VIII

From the beginning, that pofterity
Inform'd by thee might know. If elfe thou feek ft

Ought, not furpassing human meafure, fay 6
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The End of the Seventh Book

BOOK VIII.

The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he a while aban Thought him ftill speaking, still stood fix'd to hear: Then, as new wak'd, thus gratefully reply'd.w What thanks fufficient, or what recompenfe

Equal, have I to render thee, divine
Historian? who thus largely haft allay'd
The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsaf'd
This friendly condescension to relate
Things, elfe by me unfearchable; now heard
With wonder but delight; and, as is due,
With glory attributed to to the high
Creator. Something yer of doubt remains,
Which only thy folution can refolve.
When I behold this goodly frame, this world
Of Heav'n and earth confifting; and compute
Their magnitudes; this earth a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the firmament compar'd,
And all her number'd stars; that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehenfible, for fuch
Their distance argues, and their swift return
Diurnal, merely to officiate light
Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot,
One day and night, in all their vast survey
Useless befides: reasoning I oft admire,
How Nature, wife and frugal, could commit
Such difproportions; with fuperfluous hand,
So many nobler bodies to create,
Greater fo manifold to this one use,

For ought appears, and on their orbs impose

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Such

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Such restless revolution day by day
Repeated, while the sedentary earth,alib bast
That better might with far less compass move,
Serv'd by more noble than herself, attains tow
Her end without least motion; and receives,135
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
Speed, to defcribe whose swiftness number fails.

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So spake our fire, and by his count'nance seem'd Entring on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve 40 Perceiving, where she sat retir'd in fight, With lowliness majestic from her feat, And grace, that won who faw to wish her stay; Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flow'rs; To vifit how they profper'd, but and bloom, do 145 Her nursery: they at her coming sprung, son agnid T And touch'd by her fair tendance gladliergewe loo Yet went she not, as not with such difcourse non o Delighted, or not capable her ear

Of what was high: such pleasure fhe reserv'd,50

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Adam relating, she sole auditress:
Her husband the relater she preferr'd
Before the Angel, and of him to afk
Chose rather: he, she knew, would intermix
Grateful digressions, and solve high difpute
With conjugal caresses: from his lip
Not words alone pleas'd her. O when meet now
Such pairs, in love and mutual honor join'd?
With Goddes-like demeanour forth she
Not unattended! for on her, as Queen,
A pomp of winning Graces waited still,
And from about her shot darts of defire
Into all eyes, to wish her still in fight.
And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt propos'd,
Benevolent and facil thus reply'd.

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To afk or fearch I blame thee not, for Heav'n
Is as the book of God before thee fet,
Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn

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His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years :
This to attain, whether Heav'n move or Earth,
Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest
From man or angel, the great Architect
Did wifely to conceal; and not divulge
His secrets to be fcann'd by them who ought
Rather Amire. Or, if they lift to try
Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heav'ns
Hath left to their difputes, perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide.
Hereafter; when they come to model Heav'n,
And calculate the stars, how they will wield
The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive
To save appearances, how gird the sphere
With centric and eccentric scribl'd o'er,

Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,
Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest,
That bodies bright and greater should not ferve
The lefs not bright, nor Heav'n such journeys run,

Earth fitting still, when she alone receives
The benefit. Confider first, that great
Or bright infers not excellence: the earth
Though, in comparison of Heav'n, so small,
Nor glistering, may of folid good contain
More plenty than the Sun, that barren shines;
Whote virtue on itself works no effect,
But in the fruitful earth: there first receiv'd
His beams, unactive elfe, their vigor find.
Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee, earth's habitant.
And for the Heav'n's wide circuit, let it speak
The Maker's high magnificence; who built
So fpacious, and his line stretch'd out so far;
That man may know he dwells not in his own;

An edifice too large for him to fill,
Lodg'd in a small partition; and the rest

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Ordain'd for ufes to his Lord best known.

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The swiftness of those circles attribute,
Though numberless, to his omnipotence,
That to corporeal substances could add
Speed all most spiritual; me thou think'st not flow, 110
Who fince the morning-hour set out from Heav'n,
Where God resides; and ere mid-day arriv'd

In Eden: distance inexpressible

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By numbers that have rame! but this I urge,
Admitting motion in the Heav'n's; to shew
Invalid, that which thee to doubt it mov'd:
Not that I so affirm, though so it feem
To thee who haft thy dwelling here on earth.
God, to remove his ways from human sense,
Plac'd heav'n from earth fo far, that earthly fight, 120
If it prefume, might err in things too high,
And no advantage gain. What if the Sun
Be center to the world; and other stars
By his attractive virtue, and their own,
Incited, dance about him various rounds?
Their wand'ring course now high, now low, then hid,

Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,
In fix thou seest: and what if sev'nth to these
The planet earth, so stedfast though she seem,
Insensibly three different motions move?
Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,
Mov'd contrary with thwart obliquities,
Or fave the fun his labor, and that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb suppos'd,
Invisible else above all stars, the wheel
Of day and night: which needs not thy belief,
If earth industrious of herself, fetch day
Travelling east; and with her part averse
From the fun's beam meet night; her other part
Still luminous by his ray, What if that light,
Sent from her through the wide transpicous air,
To the terrestrial moon be as a star,
Inlightning her by day, as she by night
This earth, reciprocal? if land be there,

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Fields and inhabitants: her spots thou seest
As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce
Fruits in her foften'd foil, for fome to eat
Allotted there: and other Suns perhaps
With their attendent moons thou wilt descry,
Communicating male and female light,
Which two great sexes animate the world,
Stor'd in each orb, perhaps, with some that live.
For fuch vast room in nature unpossess'd
By living foul, defert and defolate,
Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute
Each orb a glimpse of light, convey'd fo farίες
Down to this habitable, which returns
Light back to them, is obvious to difpute.
But whether thus these things, or whether not,
Whether the fuh, predominant in heav'n,
Rife on the each, bor earth rise on the fun;
He, from the east his flaming road begin;
Or she, from west her filent course advance,
With inoffenfive pace, that spinning fleeps
On her foft axle, while the paces ev'n,
And bears thee foft with the smooth air along,
Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,
Leave them to God above, him serve and fear.
Of other creatures, as him pleases best,
Where-ever plac'd, let him dispose: joy thou17b
In what he gives to thee, this paradife
And thy fair Eve: Heav'n is for thee too highughnA
To know what passes there be lowly wifer for 12
Think only what concerns thee and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there 175
Live, in what ftate, condrion or degrees brow H
Contented that thus far hath been revealed,

Not of earth only, but of highest Heav'nin en

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To whom thus Adam, clear'd of doubt, reply'd. How fully haft thou fatisfy'd meg pure 180 Intelligence of Heav'n, Angel ferene And freed from intricacies taught to live,

The