BOOK VII.

THE ARGUMENT.

Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory and attendance of angels to perform the work of creation in six days; the angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into Heaven.

DESCEND from Heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegaséan wing.

The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heavenly born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy tempering: with like safety guided down,
Return me to my native element;

Lest from this flying steed unreined (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime)
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,3

1 Prov. viii. 24-30.

2 Bentley proposes "thee." 3 Bellerophon was a beautiful and valiant youth, son of Glaucus, who, refusing the amorous applications of Antea, wife of Prætus, King of Argos, was by her false suggestions, like those of Joseph's

Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.

Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere;

Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou
Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the east: still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream.
Say, goddess, what ensued when Raphaël,
The affable archangel, had forewarned
Adam by dire example to beware
Apostacy, by what befell in Heaven
To those apostates, lest the like befall
In Paradise to Adam or his race,

Charged not to touch the interdicted tree,

If they transgress, and slight that sole command,
So easily obeyed amid the choice

Of all tastes else to please their appetite,

Though wandering. He, with his consorted Eve,

The story heard attentive, and was filled

With admiration and deep muse, to hear

Of things so high and strange, things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heaven,

And war so near the peace of God in bliss,
With such confusion; but the evil, soon
Driven back, redounded as a flood on those

mistress to her husband, sent into Lycia with letters desiring his destruction, where he was put on several enterprises full of hazard, in which, however, he came off conqueror; but, attempting vaingloriously to mount up to Heaven on the winged horse Pegasus, he fell and wandered in the Aleian plains till he died.-Hume and Richardson.

From whom it sprung, impossible to mix
With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know

What nearer might concern him; how this world
Of Heaven and earth conspicuous first began;
When, and whereof created; for what cause;
What within Eden, or without, was done
Before his memory; as one whose drouth1
Yet scarce allayed, still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard, new thirst excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest:

“Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed, Divine interpreter, by favour sent

Down from the empyréan to forewarn

Us timely of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:
For which to the infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sovereign will, the end

Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed
Gently for our instruction to impart

Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed,
Deign to descend now lower, and relate
What may no less, perhaps, avail us known,
How first began this Heaven which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorned
Innumerable, and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfused,
Embracing round this florid earth; what cause
Moved the Creator, in his holy rest
Through all eternity, so late to build
In Chaos; and, the work begun, how soon
Absolved; if unforbid thou mayst unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works, the more we know.
And the great light of day yet wants to run

Much of his race though steep; suspense in Heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,

1 Thirst.

And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of nature from the unapparent deep:
Or if the star of evening and the moon
Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring
Silence, and sleep listening to thee will watch,
Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine."
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought;
And thus the godlike angel answered mild:

This also thy request, with caution asked,
Obtain: though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?

Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve
To glorify the Maker, and infer

Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing: such commission from above
I have received, to answer thy desire

Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions1 hope
Things not revealed, which the invisible King,
Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night,
To none communicable in earth or Heaven:
Enough is left besides to search and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

'Know, then, that after Lucifer from Heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of angels, than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son returned
Victorious with his saints, the omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake:

66 6

"At least1 our envious foe hath failed, who thought

1 This word is here used to denote that unlawful curiosity by which men seek to know more than is given to them. Newton compares this scriptural use of the term in Psalm cvi. 29, 38. 2 As Judas is said to go "to his own place." Acts i. 25. "At last" is proposed by Thyer.

All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,

He trusted to have seized, and into fraud

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more;1
Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,
Their station; Heaven yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple tc frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites:
But lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven,
My damage fondly deemed, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit raised
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried,

And earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Meanwhile inhabit lax,3 ye powers of Heaven;
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform; speak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee
I send along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heaven and earth;
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance
Approach not me, and what I will is fate.'

1 A scripture phrase.-See Job vii. 10, Ps. ciii. 16.

2 Milton's meaning seems to have been this: that earth would be so happy in being inhabited by obedient creatures, that it would be changed to, i. e. resemble, Heaven; and Heaven, by receiving those creatures, would in this resemble earth, that it would be stocked with men for its inhabitants.-Pearce. 3 Dwell more at large.

4 "Boundless the deep," &c. The sense is, the deep is boundless; but the space contained in it is not vacuous and empty, because there is an infinitude, and I fill it. Though I, who am myself uncircum. scribed, set bounds to my goodness, and do not exert it everywhere, yet neither necessity nor chance influence my actions, &c.-Pearce.