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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, list'ning 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

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Thy hearing; such commission from above
I have receiv'd, to answer thy desire

Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope
Things not reveal'd, which th' invisible King,
Only omniscient, 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 temp'rance 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, th' omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.

"""At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought

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All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat

Of deity supreme, us dispossess'd,

He trusted to have seiz'd, and into fraud

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more;
Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

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Their station; Heav'n yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms

Though wide, and this high temple to frequent

With ministeries due and solemn rites:

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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 rais'd

They open to themselves at length the way

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Up hither, under long obedience try'd,

And Earth be chang’d to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth, 160·
One kingdom, joy and union without end.

Meanwhile inhabit lax, ye Pow'rs of Heav'n,
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform; speak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spi'rit and might with thee
I send along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heav'n and Earth,
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
Though I uncircumscrib'd myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance

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Approach not me, and what I will is fate.'

"So spake th' Almighty, and to what he spake

His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.

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Immediate are the acts of God, more swift

Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without procéss of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.
Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,

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When such was heard declar'd 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

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And th' habitations of the just; to him

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Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; sapience and love

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Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,

And Virtues, winged Spi'rits, and chariots wing'd
From th' armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv'd,
Attendant on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his pow'rful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

On heav'nly ground they stood, and 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

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And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heav'n's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
"Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,'
Said then th' omnific Word, 'your discord end :'
Nor stay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

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Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;

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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, and in his hand

He took the golden compasses, prepar'd

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In God's eternal store, to circumscribe

This universe, aud all created things:

One foot he center'd and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,

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This be thy just circumference, O world.'
Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat❜ry calm

His brooding wings the Spi'rit of God outspread,
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs

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Adverse to life; then founded, then conglob'd

Like things to like, the rest to several place

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Disparted, and between spun out the air,

And Earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung.

"Let there be light,' said God, and forthwith light

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

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Sprung from the deep, and from her native east

To journey through the airy gloom began,

Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet

Was not;

the sun

she in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere

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Divided: light the day, and darkness night

He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

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Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd
God and his works, Creator him they sung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn.

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Amid the waters, and let it divide

Again, God said, 'Let there be firmament

The waters from the waters:' and God made
The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd

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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 remov'd, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame.
And Heav'n he nam'd the firmament: So even

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And morning chorus sung the second day.

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"The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet

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Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm

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Prolific humour soft'ning 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, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky;

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