Paradise Lost : Book III

Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven firstborn,

Or of the Eternal coeternal beam

May I express thee unblam'd?  since God is light,

And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee

Bright effluence of bright essence increate.

Or hear"st thou rather pure ethereal stream,

Whose fountain who shall tell?  before the sun,

Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice

Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest

The rising world of waters dark and deep,

Won from the void and formless infinite.

Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,

Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd

In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight

Through utter and through middle darkness borne,

With other notes than to the Orphean lyre

I sung of Chaos and eternal Night;

Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down

The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,

Though hard and rare:  Thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou

Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;

So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,

Or dim suffusion veil'd.  Yet not the more

Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt,

Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,

Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief

Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath,

That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,

Nightly I visit:  nor sometimes forget

So were I equall'd with them in renown,

Thy sovran command, that Man should find grace;

Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonides,

And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old:

Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move

Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird

Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal note.  Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

Presented with a universal blank

Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight.

Now had the Almighty Father from above,

From the pure empyrean where he sits

High thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye

His own works and their works at once to view:

About him all the Sanctities of Heaven

Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd

Beatitude past utterance; on his right

The radiant image of his glory sat,

His only son; on earth he first beheld

Our two first parents, yet the only two

Of mankind in the happy garden plac'd

Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,

Uninterrupted joy, unrivall'd love,

In blissful solitude; he then survey'd

Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there 

Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night

In the dun air sublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet,

On the bare outside of this world, that seem'd

Firm land imbosom'd, without firmament,

Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.

Him God beholding from his prospect high,

Wherein past, present, future, he beholds,

Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.

Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage

Transports our Adversary?  whom no bounds

Prescrib'd no bars of Hell, nor all the chains

Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss

Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems

On desperate revenge, that shall redound

Upon his own rebellious head.  And now,

Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way

Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light,

Directly towards the new created world,

And man there plac'd, with purpose to assay

If him by force he can destroy, or, worse,

By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert;

For man will hearken to his glozing lies,

And easily transgress the sole command,

Sole pledge of his obedience:  So will fall

He and his faithless progeny:  Whose fault?

Whose but his own?  ingrate, he had of me

All he could have; I made him just and right,

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

Such I created all the ethereal Powers

And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd;

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

Not free, what proof could they have given sincere

Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,

Where only what they needs must do appear'd,

Not what they would?  what praise could they receive?

What pleasure I from such obedience paid,

When will and reason (reason also is choice)

Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd,

Made passive both, had serv'd necessity,

Not me?  they therefore, as to right belong$ 'd,

So were created, nor can justly accuse

Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,

As if predestination over-rul'd

Their will dispos'd by absolute decree

Or high foreknowledge they themselves decreed

Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew,

Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,

Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.

So without least impulse or shadow of fate,

Or aught by me immutably foreseen,

They trespass, authors to themselves in all

Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so

I form'd them free: and free they must remain,

Till they enthrall themselves; I else must change

Their nature, and revoke the high decree

Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd

Their freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall.

The first sort by their own suggestion fell,

Self-tempted, self-deprav'd:  Man falls, deceiv'd

By the other first:  Man therefore shall find grace,

The other none:  In mercy and justice both,

Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel;

But Mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine.

Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill'd

All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits elect

Sense of new joy ineffable diffus'd.

Beyond compare the Son of God was seen

Most glorious; in him all his Father shone

Substantially express'd; and in his face

Divine compassion visibly appear'd,

Love without end, and without measure grace,

Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake.

O Father, gracious was that word which clos'd

Thy sovran sentence, that Man should find grace; 

For which both Heav'n and Earth shall high extol

Thy praises, with th' innumerable sound

Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne

Encompass'd shall resound thee ever blest.

For should Man finally be lost, should Man,

Thy creature late so lov'd, thy youngest son,

Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though join'd

With his own folly?  that be from thee far,

That far be from thee, Father, who art judge

Of all things made, and judgest only right.

Or shall the Adversary thus obtain

His end, and frustrate thine?  shall he fulfill

His malice, and thy goodness bring to nought,

Or proud return, though to his heavier doom,

Yet with revenge accomplish'd, and to Hell

Draw after him the whole race of mankind,

By him corrupted?  or wilt thou thyself

Abolish thy creation, and unmake

For him, what for thy glory thou hast made?

So should thy goodness and thy greatness both

Be question'd and blasphem'd without defence.

To whom the great Creator thus replied.

O son, in whom my soul hath chief delight,

Son of my bosom, Son who art alone.

My word, my wisdom, and effectual might, 

All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all

As my eternal purpose hath decreed;

Man shall not quite be lost, but sav'd who will;

Yet not of will in him, but grace in me

Freely vouchsaf'd; once more I will renew

His lapsed powers, though forfeit; and enthrall'd

By sin to foul exorbitant desires;

Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand

On even ground against his mortal foe;

By me upheld, that he may know how frail

His fallen condition is, and to me owe

All his deliverance, and to none but me.

Some I have chosen of peculiar grace,

Elect above the rest; so is my will:

The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd

Their sinful state, and to appease betimes

The incensed Deity, while offer'd grace

Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,

What may suffice, and soften stony hearts

To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.

To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,

Though but endeavour'd with sincere intent,

Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut.

And I will place within them as a guide,

My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear,

Light after light, well us'd, they shall attain,

And to the end, persisting, safe arrive.

This my long sufferance, and my day of grace,

They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste;

But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more,

That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;

And none but such from mercy I exclude.

But yet all is not done; Man disobeying,

Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins

Against the high supremacy of Heaven,

Affecting God-head, and, so losing all,

To expiate his treason hath nought left,

But to destruction sacred and devote,

He, with his whole posterity, must die,

Die he or justice must; unless for him

Some other able, and as willing, pay

The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

Say, heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love?

Which of you will be mortal, to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?

Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?

And silence was in Heaven: $ on Man's behalf

He ask'd, but all the heavenly quire stood mute,

Patron or intercessour none appear'd,

Much less that durst upon his own head draw

The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.

And now without redemption all mankind

Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell

By doom severe, had not the Son of God,

In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,

His dearest mediation thus renew'd.

Father, thy word is past, Man shall find grace;

And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,

The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To visit all thy creatures, and to all

Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought?

Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid

Can never seek, once dead in sins, and lost;

Atonement for himself, or offering meet,

Indebted and undone, hath none to bring;

Behold me then:  me for him, life for life

I offer: on me let thine anger fall;

Account me Man; I for his sake will leave

Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee

Freely put off, and for him lastly die

Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage.

Under his gloomy power I shall not long

Lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to possess

Life in myself for ever; by thee I live;

Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,

All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid,

$ thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave

His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul

For ever with corruption there to dwell;

But I shall rise victorious, and subdue

My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.

Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed;

I through the ample air in triumph high

Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show

The powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight

Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,

While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes;

Death last, and with his carcase glut the grave;

Then, with the multitude of my redeemed,

Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return,

Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud

Of anger shall remain, but peace assured

And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more

Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.

His words here ended; but his meek aspect

Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love

To mortal men, above which only shone

Filial obedience: as a sacrifice

Glad to be offered, he attends the will

Of his great Father. Admiration seized

All Heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend,

Wondering; but soon th' Almighty thus replied.

O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace

Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou

My sole complacence! Well thou know'st how dear

To me are all my works; nor Man the least,

Though last created, that for him I spare

Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,

By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.

Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,

Their nature also to thy nature join;

And be thyself Man among men on Earth,

Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,

By wondrous birth; be thou in Adam's room

The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.

As in him perish all men, so in thee,

As from a second root, shall be restored

As many as are restored, without thee none.

His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit,

Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce

Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,

And live in thee transplanted, and from thee

Receive new life.  So Man, as is most just,

Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die,

And dying rise, and rising with him raise

His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.

So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,

Giving to death, and dying to redeem,

So dearly to redeem what hellish hate

So easily destroyed, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.

Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume

Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own.

Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss

Equal to God, and equally enjoying

God-like fruition, quitted all, to save

A world from utter loss, and hast been found

By merit more than birthright Son of God,

Found worthiest to be so by being good,

Far more than great or high; because in thee

Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;

Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt

With thee thy manhood also to this throne:

Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign

Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,

Anointed universal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume

Thy merits; under thee, as head supreme,

Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce:

All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide

In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.

When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,

Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send

The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim

Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds,

The living, and forthwith the cited dead

Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall hasten; such a peal shall rouse their sleep.

Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge

Bad Men and Angels; they, arraigned, shall sink

Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,

Thenceforth shall be for ever shut.  Mean while

The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring

New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,

And, after all their tribulations long,

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,

With joy and peace triumphing, and fair truth.

Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,

For regal scepter then no more shall need,

God shall be all in all.  But, all ye Gods,

Adore him, who to compass all this dies;

Adore the Son, and honour him as me.

No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all

The multitude of Angels, with a shout

Loud as from numbers without number, sweet

As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung

With jubilee, and loud Hosannas filled

The eternal regions:  Lowly reverent

Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground

With solemn adoration down they cast

Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;

Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence

To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,

And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven

Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;

With these that never fade the Spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams;

Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright

Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,

Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.

Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took,

Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side

Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet

Of charming symphony they introduce

Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;

No voice exempt, no voice but well could join

Melodious part, such concord is in Heaven.

Thee, Father, first they sung Omnipotent,

Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,

Eternal King; the Author of all being,

Fonntain of light, thyself invisible

Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st

Throned inaccessible, but when thou shadest

The full blaze of thy beams, and, through a cloud

Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine,

Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,

Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim

Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.

Thee next they sang of all creation first,

Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,

In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud

Made visible, the Almighty Father shines,

Whom else no creature can behold; on thee

Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides,

Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests.

He Heaven of Heavens and all the Powers therein

By thee created; and by thee threw down

The aspiring Dominations:  Thou that day

Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare,

Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook

Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks

Thou drovest of warring Angels disarrayed.

Back from pursuit thy Powers with loud acclaim

Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father's might,

To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,

Not so on Man:  Him through their malice fallen,

Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom

So strictly, but much more to pity incline:

No sooner did thy dear and only Son

Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man

So strictly, but much more to pity inclined,

He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife

Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned,

Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat

Second to thee, offered himself to die

For Man's offence.  O unexampled love,

Love no where to be found less than Divine!

Hail, Son of God, Saviour of Men!  Thy name

Shall be the copious matter of my song

Henceforth, and never shall my heart thy praise

Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin.

Thus they in Heaven, above the starry sphere,

Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.

Mean while upon the firm opacous globe

Of this round world, whose first convex divides

The luminous inferiour orbs, enclosed

From Chaos, and the inroad of Darkness old,

Satan alighted walks:  A globe far off

It seemed, now seems a boundless continent

Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night

Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms

Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky;

Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven,

Though distant far, some small reflection gains

Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud:

Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field.

As when a vultur on Imaus bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,

Dislodging from a region scarce of prey

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids,

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;

But in his way lights on the barren plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their cany waggons light:

So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend

Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey;

Alone, for other creature in this place,

Living or lifeless, to be found was none;

None yet, but store hereafter from the earth

Up hither like aereal vapours flew

Of all things transitory and vain, when sin

With vanity had filled the works of men:

Both all things vain, and all who in vain things

Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,

Or happiness in this or the other life;

All who have their reward on earth, the fruits

Of painful superstition and blind zeal,

Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find

Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;

All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand,

Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,

Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

Till final dissolution, wander here;

Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed;

Those argent fields more likely habitants,

Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold

Betwixt the angelical and human kind.

Hither of ill-joined sons and daughters born

First from the ancient world those giants came

With many a vain exploit, though then renowned:

The builders next of Babel on the plain

Of Sennaar, and still with vain design,

New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build:

Others came single; he, who, to be deemed

A God, leaped fondly into Aetna flames,

Empedocles; and he, who, to enjoy

Plato's Elysium, leaped into the sea,

Cleombrotus; and many more too long,

Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars

White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery.

Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek

In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heaven;

And they, who to be sure of Paradise,

Dying, put on the weeds of Dominick,

Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;

They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,

And that crystalling sphere whose balance weighs

The trepidation talked, and that first moved;

And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket seems

To wait them with his keys, and now at foot

Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo

A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry

Into the devious air:  Then might ye see

Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost

And fluttered into rags; then reliques, beads,

Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,

The sport of winds:  All these, upwhirled aloft,

Fly o'er the backside of the world far off

Into a Limbo large and broad, since called

The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown

Long after; now unpeopled, and untrod.

All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed,

And long he wandered, till at last a gleam

Of dawning light turned thither-ward in haste

His travelled steps: far distant he descries

Ascending by degrees magnificent

Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high;

At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared

The work as of a kingly palace-gate,

With frontispiece of diamond and gold

Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems

The portal shone, inimitable on earth

By model, or by shading pencil, drawn.

These stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw

Angels ascending and descending, bands

Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled

To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz

Dreaming by night under the open sky

And waking cried,  This is the gate of Heaven.

Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood

There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes

Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flowed

Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon

Who after came from earth, failing arrived

Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake

Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

The stairs were then let down, whether to dare

The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate

His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:

Direct against which opened from beneath,

Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,

A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide,

Wider by far than that of after-times

Over mount Sion, and, though that were large,

Over the Promised Land to God so dear;

By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,

On high behests his angels to and fro

Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard

From Paneas, the fount of Jordan's flood,

To Beersaba, where the Holy Land

Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;

So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set

To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.

Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,

That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,

Looks down with wonder at the sudden view

Of all this world at once.  As when a scout,

Through dark?;nd desart ways with?oeril gone

All?might,?;t?kast by break of cheerful dawn

Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,

Which to his eye discovers unaware

The goodly prospect of some foreign land

First seen, or some renowned metropolis

With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,

Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:

Such wonder seised, though after Heaven seen,

The Spirit malign, but much more envy seised,

At sight of all this world beheld so fair.

Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood

So high above the circling canopy

Of night's extended shade,) from eastern point

Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears

Andromeda far off Atlantick seas

Beyond the horizon; then from pole to pole

He views in breadth, and without longer pause

Down right into the world's first region throws

His flight precipitant, and winds with ease

Through the pure marble air his oblique way

Amongst innumerable stars, that shone

Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds;

Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles,

Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old,

Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,

Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there

He staid not to inquire:  Above them all

The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven,

Allured his eye; thither his course he bends

Through the calm firmament, (but up or down,

By center, or eccentrick, hard to tell,

Or longitude,) where the great luminary

Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,

That from his lordly eye keep distance due,

Dispenses light from far; they, as they move

Their starry dance in numbers that compute

Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp

Turn swift their various motions, or are turned

By his magnetick beam, that gently warms

The universe, and to each inward part

With gentle penetration, though unseen,

Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep;

So wonderously was set his station bright.

There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps

Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb

Through his glazed optick tube yet never saw.

The place he found beyond expression bright,

Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone;

Not all parts like, but all alike informed

With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;

If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;

If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,

Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone

In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides

Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen,

That stone, or like to that which here below

Philosophers in vain so long have sought,

In vain, though by their powerful art they bind

Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound

In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,

Drained through a limbeck to his native form.

What wonder then if fields and regions here

Breathe forth Elixir pure, and rivers run

Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch

The arch-chemick sun, so far from us remote,

Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,

Here in the dark so many precious things

Of colour glorious, and effect so rare?

Here matter new to gaze the Devil met

Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands;

For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,

But all sun-shine, as when his beams at noon

Culminate from the equator, as they now

Shot upward still direct, whence no way round

Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,

No where so clear, sharpened his visual ray

To objects distant far, whereby he soon

Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,

The same whom John saw also in the sun:

His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;

Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar

Circled his head, nor less his locks behind

Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings

Lay waving round; on some great charge employed

He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep.

Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope

To find who might direct his wandering flight

To Paradise, the happy seat of Man,

His journey's end and our beginning woe.

But first he casts to change his proper shape,

Which else might work him danger or delay:

And now a stripling Cherub he appears,

Not of the prime, yet such as in his face

Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb

Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned:

Under a coronet his flowing hair

In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore

Of many a coloured plume, sprinkled with gold;

His habit fit for speed succinct, and held

Before his decent steps a silver wand.

He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright,

Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned,

Admonished by his ear, and straight was known

The Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the seven

Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne,

Stand ready at command, and are his eyes

That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth

Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,

O'er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts.

Uriel, for thou of those seven Spirits that stand

In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright,

The first art wont his great authentick will

Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring,

Where all his sons thy embassy attend;

And here art likeliest by supreme decree

Like honour to obtain, and as his eye

To visit oft this new creation round;

Unspeakable desire to see, and know

All these his wonderous works, but chiefly Man,

His chief delight and favour, him for whom

All these his works so wonderous he ordained,

Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim

Alone thus wandering.  Brightest Seraph, tell

In which of all these shining orbs hath Man

His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none,

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,

By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth:

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.

Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know

The works of God, thereby to glorify

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,

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 deep?

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, shines;

That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that light

His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,

Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon

So call that opposite fair star) her aid

Timely interposes, and her monthly round

Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven,

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.

Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low,

As to superiour Spirits is wont in Heaven,

Where honour due and reverence none neglects,

Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath,

Down from the ecliptick, sped with hoped success,

Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel;

Nor staid, till on Niphates' top he lights.

'(line 11: The rising world of waters dark and deep,....): For the world was only in a state of fluidity, when the light was created; as Moses says, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; and God said Let there be light, and there was light," Genesis I. 2, 3. And this verse of Milton, "The rising world of waters dark and deep," is plainly formed upon this of Spenser, Fairy Queen. B.1. C.1. St. 39. "And through the world of waters wide and deep."(line 12: Won from the void and formless infinite...): Void must not here be understood as 'emptiness', for Chaos is described full of matter; but 'void', as destitute of any form'd being, void as the earth was when first created. What Moses says of that is here applied to Chaos, "without form and void." A short but noble description of Chaos, which is said to be infinite, as it extended underneath, as Heaven above, infinitely. --Richardson.(line 16: Through utter and through middle darkness...): Through Hell which is often call'd "utter darkness", and through the great gulf between Hell and Heaven, the "middle darkness."(line 17: With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre... &c.): Orpheus made a hymn to Night, which is still extant; he also wrote of the creation out of Chaos. See Apoll. Rhodius I. 493. Orpheus was inspir'd by his mother Calliope only, Milton by the "heav'nly Muse;" therefore he boasts he sung with other notes than Orpheus, tho' the subjects were the same. --Richardson.(line 25: So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,Or dim suffusion veil'd.....................): Drop serene or 'Gutta serena.' It was formerly thought that that sort of blindness was an incurable extinction or quenching of sight by a transparent, watry, cold humor distilling upon the optic nerve, tho' making very little change in the eye to appearance, if any; 'tis now known to be most commonly an obstruction in the capillary vessels of that nerve, and curable in some cases. A 'cataract' for many ages, and till about thirty years ago, was thought to be a film externally growing over the eye, intercepting or veiling the sight, beginning with dimness, and so increasing till vision was totally obstructed: but the disease is in the crystallin humor lying between the outmost coat of the eye and the pupilla. The dimness which is at the beginning is called a 'suffusion'; and when the sight is lost, 'tis a 'cataract'; and cur'd by couching, which is with a needle passing through the external coat and driving down the diseas'd crystallin, the loss of which is somewhat supply'd by the use of a large convex glass. When Milton was first blind, he wrote to his friend Leonard Philara, an Athenian then at Paris, for him to consult Dr. Thevenot; he sent his case ('tis in the 15th of his familiar letters): what answer he had is not known; but it seems by this passage that he was not certain what his disease was: or perhaps he had a mind to describe both the great causes of blindness according to what was known at that time, as his whole poem is interspers'd with great variety of learning. --Richardson.(line 30: ---------- the flowry brooks beneath,...): Kedron and Siloah. He still was pleas'd to study the beauties of the ancient poets, but his highest delight was in the songs of Sion, in the holy Scriptures, and in these he meditated day and night. This is the sense of the passage stript of its poetical ornaments.(line 35: Blind Thamyrsis and blind Maeonides,...): Maeonides is Homer, so call'd from the name of his father Maeon: and no wonder out poet desires to equal him in renown, whose writings he so much studied, admir'd and imitated. The character of Thamyrsis is not so well known and establish'd: but Homer mentions him in the Iliad. II. 595; and Eustathius ranks him with Orpheus and Musaeus, the most celebrated poets and musicians. (line 61: ------ and from his sight receiv'dBeatitude past utterance; ................): Our author here alludes to the 'beatific vision,' in which divines suppose the happiness of the Saints to consist. --Thyer.(line 62: -------------on his right / The radiant image of his glory sat,His only Son; ...........................): According to St. Paul, Hebrews I.3. "His Son -- who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person -- sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." Let the discerning linguist compare the preceding description of God with that by Tasso, Cant.9. Stan.55-57. --Hume.(line 72: In the dun air......): This is the "aer bruno" of the Italians, who almost constantly express a gloomy dusky air in these terms. --Thyer.(line 75: Firm land imbosom'd, without firmament, ... &c): The universe appear'd to Satan to be a solid globe, incompass'd on all sides but uncertain whether with water or air, but "without firmament", without any sphere or fixed stars over it, as over the earth. The sphere of fixed stars was itself comprehended in it, and made a part of it.(line 287: As in him perish all men, so in thee...): "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," 1 Corinthians XV. 22.(line 299: Giving to death, and dying to redeem,...): The love of the Father in giving the Son to death, and the love of the Son in submitting to it and dying to redeem mankind.(line 321: All knees to thee shall bow,....): "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth," Philippians, II. 10.(line 334: The world shall burn, and from her ashes....): "The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," 2 Peter III. 12, 13.(line 341: God shall be all in all. ...): According to "And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him, that put all things under him, that God may be all in all," I Corinthians XV. 28.(line 343: Adore the Son, and honor him as me,...): "That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." John V. 23.(line 351: --------- down they cast / Their crowns...): "The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne." Revelation IV. 10.(line 387: Whom else no creature can behold;...): No creature can otherwise behold the Father but in and through the Son. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," John I. 18. But, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father," John XIV. 9.(line 459: Not in the neighb'ring moon, as some have dream'd;...): Ariosto particularly, who in his Orlando Furioso, Cant.34. St. 70, &c. gives a much larger description of things lost upon earth and treasur'd up in the moon, than our poet here makes of the Limbo of Vanity. (line 460: Those argent fields.....&c.): There is no question I believe now among philosophers, that the moon is inhabited; but it is greatly to be question'd whether this notion of our author be true, that the inhabitants there are 'translated Saints' or Spirits of a middle nature between Angels and Men; for as the moon is certainly less considerable in itself than our earth, it is not likely that its inhabitants should be so much more considerable. (line 463: Hither of ill-join'd sons and daughters born....&c.): He means "the sons of God" ill-join'd with "the daughters of men," alluding to that text of Scripture, Genesis VI. 4. "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown:" where by 'the sons of God' some Fathers and Commentators have understood 'Angels', as if the Angels had been enamour'd and married to women; but the true meaning is that the posterity of Seth and other patriarchs, who were worshippers of the true God, and therefore call'd "the sons of God", intermarried with the idolatrous posterity of wicked Cain. [see Milton's the 'Paradise Regain'd,' Book II. notes, {line 178: Before the flood thou} ; and 'The Loves of the Angels' by Thomas Moore, notes.](line 467: Of Sennaar,.....): Or Shinar, for they are both the same name of this province of Babylonia. But Milton follows the Vulgate as he frequently does in the names of places.(line 471: Empedocles;.....): The scholar of Pythagoras, a philosopher and poet, born at Agrigentum in Sicily: he wrote of the nature of things in Greek, as Lucretius did in Latin verse. He stealing one night from his followers threw himself into the flaming AEtna, that being no where to be found, he might be esteemed to be a God, and to be taken up into Heaven; but his iron pattens, being thrown out by the fury of the burning mountain, discover'd his defeated ambition, and ridiculed his folly. Horace de Art. Poet. 464. --Hume.(line 473: Cleombrotus; ......): The name is rightly placed the last word in the sentence, as Empedocles was before. He was called Ambraciota of Ambracia, a city of Epirus in Greece. Having read over Plato's book of the Soul's immortality and happiness in another life, he was so ravish'd with the account of it, that he leap'd from a high wall into the sea, that he might immediately enjoy it. His death is celebrated by Callimachus in one of his epigrams, Ep. 29. ... And from hence other authors seem to have taken his story, as Cicero Tusc. Disp. I. 34.(line 475: White, black, and gray,......): So named according to their habits, white fiers or Carmelites, black friers or Dominicans, gray friers or Franciscans, of their founders St. Francis, St. Dominic, and mount Carmel where that order pretend they were first instituted. Our author here, as elsewhere, shows his dislike and abhorrence of the church of Rome, by placing the religious orders "with all their trumpery," cowls, hoods, reliques, beads, &c. in the Paradise of Fools, and not only placing them there, but making them the principal figures.(line 477: In Golgotha.....): The same as Calvary, a hill near Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was crucified. "Golgotha", from the Greek from Aramaic gulgulta, lit. "Place of the Skull," from Heb. gulgoleth "skull." So called in reference to its shape. According to Hebraic tradition this is also where Adam was buried.(line 482: And that crystallin sphere....&c): He speaks here according to the ancient astronomy, adopted and improv'd by Ptolomy. "They pass the planets sev'n," our planetary or solar system, and beyond this "pass the fix'd," the firmament or sphere of the fix'd stars, and beyond this "that crystallin sphere," the crystallin Heaven, clear as crystal, to which the Ptolemaics attributed a sort of liberation or shaking (the 'trepidation' so much talk'd of) to account for certain irregularities in the motion of the stars, and beyond this "that first mov'd," the primum mobile, the sphere which was both the first mov'd and the first mover, communicating its motions to all the lower spheres; and beyond this was the empyrean Heaven, the seat of God and the Angels. This passage may receive some farther light and illustration from another of the same nature in Tasso, where he describes the descent of the Arch-Angel Michael from Heaven, and mentions this crystallin and all the other spheres but only inverting the order, as there the motion is downwards, and here it is upwards, Cant. 9. St. 60,61. And when our poet mentions "St. Peter at Heav'n's wicket with his keys," he certainly intends (as Mr. Thyer observes) to ridicule the fond conceit of the Romanists, that St. Peter and his successors are in a particular manner intrusted with the keys of Heaven. And he makes use of the low phrase of "Heaven's wicket," the better to expose the notions of those whom he places here in the Paradise of Fools.(line 495: Into a Limbo large and broad,.....): The Limbus patrum as it is call'd, is a place that the Schoolmen supposed to be in the neighbourhood of Hell, where the souls of the patriarchs were detain'd, and those good men who died before our Saviour's resurrection. Our author gives the same name to his Paradise of Fools, and more rationally places it beyond "the backside of the world."(line 501: His travel'd steps: ....): 'Tired' steps, from "travagliato" (Italian). --Richardson.(line 510: The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw...): A comparison fetch'd from Genesis XXVIII. 12, 13. "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven, and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it; and behold the Lord stood above it." &c. (line 518: ---------- and underneath a bright sea flow'd...): The author himself explains this, in the argument of this book, to be meant of "the water above the firmament." He mentions it again VII. 619. --Heylin. From The Argument: ... "thence comes to the gate of Heaven, describ'd ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it:"(line 521: Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake...): As Lazarus was "carried by Angels," Luke XVI. 22; and Elijah was rapt up "in a chariot of fire and horses of fire," 2 Kings 11. 2.(line 565: ------------- that shone / Stars distant,...): They appeared by their shining to be stars. 'Tis a Greek expression, as Plato in an epigram on his friend Stella preserved by Diogenes Laertius. "You shone whilst living a morning star, but dead you now shine Hesperus among the shades." --Richardson.(line 568: Like those Hesperian gardens...): So call'd of Hesperus, Vesper, because placed in the west under the evening star. Those famous gardens were the iles about Cape Verd in Africa, whose most western point is still call'd Hesperium cornu. Others will have 'em the Canaries. --Hume.(line 590: Through his glaz'd optic tube.......): The spots in the sun are visible with a telescope: but astronomer perhaps never yet saw "through his glaz'd optic tube," that is his telescope, such a spot as Satan now he was in the sun's orb. The poet mentions his glass the oftner in honor of Galileo, whom he means here by the "astronomer."(line 598: In Aaron's breast-plate,....): Aaron's breast-plate was a piece of cloth doubled, of a span square, in which were set in sockets of gold twelve precious stones bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel ingraven on them, which being fixed to the ephod, or upper vestment of the high-priest's robes, was worn by him on his breast on all solemn occasions. See the Notes for Milton's "Paradise Regain'd," Book III., line 13.(line 602: ----- though by their pow'rful art they bind... &c.): Tho' by their pow'rful art they bind and fix quicksilver, and change their matter, unbound, unfix'd, into as many various shapes as Proteus, till it be reduced at last to its first original form. "Hermes," another word for Mercury or quicksilver, which is very fluid, and volatil, and hard to be fixed. "Proteus", a Sea-God, who could transform himself into various shapes, till being closely press'd he return'd to his own proper form. By this the Ancients understood the first principle of things and the subject matter of nature; and our poet therefore very fitly employs this metaphor or similitude to express the matter, which the chemists make experiments upon thro' all its mutations, and which they drain thro' their limbecs or stills, till it resume its native and original form.(line 606: What wonder then if fields....): And if chemists can do so much, what wonder then if in the sun itself is the true philosopher's stone, the grand Elixir, and rivers of liquid gold: when the sun, the chief of chemists, tho' at so great a distance, can perform such wonders upon earth, and produce so many precious things? The thought of making the sun the chief chemist or alchemist seems to be taken from Shakespear, King John, Act III. "To solemnize this day, the glorious sun / Stays in his course, and plays the alchemist, / Turning with splendor of his precious eye / The meager cloddy earth to glittering gold."(line 623: The same whom John saw also in the sun:....): "And I saw an Angel standing in the sun." Revelation XIX. 17.(line 625: ------- a golden tiar...): A golden coronet of shining rays circled his head, yet nevertheless did not hinder his lovely locks, that hung behind over his shoulders adorn'd with wings, from waving themselves into curls and rings. "Tiar" of 'Tiara', the Persian word for a round cap, high and ending in a point, the usual covering and ornament of eastern princes wore on their heads. --Hume. (line 636: ------- a stripling Cherub...): The evil Spirit, the better to disguise his purpose, assumes the appearance of a stripling Cherub, not of one of those of the prime order and dignity, for such could not so well be supposed to be ignorant of what Satan wanted now to be inform'd. (line 654: -- Uriel, ....): Uriel, His name is derived from two Hebrew words which signify "God is my light." He is mention'd as a good Angel in the second book of Esdras, chapters 4 and 5; and the Jews and some Christians conceive him to be an Angel of light according to his name, and therefore he has properly his station in the sun.(line 742: --- on Niphates top he lights.): A mountain in the borders of Armenia, not far from the spring of Tigris, as Xenophon affirms upon his own knowledge. The poet lands Satan on this mountain, because it borders on Mesopotamia, in which the most judicious describers of Paradise place it. --Hume.'~ Th. Newton, Paradise Lost, 2nd edition, 1750.