Abundance, fit to honour and receive
Our heav'nly stranger: well we may afford
Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
From large bestow'd, where Nature multiplies
Her fertile growth, and by disburd'ning grows
More fruitful; which instructs us not to spare. 320
To whom thus Eve: Adam, earth's hallow'd mould,
Of God inspired, small store will serve, where store,
All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk,
Save what by frugal storing firmness gains
To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:
But I will haste, and from each bow and brake,
Each plant and juciest gourd, will pluck such choice
To entertain our Angel guest, as he
Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth
God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heav'n. 330
So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent
What choice to choose for delicacy best,
What order, so contrived as not to mix
Tastes, not well join'd, inelegant, but bring
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change;
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk
Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields
In India East or West, or middle shore
In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where
Alcinous reign'd, fruit of all kinds, in coat
Rough or smooth rined, or bearded husk, or shell,
She gathers, tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand. For drink, the grape
She crushes, inoffensive must, and meaths
From many a berry, and from sweet kernels press'd
She tempers dulcet creams, nor these to hold
Wants her fit vessels pure, then strews the ground
With rose and odours from the shrub unfumed.
Mean while our primitive great sire, to meet 350 His god-like guest, walks forth, without more train
333. Choice to choose an alliteration not uncommon to Milton or the classics.
340. In Pontus, part of Asia; the Punic coast, Africa; the kingdom of Alcinous, Phœacia, an island in the lonian Sea, near Corfu,
345. Meaths, sweet drinks.
Accompany'd than with his own complete
Perfections: in himself was all his state,
More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits
On princes, when their rich retinue long
Of horses led, and grooms besmear'd with gold,
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape.
Nearer his presence Adam, though not awed,
Yet with submiss approach and rev'rence meek,
As to' a superior nature, bowing low,
Thus said: Native of Heav'n, for other place
None can than Heav'n such glorious shape contain;
Since by descending from the thrones above,
Those happy places thou hast deign'd a while
To want, and honour these, vouchsafe with us
Two only, who yet by sov'reign gift possess
This spacious ground, in yonder shady bow'r
To rest, and what the garden choicest bears
To sit and taste, till this meridian heat
Be over, and the Sun more cool decline.
Whom thus th' angelic virtue answer'd mild:
Adam, I therefore came; nor art thou such
Created, or such place hast here to dwell,
As may not oft invite, though Spirits of Heav'n,
To visit thee. Lead on then where thy bow'r
O'ershades; for these mid hours, till ev'ning rise,
I have at will. So to the sylvan lodge
They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled
With flow'rets deck'd and fragrant smells; but Eve
Undeck'd save with herself, more lovely fair
Than Wood-Nymph, or the fairest Goddess feign'd
Of three that in mount Ida naked strove,
Stood to' entertain her guest from Heav'n. No veil
She needed, virtue-proof; no thought infirm
Alter'd her cheek, On whom the Angel, Hail 385
Bestow'd; the holy salutation used
Long after to blest Mary, second Eve.
Hail Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful womb Shall fill the world more num'rous with thy sons, Than with these various fruits the trees of God 390
352. With should be expunged according t to Bentley, as superfluous. 378. Pomona, the goddess of fruit-trees. 382. In allusion to the judgment of Paris between Venus, Juno, and Minerva.
Have heap'd this table. Raised of grassy turf
Their table was, and mossy seats had round,
And on her ample square, from side to side,
All autumn piled, tho' spring and autumn here
Danced hand in hand. A while discourse they hold;
No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began
Our author: Heav'nly stranger, please to taste
These bounties which our Nourisher, from whom
All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends,
To us for food, and for delight hath caused
The earth to yield; unsav'ry food perhaps
To spiritual natures: only this I know,
That one celestial Father gives to all.
To whom the Angel: Therefore, what he gives
(Whose praise be ever sung) to Man in part
Spiritual, may of purest Spirits be found
No' ingrateful food: and food alike those pure
Intelligential substances require,
As doth your rational; and both contain
Within them ev'ry lower faculty
Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,
Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate,
And corporeal to incorporeal turn.
For know, whatever was created, needs
To be sustain'd and fed: of elements
The grosser feeds the purer; earth the sea,
Earth and the sea feed air; the air those fires
Ethereal, and as lowest first the moon;
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged
Vapours not yet into her substance turn'd.
Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale
From her moist continent to higher orbs.
The Sun, that light imparts to all, receives
From all his alimental recompense
In humid exhalations, and at even
Sups with the ocean. Though in Heav'n the trees
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines
Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn
We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground
Cover'd with pearly grain, yet God hath here
426. See Ps. cv. 40. Exodus xvi. 14. Matt. xxiv. 29. and Rev. xxii. 2.
Vary'd his bounty so with new delights,
As may compare with Heaven; and to taste
Think not I shall be nice. So down they sat,
And to their viands fell; nor seemingly
The Angel, nor in mist, the common gloss
Of Theologians; but with keen dispatch
Of real hunger and concoctive heat
To transubstantiate: what redounds, transpires Through Spirits with ease: nor wonder, if by fire
Of sooty coal th' empyric alchemist
Can turn, or holds it possible to turn,
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
As from the mine. Mean while at table Eve
Minister'd naked, and their flowing cups
With pleasant liquors crown'd. O innocence
Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,
Then had the sors of God excuse to have been
Enamour'd at thy sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reign'd, nor jealousy
Was understood, the injured lover's Hell.
Thus, when with meats and drinks they had sufficed,
Not burden'd nature, sudden mind arose
In Adam, not to let th' occasion pass
Giv'n him by this great conference, to know
Of things above his world, and of their being
Who dwell in Heav'n, whose excellence he saw
Transcend his own so far, whose radiant forms
Divine effulgence, whose high pow'r so far
Exceeded human; and his wary speech
Thus to th' empyreal minister he framed:
Inhabitant with God, now know I well
Thy favour in this honour done to Man,
Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed
To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,
Food not of Angels, yet accepted so,
As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
435. It was the opinion of most theologians that the angels did not eat, their opinion being founded on some metaphysical notions, and on a passage in Tobit iii. 19. But Milton seems to be justified by the canonical Scripture. See Gen. xviii. and xiv. 438 This is a fine distinction between the processes of diges tion
440. Empyric, making many experiments. 445. To crown the cup, is a classical expression.
At Heav'n's high feasts to have fed: yet what com
To whom the winged Hierarch reply'd:
O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom
All things proceed, and up to him return,
If not depraved from good, created all
Such to perfection, one first matter all,
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and in things that life, of life:
But more refined, more spirituous, and pure,
As nearer to him placed, or nearer tending
Each in their sev'ral active spheres assign'd,
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportion'd to each kind. So from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
More aery, last the bright consummate flow'r
Spirits odórous breathes: flow'rs and their fruit,
Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed,
To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
To intellectual: give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding; whence the soul
Reason receives, and reason is her being
Discursive or intuitive: discourse
Is oftest yours; the latter most is ours,
Diff'ring but in degree; of kind the same.
Wonder not then, what God for you saw good,
If I refuse not, but convert, as you,
To proper substance: time may come, when Men
With Angels may participate, and find
No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare;
And from these corp'ral nutriments, perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improved by tract of time, and wing'd ascend
Ethereal, as we, or may at choice
Here or in heav'nly Paradises dwell;
If ye be found obedient, and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire,
Whose progeny you are. Mean while enjoy
Your fill what happiness this happy state
478. The reader may very profitably consult a volume of sermons lately published by Dr. A. Clarke, in which he will find some excellent observations on Milton's materialism. I am inclined, however, to believe that the poet meant to convey no other idea than that derived from 1 Cor. xv. 44.
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