560
The Angelic harmonies. The Earth, the Air music Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou heard'st), of the The heavens and all the constellations rung, spheres The planets in their stations listening stood, While the bright pomp ascended jubilant. "Open, ye everlasting gates!" they sung; "Open, ye Heavens, your living doors! let in The great Creator, from his work returned Magnificent, his six days' work, a World! Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign To visit oft the dwellings of just men Delighted, and with frequent intercourse Thither will send his winged messengers On errands of supernal grace." So sung The glorious train ascending. He through
570
Heaven,
That opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way-
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear
Seen in the Galaxy, that milky way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest 580
Powdered with stars. And now on Earth the
seventh
Evening arose in Eden-for the sun
Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night, when at the holy mount
Of Heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead, fixed for ever firm and sure,
The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down
With his great Father; for he also went
Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege
Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordained, 590
Author and end of all things, and, from work
Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh The
Day,
Seventh
As resting on that day from all his work;
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work, and rested not; the solemn pipe
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
Choral or unison; of incense clouds,
Fuming from golden censers, hid the Mount. 600
Creation and the Six Days' acts they sung:-
"Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite
Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or
tongue
·-
Relate thee-greater now in thy return
Than from the Giant-angels! Thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.
Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy empire Easily the proud attempt
Of Spirits apostate, and their counsels vain, 610
Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshipers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose, serves
To manifest the more thy might; his evil
Thou usest, and from thence creat❜st more good.
Witness this new-made World, another Heaven
From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars 6:20
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation-but thou know'st
Their seasons; among these the seat of men,
Happy Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused, the sons Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy
of men
men,
And sons of men, whom God hath thus ad-
vanced,
Created in his image, there to dwell
And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshipers
Holy and just! thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!"
So sung they, and the Empyrean rung
With halleluiahs. Thus was Sabbath kept.
And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked
How first this World and face of things began,
And what before thy memory was done
From the beginning, that posterity,
Informed by thee, might know.
If else thou
seek'st Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.' 640
THE END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK
THE ARGUMENT
ADAM inquires concerning celestial motions; is doubt- Adam's fully answered, and exhorted to search rather things thanks more worthy of knowledge. Adam assents, and, still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own creation-his placing in Paradise; his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve. His discourse with the Angel thereupon; who, after admoni. tions repeated, departs.
THE Angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice that he a while
Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to
hear;
Then, as new-waked, thus gratefully replied:-
· What thanks sufficient, or what recompense
Equal, have I to render thee, divine
Historian, who thus largely hast allayed
The thirst I had of knowledge, and voutsafed
This friendly condescension, to relate
Things else by me unsearchable-now heard 10
With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,
With glory áttributed to the high
Creator? Something yet of doubt remains,
Which only thy solution can resolve.
When I behold this goodly frame, this World,
From Of Heaven and Earth consisting, and compute studious Their magnitudes-this Earth, a spot, a grain, thoughts An atom, with the Firmament compared
abstruse
Eve And all her numbered stars, that seem to roil retires Spaces incomprehensible (for such
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 besides reasoning, I oft admire
How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many
nobler bodies to create,
Greater so manifold, to this one use,
For aught appears, and on their Orbs impose 30
Such restless revolution day by day
Repeated, while the sedentary Earth,
That better might with far less compass move,
Served by more noble than herself, attains
Her end without least motion, and receives,
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light:
Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.'
So spake our Sire, and by his countenance
seemed
Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which
Eve
40
Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,
With lowliness majestic from her seat,
And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,
Rose, and went forth among her fruits and
flowers,
To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,
Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,
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