Receive with folemn purpose to observe

Immutably his fovran will, the end

Of what we are. But fince thou haft vouchsaf'd 80

Gently for our instruction to impart

85

Things above earthly thought, which yet concern'd
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seem'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 cause
Mov'd the Creator in his holy rest,
Through all eternity, fo late to build

In Chaos; and the work begun, how foon
Abfolv'd; if unforbid thou may'st unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works, the more we know.

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And the great light of day yet wants to run
Much of his race, though steep; suspense in Heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell

100

His generation, and the rising birth

Of nature from the unapparent deep:

Or if the ftar of evening and the moon

Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring 105

Silence

may serve 115

Silence, and fleep, lift'ning to thee,will watch;
Or we can bid his abfence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
And thus the Godlike Angel answer'd mild.
This alfo thy requeft,with caution ask'd,
Obtain: though to recount almighty works
What words, or tongue of Seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man fuffice to comprehend?
Yet what thou canst attain, which best
To glorify the Maker, and infer
Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing; fuch commiffion from above
I have receiv'd, to answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope
Things not reveal'd; which th' invisible King,
Only omniscient, hath suppress'd in night;
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:
Enough is left befides to fearch and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no lefs
Her temp'rance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppreffes else with surfeit, and foon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

Know then, that after Lucifer from Heaven,

(So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of Angels, than that ftar the flars among) Ff

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125

130

Fell

Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his Saints, th' omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus fpake.

135

At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought

All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

This inacceffible high ftrength, the feat

Of deity fupreme, us dispossess'd,

He trufted to have feis'd, and into fraud

140

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more; Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

145

My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if fuch it be to lose
Self-loft, and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,

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Not here, till, by degrees of merit rais'd,

They open to themselves at length the way

Up hither, under long obedience try'd,

159

And Earth be chang'd to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth, One kingdom, joy and union without end.

Mean

Mean while inhabit lax, ye Pow'rs of Heaven,
And thou,my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform; speak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee 165
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.
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 willis fate.

So spake 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 process of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.

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175

Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,
When fuch was heard declar'd th' Almighty's will;

180

Glory they fung to the moft High, good will

To future men, and in their dwellings peace:

Glory to him, whose just avenging ire

Had driven out th' ungodly from his sight,

185

And th' habitations of the juft; to him
Glory and praise, 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 diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.

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

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195

Immense, and all his Father in him fhone.
About his chariot numberlefs 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,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv'd,

Attendent 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.

On heav'nly ground they flood, and from the fhore 210
They view'd the vast,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. 215
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th'omnific Word, your discord end:

Nor