Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (40 page)

Of Heav’n arrived, the gate self-opened
²⁵⁴
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 to
²⁵⁹
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

Imagined
²⁶³
lands and regions in the moon:

Or pilot from amidst the Cyclades
²⁶⁴

Delos or Samos first appearing kens
²⁶⁵

A cloudy spot. Down thither prone
²⁶⁶
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 air
²⁷⁰
; till within soar

Of tow’ring eagles
²⁷¹
, 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 wings
²⁷⁷
he wore, to shade

His lineaments divine; the pair that clad

Each shoulder broad, came mantling
²⁷⁹
o’er his breast

With regal ornament; the middle pair

Girt like a starry zone
²⁸¹
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 mail
²⁸⁴

Sky-tinctured
²⁸⁵
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 state
²⁸⁸
,

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 balm
²⁹³
;

A wilderness of sweets; for nature here

Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will

Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet
²⁹⁶
,

Wild above rule or art
²⁹⁷
; enormous bliss.

Him through the spicy forest onward come

Adam discerned, as in the door he sat

Of his cool bow’r, while now
³⁰⁰
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 disrelish
³⁰⁵
thirst

Of nectarous
³⁰⁶
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’ning
³¹⁹
grows

More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare.”

   To whom thus Eve. “Adam, earth’s hallowed mold
³²¹

Of God inspired, small store will serve, where store,

All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;

Save what by frugal
³²⁴
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 choice
³³³
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 glorious 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 India
³³⁹
east or west, or middle shore

In Pontus or the Punic Coast, or where

Alcinous
³⁴¹
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 meathes
³⁴⁵

From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressed
³⁴⁶

She tempers dulcet creams, nor these to hold

Wants her fit vessels pure, then strews the ground

With rose and odors from the shrub unfumed
³⁴⁹
.

Meanwhile our primitive
³⁵⁰
great sire, to meet

His godlike guest, walks forth, without more train

Accompanied than with his own complete

Perfections, in himself was all his state
³⁵³
,

More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits

On princes, when their rich retinue long

Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold
³⁵⁶

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 Virtue
³⁷¹
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 arbor
³⁷⁸
smiled

With flow’rets decked and fragrant smells; but Eve

Undecked, save with herself more lovely fair

Than wood-nymph, or the fairest goddess
³⁸¹
feigned

Of three that in Mount Ida naked strove,

Stood to entertain her guest from Heav’n; no veil

She needed, virtue-proof
³⁸⁴
, no thought infirm

Altered her cheek. On whom the angel “Hail
³⁸⁵
”

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 author
³⁹⁷
. “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 substances
⁴⁰⁸
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, assimilate
⁴¹²
,

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, unpurged
⁴¹⁹

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 mellifluous
⁴²⁹
dews, and find the ground

Covered with pearly grain
⁴³⁰
: yet God hath here

Varied his bounty so with new delights,

As may compare with Heaven; and to taste

Think not I shall be nice
⁴³³
.” So down they sat,

And to their viands fell, nor seemingly
⁴³⁴

The angel, nor in mist
⁴³⁵
, the common gloss

Of theologians, but with keen dispatch

Of real hunger, and concoctive heat
⁴³⁷

To transubstantiate
⁴³⁸
; what redounds, transpires

Through spirits with ease; nor wonder
⁴³⁹
; if by fire

Of sooty coal the empiric
⁴⁴⁰
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 crowned
⁴⁴⁵
: O innocence

Deserving Paradise! if ever
⁴⁴⁶
, then,

Then had the sons of God excuse to have been

Enamored at that sight; but in those hearts

Love unlibidinous
⁴⁴⁹
reigned, nor jealousy

Was understood, the injured lover’s hell.

   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.

“O
⁴⁶⁹
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 all
⁴⁷²
,

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