think the same voutsaft To Cattel and each Beast which would not be To them made common divulg'd if aught Therein enjoy'd were worthy to subdue The Soule of Man or passion in him move What higher in her societie thou findst Attractive human rational love still In loving thou dost well in passion not 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 asâ—…end Not sunk in carnal pleasure for which cause Among the Beasts no Mate for thee was found To whom thus half abash't Adam repli'd 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 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 To love thou blam'st me not for love thou saist Leads upto Heav'n is both the way and guide 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 To whom the Angel with a smile that glow'd Celestial rosie red Loves proper hue Answer'd Let it suffice thee that thou know'st Us happie and without Love no happiness 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 〈◊〉 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 But I can now no more the parting Sun Beyond the Earths green Cape and verdant Isles Hesperean sets my Signal to depart Be strong live happie and love but first of all Him whom to love is to obey and keep His great command take heed least Passion sway Thy Judgement to do aught which else free Will Would not admit thine and of all thy Sons The weal or woe in thee is plac't beware I in thy persevering shall rejoyce And all the Blest stand fast to stand or fall Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies Perfet within no outward aid require And all temptation to transgress repel So saying he arose whom Adam thus Follow'd with benediction Since to part Go heavenly Guest Ethereal Messenger Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore Gentle to me and affable hath been Thy condescension and shall be honour'd ever With grateful Memorie thou to mankind Be good and friendly still and oft return So parted they the Angel up to Heav'n From the thick shade and Adam to his Bowre PARADISE LOST BOOK VIII NO more of talk where God or Angel Guest With Man as with his Friend familiar us'd To sit indulgent and with him partake Rural repast permitting him the while Venial discourse unblam'd I now must change Those Notes to Tragic foul distrust and breach Disloyal on the part of Man râ—…volt And disoâ—…dience On the part of Heav'n Now aliâ—…ted distance and distaste Anger and just rebuke and judgement giv'n That brought into this World a world of woe Sinne and her shadow Death and Miserie Deaths â—…arbinger Sad 〈◊〉 yet argument Not less but more Heroic then the wrauth Of stern Aohilles on his Foe pursu'd Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd Or Neptun's ire or Juno's that so long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's Son If answerable style I can obtaine Of my Celestial Patroness who deignes Her nightly visitation unimplor'd And dictates to me slumbring or inspires Easie my unpremeditated Verse Since first this Subject for Heroic Song Pleas'd me long choosing and beginning late Not sedulous by Nature to indite Warrs hitherto the onely Argument Heroic deem'd chief maistrie to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabl'd Knights In Battels feign'd the better fortitude Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom Unsung or to describe Races and Games Or tilting Furniture emblazon'd Shields Impreses quaint Caparisons and Steeds Bases and tinsel Trappings gorgious Knights At Joust and Torneament then marshal'd Feast Serv'd up in Hall with Sewers and Seneshals The skill of Artifice or Office mean Not that which justly gives Heroic name To Person or to Poem Mee of these Nor skilld nor â—…udious higher Argument Remaines sufficient of it self to raise That name unâ—…ess an age too late or cold Climat or Years damp my intended wing Deprest and much they may if all be mine Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear. The Sun was sunk and after him the Starr Of Hesperus whose Office is to bring Twilight upon the Earth short Arbiter Twixt Day and Night and now from end to end Nights Hemisphere had veild the Horizon round When Satan who late fled before the threats Of Gabriel out of Eden now improv'd In meditated fraud and malice bent On mans destruction maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself fearless return'd By Night he fled and at Midnight return'd From compassing the Earth cautious of day Since Uriel Regent of the Sun descri'd His entrance and forewarnd the Cherubim That kept thir watch thence full of anguish driv'n The space of seven continu'd Nights he rode With darkness thrice the Equinoctial Line He circl'd four times cross'd the Carr of Night From Pole to Pole traversing each Colure On the eighth return'd and on the Coast averse From entrance or Cherubic Watch by stealth Found unsuspected way There was a place Now not though Sin not Time first wraught the change Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise Into a Gulf shot under ground till part Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life In with the River sunk and with it rose Satan involv'd in rising Mist then sought Where to lie hid Sea he had searcht and Land From Eden over Pontus and the Poole Maeotis up beyond the River Ob Downward as farr Antartic and in length West from Orontes to the Ocean barr'd At Darieâ—… thence to the Land where flowes Ganges and Indus thus the Orb he roam'd With narrow search and with inspection deep Consider'd every Creature which of all Most opportune might serve his Wiles and found The Serpent suttlest Beast of all the Field Him after long debate irresolute Of thoughts revolv'd his final sentence chose Fit Vessel fittest Imp of fraud in whom To enter and his dark suggestions hide From sharpest sight for in the wilie Snake Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark As from his wit and native
shall be nice So down they sat And to thir viands fell nor seemingly The Angel nor in mist the common gloss Of Theologians but with keen dispatch Of real hunger and concoctive heate To transubstantiate what redounds transpires Through Spirits with ease nor wonder if by fire Of sooty coal the Empiric Alchimist Can turn or holds it possible to turn Metals of drossiest Ore to perfet Gold As from the Mine Mean while at Table Eve Ministerd naked and thir flowing cups With pleasant liquors crown'd O innocence Deserving Paradise if ever then Then had the Sons of God excuse to have bin Enamour'd at that sight but in those hearts Love unlibidinous reign'd nor jealousie Was understood the injur'd Lovers Hell Thus when with meats drinks they had suffic'd Not burd'nd Nature sudden mind arose In Adam not to let th' occasion pass Given him by this great Conference to know Of things above his World and of thir being Who dwell in Heav'n whose excellence he saw Transcend his own so farr whose radiant forms Divine effulgence whose high Power so far Exceeded human and his wary speech Thus to th'Empyreal Minister he fram'd Inhabitant with God now know I well Thy favour in this honour done to man Under whose lowly roof thou hast voutsaf't To enter and these earthly fruits to taste Food not of Angels yet accepted so As that more willingly thou couldst not seem At Heav'ns high feasts to have fed yet what compare To whom the winged Hierarch repli'd O Adam one Almightie is from whom All things proceed and up to him return If not deprav'd from good created all Such to perfection one first matter all Indu'd with various forms various degrees Of substance and in things that live of life But more refin'd more spiritous and pure As neerer to him plac't or neerer tending Each in thir several active Sphears assignd Till body up to spirit work in bounds Proportiond to each kind So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk from thence the leaves More aerie last the bright consummate floure Spirits odorous breathes flours and thir fruit Mans nourishment by gradual scale sublim'd To vital Spirits aspire to animal To intellectual give both life and sense Fansie and understanding whence the soule Reason receives and reason is her being Discursive or Intuitive discourse Is oftest yours the latter most is ours Differing but in degree of kind the same Wonder not then what God for you saw good If I refuse not but convert as you To proper substance time may come when men With Angels may participate and find No inconvenient Diet nor too light Fare And from these corporal nutriments perhaps Your bodies may at last turn all to Spirit Improv'd by tract of time and wingd ascend Ethereal as wee or may at choice Here or in Heav'nly Paradises dwell If ye be found obedient and retain Unalterably firm his love entire Whose progenie you are Mean while enjoy Your fill what happiness this happie state Can comprehend incapable of more To whom the Patriarch of mankind repli'd O favourable spirit propitious guest Well hast thou taught the way that might direct Our knowledge and the scale of Nature set From center to circumference whereon In contemplation of created things By steps we may ascend to God But say What meant that caution joind if ye be found Obedient can wee want obedience then To him or possibly his love desert Who formd us from the dust and plac'd us here Full to the â—…tmost measure of what bliss Human desires can seek or apprehend To whom the Angel Son of Heav'n and Earth Attend That thou art happie owe to God That thou continu'st such owe to thy self That is to thy obedience therein stand This was that caution giv'n thee be advis'd God made thee perfet not immutable And good he made thee but to persevere He left it in thy power ordaind thy will By nature free not over-rul'd by Fate Inextricable or strict necessity Our voluntarie service he requires Not our necessitated such with him Findes no acceptance nor can find for how Can hearts not free be tri'd whether they serve Willing or no who will but what they must By Destinie and can no other choose My self and all th' Angelic Host that stand In sight of God enthron'd our happie state Hold as you yours while our obedience holds On other surety none freely we serve Because wee freely love as in our will To love or not in this we stand or fall And som are fall'n to disobedience fall'n And so from Heav'n to deepest Hell O fall From what high state of bliss into what woe To whom our great Progenitor Thy words Attentive and with more delighted eare Divine instructer I have heard theâ—… when Cherubic Songs by night from neighbouring Hills Aereal Music send nor knew I not To be both will and deed created free Yet that we never shall forget to love Our maker and obey him whose command Single is yet so just my constant thoughts Assur'd me and still assure though what thou tellst Hath past in Heav'n som doubt within me move But more desire to hear if thou consent The full relation which must needs be strange Worthy of Sacred silence to be heard And we have yet large day for scarce the Sun Hath finisht half his journey and scarce begins His other half in the great Zone of Heav'n Thus Adam made request and Raphael After short pause assenting thus began High matter thou injoinst me O prime of men Sad task and hard for how shall I relate To human sense th' invisible exploits Of warring Spirits how without remorse The ruin of so many glorious once And perfet while they stood how last unfould The secrets of another world perhaps Not lawful to reveal yet for thy good This is dispenc't and what surmounts the reach Of human sense I shall delineate so By lik'ning spiritual to corporal forms As may express them best though what if Earth Be but the shaddow of Heav'n and things therein Each to other like more then on earth is thought As yet this world was not and Chaos wilde Reignd where these Heav'ns now rowl where Earth now rests Upon her Center pois'd when on a day For Time though in Eternitie appli'd To motion measures all things durable By present past and future on such day As Heav'ns great Year brings forth th'Empyreal Host Of Angels by Imperial summons call'd Innumerable before th' Almighties Throne Forth with from all the ends of Heav'n appeerd Under thir Hierarchs in orders bright Ten thousand thousand Ensignes high advanc'd Standards and Gonfalons twixt Van and Reare Streame in the Aire and for distinction serve Of Hierarchies of Orders and Degrees Or in thir glittering Tissues bear imblaz'd Holy Memorials acts of Zeale and Love Recorded eminent Thus when in Orbes Of circuit inexpressible they stood Orb within Orb the Father infinite By whom in bliss imbosom'd sat the Son A midst as from a flaming Mount
Knights and couch thir spears Till thickest Legions close with feats of Arms From either end of Heav'n the welkin burns Others with vast 〈◊〉 rage more fell Rend up both Rocks and Hills and ride the Air In whirlwind Hell scarce holds the wilde uproar As when Alcides from Oealia Crown'd With conquest felt th' envenom'd robe and tore Through pain up by the roots Thessalian Pines And 〈◊〉 from the top of 〈◊〉 threw Into th' Euboic Sea Others more milde Retreated in a silent valley sing With notes Angelical to many a Harp Thir own Heroic deeds and hapless fall By doom of Battel and complain that Fate Free Vertue should enthrall to Force or Chance Thir song was partial but the harmony What could it less when Spirits immortal sing Suspended Hâ—…ll and took with ravishment The thronging audience In discourse more sweet For Eloquence the Soul Song charms the Sense Others apart sat on a Hill retir'd In thoughts more elevate and reason'd high Of 〈◊〉 Foreknowledge Will and Fate Fixt Fate 〈◊〉 will fore knowledge absolute And found â—…o end in wandring mazes lost Of good and evil much they argu'd then Of happiness and final misery Passion and Apathie and glory and shame Vain wisdom all and false Philosophie Yet with a pleasing sorcerie could charm Pain for a while or anguish and excite Fallacious hope or arm th' obdured brest With stubborn patience as with triple steel Another part in Squadrons and gross Bands On bold adventure to discover wide That dismal world if any Clime perhaps Might yeild them easier habitation bend Four ways thir flying March along the Banks Of four infernal Rivers that disgorge Into the burning Lake thir baleful streams Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate Sad Acheron of sorrow black and deep Cocytus nam'd of lamentation loud Heard on the ruful stream fierce Phlegeton Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage Farr off from these a slow and silent stream Lethe the River of Oblivion roules Her watrie Labyrinth whereof who drinks Forthwith his former state and being forgets Forgets both joy and grief pleasure and pain Beyond this flood a frozen Continent Lies dark and wilde beat with perpetnal storms Of Whirlwind and dire Hail which on firm land Thaws not but gathers heap and ruin seems Of ancient pile all else deep snow and ice A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old Where Armies whole have sunk the parching Air Burns frore and cold performs th' effect of Fire Thither by harpy-footed Furies hail'd At certain revolutions all the damn'd Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extreams extreams by change more fierce From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice Thir soft Ethereal warmth and there to pine Immovable infixt and frozen round Periods of time thence hurried back to fire They ferry over this Lethean Sound Both to and fro thir sorrow to augment And wish and struggle as they pass to reach The tempting stream with one small drop to loose In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe All in one moment and so neer the brink But fate withstands and to oppose th attempt Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The Ford and of it self the water flies All taste of living wight as once it fled The lip of Tantalus Thus roving on In confus'd march forlorn th' adventrous Bands With shuddring horror pale and eyes agast View'd first thir lamentable lot and found No rest through many a dark and drearie Vaile They pass'd and many a Region dolorous O're many a Frozen many a Fierie Alpe Rocks Caves Lakes Fens Bogs Dens and shades of death A Universe of death which God by curse Created evil for evil only good Where all life dies death 〈◊〉 and nature breeds Perverse all monstrous all prodigious things Abominable inutterable and worse Then Fables yet have feign'd or fear conceiv'd Gorgons and Hydra's and Chimera's dire Mean while the Adversary of God and Man Satan with thoughts inflam'd of highest design Puts on swift wings and toward 〈◊〉 Gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight som times He scours the right hand coast fom times the left Now shaves with level wing the Deep then soares Up to the fiery concave 〈◊〉 high As when farr off at Sea a Fleet 〈◊〉 Hangs in the Clouds by 〈◊〉 Winds Close sailing from Beâ—…gala or the Iles Of Ternate and Tidore whence Merchants bring Thir spâ—…cie Drugs they on the trading Flood Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape Ply stemming nightly toward the Poâ—…e So seem'd Farr off the flying Fiend at last appeer Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid Roof And thrice threefold the Gates three folds were Brass Three Iron three of Adamantine Rock Impenitrable impal'd with circling fire Yet unconsum'd Before the Gates there sat On either side a formidable shape The one seem'd Woman to the waste and fair But ended foul in many a 〈◊〉 fould 〈◊〉 and vast a Serpent arm'd With mortal sting about her middle round A cry of Hell Hounds never ceasing bark'd With wide Cerberean mouths full â—…oud and rung A 〈◊〉 Peal yet when they list would creep If aught disturb'd thir noyse into her woomb And kennel there yet there still bark'd and howl'd Within unseen Farr less abhorrd then these Vex'd Sâ—…ylla bathing in the Sea that parts Calabria from the hoarce Trinacrian shore Nor uglier follow the Night-Hag when call'd In secret riding through the 〈◊〉 she comes Lur'd with the smell of infant blood to dance With Lapland Witches while the labouring Moon Eclipses at thir charms The other shape If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member joynt or limb Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd For each seem'd either black it stood as Night Fierce as ten Furies terrible as Hell And shook a dreadful Dart what seem'd his head The likeness of a Kingly Crown had on Satan was now at hand and from his seat The Monster moving onward came as fasâ—… With horrid strides Hell trembled as he strode Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admir'd Admir'd not fear'd God and his Son except Created thing naught vallu'd he nor shun'd And with disdainful look thus first began Whence and what art thou execrable shape That dar'st though grim and terrible advance Thy miscreated Front 〈◊〉 my way To yonder Gates through them I mean to pass That be assur'd without leave askt of thee Retire or taste thy folly and learn by proof Hell-born not to contend with Spirits of 〈◊〉 To whom the Goblin full of wrauth reply'd Art thou that Traitor Angel art thou hee Who first broke peace in Heav'n and Faith till then Unbrok'n and in proud rebellious Arms Drew after him the third part of Heav'ns Sons Conjur'd against the highest for which both Thou And they outcast from God are here condemn'd To waste Eternal daies in woe and pain And reck'n'st thou thy self with Spirits of Heav'n Hell-doomd and breath'st defiance here and