Thence to behold this new-created world, The addition of his empire, how it showed In prospect from his throne, how good, how Answering his great idea. Up he rode, Followed with acclamation and the sound Symphonious of ten thousand harps that tu Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou hea The heavens and all the constellations rung The planets in their station, listening stood, While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.

6

6

Open, ye everlasting gates!' they sung,

Open, ye heavens, your living doors! let i
The great Creator from his work returned
Magnificent, his six days' work, a world :
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will dei
To visit oft the dwellings of just men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his wingèd messengers
On errands of supernal grace.'
So sung

The glorious train ascending. He through
That opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way,
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powdered with stars. And now on earth the
Evening arose in Eden, for the sun

Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount

556. In prospect, in view. 562. See Job xxxviii. 7. 564. pomp, procession. 565. Lift up your hands, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King

of glory shall come in. xxiv. 7.

575. her blazing port line 206.

581. Powdered with s line 358.- the seventh. esis ii. 1-3.

Of Heaven's high seated top, the imperial throne 585
Of Godhead, fixed forever firm and sure,

The filial Power arrived, and sat him down
With his great Father, for he also went
Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege

Hath Omnipresence), and the work ordained,
Author and end of all things, and from work
Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day,
As resting on that day from all his work;
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Tempered soft tunings intermixed with voice
Choral or unison of incense clouds

Fuming from golden censers hid the mount.
Creation and the six days' acts they sung:
Great are thy works, Jehovah ! infinite

590

595

600

Thy power; what thought can measure thee, or

tongue

Relate thee? greater now in thy return

Than from the giant angels; thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate and their counsels vain
Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers.

592. hallowed the seventh day. "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it." Exodus xx. 11. In this line, the last two words seem to make one foot.

Who seeks

005

610

596. stop, that which regulates the sound of wind-instruments.

597. fret is the cross division, or wire, which regulates the sound of stringed instruments, or varies their tone.

598. tempered, made to accord. 599. unison, sounding alone

To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might his evil
Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more g
Witness this new-made World, another heav
From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;

Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation; but thou know'st
Their seasons: among these the seat of men,
Earth with her nether ocean circumfused,
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happ
And sons of men, whom God hath thus adva
Created in his image, there to dwell
And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just; thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!'

"So sung they, and the empyréan rung With hallelujahs: thus was sabbath kept. And thy request think now fulfilled, that ask How first this world and face of things began, And what before thy memory was done From the beginning, that posterity

Informed by thee might know; if else thou se Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.”

619. hyaline, composed of glass. "And I saw as it were a sea of glass, mingled with fire." Rev. xv. 2.

620. immense, without meas

ure.

624. nether, lower.

268.

633. empyrean, the heaven, composed of th element. See II. 771

BOOK VIII.

THE ARGUMENT.

ADAM inquires concerning celestial motions; is doubtfully answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge: Adam assents, and, still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own creation, his placing in Paradise, his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society, his first meeting and nuptials with Eve; his discourse with the angel thereupon, who, after admonitions repeated, departs.

THE angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he awhile

Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear; Then, as new waked, thus gratefully replied:

"What thanks sufficient, or what recompense

5

Equal, have I to render thee, divine
Historian, who thus largely hast allayed
The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed
This friendly condescension to relate

Things else by me unsearchable, now heard
With wonder but delight, and, as is due,
With glory áttributed to the high
Creator? Something yet of doubt remains,
Which only thy solution can resolve.

When I behold this goodly frame, this World,

3. stood fixed to hear. This seems to mean, remained fixed as if listening.

15-38. Adam is here made to propose the difficulties which beset the ancient system of Astronomy, commonly called the Ptole

10

15

maic. This supposed the Earth to be the centre, herself motionless or sedentary, round which the Sun, the planets, and the fixed stars revolved. See III. 481483.

Of heaven and earth consisting, and compu
Their magnitudes, this earth a spot, a grain
An atom, with the firmament compared
And all her numbered stars, that seem to ro
Spaces incomprehensible (for such

Their distance argues and their swift return
Diurnal) merely to officiate light

Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot
One day and night, in all their vast survey
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 appears, and on their orbs impose
Such restless revolution, day by day
Repeated, while the sedentary earth,
That better might with far less compass mov
Served by more noble than herself, attains
Her end without least motion, and receives,
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fa

So spake our sire, and by his countenance Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; whic Perceiving where she sat retired in sight, With lowliness majestic from her seat, And grace that won who saw to wish her stay Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flo

19. numbered, numerous. 20. Spaces, through spaces. 22. officiate, supply as it is their office or duty to do.

23. opacous, opaque. - punctual, like a point, as with the firmament compared.

24. survey, extent. 25. admire, wonder.

29. Greater so mar many times greater.

30. aught, aught that 33. compass, circuit. 36. sumless, beyond tion. - such, by or thro

37. incorporeal, as body; as of spirits. 110.