Of day-spring, and the Sun, who scarce ap risen,
With wheels yet hov’ring o'er the ocean brim, 140
Shot parallel to th' earth his dewy ray,
Discovering in wide landskip all the east
Of Paradise and Eden's happy plains,
Lowly they bow'd, adoring, and began
Their orisons, each morning duly paid

145
In various style; for neither various style
Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise
Their Maker, in fit strains pronounced or sung
Unmeditated ; such prompt eloquence
Flow'd from their lips, in prose or num'rous verse,
More tuneable than needed lute or harp

151 To add more sweetness; and they thus began :

These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good, Almighty, thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair: thyself how wondrous then! Unspeakable, who sit'st above these Heav'ns 156 To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works: yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and pow'r divine. Speak ye who best can tell, ye sons of light, 160 Angels; for ye behold Him, and with songs And choral symphonies, day without night, Circle his throne rejoicing! ye in Heav'n, On Earth join all ye Creatures to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. 165 Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere, While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. 170 Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul, Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st, And when high noon hast gaiu'd, and when thou fall'st. Moon, that now meets the orient Sun, now fly’st, 175 With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies,

153. This prayer is a close imitation of the 148th Psalm : see also the Canticle in our Liturgy taken from it.

155. Wisd. xiii. 345. 162. Day without night, without such night as ours: as the Author afterward explains it, Buok vi. 8.

172. Bentley proposed to read dim Creator,' for thy greater.'

And ye five other wand'ring fires that move
In mystic dance not without song, resound
His praise, who out of darkness call'd up light.
Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth

180
Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix
And nourish all things; let your ceaseless chango
Vary to our great Maker still new praise.
Ye Mists and Exhalations that now rise

185 From hill or steaming lake, dusky or grey, Till the Sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, In honour to the world's great Author rise, Whether to deck with clouds th' uncolour'd sky, Or wet the thirsty earth with falling show'rs, 190 Rising or falling still advance his praise. His praise, ye Winds, that from four quarters blow Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye Pines, With every plant; in sign of worship wave. Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow, 195 Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise. Join voices all ye living Souls; ye Birds, That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend, Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise. Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk 200 The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep, Witness if I be silent, morn or ev'n, To hill or valley, fountain, or fresh shade, Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise. Hail Universal Lord, be bounteous still

205 To give us only good; and if the night Have gather'd aught of evil, or conceal'd, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.

So pray'd they innocent, and to their thoughts

197. Soul is here used as in Scripture, frequently to signify any living thing.

202. The commentators have exercised their ingenuity to ex. plain why Milton used the singular I in this line when it would seem that both Adam and Eve were expressing themselves in the hymn. Bentley reads we, which if right, would do away with the difficulty at once. Others, anong which are Newton and Dr: Pearce, think the prayer was intended to be interlocutory, which would also explain it, but I imagine that from Milton known opinion on the subject of female modesty and subjection, it is easy to suppose he never intended to represent Eve as au dibly accompanying the devotious of her husband. This idea ma: he strengthened by referring to i Cor. xiv. 34. and i Tin.ii. ll.

Firm peace recover'd soon, and wonted calm. 210
On to their morning's rural work they haste,
Among sweet dews and flow'rs; where any row
Of fruit trees over-woody reach'd too far
Their pamper'd boughs, and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces; or they led the vine

215
To wed her elm; she spoused about him twines
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings
Her dow'r th' adopted clusters, to adorn
His barren leaves. Them thus employ'd beheld
With pity Heav'n's high King, and to him call’d 220
Raphael, the sociable Spirit, that deign'd
To travel with Tobias, and secured,
His marriage with the sev'ntimes-wedded maid.

Raphael, said he, thou hear'st what stir on Earth Satan from Hell, 'scaped thro' the darksome gulf, 225 Hath raised in Paradise, and how disturb'd This night the hunian pair, how he designs In them at once to ruin all mankind. Go, therefore, half this day as friend with friend Converse with Adam, in what bow'r or shade 230 Thou find'st him from the heat of noon retired, To respite his day-labour with repast, Or with repose ; and such discourse bring on As may advise him of his happy state, Happiness in his pow'r left free to will,

235 Left to his own free will, his will though free, Yet mutable; whence warn him to beware He swerve not too secure. Tell him withal His danger, and from whom; what enemy, Late fall'n himself from Heav'n, is plotting now 240 The fall of others from like state of bliss. By violence ? No, for that shall be withstood; But by deceit and lies. This let him know, Lest wilfully transgressing he pretend Surprisal, unadmonish'd, unforewarn'd.

After his charge received ; but from among
Thousand celestial Ardors, where he stood
Veil'd with his gorgeous wings, up springing light 250
Flew through the midst of Heav'n; th' angelic choirs,
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way
Through all th'empyreal road ; till at the gate
Of Heav'n arrived, the gate self-open'd wide
On golden hinges turning, as by work

255
Divine the Sov'reign Architect had framed.
From hence no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight,
Star interposed, however small, he sees,
Not unconform to other shining globes,
Earth and the gard'n of God, with cedars crown'd
Above all hills. As when by night the glass 261
Of Galileo, less assured, observes
Imagined lands and regions in the moon :
Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades
Delos or Samos first appearing, kens

265 A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan Winnows the buxom air: till within soar

270 Of tow'ring eagles, to all the fowls he seems A Phoenix, gazed by all, as that sole bird, When to inshrine his reliques in the Sun's Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies. At once on theastern cliff of Paradise

275 He lights, and to his proper shape returns, A seraph wing'd; six wings he wore, to shade

249, Ardors, Seraphim, which has the same meaning in Hebrew.

254. So Homer makes the gates of Heaven open to the gods, Il. v. 749.

258. The word being must be understood after star. 262. Galileo first used the telescope in astronomical observations, The Cyclades, of which Delos and Samos are two, are islands in the Archipelago.

272. The Phenix has the epithet sole applied to it, because it is said that but one exists at a time. It is described as very beautiful, and living several hundred years, at the end of which time it burns itself on a pile prepared of aromatic wood; from its ashes springs its solitary successor, which inmediately flies with the remains of its predecessor to Thebes, in Egypt, where it reposits them in the temple of the Sun.

276. His proper shape, that in which he seemed to have been before

His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast
With regal ornament; the middle pair

280
Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
And colours dipt in Heav'n; the third bis feet
Shadow'd from either heel with feather'd mail,
Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood, 285
And shook his plumes, that heav'nly fragrance fill'd
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands
Of Angels under watch ; and to his state,
And to his message high in honour rise ;
For on some message high they guess’d him bound.
Their glitt'ring tents he pass'd, and now is come 291
Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh
And flow'ring odours, cassia, nard, and balm :
A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here
Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will 295
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.
Him through the spicy forest onward come
Adam discern'd, as in the door he sat
Of his cool bow'r, while now the mounted Sun 306
Shot down direct his fervid rays to, warm
Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs:
And Eve within, due at her hour prepared
For dinner sav'ry fruits, of taste to please
True appetite, and not disrelish thirst

305 Of nect'rous draughts between, froin milky stream, Berry or grape. To whom thus Adam call's :

Haste hither, Eve, and, worth thy sight, behold Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape Comes this way moving ; seems another morn 310 Risen on mid-noon; some great behest from Heav'n To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe This day to be our guest. But go with speed, And what thy stores contain bring forth, and pour

294. A beantiful comparison-feathers lie over one another she plaits of a coat of mail. 285. Maia's son, Mercury: see Iliad xxiv. 339. Æn. iv. 238.

299. Gen. xviii. 1 where Abraham is described sitting in the door of the tent.

310. Nothing can be conceived more splendid than the idea conreyed in the short description of Raphael's glory. In Marino's Adonis there is a similar one, C. ii. st. 27.