Paradise Lost : Book VIII

The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he a while

Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear;

Then, as new waked, thus gratefully replied.

What thanks sufficient, or what recompence

Equal, have I to render thee, divine

Historian, who thus largely hast allayed

The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed

This friendly condescension to relate

Things, else by me unsearchable; now heard

With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,

With glory attributed to the high

Creator!  Something yet of doubt remains,

Which only thy solution can resolve.

When I behold this goodly frame, this world,

Of Heaven and Earth consisting; and compute

Their magnitudes; this Earth, a spot, a grain,

An atom, with the firmament compared

And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll

Spaces incomprehensible, (for such

Their distance argues, and their swift return

Diurnal,) merely to officiate light

Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot,

One day and night; in all her vast survey

Useless besides; reasoning I oft admire,

How Nature wise and frugal could commit

Such disproportions, with superfluous hand

So many nobler bodies to create,

Greater so manifold, to this one use,

For aught appears, and on their orbs impose

Such restless revolution day by day

Repeated; while the sedentary Earth,

That better might with far less compass move,

Served by more noble than herself, attains

Her end without least motion, and receives,

As tribute, such a sumless journey brought

Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;

Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.

So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed

Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve

Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,

With lowliness majestick from her seat,

And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,

Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers,

To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,

Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,

And, touched by her fair tendance, gladlier grew.

Yet went she not, as not with such discourse

Delighted, or not capable her ear

Of what was high: such pleasure she reserved,

Adam relating, she sole auditress;

Her husband the relater she preferred

Before the Angel, and of him to ask

Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix

Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute

With conjugal caresses: from his lip

Not words alone pleased her.  O! when meet now

Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?

With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went,

Not unattended; for on her, as Queen,

A pomp of winning Graces waited still,

And from about her shot darts of desire

Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight.

And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt proposed,

Benevolent and facile thus replied.

To ask or search, I blame thee not; for Heaven

Is as the book of God before thee set,

Wherein to read his wonderous works, and learn

His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:

This to attain, whether Heaven move or Earth,

Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest

From Man or Angel the great Architect

Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

His secrets to be scanned by them who ought

Rather admire; or, if they list to try

Conjecture, he his fabrick of the Heavens

Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move

His laughter at their quaint opinions wide

Hereafter; when they come to model Heaven

And calculate the stars, how they will wield

The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive

To save appearances; how gird the sphere

With centrick and eccentrick scribbled o'er,

Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb:

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,

Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest

That bodies bright and greater should not serve

The less not bright, nor Heaven such journeys run,

Earth sitting still, when she alone receives

The benefit:  Consider first, that great

Or bright infers not excellence: the Earth

Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small,

Nor glistering, may of solid good contain

More plenty than the sun that barren shines;

Whose virtue on itself works no effect,

But in the fruitful Earth; there first received,

His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.

Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries

Officious; but to thee, Earth's habitant.

And for the Heaven's wide circuit, let it speak

The Maker's high magnificence, who built

So spacious, and his line stretched out so far;

That Man may know he dwells not in his own;

An edifice too large for him to fill,

Lodged in a small partition; and the rest

Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.

The swiftness of those circles attribute,

Though numberless, to his Omnipotence,

That to corporeal substances could add

Speed almost spiritual:  Me thou thinkest not slow,

Who since the morning-hour set out from Heaven

Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived

In Eden; distance inexpressible

By numbers that have name.  But this I urge,

Admitting motion in the Heavens, to show

Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;

Not that I so affirm, though so it seem

To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.

God, to remove his ways from human sense,

Placed Heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight,

If it presume, might err in things too high,

And no advantage gain.  What if the sun

Be center to the world; and other stars,

By his attractive virtue and their own

Incited, dance about him various rounds?

Their wandering course now high, now low, then hid,

Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

In six thou seest; and what if seventh to these

The planet earth, so stedfast though she seem,

Insensibly three different motions move?

Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,

Moved contrary with thwart obliquities;

Or save the sun his labour, and that swift

Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,

Invisible else above all stars, the wheel

Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,

If earth, industrious of herself, fetch day

Travelling east, and with her part averse

From the sun's beam meet night, her other part

Still luminous by his ray.  What if that light,

Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,

To the terrestrial moon be as a star,

Enlightening her by day, as she by night

This earth? reciprocal, if land be there,

Fields and inhabitants:  Her spots thou seest

As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce

Fruits in her softened soil for some to eat

Allotted there; and other suns perhaps,

With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry,

Communicating male and female light;

Which two great sexes animate the world,

Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.

For such vast room in Nature unpossessed

By living soul, desart and desolate,

Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute

Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far

Down to this habitable, which returns

Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.

But whether thus these things, or whether not;

But whether the sun, predominant in Heaven,

Rise on the earth; or earth rise on the sun;

He from the east his flaming road begin;

Or she from west her silent course advance,

With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps

On her soft axle, while she paces even,

And bears thee soft with the smooth hair along;

Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid;

Leave them to God above; him serve, and fear!

Of other creatures, as him pleases best,

Wherever placed, let him dispose; joy thou

In what he gives to thee, this Paradise

And thy fair Eve; Heaven is for thee too high

To know what passes there; be lowly wise:

Think only what concerns thee, and thy being;

Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there

Live, in what state, condition, or degree;

Contented that thus far hath been revealed

Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.

To whom thus Adam, cleared of doubt, replied.

How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure

Intelligence of Heaven, Angel serene!

And, freed from intricacies, taught to live

The easiest way; nor with perplexing thoughts

To interrupt the sweet of life, from which

God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,

And not molest us; unless we ourselves

Seek them with wandering thoughts, and notions vain.

But apt the mind or fancy is to rove

Unchecked, and of her roving is no end;

Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn,

That, not to know at large of things remote

From use, obscure and subtle; but, to know

That which before us lies in daily life,

Is the prime wisdom:  What is more, is fume,

Or emptiness, or fond impertinence:

And renders us, in things that most concern,

Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek.

Therefore from this high pitch let us descend

A lower flight, and speak of things at hand

Useful; whence, haply, mention may arise

Of something not unseasonable to ask,

By sufferance, and thy wonted favour, deigned.

Thee I have heard relating what was done

Ere my remembrance: now, hear me relate

My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard;

And day is not yet spent; till then thou seest

How subtly to detain thee I devise;

Inviting thee to hear while I relate;

Fond! were it not in hope of thy reply:

For, while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven;

And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear

Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst

And hunger both, from labour, at the hour

Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill,

Though pleasant; but thy words, with grace divine

Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety.

To whom thus Raphael answered heavenly meek.

Nor are thy lips ungraceful, Sire of men,

Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee

Abundantly his gifts hath also poured

Inward and outward both, his image fair:

Speaking, or mute, all comeliness and grace

Attends thee; and each word, each motion, forms;

Nor less think we in Heaven of thee on Earth

Than of our fellow-servant, and inquire

Gladly into the ways of God with Man:

For God, we see, hath honoured thee, and set

On Man his equal love:  Say therefore on;

For I that day was absent, as befel,

Bound on a voyage uncouth and obscure,

Far on excursion toward the gates of Hell;

Squared in full legion (such command we had)

To see that none thence issued forth a spy,

Or enemy, while God was in his work;

Lest he, incensed at such eruption bold,

Destruction with creation might have mixed.

Not that they durst without his leave attempt;

But us he sends upon his high behests

For state, as Sovran King; and to inure

Our prompt obedience.  Fast we found, fast shut,

The dismal gates, and barricadoed strong;

But long ere our approaching heard within

Noise, other than the sound of dance or song,

Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

Glad we returned up to the coasts of light

Ere sabbath-evening: so we had in charge.

But thy relation now; for I attend,

Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine.

So spake the Godlike Power, and thus our Sire.

For Man to tell how human life began

Is hard; for who himself beginning knew

Desire with thee still longer to converse

Induced me.  As new waked from soundest sleep,

Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid,

In balmy sweat; which with his beams the sun

Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed.

Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned,

And gazed a while the ample sky; till, raised

By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung,

As thitherward endeavouring, and upright

Stood on my feet: about me round I saw

Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,

And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these,

Creatures that lived and moved, and walked, or flew;

Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;

With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.

Myself I then perused, and limb by limb

Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran

With supple joints, as lively vigour led:

But who I was, or where, or from what cause,

Knew not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake;

My tongue obeyed, and readily could name

Whate'er I saw.  Thou Sun, said I, fair light,

And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay,

Ye Hills, and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains,

And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell,

Tell, if ye saw, how I came thus, how here?—

Not of myself;—by some great Maker then,

In goodness and in power pre-eminent:

Tell me, how may I know him, how adore,

From whom I have that thus I move and live,

And feel that I am happier than I know.—

While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither,

From where I first drew air, and first beheld

This happy light; when, answer none returned,

On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers,

Pensive I sat me down:  There gentle sleep

First found me, and with soft oppression seised

My droused sense, untroubled, though I thought

I then was passing to my former state

Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:

When suddenly stood at my head a dream,

Whose inward apparition gently moved

My fancy to believe I yet had being,

And lived:  One came, methought, of shape divine,

And said, 'Thy mansion wants thee, Adam; rise,

'First Man, of men innumerable ordained

'First Father! called by thee, I come thy guide

'To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.'

So saying, by the hand he took me raised,

And over fields and waters, as in air

Smooth-sliding without step, last led me up

A woody mountain; whose high top was plain,

A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees

Planted, with walks, and bowers; that what I saw

Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemed.  Each tree,

Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to the eye

Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite

To pluck and eat; whereat I waked, and found

Before mine eyes all real, as the dream

Had lively shadowed:  Here had new begun

My wandering, had not he, who was my guide

Up hither, from among the trees appeared,

Presence Divine.  Rejoicing, but with awe,

In adoration at his feet I fell

Submiss:  He reared me, and 'Whom thou soughtest I am,'

Said mildly, 'Author of all this thou seest

'Above, or round about thee, or beneath.

'This Paradise I give thee, count it thine

'To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat:

'Of every tree that in the garden grows

'Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:

'But of the tree whose operation brings

'Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set

'The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,

'Amid the garden by the tree of life,

'Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,

'And shun the bitter consequence: for know,

'The day thou eatest thereof, my sole command

'Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die,

'From that day mortal; and this happy state

'Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world

'Of woe and sorrow.'  Sternly he pronounced

The rigid interdiction, which resounds

Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice

Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect

Returned, and gracious purpose thus renewed.

'Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth

'To thee and to thy race I give; as lords

'Possess it, and all things that therein live,

'Or live in sea, or air; beast, fish, and fowl.

'In sign whereof, each bird and beast behold

'After their kinds; I bring them to receive

'From thee their names, and pay thee fealty

'With low subjection; understand the same

'Of fish within their watery residence,

'Not hither summoned, since they cannot change

'Their element, to draw the thinner air.'

As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold

Approaching two and two; these cowering low

With blandishment; each bird stooped on his wing.

I named them, as they passed, and understood

Their nature, with such knowledge God endued

My sudden apprehension:  But in these

I found not what methought I wanted still;

And to the heavenly Vision thus presumed.

O, by what name, for thou above all these,

Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher,

Surpassest far my naming; how may I

Adore thee, Author of this universe,

And all this good to man? for whose well being

So amply, and with hands so liberal,

Thou hast provided all things:  But with me

I see not who partakes.  In solitude

What happiness, who can enjoy alone,

Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?

Thus I presumptuous; and the Vision bright,

As with a smile more brightened, thus replied.

What callest thou solitude?  Is not the Earth

With various living creatures, and the air

Replenished, and all these at thy command

To come and play before thee?  Knowest thou not

Their language and their ways?  They also know,

And reason not contemptibly:  With these

Find pastime, and bear rule; thy realm is large.

So spake the Universal Lord, and seemed

So ordering:  I, with leave of speech implored,

And humble deprecation, thus replied.

Let not my words offend thee, Heavenly Power;

My Maker, be propitious while I speak.

Hast thou not made me here thy substitute,

And these inferiour far beneath me set?

Among unequals what society

Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?

Which must be mutual, in proportion due

Given and received; but, in disparity

The one intense, the other still remiss,

Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove

Tedious alike:  Of fellowship I speak

Such as I seek, fit to participate

All rational delight: wherein the brute

Cannot be human consort:  They rejoice

Each with their kind, lion with lioness;

So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined:

Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl

So well converse, nor with the ox the ape;

Worse then can man with beast, and least of all.

Whereto the Almighty answered, not displeased.

A nice and subtle happiness, I see,

Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice

Of thy associates, Adam! and wilt taste

No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.

What thinkest thou then of me, and this my state?

Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed

Of happiness, or not? who am alone

From all eternity; for none I know

Second to me or like, equal much less.

How have I then with whom to hold converse,

Save with the creatures which I made, and those

To me inferiour, infinite descents

Beneath what other creatures are to thee?

He ceased; I lowly answered.  To attain

The highth and depth of thy eternal ways

All human thoughts come short, Supreme of things!

Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee

Is no deficience found:  Not so is Man,

But in degree; the cause of his desire

By conversation with his like to help

Or solace his defects.  No need that thou

Shouldst propagate, already Infinite;

And through all numbers absolute, though One:

But Man by number is to manifest

His single imperfection, and beget

Like of his like, his image multiplied,

In unity defective; which requires

Collateral love, and dearest amity.

Thou in thy secresy although alone,

Best with thyself accompanied, seekest not

Social communication; yet, so pleased,

Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt

Of union or communion, deified:

I, by conversing, cannot these erect

From prone; nor in their ways complacence find.

Thus I emboldened spake, and freedom used

Permissive, and acceptance found; which gained

This answer from the gracious Voice Divine.

Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased;

And find thee knowing, not of beasts alone,

Which thou hast rightly named, but of thyself;

Expressing well the spirit within thee free,

My image, not imparted to the brute;

Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee

Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike;

And be so minded still:  I, ere thou spakest,

Knew it not good for Man to be alone;

And no such company as then thou sawest

Intended thee; for trial only brought,

To see how thou couldest judge of fit and meet:

What next I bring shall please thee, be assured,

Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,

Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.

He ended, or I heard no more; for now

My earthly by his heavenly overpowered,

Which it had long stood under, strained to the highth

In that celestial colloquy sublime,

As with an object that excels the sense

Dazzled and spent, sunk down; and sought repair

Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, called

By Nature as in aid, and closed mine eyes.

Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell

Of fancy, my internal sight; by which,

Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw,

Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape

Still glorious before whom awake I stood:

Who stooping opened my left side, and took

From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,

And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,

But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed:

The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands;

Under his forming hands a creature grew,

Man-like, but different sex; so lovely fair,

That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now

Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained

And in her looks; which from that time infused

Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,

And into all things from her air inspired

The spirit of love and amorous delight.

She disappeared, and left me dark; I waked

To find her, or for ever to deplore

Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:

When out of hope, behold her, not far off,

Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned

With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow

To make her amiable:  On she came,

Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen,

And guided by his voice; nor uninformed

Of nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites:

Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love.

I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud.

This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfilled

Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,

Giver of all things fair! but fairest this

Of all thy gifts! nor enviest.  I now see

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself

Before me:  Woman is her name;of Man

Extracted: for this cause he shall forego

Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;

And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.

She heard me thus; and though divinely brought,

Yet innocence, and virgin modesty,

Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,

That would be wooed, and not unsought be won,

Not obvious, not obtrusive, but, retired,

The more desirable; or, to say all,

Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought,

Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned:

I followed her; she what was honour knew,

And with obsequious majesty approved

My pleaded reason.  To the nuptial bower

I led her blushing like the morn: All Heaven,

And happy constellations, on that hour

Shed their selectest influence; the Earth

Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;

Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs

Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings

Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub,

Disporting, till the amorous bird of night

Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening-star

On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp.

Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought

My story to the sum of earthly bliss,

Which I enjoy; and must confess to find

In all things else delight indeed, but such

As, used or not, works in the mind no change,

Nor vehement desire; these delicacies

I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers,

Walks, and the melody of birds: but here

Far otherwise, transported I behold,

Transported touch; here passion first I felt,

Commotion strange! in all enjoyments else

Superiour and unmoved; here only weak

Against the charm of Beauty's powerful glance.

Or Nature failed in me, and left some part

Not proof enough such object to sustain;

Or, from my side subducting, took perhaps

More than enough; at least on her bestowed

Too much of ornament, in outward show

Elaborate, of inward less exact.

For well I understand in the prime end

Of Nature her the inferiour, in the mind

And inward faculties, which most excel;

In outward also her resembling less

His image who made both, and less expressing

The character of that dominion given

O'er other creatures:  Yet when I approach

Her loveliness, so absolute she seems

And in herself complete, so well to know

Her own, that what she wills to do or say,

Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best:

All higher knowledge in her presence falls

Degraded;  Wisdom in discourse with her

Loses discountenanced, and like Folly shows;

Authority and Reason on her wait,

As one intended first, not after made

Occasionally; and, to consummate all,

Greatness of mind and Nobleness their seat

Build in her loveliest, and create an awe

About her, as a guard angelick placed.

To whom the Angel with contracted brow.

Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part;

Do thou but thine; and be not diffident

Of Wisdom; she deserts thee not, if thou

Dismiss not her, when most thou needest her nigh,

By attributing overmuch to things

Less excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.

For, what admirest thou, what transports thee so,

An outside? fair, no doubt, and worthy well

Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love;

Not thy subjection:  Weigh with her thyself;

Then value:  Oft-times nothing profits more

Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right

Well managed; of that skill the more thou knowest,

The more she will acknowledge thee her head,

And to realities yield all her shows:

Made so adorn for thy delight the more,

So awful, that with honour thou mayest love

Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise.

But if the sense of touch, whereby mankind

Is propagated, seem such dear delight

Beyond all other; think the same vouchsafed

To cattle and each beast; which would not be

To them made common and divulged, if aught

Therein enjoyed were worthy to subdue

The soul of man, or passion in him move.

What higher in her society thou findest

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 heavenly love thou mayest ascend,

Not sunk in carnal pleasure; for which cause,

Among the beasts no mate for thee was found.

To whom thus, half abashed, Adam replied.

Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught

In procreation common to all kinds,

(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 mixed with love

And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned

Union of mind, or in us both one soul;

Harmony to behold in wedded pair

More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.

Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose

What inward thence I feel, not therefore foiled,

Who meet with various objects, from the sense

Variously representing; yet, still free,

Approve the best, and follow what I approve.

To love, thou blamest me not; for Love, thou sayest,

Leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide;

Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask:

Love not the heavenly Spirits, and how their love

Express they? by looks only? or do they mix

Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?

To whom the Angel, with a smile that glowed

Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue,

Answered.  Let it suffice thee that thou knowest

Us happy, and without love no happiness.

Whatever pure thou in the body enjoyest,

(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy

In eminence; and obstacle find none

Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars;

Easier than air with air, if Spirits embrace,

Total they mix, union of pure with pure

Desiring, nor restrained conveyance need,

As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul.

But I can now no more; the parting sun

Beyond the Earth's green Cape and verdant Isles

Hesperian sets, my signal to depart.

Be strong, live happy, and love!  But, first of all,

Him, whom to love is to obey, and keep

His great command; take heed lest 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 placed; beware!

I in thy persevering shall rejoice,

And all the Blest:  Stand fast;to stand or fall

Free in thine own arbitrement it lies.

Perfect within, no outward aid require;

And all temptation to transgress repel.

So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus

Followed 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 honoured ever

With grateful memory:  Thou to mankind

Be good and friendly still, and oft return!

So parted they; the Angel up to Heaven

From the thick shade, and Adam to his bower.

'(line 3: --- still stood fix'd to hear...): 'Stood' from 'Stava' (Italian) remain'd, continued; not that Adam was in a standing posture, probably he sat as at dinner, V. 433. 'Tis not his attitude which is here described, but his great attention. --Richardson.(line 15: When I behold this goodly frame, this world..&c.): Milton after having given so noble an idea of the creation of this new world takes a most proper occasion to show the two great systems, usually called the Ptolemaic and the Copernican, one making the earth, the other the sun to be the center; and this he does by introducing Adam proposing very judiciously the difficulties that occur in the first, and which was the system most obvious to him. The reply of the Angel touches on the expedients the Ptolemaics invented to solve those difficulties, and to patch up their system, and then intimates that perhaps the sun is the center, and so opens that system, and withal the noble improvements of the new philosophy; not however determining for one or the other: on the contrary he exhorts our progenitor to apply his thoughts rather to what more nearly concerns him, and is within his reach. --Richardson.(line 83: With centric and eccentric...): Centric or concentric are such spheres whose center is the same with, and 'eccentric' such whose centers are different from, that of the earth. Cycle is a circle; Epicycle is a circle upon another circle. Expedients of the Ptolemaics to solve the apparent difficulties in their system. --Richardson.[The next note is a Relic of 17th-18th Astronomical philosophy],(line 128: In six thou seest,....&c.): In the moon, and the "five other wand'ring fires," as they are call'd V. 177. Their motions are evident; and what if the Earth should be a seventh planet, and move three different motions though to thee insensible? The "three different motions" which the Copernicans attribute to the earth are the 'diurnal' round her own axis, the 'annual' round the sun, and the 'motion of libration' as it is call'd, whereby the earth so proceeds in her orbit, as that her axis is constantly parallel to the axis of the world. "Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,"&c. You must either ascribe these motions to several sphers crossing and thwarting one another with crooked and indirect turnings and windings: Or you must attribute them to the Earth, and "save the sun his labor" and the primum mobile too, "that swift nocturnal and diurnal rhomb." It was observed in the note on VII. 619. that when Milton uses a Greek word, he frequently subjoins the English of it, as he does here, "the wheel of day and night." So he calls the primum mobile: and this primum mobile in the ancient astronomy was an imaginary sphere above those of the planets and fixed stars; and therefore said by our author to be "suppos'd" and "invisible above all stars." This was conceived to be the first mover, and to carry all the lower spheres round along with it; by its rapidity communicating to them a motion whereby they revolved in twenty-four hours. "Which needs not thy belief, if earth...&c." But there is no need to believe this, if the earth by revolving round on her own axis from west to east in twenty-four hours (traveling east) enjoys day in that half of her globe which is turn'd towards the sun, and is cover'd with night in the other half which is turn'd away from the sun. [The next note is another Relic of 17th-18th Astronomical philosophy],(line 145: ----- Her spots thou seest / As clouds,...): It seems by this and by another thought that the spots in the moon were clouds and vapors: but the most probable opinion is, that they are her seas and waters, which reflect only part of the sun's rays, and absorb the rest. They cannot possibly be clouds and vapors, because they are observed to be fix'd and permanent. But (as Dr. Pearce observes) Mr. Auzout in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1666 thought that he had observed some difference between the spots of the moon as they then appear'd, and as they are described to have appear'd long before; and Milton, who wrote this poem about that time, might approve of Auzout's observation, though others do not.(line 150: Communicating male and female light,...): The suns communicate male, and the moons female light. And thus Pliny mentions it as a tradition, that the sun is a masculine star, drying all things: on the contrary the moon is a soft and feminine star, dissolving humors: and so the balance of nature is preserved, some of the stars binding the elements, and others loosing them. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. 2. C. 100.(line 212: --- fruits of palm-tree...): The 'palm tree' bears a fruit call'd a date, full of sweet juice, a great restorative to dry and exhausted bodies by augmenting the radical moisture. There is one kind of it called Palma AEgyptiaca, which from its virtue against drouth was named 'sitim sedans.' --Hume.(line 386: --- but in disparity.... &c.): But in inequality, such as is between brute and rational; "the one intense," man high, wound up, and strain'd to nobler understanding, and of more lofty faculty; "the other still remiss," the animal, let down, and slacker, groveling in more low and mean perceptions, can never suit together. A musical metaphor, from strings, of which the stretch'd and highest give a smart and sharp sound, the slack a flat and heavy one. --Hume.(453: My earthly by his heav'nly overpower'd,...): The Scripture says only, that "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," Genesis II. 21., and our author endeavors to give some account how it was effected: Adam was overpower'd by conversing with so superior a being, his faculties having been all strain'd and exerted to the highth, and now he sunk down quite dazled and spent, and sought repair of sleep, which instantly fell on him, and clos'd his eyes. "Mine eyes he clos'd," says he again, turning the words, and making sleep a person as the ancient poets often do. (line 460: Mine eyes he clos'd,...&c.): Adam then proceeds to give an account of his second sleep, and of the dream in which he beheld the formation of Eve. The new passion that was awaken'd in him at the sight of her is touch'd very finely. Adam's distress upon losing sight of this beautiful phantom, with his exclamations of joy and gratitude at the discovery of a real creature, who resembled the apparition which had been presented to him in his dream; the approaches he makes to her, and his manner of courtship, are all laid together in a most exquisite propriety of sentiments. Tho' this part of the poem is work'd up with great warmth and spirit, the love which is described in it is every way suitable to a state of innocence. If the reader compares the description which Adam here gives of his leading Eve to the nuptial bower, with that which Mr. Dryden has made on the same occasion in a scene of his Fall of Man, he will be sensible of the great care which Milton took to avoid all thoughts on so delicate a subject, that might be offensive to religion or good-manners. The sentiments are chaste, but not cold; and convey to the mind ideas of the most transporting passion, and of the greatest purity. --Addison.(line 471: ---- so lovely fair / That what seem'd fair in all the world,...): This is the same with that which Marino makes Venus say to Paris in the picture she is giving him of Helen. Adon. Cant. 2. St. 173. --Thyer.(line 513: ------------ the earth / Gave sign of gratulation,...&c.): This is a copy from Homer, Iliad. XIV. 347. where the creation is made to give the like tokens of joy at the amorous congress of Jupiter and Juno on mount Ida.(line 519: --- and bid haste the evening star / On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp...): The evening star is said to 'light the bridal lamp,' as it was the signal among the ancients to light their lamps and torches in order to conduct the bride home to the bridegroom. 'On his hill top,' says our author writing in the language as well as in the spirit of the Ancients: for when this star appear'd eastward in the morning, it was said to rise on mount Ida. ... When it appear'd westward in the evening, it was said to be seen on mount Oeta. Our author therefore writes in classical language. He does not mention any mountain by name, but says only "the evening star on his hill top," as appearing above the hills. (line 543: ------- resembling less / His image...&c.): Milton here seems to adopt the opinion, that the image of God in man was the dominion given to him over the creatures, contrary to the sense he follows at ver.440. but this is not the only instance, where in different places he goes upon different hypotheses, as may best suit with his subject. See his different construction of the sons of God going in to the daughters of men in Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regain'd. --Thyer.(line 568: ---- and worthy well / Thy cherishing, thy honoring, and thy love,...): He maketh use of these three words agreeably to Scripture. "So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself: For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it." Ephesians V. 28,29. "Giving honor unto the wife." I Peter III. 7.(line 591: ---- and is judicious,....):To be "judicious" means here to choose proper qualities in Eve for the object of love; to love her only for what is truly amiable: not for "the sense of touch whereby mankind is propagated," ver. 579, &c; but for what Adam found "higher in her society, human and rational," ver. 586, &c. --Pearce.(line 630: But I can now no more; the parting sun...&c.): The conversation was now become of such a nature that it was proper to put an end to it: And now "the parting sun beyond the earth's green Cape," beyond Cape de Verd the most western point of Africa, "and verdant Iles," the ilands of Cape de Verd, a knot of small ilands lying off Cape de Verd, subject to the Portuguese, "Hesperian sets", sets westward, from Hesperus the evening star appearing there, "my signal to depart," for he was only to stay till the evening, V. 376. "--for these mid hours, till evening rise, / I have at will." And he very properly closes his discourse with those moral instructions, which should make the most lasting impression on the mind of Adam, and to deliver which was the principal end and design of the Angel's coming.(line 645: Follow'd with benediction. Since to part,...): "Benedicere Domino, to bless God" is a common phrase in religious offices. And so in a lower sense may be said to 'bless' Angels; for 'benediction' is (properly speaking) only giving them good words, or wishing them well. See Psalms CIX. 17. In this sense therefore it is not improper to be used towards superiors.--Pearce.'~ Th. Newton, Paradise Lost, 2nd edition, 1750.