RAPHAEL, at the request of Adam, relates how and where- Urania, fore this World was first created :—that God, after the Wisdom's expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declared sister his pleasure to create another World, and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory, and attendance of Angels, to perform the work of creation in six days: the Angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into Heaven.
DESCEND from Heaven, Urania, by that name If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing!
The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heavenly-born, Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed, Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse, Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased With thy celestial song. Up led by thee, Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, Thy tempering. With like safety guided down, Return me to my native element;
Lest, from this flying steed unreined (as once
The poet Bellerophon, though from a lower clime) prays her Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall, sure pro- Erroneous there to wander and forlorn. tection
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound Within the visible Diurnal Sphere.
Standing on Earth, not rapt above the pole, More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues, In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, And solitude; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when Morn Purples the East. Still govern thou my song, 30 Urania, and fit audience find, though few. But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend Her son. So fail not thou who thee implores ; For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream. Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphael, 40 The affable Archangel, had forewarned Adam, by dire example, to beware Apostasy, by what befell in Heaven
To those apostates, lest the like befall In Paradise to Adam or his race, Charged not to touch the interdicted Tree, If they transgress, and slight that sole command, So easily obeyed amid the choice
Of all tastes else to please their appetite, Though wandering. He, with his consorted
The story heard attentive, and was filled With admiration and deep muse, to hear
Of things so high and strange-things to their the angel
So unimaginable as hate in Heaven,
And war so near the peace of God in bliss, With such confusion; but the evil, soon Driven back, redounded as a flood on those From whom it sprung, impossible to mix With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed The doubts that in his heart arose; and, now 60 Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know What nearer might concern him-how this World
Of heaven and earth conspicuous first began; When, and whereof, created; for what cause; What within Eden, or without, was done Before his memory-as one whose drouth, Yet scarce allayed, still eyes the current stream, Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites, Proceeded thus to ask his Heavenly Guest :-
'Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, 70 Far differing from this World, thou hast revealed, Divine Interpreter! by favour sent
Down from the Empyrean to forewarn
Us timely of what might else have been our loss, Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach ;
For which to the infinitely Good we owe Immortal thanks, and his admonishment Receive with solemn purpose to observe Immutably his sovran will, the end
Of what we are. But, since thou hast vout
He asks Gently, for our instruction, to impart of the Things above Earthly thought, which yet con- Creation cerned
Our knowing, as to highest Wisdom seemed, Deign to descend now lower, and relate What may no less perhaps avail us known-- How first began this Heaven which we behold Distant so high, with moving fires adorned Innumerable; and this which yields or fills All space, the ambient Air, wide interfused, Embracing round this florid Earth; what cause ga Moved the Creator, in his holy rest Through all eternity, so late to build
In Chaos; and, the work begun, how soon Absolved: if unforbid thou may'st unfold What we not to explore the secrets ask Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works the more we know. And the great Light of Day yet wants to run Much of his race, though steep. Suspense in heaven
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he hears, 100 And longer will delay, to hear thee tell His generation, and the rising birth Of Nature from the unapparent deep: Or, if the Star of Evening and the Moon Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring Silence, and Sleep listening to thee will watch; Or we can bid his absence till thy song End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine." Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought; And thus the godlike Angel answered mild:- 110 This also thy request, with caution asked, Obtain; though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice, What Or heart of man suffice to comprehend? Yet what thou canst attain, which best To glorify the Maker, and infer Thee also happier, shall not be withheld Thy hearing.
Such commission from above I have received, to answer thy desire Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain 120 To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope Things not revealed, which the invisible King, Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night, To none communicable in Earth or Heaven. Enough is left beside to search and know But Knowledge is as food, and needs no less Her temperance over appetite, to know In measure what the mind may well contain ; Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind. 'Know then that, after Lucifer from Heaven (So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of Angels than that star the stars among) Fell with his flaming legions through the Deep Into his place, and the great Son returned Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :-""At least our envious foe hath failed, who thought
All like himself rebellious; by whose aid This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed, He trusted to have seized, and into fraud Drew many whom their place knows here no
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