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For know, whatever was created needs
To be sustain'd 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, unpurg'd
Vapours not yet into her substance turn'd.
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 recompence
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
Cover'd 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 despatch
Of real hunger, and concoctive heat

To transubstantiate: What redounds, transpires
Through Spirits with ease; nor wonder; if by fire
Of sooty coal the empirick alchemist

Can turn, or holds it possible to turn,
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
As from the mine. Meanwhile at table Eve
Minister'd naked, and their flowing cups

With pleasant liquours crown'd: O innocence
Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,

Then had the sons of God excuse to have been

Enamour'd at that sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reign'd, nor jealousy

Was understood, the injur'd lover's hell.

Thus when with meats and drinks they had suffic'd, Not burden'd 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 fram'd:
Inhabitant with God, now know I well,
Thy favour, in this honour done to Man;
Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsaf'd
To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,
Food not of Angels, yet accepted so,

As that more willingly thou could'st 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 deprav'd 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 refin'd, more spirituous and pure,
As nearer to him plac'd, or nearer tending
Each in their several active spheres assign'd,
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportion'd to each kind. So, from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
More aery, last the bright consummate flower

Spirits odorous breathes: flowers, and their fruit,
Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublim'd,
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;
And from these corporal nutriments perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improv'd by tract of time, and wing'd, ascend
Ethereal, as we; or may, at choice,
Here, or in heavenly Paradises, dwell;
If ye be found obedient, and retain,
Unalterably firm his love entire,

Whose progeny you are. Meanwhile enjoy
Your fill what happiness this happy state
Can comprehend, incapable of more.

To whom the patriarch of mankind replied.
O favourable Spirit, propitious guest,

Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set
From center to circumference; whereon,
In contemplation of created things,

By steps we may ascend to God. But say
What meant that caution join'd, If ye be found
Obedient? Can we want obedience then
To Him, or possibly his love desert,

Who form'd us from the dust and placed us here
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
Human desires can seek or apprehend?

To whom the Angel. Son of Heaven and Earth,
Attend! That thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continuest such, owe to thyself,
That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.
This was that caution given thee; be advis’d.
God made thee perfect, not immutable;
And good he made thee; but to persevere
He left it in thy power; ordain'd thy will
By nature free, not overrul'd by fate
Inextricable, or strict necessity:
Our voluntary service he requires,
Not our necessitated; such with him.

Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how
Can hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve
Willing or no, who will but what they must
By destiny, and can no other choose?
Myself, and all the angelick host, that stand
In sight of God, enthron'd, our happy state
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;
On other surety none: Freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall:
And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen,
And so from Heaven to deepest Hell; O fall,
From what high state of bliss, into what woe!
To whom our great progenitor.
Thy words
Attentive, and with more delighted ear,
Divine instructer, I have heard, than when
Cherubick songs by night from neighbouring hills

Aëreal music send: Nor knew I not

To be both will and deed created free;

Yet, that we never shall forget to love

Our Maker, and obey Him whose command
Single is yet so just, my constant thoughts

Assur'd me, and still assure: Though what thou tell'st
Hath pass'd in Heaven, some doubt within me move,

But more desire to hear, if thou consent,

The full relation, which must needs be strange,
Worthy of sacred silence to be heard;

And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun
Hath finish'd half his journey, and scarce begins
His other half in the great zone of Heaven.

Thus Adam made request; and Raphaël,
After short pause assenting, thus began.

High matter thou enjoin'st me, O prime of men,
Sad task, and hard: For how shall I relate
To human sense the invisible exploits

Of warring Spirits? how, without remorse,
The ruin of so many, glorious once

And perfect while they stood? how last unfold
The secrets of another world, perhaps

Not lawful to reveal? Yet, for thy good
This is dispens'd; and what surmounts the reach
Of human sense, I shall delineate so,

By likening spiritual to corporeal forms,

As may express them best: though what if Earth
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?
As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild

Reign'd where these Heavens now roll, where Earth now rests
Upon her center pois'd; when on a day

(For time, though in eternity, applied
To motion, measures all things durable
By present, past, and future,) on such day

As Heaven's great year brings forth, the empyreal host

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