Absolv’d,14 if unforbid thou maist unfould
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What wee, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his Eternal Empire, but the more
To magnifie his works, the more we know.
And the great Light of Day yet wants to run
Much of his Race though steep, suspense in Heav’n
100
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he heares,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His Generation, and the rising Birth
Of Nature from the unapparent15 Deep:
Or if the Starr of Eevning and the Moon
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Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring
Silence, and Sleep listning to thee will watch,16
Or we can bid his absence, till thy Song
End, and dismiss thee ere the Morning shine.
Thus Adam his illustrious Guest besought:
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And thus the Godlike Angel answerd mild.
This also thy request with caution askt
Obtain: though to recount Almightie works
What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?
115
Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve
To glorifie the Maker, and inferr
Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing, such Commission from above
I have receav’d, to answer thy desire
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Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope
Things not reveal’d, which th’ invisible King,
Onely Omniscient, hath supprest in Night,
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:
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Anough is left besides to search and know.
But Knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her Temperance over Appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain,
Oppresses else with Surfet, and soon turns
130
Wisdom to Folly, as Nourishment to Wind.
Know then, that after Lucifer from Heav’n
(So call him, brighter once amidst the Host
Of Angels, then that Starr17 the Starrs among)
Fell with his flaming Legions through the Deep
135
Into his place, and the great Son returnd
Victorious with his saints, th’ Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his Throne beheld
Thir multitude, and to his Son thus spake.
At least our envious Foe hath fail’d, who thought
140
All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,
He trusted to have seis’d, and into fraud
Drew many, whom thir place knows here no more;18
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Yet farr the greater part have kept, I see,
Thir station, Heav’n yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her Realmes
Though wide, and this high Temple to frequent
With Ministeries due and solemn Rites:
150
But least his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopl’d Heav’n,
My damage fondly19 deem’d, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, and in a moment will create
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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 themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tri’d,
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And Earth be chang’d to Heav’n, and Heav’n to Earth,
One Kingdom, Joy and Union without end.
Mean while inhabit lax,20 ye Powers of Heav’n,
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, speak thou, and be it don:
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My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee
I send 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.
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Though I uncircumscrib’d my self retire,21
And put not forth my goodness, which is free
To act or not, Necessitie and Chance
Approach not mee, and what I will is Fate.
So spake th’ Almightie, and to what he spake
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His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the Acts of God, more swift
Then time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receave.
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Great triumph and rejoycing was in Heav’n
When such was heard declar’d th’ Almightie’s will;
Glorie they sung to the most High, good will
To future men, and in thir dwellings peace:
Glorie to him whose just avenging ire
185
Had driven out th’ ungodly from his sight
And th’ habitations of the just; to him
Glorie and praise, whose wisdom had ordain’d
Good out of evil to create, in stead
Of Spirits maligne a better Race to bring
190
Into thir vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to Worlds and Ages infinite.
So sang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son
On his great Expedition now appeer’d,
Girt with Omnipotence, with Radiance crown’d
195
Of Majestie Divine, Sapience and Love
Immense, and all his Father in him shon.
About his Chariot numberless were pour’d
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Vertues, winged Spirits, and Chariots wing’d,
200
From th’ Armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads between two brazen Mountains lodg’d
Against a solemn day, harnest at hand,
Celestial Equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv’d,
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Attendant on thir Lord: Heav’n op’n’d wide
Her ever during22 Gates, Harmonious sound
On golden Hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glorie in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new Worlds.
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On heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore
They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss
Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn’d by furious winds
And surging waves, as Mountains to assault
215
Heav’ns highth, and with the Center mix the Pole.
Silence, ye troubl’d waves, and thou Deep, peace,
Said then th’ Omnific23 Word, your discord end:
Nor staid, but on the Wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in Paternal Glorie rode
220
Farr into Chaos, and the World unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his Train
Follow’d in bright procession to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the fervid Wheels, and in his hand
225
He took the golden Compasses,24 prepar’d
In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things:
One foot he center’d, and the other turn’d
Roun
d through the vast profunditie obscure,
230
And said, thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds,
This be thy just Circumference, O World.
Thus God the Heav’n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform’d and void: Darkness profound
Cover’d th’ Abyss: but on the watrie calm
235
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspred,
And vital vertue infus’d, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid Mass, but downward purg’d
The black tartareous25 cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob’d26
240
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the Air,
And Earth self ballanc’t on her Center hung.
Let ther be Light, said God,27 and forthwith Light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence28 pure
245
Sprung from the Deep, and from her Native East
To journie through the airie gloom began,
Sphear’d in a radiant Cloud, for yet the Sun
Was not; shee in a cloudie Tabernacle29
Sojourn’d the while. God saw the Light was good;
250
And light from darkness by the Hemisphere
Divided: Light the Day, and Darkness Night
He nam’d. Thus was the first Day Eev’n and Morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the Celestial Quires, when Orient Light
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Exhaling first from Darkness they beheld;
Birth-day of Heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow Universal Orb they fill’d,
And touch’t thir Golden Harps, and hymning prais’d
God and his works, Creatour him they sung,
260
Both when first Eevning was, and when first Morn.
Again, God said, let ther be Firmament30
Amid the Waters, and let it divide
The Waters from the Waters: and God made
The Firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
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Transparent, Elemental Air, diffus’d
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great Round: partition firm and sure,
The Waters underneath from those above
Dividing: for as Earth, so he the World
270
Built on circumfluous Waters calm, in wide
Crystallin Ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos farr remov’d, least fierce extreams
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And Heav’n he nam’d the Firmament: So Eev’n
275
And Morning Chorus sung the second Day.
The Earth was form’d, but in the Womb as yet
Of Waters, Embryon immature involv’d,31
Appeer’d not: over all the face of Earth
Main32 Ocean flow’d, not idle, but with warm
280
Prolific humour soft’ning all her Globe,
Fermented the great Mother to conceave,
Satiate with genial33 moisture, when God said
Be gather’d now ye Waters under Heav’n
Into one place, and let dry Land appeer.
285
Immediately the Mountains huge appeer
Emergent, and thir broad bare backs upheave
Into the Clouds, thir tops ascend the Skie:
So high as heav’d the tumid Hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
290
Capacious bed of Waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance,34 uprowl’d
As drops on dust conglobing from the drie;
Part rise in crystal Wall, or ridge direct,
For haste; such flight the great command impress’d
295
On the swift flouds: as Armies at the call
Of Trumpet (for of Armies thou hast heard)
Troop to thir Standard, so the watrie throng,
Wave rowling after Wave, where way they found,
If steep, with torrent rapture,35 if through Plain,
300
Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them Rock or Hill,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With Serpent errour36 wandring, found thir way,
And on the washie Oose deep Channels wore;
Easie, e’re God had bid the ground be drie,
305
All but within those banks, where Rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw thir humid train.37
The dry Land, Earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated Waters he call’d Seas:
And saw that it was good, and said, Let th’ Earth
310
Put forth the verdant Grass, Herb yeilding Seed,
And Fruit Tree yeilding Fruit after her kind;
Whose Seed is in her self upon the Earth.
He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn’d,
315
Brought forth the tender Grass, whose verdure clad
Her Universal Face with pleasant green,
Then Herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowr’d
Op’ning thir various colours, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
320
Forth flourish’t thick the clustring Vine, forth crept
The smelling Gourd, up stood the cornie Reed
And Bush with frizl’d hair implicit:38 last
Rose as in Dance the stately Trees, and spred
325
Thir branches hung with copious Fruit; or gemm’d39
Thir blossoms: with high woods the hills were crownd,
With tufts40 the vallies and each fountain side,
With borders long the Rivers. That Earth now
Seemd like to Heav’n, a seat where Gods might dwell,
330
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rain’d
Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground
None was, but from the Earth a dewie Mist
Went up and waterd all the ground, and each
335
Plant of the field, which e’re it was in th’ Earth
God made, and every Herb, before it grew
On the green stemm; God saw that it was good.
So Eev’n and Morn recorded the Third Day.
Again th’ Almightie spake: Let there be Lights
340
High in th’ expanse of Heaven to divide
The Day from Night; and let them be for Signes,
For Seasons, and for Dayes, and circling Years,
And let them be for Lights as I ordain
Thir Office in the Firmament of Heav’n
345
To give Light on the Earth; and it was so.
And God made two great Lights, great for thir use
To Man, the greater to have rule by Day,
The less by Night altern: and made the Starrs,
And set them in the Firmament of Heav’n
350
T’ illuminate the Earth, and rule the Day
In thir vicissitude, and rule the Night,
And Light from Darkness to divide. God saw,
Surveying his great Work, that it was good:
For of Celestial Bodies first the Sun
355
A mightie Sphear he fram’d, unlightsom first,
Though of Ethereal Mould: then form’d the Moon
Globose, and every magnitude of Starrs,
And sowd with Starrs the Heav’n thick as a field:
Of Light by farr the greater part he took,
360
Transplanted from her cloudie Shrine, and plac’d
In the Suns 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 thir Fountain other Starrs
365
Repairing, in thir gold’n Urns draw Light,
And hence the Morning Planet guilds her horns;41
By tincture42 or reflection they augment
Thir small peculiar, though from human sight
So farr remote, with diminution seen.
370
First in his East the glorious Lamp was seen,
Regent of Day, and all th’ Horizon round
Invested with bright Rayes, jocond to run
His Longitude through Heav’ns high rode: the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc’d
375
Shedding sweet influence: less bright the Moon,
But opposite in leveld West was set
His mirror, with full face borrowing her Light
From him, for other light she needed none
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps
380
Till night, then in the East her turn she shines,
Revolv’d on Heav’ns great Axle, and her Reign
With thousand lesser Lights dividual43 holds,
With thousand thousand Starrs, that then appeer’d
Spangling the Hemisphere: then first adornd
385
With thir bright Luminaries that Set and Rose,
Glad Eevning and glad Morn crownd the fourth day.
And God said, let the Waters generate
Reptil44 with Spawn abundant, living Soul:
And let Fowl flie above the Earth, with wings
390
Displayd on th’ op’n Firmament of Heav’n.
And God created the great Whales, and each
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously
The waters generated by thir kinds,
And every Bird of wing after his kind;
395
And saw that it was good, and bless’d them, saying,
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas