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"Into her private cell, when nature rests.
"Oft in her absence mimic Fancy wakes
To imitate her; but, misjoining shapes,
"Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams,
"Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.
"Some such resemblances, methinks, I find
"Of our last evening's talk in this thy dream,
"But with addition strange; yet be not sad:
"Evil into the mind of God1 or Man

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May come and go, so unapproved; and leave "No spot or blame behind: which gives me hope "That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream, "Waking thou never wilt consent to do.

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"Be not disheartened then; nor cloud those looks,
"That wont to be more cheerful and serene
"Than when fair Morning first smiles on the world:
"And let us to our fresh employments rise,

Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers, "That open now their choicest bosomed smells, "Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store."

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So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered;

But silently a gentle tear let fall

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From either eye, and wiped them with her hair:

Two other precious drops, that ready stood,
Each in their crystal sluice, he, ere they fell,
Kissed, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse,
And pious awe that feared to have offended.

So all was cleared, and to the field they haste.
But first, from under shady arborous 3 roof
Soon as they forth were come to open sight

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Of day-spring, and the Sun, who, scarce uprisen,
With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean-brim,
Shot parallel to the earth his dewy ray,

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Discovering in wide landskip all the east

1 Evil into the mind of God,-i. e. into the mind of angel; See James i. 13;

John x. 35; and lines 60 and 70.

2 Bosomed,-carefully treasured up.

3 Arborous,―formed by the over-arching branches of trees.

Of Paradise, and Eden's happy plains,
Lowly they bowed adoring; and began
Their orisons, each morning duly paid
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

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Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous verse ;-150 More tunable than needed lute or harp

To add more sweetness ;-and they thus began:

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"These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!1

Almighty! Thine this universal frame,

"Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then! 155 "Unspeakable! who sitt'st above these heavens, "To us invisible, or dimly seen

"In these thy lowest works; yet these declare

"Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
"Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
"Angels! for ye behold him, and with songs
"And choral symphonies, day without night,2
"Circle his throne rejoicing:-ye in Heaven;
"On Earth join all ye creatures to extol

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"Him first, him last, him midst, and without end! "Fairest of stars!3 last in the train of night.

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"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 gained, and when thou fall'st. "Moon! that now meet'st the orient Sun, now fliest, 175 "With the fixed stars,-fixed in their orb that flies;

1 153-308 A beautiful paraphrase on the 148th Psalm.

2 Day without night,-Compare 1. 628, 645, vi. 8. and Rev. xxi. 25. 3 Fairest of Stars!-The planet Venus. See note on b. iv. 1. 605.

And ye five other wandering fires!1 that move Ia mystic dance, not without song,3 resound His praise, who out of darkness called up light. ← Air, and ye elements! the eldest birth *Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run

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- Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix

And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change * Vary to our great Maker still new praise.

Ye mists and exhalations! that now rise
From hill or streaming lake, dusky or gray,
- Till the Sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honour to the world's great Author rise;
Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky,
Ort the thirsty earth with falling showers,

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Rising or falling still advance his praise.

Hs praise, ye winds! that from four quarters blow,

* Breathe soft or lond; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship, wave.
* Furtains! and ye that warble, as ye flow,
◄ Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
← J.m vcices, all ye living souls! ye birds,
That saging up to Heaven-gate ascend,

Bear on your wings, and in your notes, his praise.
Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
*The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep!
* Witness if I be silent, morn or even,

T: L or valley, fountain or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.

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1 ane me fire other wandering fres-fre other planets, Mercury, Mars, the Earth incer and Saturn; being, with Venus (already mentioned), The planets known in Kit's age.

* h muer day, me without song-alluding to Pythagoras' notion of the music of the spheres," by which he may have understood the See proria "egularity, and harmony of the planetary motions.

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Te imens that in quoternim run, perpetual circle, — Fire, air, Berth, and water, were anciently reckoned "elements," or simple bodies, ect of which the world was formed. Some philosophers imagined that our element was continually changing into another thus "running perpetual circa in quatermon, or fourfold change.

"Hail, universal Lord! be bounteous still "To give us only good; and, if the night "Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed, "Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark!" So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted calm. On to their morning's rural work they haste, Among sweet dews and flowers, where any row Of fruit-trees over woody reached too far

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Their pampered boughs,1 and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces: or they led the vine

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To wed her elm;2 she, spoused, about him twines
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn
His barren leaves. Them, thus employed, beheld
With pity Heaven's high King, and to him called
Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deigned
To travel with Tobias,3 and secured

His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid.

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"Raphael," said he, "thou hear'st what stir on Earth "Satan, from Hell scaped through the darksome gulf, 225 "Hath raised in Paradise; and how disturbed "This night the human 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 bower or shade "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 power left free to will,

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1 Pampered boughs,-growing too hastily; from the French, "pampre," which means a luxuriant vine shoot, producing only superfluous leaves without grapes.

2 To wed her elm,-in allusion to the practice in Italy of supporting vines by directing their tendrils to elms planted in vineyards for that purpose. 3 See the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha.

4 Happiness in his power left free,-i. e., as if he had written, in the power of him left free," &c.

“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 fallen himself from Heaven, is plotting now

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"The fall of others from like state of bliss;

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By violence? no, for that shall be withstood;

"But by deceit and lies: this let him know,

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Lest, wilfully transgressing, he pretend "Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned.”

So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfilled All justice: nor delayed the winged saint After his charge received; but from among Thousand celestial ardours,1 where he stood

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Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light

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Flew through the midst of Heaven: the angelic quires,
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way

Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate

Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide

On golden hinges turning, as, by work

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Divine, the sovereign Architect had framed.2
From hence (no cloud,3 or, to obstruct his sight,
Star interposed), however small, he sees,

Not unconform to other shining globes,

Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned
Above all hills: as, when by night the glass

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Of Galileo,* less assured, observes

Imagined lands and regions in the Moon:

Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades,

Delos, or Samos, first appearing, kens

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1 Ardours,-a translation of the Hebrew "Seraphim," so called on account of their dazzling brightness, or fervent zeal.

2 The beautiful contrast between this passage and the description of the gates of Hell, b. ii. 1. 879-883, should not be overlooked.

3 From hence no cloud, &c.,-according to a Latin construction, "no cloud or star being interposed."

4 Galileo, the first who used the telescope for astronomical observation, was visited by Milton. The Cyclades; a somewhat circular group of islands in the Grecian Archipelago, in the centre of which was Delos. Samos,-an island on the coast of Asia Minor, opposite to Ephesus. The pilot could

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