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Minims of nature: some of serpent-kind,

Wondrous in length and corpulence, involved
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident

Of future; in small room large heart inclosed;
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes

Of commonalty: swarming next appeared

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey stored: the rest are numberless,

And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names, Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown

The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,

Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

"Now heaven in her glory shone, and rolled Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand

First wheeled their course: earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked,
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect

His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with heaven,

But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and eyes,
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent

Eternal Father (for where is not he

Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake :

"Let us make now man in our image, man

In our similitude, and let them rule

Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.'
This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image he

Created thee, in the image of God

Express; and thou becamest a living soul.
Male he created thee; but thy consort

Female, for race; then blessed mankind, and said,
'Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,

And every living thing that moves on the earth.'
Wherever thus created, for no place

Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou knowest,
He brought thee into this delicious grove,
This garden, planted with the trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste;

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food

Gave thee: all sorts are here that all the earth yields, Variety without end; but of the tree,

Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil,
Thou mayest not; in the day thou eatest, thou diest :
Death is the penalty imposed; beware,

And govern well thy appetite; lest sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant death.
"Here finished he, and all that he had made
Viewed, and behold all was entirely good;
So even and morn accomplished the sixth day:
Yet not till the Creator, from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,
Up to the heaven of heavens, his high abode ;
Thence to behold this new-created world,
The addition of his empire, how it showed
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great idea. Up he rode,
Followed with acclamation, and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned
Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air

Resounded (thou rememberest, for thou heardest),
The heavens and all the constellations rung,
The planets in their station listening stood,
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.
'Open, ye everlasting gates!' they sung,
'Open, ye heavens! your living doors; let in
The great Creator from his work returned
Magnificent, his six days' work, a world;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men,
Delighted; and with frequent intercourse

Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace.' So sung

The glorious train ascending: he through heaven,
That opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way;

A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way

Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest

Powdered with stars. And now on earth the seventh

Evening arose in Eden, for the sun

Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
Of heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead fixed for ever firm and sure,
The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down
With his great Father: for he also went
Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege

Hath Omnipresence), and the work ordained,
Author and End of all things; and, from work
Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day,
As resting on that day from all his work.
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe,
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
Choral or unison of incense clouds,
Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount.
Creation and the six days' acts they sung:

'Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite

Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue
Relate thee? Greater now in thy return

Than from the giant angels: thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,
Thou hast repelled; while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might: his evil
Thou usest, and from thence createst more good.

Witness this new-made world, another heaven
From heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation; but thou knowest
Their seasons: among these the seat of men,
Earth with her nether ocean circumfused,
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy men,
And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced!
Created in his image there to dwell

And worship him; and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just; thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!'

"So sung they, and the empyréan rung
With halleluiahs: thus was the sabbath kept.-
And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked
How first this world and face of things began,
And what before thy memory was done
From the beginning; that posterity,

Informed by thee, might know: if else thou seekest
Aught not surpassing human measure, say."

BOOK VIII.

THE ARGUMENT.

Adam inquires concerning celestial motions; is doubtfully answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge: Adam assents; and still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own creation; his placing in Paradise; his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve: his discourse with the angel thereupon; who, after admonitions repeated, departs.

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 recompense
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 their 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

H

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