To me are all my works, nor Man the least,
Though last created; that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,
By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.
Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst re-
deem,.

Their nature also to thy nature join;
And be thyself Man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of Virgin seed,
By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The head of all Mankind, though Adam's son,
As in him perish all men, so in thee,
As from a second root, shall be restor'd
As many as are restor'd, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy
merit

Imputed shall absolve them who renounce Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,

And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for Man, be judg'd and die,
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not

grace.

Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own. Because thou hast, though thron'd in highest

bliss

With thee thy manhood also to this throne;
Here shalt thou sit incarnate, hereshalt reign
Both God and Man, Son both of God and
Man,

Anointed Universal King; all power
I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits; under thee as head supreme
Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions, I

reduce:

All knees to thee shall bow, of them that

bide

In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heav'n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning arch-angels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their sleep.

Then all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge Bad men and augels; they arraigu'd shall sink Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full, Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meau [spring The world shall burn, and from her ashes New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,

while

And after all their tribulations long
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.
Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,
For regal seeptre then no more shall nced,
God shall be all in all. But all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honor him as me.

Nor sooner had the Almighty ceas'd, but all
The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung
With jubilee, and loud hosanuas fill'd
Th' eternal regious: lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the

ground

With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;
Iminortal amarant, a flow'r which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of Life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To Heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, there

grows,

And flow'rs aloft shading the fount of Life, And where the river of Bliss through midst of Heav'n

Rolls o'er Elysian flow'rs her amber stream; With these that never fade the spirits elect Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams, [bright Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the

trumpery.

Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven;
And they who to be sure of Paradise
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd;
They pass the planets sev'n, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance
weighs

The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd;
And now Saint Peter at Heav'n's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of Heav'n's ascent they lift their feet, when lo,
A violent cross wind from either coast
Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues
awry

Into the devious air; then might ye see
Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers

tost

To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz,
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven.
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heav'n some
times

Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flow'd
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth, sailing arriv'd,
Wafted by angels, or flew o'er the lake
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,
A passage down to th' earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over mount Sion, and, though that were
large,

Over the Promis'd Land to God so dear,
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his angels to and fro
Pass'd frequent, and his eye with choice
regard

From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood
To Beersaba, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and th' Arabian shore;
So wide the opening seem'd, where bounds

were set

And flutter'd into rags, then reliques, beads, Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,

To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave. Satan from hence, now on the lower stair That scal'd by steps of gold to Heaven gate, Looks down with wonder at the sudden view Of all this world at once. As when a scout Through dark and desert ways with peril gone All night; at last by break of cheerful dawn Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,

Fly o'er the backside of the world far off

Into a limbo large and broad, since call'd

The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown

Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.

The goodly prospect of some foreign land First seen, or some renown'd metropolis With glist'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd, Which now the rising sun gilds with his

All this dark globe the Fiend found as he

beams:

pass'd,

And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in baste
His travel'd steps: far distant he descries
Ascending by degrees magnificent

Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high,
At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by shading pencil drawn.

The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw

Angels ascending and descending, bands

Such wonder seiz'd, though after Heaven seen, The sp'rit malign, but much more envy

seiz'd

At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
Round he surveys (and well might, where he

stood

So high above the circling canopy
Of night's extended shade) from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas

Beyond th' horizon; then from pole to pole
He views in breadth, and without longer pause
Down right into the world's first region

throws

E

Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim Alone thus wand'ring. Brightest Seraph,

tell

In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none,
But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
That I may find him, and with secret gaze
Or open admiration him behold,
On whom the great Creator hath bestow'd
Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces
pour'd;

That both in him and all things, as is meet,
The universal Maker we may praise;
Who justly hath driv'n ont his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of Men
To serve him better: wise are all his ways.
So spake the false dissembler unperceiv'd;
For neither Man nor Angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,

By his permissive will, through Heav'n and

Earth:

And oft though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no
ill
[beguild
Where no ill seems: which now for once
Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
The sharpest sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;
Who to the fraudulent impostor foul
In his uprightness answer thus return'd.

Fair Angel, thy desire which tends to know
The works of God, thereby to glorify
The great Work-master, leads to no excess
That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps
Contented with report hear only in Heav'n;
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight;
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite
That brought them forth, but hid their causes
deep?

I saw when at his word the formless mass,
This world's material mould, came to a heap:
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood ral'd, stood vast infinitude confin'd;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung:
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire;
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward, spirited with various forms,
That roll'd orbicular, and turn'd to stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they
[course;
Each had his place appointed, each his
The rest in circuit walls this universe.
Look downward on that globe, whose hither
side,
[shins;

move;