"Into her private cell, when nature rests. 66 110 115 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. 120 "Be not disheartened then; nor cloud those looks, Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers, "That open now their choicest bosomed smells, "Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store." 125 So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered; But silently a gentle tear let fall 130 From either eye, and wiped them with her hair: Two other precious drops, that ready stood, So all was cleared, and to the field they haste. 135 Of day-spring, and the Sun, who, scarce uprisen, 140 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, Unmeditated; such prompt eloquence 145 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: "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. 160 "Him first, him last, him midst, and without end! "Fairest of stars!3 last in the train of night. 165 "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 180 - 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 185 190 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, Bear on your wings, and in your notes, his praise. T: L or valley, fountain or fresh shade, 195 200 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. 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 205 210 Their pampered boughs,1 and needed hands to check 215 To wed her elm;2 she, spoused, about him twines His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid. 220 "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, 230 235 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, 240 "The fall of others from like state of bliss; 66 By violence? no, for that shall be withstood; "But by deceit and lies: this let him know, 66 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 245 Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light 250 Flew through the midst of Heaven: the angelic quires, Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide On golden hinges turning, as, by work 255 Divine, the sovereign Architect had framed.2 Not unconform to other shining globes, Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned 260 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 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 |