9

May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,1
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
Or hear'st thou rather2 pure ethereal stream,

5

Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the Sun,-
Before the Heavens thou wert; and at the voice

Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest

10

The rising world of waters3 dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.

Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,

Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained
In that obscure sojourn ; while, in my flight,

15

Through utter and through middle darkness5 borne,
With other notes than to the Orphéan lyre,6

I

sung of Chaos and eternal Night;

Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop-serene7 hath quenched their orbs,

1 God is light,-See 1 John i. 5; 1 Tim. vi. 16.

2 Or hearest thou rather,--dost thou rather choose to hear thyself called; a mode of expression borrowed from the Greek and Latin use of the corresponding verbs.

3 The rising world of waters...won from the void.-At the beginning of the present state of things the surface of the globe was covered with waters, Gen. i. 2, 3. The void and formless infinite.-As the realm of Chaos was described as full of matter, void must here mean, destitute of any formed being, void of inhabitants, as the earth was before the creation of the animals.

4 Stygian pool,-the epithet taken from the river "Styx," see B. II. 577. 5 Utter darkness,-namely, that of Hell: middle darkness,—namely, that of the great gulf separating Hell from Heaven.

6 Orphéan lyre.-Orpheus, inventor of the lyre, made a hymn to Night, which is still extant, and also wrote of the creation rising out of Chaos. Milton boasts that he sang with other notes than Orpheus, who was inspired by his mother Calliope, one of the heathen Muses, whereas Milton ascribes his inspiration to heavenly influence.

66

7 Drop serene,-in the technical language of medical writers, Gutta serena"-the disease by which Milton lost his sight.

Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander1 where the Muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee, Sion! and the flowery brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget3
Those other two equalled with me in fate,
So were I equalled with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides,
And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old:
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seasons return; but not to me returns 5
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off! and, for the book of knowledge fair,

1 Yet not the more cease I to wander.-My blindness does not extinguish my delight to visit the rural haunts of the Muses.

2 Flowery brooks:-of Kidron and Siloa. In this poetical language he expresses his delight in the Songs of Zion as exceeding the pleasure with which he still kept up his acquaintance with the beauties of the classical poets of Greece and Rome.

3 Nor sometimes forget,-i. e. "and sometimes not forget."

4 Those other two, &c.-He mentions four, but of them he desires to resemble two, both of whom he distinguishes by the epithet blind, to make the resemblance more striking. Mæonides, Homer, so-called from Mæon his father. Thamyris, an ancient poet and musician. His being noticed here, may be owing to his having written a poem on the wars of the Titans and the gods, and another on the generation of the world-subjects akin to Milton's-Tiresias, a Theban; Phineus, a king of Arcadia; both famous blind prophets and poets of antiquity. Some modern critics would read line 36, thus, "And Phineus and Tiresias, prophets old," which makes a more regular line.

5 But not to me returns, &c.-This fine passage is unequalled for the lively colours in which it paints the blessings of light, and the passionate, yet patient lamentation of their loss. It cannot fail to awaken the gratitude of the reader for the incalculable blessing of the sense of sight.

F

Presented with a universal blank

Of Nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out !1
So much the rather thou, celestial Light!

50

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from thence
Purge and disperse; that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight.

55

Now had the Almighty Father from above,

From the pure empyréan where he sits

High throned above all height, bent down his eye,

60

His own works, and their works, at once to view.
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance; 2 on his right
The radiant image of his glory3 sat,
His only Son. On earth he first beheld
Our two first parents, yet the only two
Of mankind, in the happy garden placed,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love-
Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love-
In blissful solitude. He then surveyed
Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night
In the dun air sublime; and ready now
To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet,
On the bare outside of this World, that seemed
Firm land imbosomed without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his prospect high,
Wherein past, present, future, he beholds,
Thus to his only Son, foreseeing, spake :—

1 And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.-The construction is"presented with a blank of nature's works," &c., and [with] wisdom, [attained by reflexion, the inward light] though shut out at one entrance, [the avenue of sight.]

2 From his sight received beatitude past utterance,-Compare Matt. v. 8. 3 The radiant image of his glory,-Compare St Paul's description of the Son, as the "brightness of his glory." Heb. i. 3-see also line 140.

46

"Only begotten Son! seest thou what rage <Transports our adversary! whom no bounds "Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains "Heaped on him there, nor yet the main abyss "Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems “On desperate revenge, that shall redound "Upon his own rebellious head. And now, Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way "Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light, "Directly towards the new-created world, "And man there placed; with purpose to assay "If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, "By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert: "For man will hearken to his glozing lies, “And easily transgress the sole command, "Sole pledge of his obedience; so will fall, "He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault! “Whose but his own! Ingrate! he had of me “All he could have: I made him just and right, “Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. "Such I created all the ethereal Powers

80

65

90

95

100

And spirits, both them who stood, and them who failed :

“Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

105

“Not free, what proof could they have given sincere "Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, "Where only what they needs must do appeared, "Not what they would? what praise could they receive! "What pleasure I from such obedience paid; “When will and reason, (reason also is choice,)3 “ Useless and vain,—of freedom both despoiled, "Made passive both,-had served necessity, *Not me? They therefore, as to right belonged, So were created; nor can justly accuse

110

1 Wide interrupt.-interrupt, used as an adjective or participle, in the sense of broken through :" indicating the vast gulf of vacancy by which this abyss separated Hell from other parts of the creation.

2 I made him just and right.—See Eccies. vii. 29.

2 (Reason also is choice,)—among several things proposed to the mind, it is the part of reason to choose which is best,

"Their Maker, or their making, or their fate;

"As if predestination over-ruled

"Their will, disposed by absolute decree

115

"Or high foreknowledge. They themselves decreed "Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,

120

125

Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault, "Which had no less proved certain unforeknown. "So, without least impulse, or shadow of fate, "Or aught by me immutably foreseen, 66 They trespass, authors to themselves in all, "Both what they judge and what they choose; for so "I formed them free, and free they must remain, "Till they enthral themselves: I else must change "Their nature, and revoke their high decree, "Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained "Their freedom: they themselves ordained their fall "The first sort by their own suggestion fell, "Self-tempted, self-depraved: man falls, deceived "By the other first: man therefore shall find grace, "The other none: in mercy and justice both, "Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel; "But mercy first and last shall brightest shine."

130

Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance filled 135
All Heaven, and in the blessed spirits elect
Sense of new joy ineffable diffused.

Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
Most glorious: in him all his Father shone
Substantially expressed;1 and in his face
Divine compassion visibly appeared,

140

Love without end, and without measure grace;
Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake:

"O Father! gracious was that word which closed "Thy sovran sentence, that man should findg race; "For which both Heaven and Earth shall high extol

145

66

Thy praises, with the innumerable sound

"Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne

1 Substantially expressed,-Heb. i. 3.

2 Innumerable sound of hymns, &c.,~so in b. i. 1. 101, "innumerable force