Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss!
Him through the spicy forest onward come
Adam discerned, as in the door he sat
Of his cool bower, while now the mounted Sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays, to warm
Earth's inmost womb;-more warmth than Adam needs:
And Eve within, due at her hour, prepared
For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please
True appetite, and not disrelish thirst
Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream,
Berry, or grape: to whom thus Adam called:
"Haste hither, Eve! and, worth thy sight, behold,
"Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape
"Comes this way moving: (seems another morn
"Risen on mid-noon :) some great behest from Heaven
"To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe
"This day to be our guest. But go with speed,
"And, what thy stores contain, bring forth, and pour
66 Abundance, fit to honour and receive
"Our heavenly stranger: well may we afford
"Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
"From large bestowed, where nature multiplies
"Her fertile growth, and by disburdening grows
"More fruitful; which instructs us not to spare."
To whom thus Eve: "Adam, earth's hallowed mould
"Of God inspired! small store will serve, where store,
"All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;
"Save what by frugal storing firmness gains
"To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:
"But I will haste, and from each bough and brake,
"Each plant and juiciest gourd, will pluck such choice
"To entertain our angel-guest, as he
"Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth
"God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven."
So saying, with dispatchful looks, in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent;
What choice to choose for delicacy best;
What order, so contrived as not to mix
Tastes, not well joined, inelegant; but bring
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change:
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk,
Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields
In India East or West, or middle shore,
In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where
Alcinous reigned; fruit of all kinds, in coat
Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell,
She gathers, tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand: for drink the grape
She crushes inoffensive must, and meaths
From many a berry; and from sweet kernels pressed
She tempers dulcet creams; nor these to hold
Wants her fit vessels pure; then strews the ground
With rose, and odours from the shrub unfumed.
Meanwhile our primitive great sire, to meet
His godlike guest walks forth, without more train
Accompanied than with his own complete
Perfections: in himself was all his state,
More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits
On princes, when their rich retinue long
Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold,
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape.
Nearer his presence, Adam, though not awed,
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,
As to a superior nature, bowing low,
Thus said: "Native of Heaven! for other place
"None can, than Heaven, such glorious shape contain ;
"Since, by descending from the thrones above,
"Those happy places thou hast deigned awhile
"To want, and honour these; vouchsafe with us
"Two only, who yet by sovereign gift possess
"This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower
"To rest; and what the garden choicest bears
"To sit, and taste, till this meridian heat
"Be over, and the sun more cool decline."
Whom thus the angelic Virtue answered mild:
"Adam! I therefore came; nor art thou such
"Created, or such place hast here to dwell,
"As may not oft invite, though spirits of Heaven,
"To visit thee: lead on then where thy bower
"O'ershades; for these mid-hours, till evening rise, "I have at will." So to the sylvan lodge
They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled,
With flowerets decked, and fragrant smells; but Eve,
Undecked save with herself, more lovely fair
Than Wood-nymph, or the fairest Goddess feigned
Of three that in Mount Ida naked strove,
Stood to entertain her guest from Heaven; no veil
She needed, virtue proof; no thought infirm
Altered her cheek. On whom the angel "Hail!"
Bestowed; the holy salutation used
Long after to blest Mary, second Eve:
"Hail, mother of mankind! whose fruitful womb
"Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons,
"Than with these various fruits the trees of God
"Have heaped this table!"-Raised of grassy turf
Their table was, and mossy seats had round;
And on her ample square from side to side
All autumn piled; though spring and autumn here
Danced hand in hand. Awhile discourse they hold;
No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began
Our author: Heavenly stranger! please to taste
"These bounties, which our Nourisher,-from whom
"All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends,—
"To us for food and for delight hath caused
"The earth to yield; unsavoury food, perhaps,
"To spiritual natures; only this I know,
"That one celestial Father gives to all."
To whom the angel: "Therefore what he gives "(Whose praise be ever sung!) to Man, in part
Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found
"No ingrateful food: and food alike those pure
Intelligential substances require,
"As doth your rational; and both contain
"Within them every lower faculty
"Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,
"Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate, "And corporeal to incorporeal turn.
"For know, whatever was created needs "To be sustained and fed: of elements
"The grosser feeds the purer; earth the sea;
"Earth and the sea feed air; the air those fires "Ethereal, and as lowest first the Moon;
"Whence, in her visage round, those spots, unpurged
Vapours, not yet into her substance turned.
"Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale
"From her moist continent to higher orbs.
"The Sun, that light imparts to all, receives
"From all his alimental recompense
"In humid exhalations, and at even
Sups with the Ocean. Though in Heaven the trees "Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines
"Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn
"We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground
"Covered with pearly grain; yet God hath here
"Varied his bounty so with new delights,
"As may compare with Heaven; and to taste
"Think not I shall be nice." So down they sat,
And to their viands fell; nor seemingly
The angel, nor in mist,—the common gloss
Of theologians;—but with keen dispatch
Of real hunger, and concoctive heat
To transubstantiate: what redounds, transpires
Through spirits with ease; nor wonder, if, by fire
Of sooty coal, the empiric alchemist
Can turn, or holds it possible to turn,
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
As from the mine. Meanwhile at table Eve
Ministered naked, and their flowing cups
With pleasant liquors crowned. O innocence
Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,—
Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
Enamoured at that sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reigned, nor jealousy
Was understood, the injured lover's Hell.
Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed,
Not burdened nature, sudden mind arose
In Adam, not to let the occasion pass,
Given him by this great conference, to know
Of things above his world, and of their being
Who dwell in Heaven, whose excellence he saw
Transcend his own so far; whose radiant forms—
Divine effulgence,—whose high power, so far
Exceeded human; and his wary speech
Thus to the empyreal minister he framed :
"Inhabitant with God! now know I well
Thy favour, in this honour done to Man; "Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed "To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste; "Food not of angels, yet accepted so,
"As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
"At Heaven's high feasts to have fed; yet what compare!" To whom the winged Hierarch replied: "O Adam! one Almighty is, from whom "All things proceed, and up to him return, "If not depraved from good, created all "Such to perfection: one first matter all, "Endued with various forms, various degrees "Of substance, and, in things that live, of life; "But more refined, more spiritous, and pure, "As nearer to him placed, or nearer tending "Each in their several active spheres assigned, "Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportioned to each kind. So, from the root
"Springs lighter the green stalk; from thence the leaves "More airy; last, the bright consummate flower
Spirits odorous breathes: flowers and their fruit, "Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, "To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
"To intellectual; give both life and sense,
“Fancy and understanding: whence the soul
"Reason receives; and reason is her being,
"Discursive or intuitive: discourse
"Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours;
"Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
"Wonder not then, what God for you saw good
"If I refuse not, but convert, as you,
"To proper substance. Time may come, when men "With angels may participate, and find
"No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare:
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