Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
443
As from3498 the mine. Meanwhile at table Eve
444
Ministered 3499 naked, and their flowing cups
445
With pleasant liquors crowned.3500 O innocence
446
Deserving Paradise! If ever, then,
447
Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
448
Enamored at that sight. But in those hearts
449
Love unlibidinous3501 reigned, nor jealousy
450
Was understood, the injured lover’s hell.
451
Thus when with meats3502 and drinks they had sufficed,
452
Not burdened Nature, 3503 sudden mind arose
453
In Adam, not to let th’ occasion pass
454
Giv’n him by this great conference3504 to know
455
Of things above his world, and of their being
456
Who dwell in Heav’n, whose excellence he saw
457
Transcend his own so far, whose radiant forms,
458
Divine effulgence, 3505 whose high power, so far
459
Exceeded human. And his wary 3506 speech
460
Thus to the empyreal minister he framed:3507
461
“Inhabitant with God, now know I well
462
Thy favor, in this honor done to man,
463
Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed 3508
464
To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,
465
Food not of Angels, yet accepted so
466
As that more willingly thou could’st not seem
467
At Heav’n’s high feasts t’ have fed. Yet what compare?
468
To whom the wingèd Hierarch3509 replied:
469
“O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom
470
All things proceed, and up to Him return,
471
If not depraved 3510 from good, created all
472
Such to perfection, one first3511 matter all,
473
Endued 3512 with various forms, various degrees
474
Of substance and, in things that live, of life,
475
But more refined, more spiritous, and pure,
476
As nearer to Him placed, or nearer tending
477
Each in their several active spheres assigned,
478
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds3513
479
Proportioned to each kind. So from the root
480
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
481
More airy, last the bright consummate 3514 flower
482
Spirits odorous breathes. Flow’rs and their fruit,
483
Man’s nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed,3515
484
To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
485
To intellectual, give both life and sense,
486
Fancy and understanding, whence the soul
487
Reason receives, and reason is her being,
488
Discursive, or intuitive. 3516 Discourse
489
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours,
490
Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
491
Wonder not then, what God for you saw good
492
If I refuse not, but convert, as you,
493
To proper substance. Time may come when men
494
With Angels may participate, and find
495
496
And from these corporal nutriments perhaps
497
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
498
Improved by tract3518 of time and, winged, ascend
499
Ethereal, as we. Or may, at choice,
500
Here or in Heav’nly Paradises dwell,
501
If ye be found obedient, and retain
502
Unalterably firm His love entire,
503
Whose 3519 progeny 3520 you are. Meanwhile enjoy
504
Your fill what 3521 happiness this happy state
505
Can comprehend, incapable of more.
506
To whom the patriarch of mankind replied:
507
“O favorable Spirit, propitious3522 guest,
508
Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
509
Our knowledge, and the scale of Nature set
510
From center to circumference, whereon,
511
In contemplation of created things,
512
By steps we may ascend to God. But say,
513
What meant that caution joined,3523 ‘If ye be found
514
Obedient?’ Can we want 3524 obedience then
515
To Him, or possibly His love desert,
516
Who formed us from the dust and placed us here
517
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
518
Human desires can seek or apprehend?
519
To whom the Angel:
“Son of Heav’n and ear
520
Attend:3525 that thou art happy, owe to God;
521
That thou continuest such, owe to thyself—
522
That is, to thy obedience: therein stand.3526
523
This was that caution given thee: be advised.3527
524
God made thee perfect,3528 not immutable, 3529
525
And good He made thee, but to persevere
526
He left it in thy power, ordained thy will
527
By nature free, not overruled by fate
528
Inextricable, 3530 or strict necessity.
529
Our voluntary service He requires,
530
Not our necessitated. Such with Him
531
Finds no acceptance, nor can find, for how
532
Can hearts, not free, be tried 3531 whether they serve
533
Willing or no, who will but what they must 3532
534
By destiny, and can no other choose?
535
Myself, and all th’Angelic host that stand
536
In sight of God enthroned, our happy state
537
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds,
538
On other surety 3533 none. Freely we serve,
539
Because we freely love, as in our will
540
To love or not. In this we stand or fall,
541
And some are fall’n, to disobedience fall’n,
542
And so from Heav’n to deepest Hell. O fall 3534
543
From what high state of bliss, into what woe!
544
To whom our great progenitor:3535
“Thy words
545
Attentive, and with more delighted ear,
546
Divine instr
uctor, I have heard, than when
547
Cherubic songs by night from neighboring hills
548
Aerial music send. Nor knew I not
549
To be both will and deed created free.
550
Yet that we never shall forget to love
551
Our Maker, and obey Him whose command,
552
Single, 3536 is yet so just, my constant thoughts
553
Assured me, and still assure. Though what thou tellest
554
Hath passed in Heav’n, some doubt within me move,3537
555
But more desire to hear, if thou consent,
556
The full relation,3538 which must needs be strange,
557
Worthy of sacred 3539 silence to be heard.
558
And we have yet large 3540 day, 3541 for scarce the sun
559
Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins
560
His other half in the great zone 3542 of Heav’n.
561
Thus Adam made request, and Raphael,
562
After short pause assenting, thus began:
563
“High matter thou enjoin’st 3543 me, O prime3544 of men,
564
Sad 3545 task and hard. For how shall I relate
565
To human sense the invisible exploits
566
Of warring Spirits? How, without remorse, 3546
567
The ruin of so many, glorious once,
568
And perfect while they stood? How last 3547 unfold
569
The secrets of another world, perhaps
570
Not lawful to reveal? Yet for thy good
571
This is dispensed,3548 and what surmounts the reach
572
Of human sense I shall delineate 3549 so,
573
By lik’ning spiritual to corporal forms,
574
As may express them best. Though what if earth
575
Be but a shadow 3550 of Heav’n, and things therein
576
Each t’ other like, more than on earth is thought?
577
“As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild
578
Reigned where these Heav’ns now roll, where earth now rests
579
Upon her center poised, when on a day
580
(For time, though in eternity, applied
581
To motion, measures all things durable
582
By present, past, and future), on such day
583
As Heav’n’s great year 3551 brings forth, the empyreal 3552 host
584
Of Angels by imperial summons called,
585
Innumerable before the Almighty’s throne
586
Forthwith, from all the ends of Heav’n, appeared
587
Under their Hierarchs 3553 in orders bright.
588
Ten thousand thousand ensigns 3554 high advanced,
589
Standards 3555 and gonfalons3556 ’twixt van3557 and rear
590
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve3558
591
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees,
592
Or in their glittering tissues 3559 bear emblazed 3560
593
Holy memorials,3561 acts of zeal and love
594
Recorded eminent.3562 Thus when in orbs
595
Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
596
Orb within orb, the Father Infinite,
597
By whom in bliss embosomed3563 sat the Son,
598
Amidst as 3564 from a flaming mount whose top
599
Brightness had made invisible, thus spoke:
600
“‘Hear, all ye Angels, progeny 3565 of light,
601
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers!
602
Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand.3566
603
This day I have begot 3567 whom3568 I declare
604
My only Son, and on this holy hill
605
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
606
At my right hand. Your head I him appoint,
607
And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow
608
All knees in Heav’n, and shall confess3569 him Lord.
609
Under his great vice-gerent3570 reign abide
610
United, as one individual soul,
611
Forever happy. Him who disobeys,
612
Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day,
613
Cast out from God and blessèd vision, falls
614
Into utter darkness, deep engulfed,3571 his place
615
Ordained without redemption, without end.
616
“So spoke the Omnipotent, and with His words
617
All seemed well pleased—all seemed, but were not all.
618
That day, as other solemn days, they spent
619
In song and dance about the sacred hill,
620
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
621
Of planets, and of fixed,3572 in all her wheels
622
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
623
Eccentric,3573 intervolved,3574 yet regular
624
Then most when most irregular they seem.
625
And in their motions harmony divine
626
So smooths3575 her 3576 charming tones,3577 that God’s own ear
627
Listens delighted. Ev’ning now approached
628
(For we have also our ev’ning and our morn,
629
We ours for change delectable, 3578 not need)
630
Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn
631
Desirous, all in circles as they stood.
632
Tables are set, and on a sudden piled
633
With Angels’ food, and rubied nectar flows
634
In pearl, in diamond,3579 and massy gold,
635
Fruit of delicious vines, the growth3580 of Heav’n.
636
On flow’rs reposed,3581 and with fresh flow’rets crowned,
637
They eat, they drink, and in communion3582 sweet
638
Quaff 3583 immortality and joy, secure
639
Of 3584 surfeit where full measure only bounds3585
640
Excess, before the all-bounteous King, who show’red
641
With copious3586 hand, rejoicing in their joy.
642
Now when ambrosial3587 night with clouds exhaled
643
From that high mount of God, whence light and shade
644
Spring both, the face of brightest Heav’n had changed
645
To grateful 3588 twilight ( for night comes not there
646
In darker veil), and roseate3589 dews disposed 3590
647
All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest.
648
Wide over all the plain, and wider far
649
Than all this globous3591 earth in plain outspread
650
(Such are the courts of God), th’Angelic throng,
651
Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend