That singing up to heaven gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise;
Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep;
Witness if I be silent, morn or even,
To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still205
To give us only good; and if the night
Have gathered aught of evil or concealed,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.”
So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts
Firm peace recovered soon and wonted calm.
On to their morning’s rural work they haste
Among sweet dews and flow’rs; where any row
Of fruit trees over-woody reached too far
Their pampered214 boughs, and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces215: or they led the vine
To wed her elm; she spoused about him twines
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings
Her dow’r th’ adopted clusters, to adorn
His barren leaves. Them thus employed beheld
With pity Heav’n’s high King, and to him called
Raphael221, the sociable spirit, that deigned
To travel with Tobias, and secured
His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid.
“Raphael,” said he, “thou hear’st what stir on Earth
Satan from Hell scaped through the darksome gulf
Hath raised in Paradise, and how disturbed
This night the human pair, how he designs
In them at once to ruin all mankind.
Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend
Converse with Adam, in what bow’r or shade
Thou find’st him from the heat of noon retired,
To respite his day-labor with repast,
Or with repose; and such discourse bring on,
As may advise him of his happy state,
Happiness in his power left free to will,
Left to his own free will, his will though free,
Yet mutable; whence warn him to beware
He swerve238 not too secure: tell him withal
His danger, and from whom, what enemy
Late fall’n himself from Heav’n is plotting now
The fall of others from like state of bliss;
By violence, no, for that shall be withstood,
But by deceit and lies; this let him know,
Lest willfully transgressing he pretend
Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned.”
So spake th’ eternal Father, and fulfilled
All justice: nor delayed the wingèd saint
After his charge received, but from among
Thousand celestial ardors249, where he stood
Veiled250 with his gorgeous wings, up springing light
Flew through the midst of Heav’n; th’ angelic choirs
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way
Through all th’ empyreal253 road; till at the gate
Of Heav’n arrived, the gate self-opened254 wide
On golden hinges turning, as by work
Divine the sov’reign architect had framed.
From hence,257 no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight,
Star interposed, however small he sees,
Not unconform to259 other shining globes,
Earth and the gard’n of God, with cedars crowned
Above all hills. As when by night the glass
Of Galileo, less assured, observes
Imagined263 lands and regions in the moon:
Or pilot from amidst the Cyclades264
Delos or Samos first appearing kens265
A cloudy spot. Down thither prone266 in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing
Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air270; till within soar
Of tow’ring eagles271, to all the fowls he seems
A phoenix, gazed by all, as that sole bird
When to enshrine his relics in the sun’s
Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.
At once on th’ eastern cliff of Paradise
He lights, and to his proper shape returns
A Seraph winged; six wings277 he wore, to shade
His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad, came mantling279 o’er his breast
With regal ornament; the middle pair
Girt like a starry zone281 his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
And colors dipped in Heav’n; the third his feet
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail284
Sky-tinctured285 grain. Like Maia’s son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that Heav’nly fragrance filled
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands
Of Angels under watch; and to his state288,
And to his message high in honor rise;
For on some message high they guessed him bound.
Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come
Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
And flow’ring odors, cassia, nard, and balm293;
A wilderness of sweets; for nature here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet296,
Wild above rule or art297; enormous bliss.
Him through the spicy forest onward come
Adam discerned, as in the door he sat
Of his cool bow’r, while now300 the mounted sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm
Earth’s inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs;
And Eve within, due at her hour prepared
For dinner savory fruits, of taste to please
True appetite, and not disrelish305 thirst
Of nectarous306 draughts between, from milky stream,
Berry or grape: to whom thus Adam called.
“Haste hither Eve, and worth thy sight behold
Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape
Comes this way moving; seems another morn
Ris’n on mid-noon; some great behest from Heav’n
To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe
This day to be our guest. But go with speed,
And what thy stores contain, bring forth and pour
Abundance, fit to honor and receive
Our Heav’nly stranger; well we may afford
Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
From large bestowed, where nature multiplies
Her fertile growth, and by disburd’ning319 grows
More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare.”
To whom thus Eve. “Adam, earth’s hallowed mold321
Of God inspired, small store will serve, where store,
All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;
Save what by frugal324 storing firmness gains
To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:
But I will haste and from each bough and brake,
Each plant and juiciest gourd will pluck such choice
To entertain our angel guest, as he
Beholding shall confess that here on Earth
God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heav’n.”
So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent
What choice333 to choose for delicacy best,
What order, so contrived as not to mix
Tastes, not well joined, inelegant, but bring
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change,
“Eastward among those trees, what g
lorious shape / Comes this way moving” (5.309–10). (illustration credit 5.1)
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk
Whatever Earth all-bearing mother yields
In India339 east or west, or middle shore
In Pontus or the Punic Coast, or where
Alcinous341 reigned, fruit of all kinds, in coat,
Rough, or smooth rined, or bearded husk, or shell
She gathers, tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand; for drink the grape
She crushes, inoffensive must, and meathes345
From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressed346
She tempers dulcet creams, nor these to hold
Wants her fit vessels pure, then strews the ground
With rose and odors from the shrub unfumed349.
Meanwhile our primitive350 great sire, to meet
His godlike guest, walks forth, without more train
Accompanied than with his own complete
Perfections, in himself was all his state353,
More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits
On princes, when their rich retinue long
Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold356
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape.
Nearer his presence Adam though not awed,
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,
As to a superior nature, bowing low,
Thus said. “Native of Heav’n, for other place
None can than Heav’n such glorious shape contain;
Since by descending from the thrones above,
Those happy places thou hast deigned a while
To want, and honor these, vouchsafe with us
Two only, who yet by sov’reign gift possess
This spacious ground, in yonder shady bow’r
To rest, and what the garden choicest bears
To sit and taste, till this meridian heat
Be over, and the sun more cool decline.”
Whom thus the angelic Virtue371 answered mild.
“Adam, I therefore came, nor art thou such
Created, or such place hast here to dwell,
As may not oft invite, though spirits of Heav’n
To visit thee; lead on then where thy bow’r
O’ershades; for these mid-hours, till evening rise
I have at will.” So to the sylvan lodge
They came, that like Pomona’s arbor378 smiled
With flow’rets decked and fragrant smells; but Eve
Undecked, save with herself more lovely fair
Than wood-nymph, or the fairest goddess381 feigned
Of three that in Mount Ida naked strove,
Stood to entertain her guest from Heav’n; no veil
She needed, virtue-proof384, no thought infirm
Altered her cheek. On whom the angel “Hail385”
Bestowed, the holy salutation used
Long after to blest Mary, second Eve.
“Hail mother of mankind, whose fruitful womb
Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons
Than with these various fruits the trees of God
Have heaped this table.” Raised of grassy turf
Their table was, and mossy seats had round,
And on her ample square from side to side
All autumn piled, though spring and autumn here
Danced hand in hand. A while discourse they hold;
No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began
Our author397. “Heav’nly stranger, please to taste
These bounties which our Nourisher, from whom
All perfect good unmeasured out descends,
To us for food and for delight hath caused
The earth to yield; unsavory food perhaps
To spiritual natures; only this I know,
That one celestial father gives to all.”
To whom the angel. “Therefore what he gives
(Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part
Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found
No ingrateful food; and food alike those pure
Intelligential substances408 require
As doth your rational; and both contain
Within them every lower faculty
Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,
Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate412,
And corporeal to incorporeal turn.
For know, whatever was created, needs
To be sustained 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, unpurged419
Vapors not yet into her substance turned.
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 recompense
In humid exhalations, and at even
Sups with the ocean: though in Heav’n the trees
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines
Yield nectar, though from off the boughs each morn
We brush mellifluous429 dews, and find the ground
Covered with pearly grain430: yet God hath here
Varied his bounty so with new delights,
As may compare with Heaven; and to taste
Think not I shall be nice433.” So down they sat,
And to their viands fell, nor seemingly434
The angel, nor in mist435, the common gloss
Of theologians, but with keen dispatch
Of real hunger, and concoctive heat437
To transubstantiate438; what redounds, transpires
Through spirits with ease; nor wonder439; if by fire
Of sooty coal the empiric440 alchemist
Can turn, or holds it possible to turn
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold
As from the mine. Meanwhile at table Eve
Ministered naked, and their flowing cups
With pleasant liquors crowned445: O innocence
Deserving Paradise! if ever446, then,
Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
Enamored at that sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous449 reigned, nor jealousy
Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed,
Not burdened nature, sudden mind arose
In Adam, not to let th’ occasion pass
Given him by this great conference to know
Of things above his world, and of their being
Who dwell in Heav’n, 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 th’ empyreal minister he framed.
“Inhabitant with God, now know I well
Thy favor, in this honor done to man,
Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed
To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,
Food not of angels, yet accepted so,
As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
As Heav’n’s high feasts to have fed: yet what compare?467”
To whom the wingèd hierarch replied.
“O469 Adam, one Almighty is, from whom
All things proceed, and up to him return,
If not depraved from good, created all
Such to perfection, one first matter all472,
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and in things that live, of life;
But more refined, more spiritous, and pure,
As nearer to him placed or nearer tending
Each in their several active spheres
assigned,
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds478
Proportioned to each kind. So from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
More airy, last the bright consummate flow’r
Spirits odorous breathes: flow’rs and their fruit
Man’s nourishment,483 by gradual scale sublimed
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 but490 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 bodies497 may at last turn all to spirit,
Improved by tract498 of time, and winged ascend
Ethereal, as we, or may at choice499
Here or in Heav’nly 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, incapable505 of more.”
To whom the patriarch of mankind replied.
“O favorable spirit, propitious guest,
Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
Our knowledge, and the scale of nature509 set
From center to circumference, whereon
In contemplation of created things
By steps we may ascend to God. But say,
What meant that caution joined, ‘If ye be found
Obedient’? Can we want obedience then
To him, or possibly his love desert
Who formed 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 Heav’n and Earth,
Attend: that thou are happy, owe to God;
That thou continu’st such, owe to thyself,
That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.
This was that caution giv’n thee; be advised.
God made thee perfect, not immutable;
And good he made thee, but to persevere
He left it in thy power, ordained thy will
By nature free, not overruled 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