Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, 70 Far differing from this world, thou haft reveal'd, Divine interpreter, by favor fent

Down from the enpyréan to forewarn
Us timely' of what might elfe have been our lofs,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not
reach :

For which to th' infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with folemn purpose to obferve
Immutably his fovran will, the end

75

81

85

Of what we are, But fince thou haft vouchfaf'd
Gently for our inftruction to impart
Things above earthly thought, which yet concern d
Our knowing, as to highest wifdom feem'd,
Deign to defcend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known,
How first began this Heav'n which we behold
Distant fo high, with moving fires adorn'd
Innumerable, and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfus'd
Embracing round this florid earth, what caufe 90
Mov'd the Creator in his holy rest
Through all eternity fo late to build

95

In Chaos, amd the work begun, how foon
Abfolv'd, if unforbid thou may'st unfold
What we not to explore the fecrets aik
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works, the more we know.
And the great light of day yet wants to run
Much of his race though steep; fufpenfe in Heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears, 100
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rifing birth
Of Nature from the unapparent deep:
Or if the ftar of evening and the moon
Hafte to thy audience, night with her will bring
Silence, and fleep lift'ning to thee will watch,
Or we can bid his abfence, till thy song
End, and difmifs thee ere the morning shine.
Thus Adam his illuftrious guest befought:
And thus the Godlike Angel anfwer'd mild, 110
This alfo thy request with caution ask'd
Obtain: though to recount almighty works

more;

Yet far the greater part have kept, I fee 14
Their station, Heav'n yet populous retains
Number fufficient to poffefs her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With minifteries due and folemn rites:
But left his heart exalt him in the harm
Already dore, to have difpeopled Heav'n,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if fuch it be to lofe
Self-loft, and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit rais'd
They open to themfelves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience try'd,
And Earth be chang'd to Heav'n, and Heav'n
Earth,

One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Mean while inhabit lax, ye Pow'rs of Heaven.
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, fpeak thou, and be it done:"
My overshadowing Spirit and might with theel
I fend along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heav'n and Earth,
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
Though I uncircumfcrib'd myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness which is free
To act or not, neceffity and chance
Approach not me, and what I will is fate.

So fpake th' Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without procéfs of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.
Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven, 18
When fuch was heard declar'd th' Almighty's will
Glory they fung to the moft High, good-will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace:
Glory to him, whofe juft avenging ire
Had driven out th' ungodly from his fight 18
And th' habitations of the juft; to him
Glory and praife, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create, instead
Of Spirits malign a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffufe 19

His good to worlds and ages infinite.

195

So fang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son On his great expedition now appear'd, Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd Of majesty divine; fapience and love Immenfe, and all his Father in him fhone. About his chariot numberless were pour'd Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones, And Virtues, winged Spi'rits, and chariots wing'd From th' armoury of God, where stand of old 200 Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd Against a folemn day, harness'd at hand, Celeftial equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv'd, Attendant on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide 205 Her ever during gates, harmonious found On golden hinges moving, to let forth The King of Glory in his pow'rful Word And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

211

On heav'nly ground they stood, and from the shore
They view'd the vaft immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a fea, dark, wafteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And furging waves, as mountains, to affault
Heav'n's highth, and with the center mix the pole.
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep,
peace,

216

Said then th' omnific Word, your discord end: Nor ftay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

220

225

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Follow'd in bright proceffion to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then flay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compaffes, prepar'd
In God's eternal store, to circumfcribe
This univerfe, and all created things:
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obfcure,
And faid, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds
This be thy juft circumference, O world,
Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyfs: but on the watry calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outfpread,
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth 236
Throughout the fluid mafs, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place 240
Difparted, and between fpun out the air,
And Earth felf-balanc'd on her center hung.

231

Let there be light, faid God, and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quinteffence pure Sprung from the deep, and from her native east To journey through the aery gloom began, 246 Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the fun Was not; fhe in a cloudy tabernacle Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good; And light from darkness by the hemifphere 250 Divided light the day, and darkness night He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn: Nor past uncelebrated, nor unfung By the celestial quíres, when orient light

255

Exhaling first from darkness they beheld; Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and fhout

The hollow univerfal orb they fill'd,
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning
prais'd

God and his works, Creator him they fung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn.
Again, God faid, Let there be firmament 261
Amid the waters, and let it divide

The waters from the waters: and God made

The firmament, expanfe of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd

In circuit to the uttermoft convex

Of this great round: partition firm and fure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, fo he the world

265

275

283

Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide 270
Chryftallin-ocean, and the loud mifrule
Of Chaos far remov'd, left fierce extremes
Contiguous might diftemper the whole frame:
And Heav'n he nam'd the firmament: So even
And morning chorus fung the fecond day.
The earth was form'd but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involv'd,
Appear'd not over all the face of earth
Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm
Prolific humor foft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture, when God said,
Be gather'd now ye waters under Heaven
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops afcend the fky:
So high as heav'd the tumid hills, fo low
Down funk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hafted with glad precipitance, uproll'd
As drops on duft conglobing from the dry;
Part rife in cryftal wall, or ridge direct,
For hale; fuch flight the great command

imprefs'd

285

299

295

On the fwift floods: as armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou haft heard)
Troop to their ftandard, fo the watry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If fteep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
Soft-ebbing; nor withftood them rock or hill, 300
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With ferpent error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy oofe deep channels wore;
Eafy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within thofe banks, where rivers now 305
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd feas:
And faw that it was good, and faid, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grafs, herb yielding feed,
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, 311
Whofe feed is in herfelf upon the earth.

He fcarce had faid, when the bare earth, till then
Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grafs, whofe verdure
clad
315

2 [H] 2

Her univerfal face with pleafant green:
Then herbs of every leaf, that fudden flow'r'd
Opening their various colors, and made gay
Her bofom fmelling fweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth florifh'd thick the cluftring vine, forth crept
The fmelling gourd, up ftood the corny reed 321
Imbattel'd in her field, and th' humble fhrub,
And bush with friz ed hair implicit : laft
Rofe as in dance the fately trees, and fpread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd
Their bloffoms: with high woods the hills were
326
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain fide,
With borders long the rivers: that earth now
Seem'd like to Heaven, a feat where Gods might
dwell,

crown'd,

340

345

Again th' Almighty spake, Let there be lights High in th' expanfe of Heaven, to divide The day from night; and let them be for figus, For feafons, and for days, and circling years, And let them be for lights as I ordain 'Their office in the firmament of Heaven To give light on the earth; and it was fo. And God made two great lights, great for their use To Man, the greater to have rule by day, The lefs by night altern; and made the stars, And fet them in the firmament of Heaven To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day In their viciffitude, and rule the night, And light from darkness to divide. God faw, Surveying his great work, that it was good: For of celestial bodies firft the fun

350

361

A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightfome first, 355
Though of ethereal mold: then form'd'the moon
Globofe, and every magnitude of stars,
And fow'd with ftars, the Heav'n, thick as a field :
Of light by far the greater part he took
Tranfplanted from her cloudy fhrine, and plac'd
In the fun's orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light, firm to retain
Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light.
Hither as to their fountain other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, 365
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their fmall peculiar, though from human fight
So far remote, with diminution zen.
First in his caft the glorious lamp was feen,
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the
gray

370

Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd Shedding fweet influence: lefs bright the moon But oppofit in level'd weft was f

376

His mirror, with full face borrowing her light

From him, for other light the needed none
In that afpéct, and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn the fhines, 38
Revolv'd on Heav'n's great axle, and her reign
With thousand leffer lights dividual holds,
With thousand thoufand ftars, that then appear'
Spangling the hemifphere: then first adora'd
With their bright luminaries that fet and roft, 385
Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth
day.

And God faid, Let the waters generate
Reptil with spawn abundant, living foul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Difplay'd on the' open firmament of Heaven. 393
And God created the great whales, and each
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously
The waters generated by their kinds,
And every bird of wing after his kind;
And faw that it was good, and bleis'd them
faying,

39.

Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas
And lakes and running ftreams the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' earth.
Forthwith the founds and feas, each creek and bi
With fry innumerable fwarm; and fheals
Of fifh that with their fins and fhining scales
Glide under the green wave, in fculls that oft
Bank the mid fea: part fingle or with mate
Graze the fea weed their pasture, and throug
groves

Of coral tray, or sporting with quick glance 4
Show to the fun their way'd coats dropt with ge
Or in their pearly fhells at eafe, attend
Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch: on smooth the feal,
And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk 41
Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gait
Tempeft the ocean: there leviathan,
Huget of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps or fwims
And fems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk fpouts out a fea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens and short
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th' eggth
foon

Burfing with kindly rupture forth disclos'd
Their callow young, but feather'd foon and fled
They fumm'd their pens, and foaring tha
fublime

With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud
In profpect; there the eagle and the ftork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loofy wing the region, part more wife 43
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way
Intelligent of featons, and fet forth

Their aery caravan high over feas
Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air 43
Flotes, as they país, fann'd with unnumber

449

Of rainbows and starry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn folemniz'd the fifth day.
The fixth, and of creation laft arofe
With evening harps and matin, when God faid,
Let th' earth bring forth foul living in her kind,
Cattle and creeping things, and beast of th' earth,
Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and strait
Opening her fertil womb teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up rofe
As from his lair the wild beaft where he wons
In foreft wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rofe, they walk'd:
The cattle in the fields and meadows green: 460
Thofe rare and folitary, these in flocks
Pafturing at once, and in broad herds upfprung.
The grafty clods now calv'd, now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

455

464

48

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Infect or worm: thofe wav'd their limber fans 476
For wings, and fmalleft lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of fummer's pride
With fpots of gold and purple', azure and green:
These as a line their long dimenfion drew,
Streaking the ground with finuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; fome of ferpent kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their fnaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parfimonious emmet, provident
Of future, in fmall room large heart inclos'd
Pattern of juft equality perhaps

Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: fwarming next appear'd

485

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 490
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey ftor'd: the reft are numberless,
And thou their natures know'ft, and gave them

First wheel'd their course; earth in her rich attire
Confummate lovely fmil'd; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beat, was flown, was fwum, was
walk'd

Frequent; and of the fixth day yet remain'd;
There wanted yet the mafter work, the end 505
Of all yet done: a creature who not prone
And brute as other creatures, but indued
With fanctity of reafon, might erec
His ftature, and upright with front ferene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correfpond with Heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Defcends, thither with heart and voice and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore

SII

And worship God fupreme, who made him chief Of all his works: therefore th' Omnipotent 516 Eternal Father, (for where is not he

Prefent?) thus to his Son audibly spake.

Let us make now Man in our image, Man

In our fimilitude, and let them rule

Over the fish and fowl of fea and air, Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

520

526

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.
This faid, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O Man,
Duit of the ground, and in thy noftrils breath'd
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Exprefs, and thou becam'ft a living foul.
Male he created thee, but thy confort
Female for race; then blefs'd mankind, and faid,
Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fifh of the fea, and fowl of th' air,
And every living thing that moves on th' earth.
Wherever thus created, for no place

33

535 Is yet diftinct by name, thence, as thou know'it, He brought thee into this delicious grove, This garden, planted with the trees of God, Delectable both to behold and taste; And freely all their pleasadt fruit for food Gave thee; all forts are here that all th' earth yields,

540

Here finish'd he, and all that he had made View'd, and behold all was entirely good; So ev'n and morn accomplish' the fixth day: 550 Yet not till the Creator from his work Defifting, though unwearied, up return'd, Up to the Heav'n of Heav'ns his high abode, Thence to behold this new created world Th' addition of his empire, how it show d 555 In profpect from his throne, how good, how fair, Antwering his great idea. Up he rode Follow'd with acclamation and the found Symphonious of ten thoufand harps that tun'd Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air Refounded, (thou remember'ft, for thou heardst) The Heav'ns and all the constellations rung,

560

The planets in their station lift'ning stood,
While the bright pomp afcended jubilant.
Open, ye everlasting gates, they sung,
Open, ye Heav'ns, your living doors; let in
The great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his fix days work, a world;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To vifit oft the dwellings of just men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourfe
Thither will fend his winged messengers
On errands of fupernal grace. So fung

565

570

Thy pow'r; what thought can measure thee, or

tongue

Relate thee? greater now in thy return
Than from the giant Angels; thee that day 605
Thy thunders magnify'd; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? eafily the proud attempt

Of Spirits apoftate and their counfels vain 610 Thou haft repell'd, while impiously they thought Thee to diminifh, and from thee withdraw

586

Was fet, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
Of Heav'n's high feated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead, fix'd for ever firm and fure,
The filial Pow'r arriv'd, and fat him down
With his great Father, for he also went
Invifible, yet stay'd, (fuch privilege
Hath Gmniprefence) and the work ordain'd, 590
Author and end of all things, and from work
Now refting, blefs'd and hallow'd the fev'nth day,
As refting on that day from all his work,
But not in filence holy kept; the harp
Had work and refted not, the folemn pipe,
And dulcimer, all organs of fweet stop,
All founds on fret by ftring or golden wire
Temper'd foft tunings, intermix'd with voice
Choral or unifon: of incenfe clouds
Fuming from golden cenfers hid the mount.
Creation and the fix days acts they fung,
Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite

595

To leffen thee, against his purpose ferves
To manifeft the more thy might: his evil 615
Thou useft, 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 glaffy fea;
Of amplitude almost immenfe, with stars 620
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of deftin'd habitation; but thou know't
Their feafons: among these the feat of Men,
Earth with her nether ocean circumfus'd,
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy
Men,
625

And fons of Men, whom God hath thus advanc'd,
Created in his image, there to dwell
And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in fea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshipers
Holy and juft: thrice happy if they know
Their happiness, and perfevere upright.

бза

THE END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK.