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But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
That I may find him, and with secret gaze
Or open admiration him behold,

On whom the great Creator hath bestowed

Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured;
That both in him and all things, as is meet,
The universal Maker we may praise;
Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,
Created this new happy race of men

To serve him better: wise are all his ways.”

So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,

670

675

680

By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth: 685
And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity

Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems; which now for once beguiled
Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held

The sharpest sighted spirit of all in Heaven;
Who to the fraudulent impostor foul,

In his uprightness, answer thus returned:

690

"Fair angel, thy desire, which tends to know The works of God, thereby to glorify

695

The great work-master, leads to no excess
That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps,

670. dwell, dwell in.

689. which. For the antecedent of this pronoun, see line 683. 690. held, considered as.

700

699. empyreal, heavenly; in the pure region of light, above created spheres.

Contented with report, hear only in Heaven:
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight;
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite

That brought them forth, but hid their causes de
I saw when at his word the formless mass,
This World's material mould, came to a heap :
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire,
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward, spirited with various forms,
That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;
Each had his place appointed, each his course,
The rest in circuit walls this universe.

Look downward on that globe whose hither side
With light from hence, though but reflected, shi
That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that ligh
His day, which else as the other hemisphere
Night would invade; but there the neighboring
(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
Timely interposes, and, her monthly round
Still ending, still renewing, through mid heaven,

708. at his word. "For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." Psalm xxxiii. 9.

715. flood, water.

716. this ethereal quintessence. It was the belief of some of the ancient philosophers that there was, besides the four elements, a fifth essence, 66 quinta essentia,"

out of which the heavens a stars were formed.

717. spirited, animated. 719. how they move, thou

how they move.

--

721. The rest, the rest o quintessence. in circuit, about. mood.

727. call is in the impe

730

With borrowed light her countenance triform
Hence fills and empties to enlighten the earth,
And in her pale dominion checks the night.
That spot to which I point is Paradise,
Adam's abode, those lofty shades his bower:
Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires." 735

Thus said, he turned; and Satan bowing low, As to superior spirits is wont in Heaven, Where honor due and reverence none neglects, Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath, Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel, Nor stayed, till on Niphates' top he lights.

730. triform, having three shapes or phases.

731. Hence, from the sun. 735. me mine requires, my way needs me.

740. the ecliptic, the sun's apparent path.sped with hoped success, hastened by the hope of

success.

741. wheel, turn or rotation.

740

742. Niphates' top. Niphates is a mountain chain of Armenia, in Turkey in Asia, north of Mesopotamia, the region in which the garden of Eden is supposed to have been situated.

BOOK IV.

THE ARGUMENT.

SATAN, now in prospect of Eden and nigh the place where he now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone ag God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and passions, fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms hi in evil, journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and uation is described, overleaps the bounds, sits in the shape cormorant on the Tree of Life, as highest in the garden, to about him. The garden described; Satan's first sight of A and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state with resolution to work their fall; overhears their disco thence gathers that the tree of knowledge was forbidden the eat of, under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found temptation, by seducing them to transgress: then leaves awhile, to know further of their state by some other me Meanwhile Uriel descending on a sunbeam warns Gabriel, had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the s of a good angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his fur gestures in the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere mor Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel, dra forth his bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise. points two strong angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil S should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; t they find him at the ear of Eve tempting her in a dream, bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom question he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but hindered by a from Heaven flies cut of Paradise.

O FOR that warning voice, which he who saw The Apocalypse heard cry in Heaven aloud, Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,

1. that warning voice. See Revelation xii. 9-12.

3. second rout. The first r was the expulsion of the ro

Came furious down to be revenged on men,
Woe to the inhabitants on Earth! that now,
While time was, our first parents had been warned
The coming of their secret foe, and scaped,
Haply so scaped, his mortal snare: for now
Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,
The tempter ere the accuser of mankind,
To wreak on innocent frail man his loss
Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell:
Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold
Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,
Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth
Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast,
And like a devilish engine back recoils
Upon himself: horror and doubt distract

His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The hell within him; for within him hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly
By change of place: now conscience wakes despair
That slumbered, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.
Sometimes toward Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;
Sometimes towards Heaven and the full blazing sun
Which now sat high in his meridian tower;
Then much revolving, thus in sighs began:

"O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god
Of this new world, at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads, to thee I call,

angels from Heaven. It is de-
scribed in Book VI.

6. while time was, while there was time; before it should be too

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

late. had been, might have been. warned, warned of.

30. in his meridian tower, at his noon-day height.

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