Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl, No homely morsels; and whatever thing The sithe of Time mows down, devour unspar'd; Till I in Man residing through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect, And season him thy last and sweetest prey.
THIS said, they both betook them several ways, Both to destroy, or unimmortal make All kinds, and for destruction to mature Sooner or later; which th' Almighty seeing, From his transcendent seat the Saints among, To those bright Orders utter'd thus his voice.
SEE with what heat these dogs of Hell advance
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly' of Man
Let in these wasteful furies, who impute
Folly to me, so doth the prince of Hell
Of passion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither
My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which Man's polluting sin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst
With suck'd and glutted offal, at one sling Of thy victorious arm, well pleasing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last Through Chaos hurl'd, obstruct the mouth of Hell For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.
Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd shall be made pure
To sanctity that shall receive no stain:
Till then the curse pronounc'd on both precedes. 640 He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas,
Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways, Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Destin'd restorer of mankind, by whom
New Heav'n and Earth shall to the ages rise,
Or down from Heav'n descend. Such was their song, While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty Angels gave them several charge, As sorted best with present things. The sun Had first his precept so to move, so shine, As might affect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit winter, from the south to bring Solstitial summer's heat. To the blank moon
Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five Their planetary motions and aspécts In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite Of noxious efficacy, and when to join In synod unbenign; and taught the fix'd Their influence malignant when to shower,
Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, Should prove tempestuous: To the winds they set Their corners, when with bluster to confound Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll With terror through the dark aerial hall. Some say he bid his Angels turn ascance The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more From the sun's axle; they with labour push'd Oblique the centric globe: Some say the sun Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales,
As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring
Perpetual smil❜d on earth with vernant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun To recompense his distance, in their sight
Had rounded still th' horizon, and not known
Or east or west, which had forbid the snow
From cold Estotiland, and south as far Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit The sun, as from Thyéstean banquet, turn'd His course intended; else how had the world
Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
These changes in the Heav'ns, though slow, produc'd
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