. Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask; / Love not the heav'nly Spirits, and how thir Love / Express they, by looks onely, or do they mix / Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?

VIII-618. To whom the Angel with a smile that glow'd / Celestial rosie red, Loves proper hue,

VIII-620. Answer'd. Let it suffice thee that thou know'st / Us happie, and without Love no happiness.

VIII-622. Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy'st / (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy / In eminence, and obstacle find none / Of membrane, joynt, or limb, exclusive barrs:

VIII-626. Easier then Air with Air, if Spirits embrace, / Total they mix, Union of Pure with Pure / Desiring; nor restrain'd conveyance need / As Flesh to mix with Flesh, or Soul with Soul.

VIII-630. But I can now no more; the parting Sun / Beyond the Earths green Cape and verdant Isles / Hesperean sets, my Signal to depart.

VIII-633. Be strong, live happie, and love, but first of all / Him whom to love is to obey, and keep

VIII-635. His great command; take heed lest Passion sway / Thy Judgment to do aught, which else free Will

VIII-637. Would not admit; thine and of all thy Sons / The weal or woe in thee is plac't; beware.

VIII-639. I in thy persevering shall rejoyce,

VIII-640. And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fall / Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies. / Perfet within, no outward aid require;

VIII-643. And all temptation to transgress repel.

VIII-644. So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus

VIII-645. Follow'd with benediction. Since to part, / Go heavenly Guest, Ethereal Messenger, / Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore.

VIII-648. Gentle to me and affable hath been / Thy condescension, and shall be honour'd ever

VIII-650. With grateful Memorie: thou to mankind / Be good and friendly still, and oft return.

VIII-652. So parted they, the Angel up to Heav'n / From the thick shade, and Adam to his Bowre.