1.                 Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name

2.                 If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine

3.                 Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,

4.                 Above the flight of Pegasean wing!

5.                 The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou

6.                 Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top

7.                 Of old Olympus dwellest; but, heavenly-born,

8.                 Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,

9.                 Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,

10.             Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play

11.             In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased

12.             With thy celestial song. Up led by thee

13.             Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,

14.             An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,

15.             Thy tempering: with like safety guided down

16.             Return me to my native element:

17.             Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once

18.             Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,)

19.             Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,

20.             Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.

21.             Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound

22.             Within the visible diurnal sphere;

23.             Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,

24.             More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged

25.             To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,

26.             On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;

27.             In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,

28.             And solitude; yet not alone, while thou

29.             Visitest my slumbers nightly, or when morn

30.             Purples the east: still govern thou my song,

31.             Urania, and fit audience find, though few.

32.             But drive far off the barbarous dissonance

33.             Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race

34.             Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard

35.             In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears

36.             To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned

37.             Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend

38.             Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:

39.             For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream.

40.             Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphael,

41.             The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarned

42.             Adam, by dire example, to beware

43.             Apostasy, by what befel in Heaven

44.             To those apostates; lest the like befall

45.             In Paradise to Adam or his race,

46.             Charged not to touch the interdicted tree,

47.             If they transgress, and slight that sole command,

48.             So easily obeyed amid the choice

49.             Of all tastes else to please their appetite,

50.             Though wandering. He, with his consorted Eve,

51.             The story heard attentive, and was filled

52.             With admiration and deep muse, to hear

53.             Of things so high and strange; things, to their thought

54.             So unimaginable, as hate in Heaven,

55.             And war so near the peace of God in bliss,

56.             With such confusion: but the evil, soon

57.             Driven back, redounded as a flood on those

58.             From whom it sprung; impossible to mix

59.             With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed

60.             The doubts that in his heart arose: and now

61.             Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know

62.             What nearer might concern him, how this world

63.             Of Heaven and Earth conspicuous first began;

64.             When, and whereof created; for what cause;

65.             What within Eden, or without, was done

66.             Before his memory; as one whose drouth

67.             Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream,

68.             Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,

69.             Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest.

70.             Great things, and full of wonder in our ears,

71.             Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed,

72.             Divine interpreter! by favour sent

73.             Down from the empyrean, to forewarn

74.             Us timely of what might else have been our loss,

75.             Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach;

76.             For which to the infinitely Good we owe

77.             Immortal thanks, and his admonishment

78.             Receive, with solemn purpose to observe

79.             Immutably his sovran will, the end

80.             Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed

81.             Gently, for our instruction, to impart

82.             Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned

83.             Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed,

84.             Deign to descend now lower, and relate

85.             What may no less perhaps avail us known,

86.             How first began this Heaven which we behold

87.             Distant so high, with moving fires adorned

88.             Innumerable; and this which yields or fills

89.             All space, the ambient air wide interfused

90.             Embracing round this floried Earth; what cause

91.             Moved the Creator, in his holy rest

92.             Through all eternity, so late to build

93.             In Chaos; and the work begun, how soon

94.             Absolved; if unforbid thou mayest unfold

95.             What we, not to explore the secrets ask

96.             Of his eternal empire, but the more

97.             To magnify his works, the more we know.

98.             And the great light of day yet wants to run

99.             Much of his race though steep; suspense in Heaven,

100.        Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,

101.        And longer will delay to hear thee tell

102.        His generation, and the rising birth

103.        Of Nature from the unapparent Deep:

104.        Or if the star of evening and the moon

105.        Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring,

106.        Silence; and Sleep, listening to thee, will watch;

107.        Or we can bid his absence, till thy song

108.        End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.

109.        Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:

110.        And thus the Godlike Angel answered mild.

111.        This also thy request, with caution asked,

112.        Obtain; though to recount almighty works

113.        What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,

114.        Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?

115.        Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve

116.        To glorify the Maker, and infer

117.        Thee also happier, shall not be withheld

118.        Thy hearing; such commission from above

119.        I have received, to answer thy desire

120.        Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain

121.        To ask; nor let thine own inventions hope

122.        Things not revealed, which the invisible King,

123.        Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night;

124.        To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:

125.        Enough is left besides to search and know.

126.        But knowledge is as food, and needs no less

127.        Her temperance over appetite, to know

128.        In measure what the mind may well contain;

129.        Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns

130.        Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

131.        Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven

132.        (So call him, brighter once amidst the host

133.        Of Angels, than that star the stars among,)

134.        Fell with his flaming legions through the deep

135.        Into his place, and the great Son returned

136.        Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent

137.        Eternal Father from his throne beheld

138.        Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.

139.        At least our envious Foe hath failed, who thought

140.        All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

141.        This inaccessible high strength, the seat

142.        Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,

143.        He trusted to have seised, and into fraud

144.        Drew many, whom their place knows here no more:

145.        Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

146.        Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains

147.        Number sufficient to possess her realms

148.        Though wide, and this high temple to frequent

149.        With ministeries due, and solemn rites:

150.        But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm

151.        Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven,

152.        My damage fondly deemed, I can repair

153.        That detriment, if such it be to lose

154.        Self-lost; and in a moment will create

155.        Another world, out of one man a race

156.        Of men innumerable, there to dwell,

157.        Not here; till, by degrees of merit raised,

158.        They open to themselves at length the way

159.        Up hither, under long obedience tried;

160.        And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth,

161.        One kingdom, joy and union without end.

162.        Mean while inhabit lax, ye Powers of Heaven;

163.        And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee

164.        This I perform; speak thou, and be it done!

165.        My overshadowing Spirit and Might with thee

166.        I send along; ride forth, and bid the Deep

167.        Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth;

168.        Boundless the Deep, because I Am who fill

169.        Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.

170.        Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire,

171.        And put not forth my goodness, which is free

172.        To act or not, Necessity and Chance

173.        Approach not me, and what I will is Fate.

174.        So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake

175.        His Word, the Filial Godhead, gave effect.

176.        Immediate are the acts of God, more swift

177.        Than time or motion, but to human ears

178.        Cannot without process of speech be told,

179.        So told as earthly notion can receive.

180.        Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,

181.        When such was heard declared the Almighty’s will;

182.        Glory they sung to the Most High, good will

183.        To future men, and in their dwellings peace;

184.        Glory to Him, whose just avenging ire

185.        Had driven out the ungodly from his sight

186.        And the habitations of the just; to Him

187.        Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained

188.        Good out of evil to create; instead

189.        Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring

190.        Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse

191.        His good to worlds and ages infinite.

192.        So sang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son

193.        On his great expedition now appeared,

194.        Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crowned

195.        Of Majesty Divine; sapience and love

196.        Immense, and all his Father in him shone.

197.        About his chariot numberless were poured

198.        Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones,

199.        And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots winged

200.        From the armoury of God; where stand of old

201.        Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged

202.        Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand,

203.        Celestial equipage; and now came forth

204.        Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived,

205.        Attendant on their Lord: Heaven opened wide

206.        Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound

207.        On golden hinges moving, to let forth

208.        The King of Glory, in his powerful Word

209.        And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.

210.        On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore

211.        They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss

212.        Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,

213.        Up from the bottom turned by furious winds

214.        And surging waves, as mountains, to assault

215.        Heaven’s highth, and with the center mix the pole.

216.        Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace,

217.        Said then the Omnifick Word; your discord end!

218.        Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim

219.        Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

220.        Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;

221.        For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train

222.        Followed in bright procession, to behold

223.        Creation, and the wonders of his might.

224.        Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand

225.        He took the golden compasses, prepared

226.        In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe

227.        This universe, and all created things:

228.        One foot he centered, and the other turned

229.        Round through the vast profundity obscure;

230.        And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,

231.        This be thy just circumference, O World!

232.        Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth,

233.        Matter unformed and void: Darkness profound

234.        Covered the abyss: but on the watery calm

235.        His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,

236.        And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth

237.        Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purged

238.        The black tartareous cold infernal dregs,

239.        Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed

240.        Like things to like; the rest to several place

241.        Disparted, and between spun out the air;

242.        And Earth self-balanced on her center hung.

243.        Let there be light, said God; and forthwith Light

244.        Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

245.        Sprung from the deep; and from her native east

246.        To journey through the aery gloom began,

247.        Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun

248.        Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

249.        Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good;

250.        And light from darkness by the hemisphere

251.        Divided: light the Day, and darkness Night,

252.        He named. Thus was the first day even and morn:

253.        Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

254.        By the celestial quires, when orient light

255.        Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

256.        Birth-day of Heaven and Earth; with joy and shout

257.        The hollow universal orb they filled,

258.        And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised

259.        God and his works; Creator him they sung,

260.        Both when first evening was, and when first morn.

261.        Again, God said, Let there be firmament

262.        Amid the waters, and let it divide

263.        The waters from the waters; and God made

264.        The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,

265.        Transparent, elemental air, diffused

266.        In circuit to the uttermost convex

267.        Of this great round; partition firm and sure,

268.        The waters underneath from those above

269.        Dividing: for as earth, so he the world

270.        Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide

271.        Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule

272.        Of Chaos far removed; lest fierce extremes

273.        Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:

274.        And Heaven he named the Firmament: So even

275.        And morning chorus sung the second day.

276.        The Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet

277.        Of waters, embryon immature involved,

278.        Appeared not: over all the face of Earth

279.        Main ocean flowed, not idle; but, with warm

280.        Prolific humour softening all her globe,

281.        Fermented the great mother to conceive,

282.        Satiate with genial moisture; when God said,

283.        Be gathered now ye waters under Heaven

284.        Into one place, and let dry land appear.

285.        Immediately the mountains huge appear

286.        Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave

287.        Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky:

288.        So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low

289.        Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,

290.        Capacious bed of waters: Thither they

291.        Hasted with glad precipitance, uprolled,

292.        As drops on dust conglobing from the dry:

293.        Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

294.        For haste; such flight the great command impressed

295.        On the swift floods: As armies at the call

296.        Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)

297.        Troop to their standard; so the watery throng,

298.        Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,

299.        If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,

300.        Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill;

301.        But they, or under ground, or circuit wide

302.        With serpent errour wandering, found their way,

303.        And on the washy oose deep channels wore;

304.        Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,

305.        All but within those banks, where rivers now

306.        Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.

307.        The dry land, Earth; and the great receptacle

308.        Of congregated waters, he called Seas:

309.        And saw that it was good; and said, Let the Earth

310.        Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed,

311.        And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,

312.        Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth.

313.        He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then

314.        Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned,

315.        Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad

316.        Her universal face with pleasant green;

317.        Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered

318.        Opening their various colours, and made gay

319.        Her bosom, smelling sweet: and, these scarce blown,

320.        Forth flourished thick the clustering vine, forth crept

321.        The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed

322.        Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub,

323.        And bush with frizzled hair implicit: Last

324.        Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread

325.        Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed

326.        Their blossoms: With high woods the hills were crowned;

327.        With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side;

328.        With borders long the rivers: that Earth now

329.        Seemed like to Heaven, a seat where Gods might dwell,

330.        Or wander with delight, and love to haunt

331.        Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rained

332.        Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground

333.        None was; but from the Earth a dewy mist

334.        Went up, and watered all the ground, and each

335.        Plant of the field; which, ere it was in the Earth,

336.        God made, and every herb, before it grew

337.        On the green stem: God saw that it was good:

338.        So even and morn recorded the third day.

339.        Again the Almighty spake, Let there be lights

340.        High in the expanse of Heaven, to divide

341.        The day from night; and let them be for signs,

342.        For seasons, and for days, and circling years;

343.        And let them be for lights, as I ordain

344.        Their office in the firmament of Heaven,

345.        To give light on the Earth; and it was so.

346.        And God made two great lights, great for their use

347.        To Man, the greater to have rule by day,

348.        The less by night, altern; and made the stars,

349.        And set them in the firmament of Heaven

350.        To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day

351.        In their vicissitude, and rule the night,

352.        And light from darkness to divide. God saw,

353.        Surveying his great work, that it was good:

354.        For of celestial bodies first the sun

355.        A mighty sphere he framed, unlightsome first,

356.        Though of ethereal mould: then formed the moon

357.        Globose, and every magnitude of stars,

358.        And sowed with stars the Heaven, thick as a field:

359.        Of light by far the greater part he took,

360.        Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed

361.        In the sun’s orb, made porous to receive

362.        And drink the liquid light; firm to retain

363.        Her gathered beams, great palace now of light.

364.        Hither, as to their fountain, other stars

365.        Repairing, in their golden urns draw light,

366.        And hence the morning-planet gilds her horns;

367.        By tincture or reflection they augment

368.        Their small peculiar, though from human sight

369.        So far remote, with diminution seen,

370.        First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,

371.        Regent of day, and all the horizon round

372.        Invested with bright rays, jocund to run

373.        His longitude through Heaven’s high road; the gray

374.        Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced,

375.        Shedding sweet influence: Less bright the moon,

376.        But opposite in levelled west was set,

377.        His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light

378.        From him; for other light she needed none

379.        In that aspect, and still that distance keeps

380.        Till night; then in the east her turn she shines,

381.        Revolved on Heaven’s great axle, and her reign

382.        With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,

383.        With thousand thousand Stars, that then appeared

384.        Spangling the hemisphere: Then first adorned

385.        With their bright luminaries that set and rose,

386.        Glad evening and glad morn crowned the fourth day.

387.        And God said, Let the waters generate

388.        Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul:

389.        And let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings

390.        Displayed on the open firmament of Heaven.

391.        And God created the great whales, and each

392.        Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

393.        The waters generated by their kinds;

394.        And every bird of wing after his kind;

395.        And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying.

396.        Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,

397.        And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill;

398.        And let the fowl be multiplied, on the Earth.

399.        Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay,

400.        With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals

401.        Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales,

402.        Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft

403.        Bank the mid sea: part single, or with mate,

404.        Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves

405.        Of coral stray; or, sporting with quick glance,

406.        Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold;

407.        Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend

408.        Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food

409.        In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal

410.        And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk

411.        Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,

412.        Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,

413.        Hugest of living creatures, on the deep

414.        Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,

415.        And seems a moving land; and at his gills

416.        Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea.

417.        Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,

418.        Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that soon

419.        Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclosed

420.        Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge

421.        They summed their pens; and, soaring the air sublime,

422.        With clang despised the ground, under a cloud

423.        In prospect; there the eagle and the stork

424.        On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:

425.        Part loosely wing the region, part more wise

426.        In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way,

427.        Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

428.        Their aery caravan, high over seas

429.        Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing

430.        Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane

431.        Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air

432.        Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes:

433.        From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

434.        Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings

435.        Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale

436.        Ceased warbling, but all night tun’d her soft lays:

437.        Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed

438.        Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck,

439.        Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows

440.        Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

441.        The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower

442.        The mid aereal sky: Others on ground

443.        Walked firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds

444.        The silent hours, and the other whose gay train

445.        Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue

446.        Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus

447.        With fish replenished, and the air with fowl,

448.        Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day.

449.        The sixth, and of creation last, arose

450.        With evening harps and matin; when God said,

451.        Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind,

452.        Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the Earth,

453.        Each in their kind. The Earth obeyed, and straight

454.        Opening her fertile womb teemed at a birth

455.        Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,

456.        Limbed and full grown: Out of the ground up rose,

457.        As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons

458.        In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;

459.        Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked:

460.        The cattle in the fields and meadows green:

461.        Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

462.        Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.

463.        The grassy clods now calved; now half appeared

464.        The tawny lion, pawing to get free

465.        His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,

466.        And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,

467.        The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole

468.        Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw

469.        In hillocks: The swift stag from under ground

470.        Bore up his branching head: Scarce from his mould

471.        Behemoth biggest born of earth upheaved

472.        His vastness: Fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,

473.        As plants: Ambiguous between sea and land

474.        The river-horse, and scaly crocodile.

475.        At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,

476.        Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans

477.        For wings, and smallest lineaments exact

478.        In all the liveries decked of summer’s pride

479.        With spots of gold and purple, azure and green:

480.        These, as a line, their long dimension drew,

481.        Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all

482.        Minims of nature; some of serpent-kind,

483.        Wonderous in length and corpulence, involved

484.        Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept

485.        The parsimonious emmet, provident

486.        Of future; in small room large heart enclosed;

487.        Pattern of just equality perhaps

488.        Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes

489.        Of commonalty: Swarming next appeared

490.        The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

491.        Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

492.        With honey stored: The rest are numberless,

493.        And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names,

494.        Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown

495.        The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,

496.        Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes

497.        And hairy mane terrific, though to thee

498.        Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

499.        Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and rolled

500.        Her motions, as the great first Mover’s hand

501.        First wheeled their course: Earth in her rich attire

502.        Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,

503.        By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked,

504.        Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:

505.        There wanted yet the master-work, the end

506.        Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone

507.        And brute as other creatures, but endued

508.        With sanctity of reason, might erect

509.        His stature, and upright with front serene

510.        Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence

511.        Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,

512.        But grateful to acknowledge whence his good

513.        Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes

514.        Directed in devotion, to adore

515.        And worship God Supreme, who made him chief

516.        Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent

517.        Eternal Father (for where is not he

518.        Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake.

519.        Let us make now Man in our image, Man

520.        In our similitude, and let them rule

521.        Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

522.        Beast of the field, and over all the Earth,

523.        And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.

524.        This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O Man,

525.        Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed

526.        The breath of life; in his own image he

527.        Created thee, in the image of God

528.        Express; and thou becamest a living soul.

529.        Male he created thee; but thy consort

530.        Female, for race; then blessed mankind, and said,

531.        Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth;

532.        Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold

533.        Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,

534.        And every living thing that moves on the Earth.

535.        Wherever thus created, for no place

536.        Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou knowest,

537.        He brought thee into this delicious grove,

538.        This garden, planted with the trees of God,

539.        Delectable both to behold and taste;

540.        And freely all their pleasant fruit for food

541.        Gave thee; all sorts are here that all the Earth yields,

542.        Variety without end; but of the tree,

543.        Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil,

544.        Thou mayest not; in the day thou eatest, thou diest;

545.        Death is the penalty imposed; beware,

546.        And govern well thy appetite; lest Sin

547.        Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

548.        Here finished he, and all that he had made

549.        Viewed, and behold all was entirely good;

550.        So even and morn accomplished the sixth day:

551.        Yet not till the Creator from his work

552.        Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,

553.        Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode;

554.        Thence to behold this new created world,

555.        The addition of his empire, how it showed

556.        In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,

557.        Answering his great idea. Up he rode

558.        Followed with acclamation, and the sound

559.        Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned

560.        Angelic harmonies: The earth, the air

561.        Resounded, (thou rememberest, for thou heardst,)

562.        The heavens and all the constellations rung,

563.        The planets in their station listening stood,

564.        While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.

565.        Open, ye everlasting gates! they sung,

566.        Open, ye Heavens! your living doors;let in

567.        The great Creator from his work returned

568.        Magnificent, his six days work, a World;

569.        Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign

570.        To visit oft the dwellings of just men,

571.        Delighted; and with frequent intercourse

572.        Thither will send his winged messengers

573.        On errands of supernal grace. So sung

574.        The glorious train ascending: He through Heaven,

575.        That opened wide her blazing portals, led

576.        To God’s eternal house direct the way;

577.        A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold

578.        And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,

579.        Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,

580.        Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest

581.        Powdered with stars. And now on Earth the seventh

582.        Evening arose in Eden, for the sun

583.        Was set, and twilight from the east came on,

584.        Forerunning night; when at the holy mount

585.        Of Heaven’s high-seated top, the imperial throne

586.        Of Godhead, fixed for ever firm and sure,

587.        The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down

588.        With his great Father; for he also went

589.        Invisible, yet staid, (such privilege

590.        Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordained,

591.        Author and End of all things; and, from work

592.        Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day,

593.        As resting on that day from all his work,

594.        But not in silence holy kept: the harp

595.        Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe,

596.        And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,

597.        All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,

598.        Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice

599.        Choral or unison: of incense clouds,

600.        Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount.

601.        Creation and the six days acts they sung:

602.        Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite

603.        Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue

604.        Relate thee! Greater now in thy return

605.        Than from the giant Angels: Thee that day

606.        Thy thunders magnified; but to create

607.        Is greater than created to destroy.

608.        Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound

609.        Thy empire! Easily the proud attempt

610.        Of Spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,

611.        Thou hast repelled; while impiously they thought

612.        Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw

613.        The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks

614.        To lessen thee, against his purpose serves

615.        To manifest the more thy might: his evil

616.        Thou usest, and from thence createst more good.

617.        Witness this new-made world, another Heaven

618.        From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view

619.        On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;

620.        Of amplitude almost immense, with stars

621.        Numerous, and every star perhaps a world

622.        Of destined habitation; but thou knowest

623.        Their seasons: among these the seat of Men,

624.        Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused,

625.        Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy Men,

626.        And sons of Men, whom God hath thus advanced!

627.        Created in his image, there to dwell

628.        And worship him; and in reward to rule

629.        Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,

630.        And multiply a race of worshippers

631.        Holy and just: Thrice happy, if they know

632.        Their happiness, and persevere upright!

633.        So sung they, and the empyrean rung

634.        With halleluiahs: Thus was sabbath kept.

635.        And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked

636.        How first this world and face of things began,

637.        And what before thy memory was done

638.        From the beginning; that posterity,

639.        Informed by thee, might know: If else thou seekest

640.        Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.

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