Proportion'd to each kind. So from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
More airy, last the bright confummate flower 481
Spirits odorous breathes: flowers, and their fruit,
Man's nourishment, by gradual feale fublim'd,
To vital fpirits afpire, to animal,
To intellectual; give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding; whence the foul
Reason receives, and reason is her being,
Difcurfive, or intuitive: discourse
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours,
Diff'ring but in degree, of kind the fame.
Wonder not then, what God for you faw good
If I refuse not, but convert, as you,
proper fubftance. Time may come, when men With angels may participate, and find
No inconvenient di'et, nor too light fare
And from thefe corporal nutriments perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to fpirit,
Improv'd by tract of time, and wing'd afcend
Ethereal, as we, or may at choice
Here or in heav'nly Paradifes dwell;
If ye be found obedient, and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire,
Whofe progeny you are. Mean while enjoy
Your fill what happinefs this happy state
Can comprehend, incapable of more.
To whom the patriarch of mankind reply'd
O favourable fpi'rit, propitious guest,
Well haft thou taught the way that might direc
Our knowledge, and the fcale of nature set
From centre to circumference, whereon,
In contemplation of created things,
By steps we may afcend to God. But fay,
What meant that caution join'd, If ye be found
Obedient? Can we want obedience then
To him, or poffibly his love defert,
Who form'd us from the duft, and plac'd us here
Full to the utmost measure of what blifs
Human defires can feek or apprehend?
To whom the angel. Son of heaven and earth,
Attend. That thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continu'eft fuch, owe to thyfelf,
That is, to thy obedience; therein to stand.
This was that caution giv'n thee; be advis'd.
God made thee perfect, not immutable;
And good he made thee, but to perfevere
He left it in thy power; ordain'd thy will
By nature free, not overrul'd by fate
Inextricable, or strict neceffity:
Our voluntary fervice he requires,
Not our neceffitated; fuch with him
Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how
Can hearts, not free, be try'd whether they ferve
Willing or no, who will but what they must
By destiny, and can no other chufe?
Myfelf, and all th' angelic hoft, that stand
in fight of God enthron'd, our happy state
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;
On other furety none: freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we ftand or fall :
And fome are fall'n, to difobedience fall'n,
And fome from heaven to deepest hell; O fall
From what high ftate of bliss into what woe!
To whom our great progenitor. Thy words
Attentive, and with more delighted ear,
Divine inftructor, I have heard, than when
Cherubic fongs by night from neighb'ring hills
Aereal mufic fend: nor knew I not
will and deed created free;
we never fhall forget to love
Our baker, and obey him whose command
Single is yet fo juft, my constant thoughts
Affur'd me', and fill affure: though what thou tell'st
Hath pass'd in heaven, fome doubt within me move,
But more desire to hear, if thou confent,
The full relation; which muft needs be strange,
Worthy of facred filence to be heard:
And we have yet large day; for scarce the fun
Hath finifh'd half his journey', and fearce begins.
His other half in the great zone of heaven.
Thus Adam made requeft; and Raphaël,
After short pause affenting, thus began.
High matter thou injoin'st me', O prime of men,
Sad tafk, and hard: for how fhall I relate
To human fenfe th' invifible exploits
Of warring fpirits? how without remorfe
The ruin of fo many glorious once
And perfect while they ftood? how laft unfold
The fecrets of another world, perhaps
Not lawful to reveal? Yet for thy good
This is difpens'd; and what furmounts the reach
Of human fenfe, I fhall delineat fo,
By likening fpiritual to corporal forms,
As may exprefs them beft; though what if earth
Be but the fhadow' of heaven, and things therein 575
Each to' other like, more than on earth is thought?
As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild
Reign'd where these heavens now roll, where earth now
Upon her centre pois'd; when on a day
(For time, though in eternity, apply'd
To motion, measures all things durable
By prefent, paft and future) on fuch day
As heaven's great year brings forth, th' empyreal hoft
Of angels, by imperial fummons call'd,
Innumerable before th' Almighty's throne
Forthwith from all the ends of heaven appear'd
Under their hierarchs in orders bright:
Ten thousand thou fand enfigns high advanc'd,
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for diftinction ferve
Of hierarchies, of orders and degrees;
Or in their glitt'ring tiffues bear imblaz'd
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love
-Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs
Of circuit inexpreffible they ftood,
Orb within orb, the Father infinite,
By whom in blifs imbofom'd fat the Son,
Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top-
Brightnefs had made invisible, thus fpake.
Hear all ye angels, progeny of light,
Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers,
Hear my decree, which unrevok'd shall stand.
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son, and on this holy hill
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
At my right hand; your head I him appoint;
And by myself have fworn, to him fhall bow
All knees in heaven, and shall confefs him Lord:
Under his great vicegerent reign abide
United as one individual foul,
For ever happy: him who difobeys,
Me difobeys, breaks union, and that day
Caft out from God and blessed vifion, falls
Into' utter darknefs, deep ingulf'd, his place
Ordain'd without redemption, without end.
So fpake th' Omnipotent, and with his words All feem'd well pleas'd; all feem'd, but were not all. That day, as other folemn days, they spent
In fong and dance about the facred hill;
Myftical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets, and of fix'd, in all her wheels
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular
Then most, when most irregular they feem;
And in their motions harmony divine,
So fmooths her charming tones, that God's own ear
Liftens delighted. Ev'ning now approach'd,
(For we have alfo' our ev'ning and our morn,
We ours for change delectable, not need);
Forthwith from dance to fweet repast they turn 630
Defirous; all in circles as they stood,
Tables are fet, and on a fudden pil'd
With angels food, and rubied nectar flows
In pearl, in diamond, and maffy gold;
Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of heaven.
On flowers repos'd, and with fresh flowerets crown'd,
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy, fecure
Of furfeit, where full measure only bounds
Excess, before th' all-bounteous King, who fhower'd With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.
Now when ambrofial night, with clouds exhal'd
From that high mount of God, whence light and fhade
Spring both, the face of brighteft heaven had chang'd
To grateful twilight, (for night comes not there 645
In darker veil), and roseate dews difpos'd
All but th' unfleeping eyes of God to rest;
Wide over all the plain, and wider far
Than all this globous earth in plain outspread,
(Such are the courts of God), th' angelic throng, 650 Difpers'd in bands and files, their camp extend
By living streams among the trees of life,
Pavilions numberless, and fudden rear'd,
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