Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (41 page)

Each in their several active spheres assigned,

Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
⁴⁷⁸

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 but
⁴⁹⁰
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 bodies
⁴⁹⁷
may at last turn all to spirit,

Improved by tract
⁴⁹⁸
of time, and winged ascend

Ethereal, as we, or may at choice
⁴⁹⁹

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, incapable
⁵⁰⁵
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 nature
⁵⁰⁹
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

Willing or no, who will but what they must

By destiny, and can no other choose?

Myself and all th’ angelic host that stand

In sight of God enthroned, our happy state

Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;

On other surety
⁵³⁸
none; freely we serve,

Because we freely love, as in our will

To love or not; in this we stand or fall:

And some are fall’n, to disobedience fall’n,

And so from Heav’n to deepest Hell; O fall

From what high state of bliss into what woe!”

   To whom our great progenitor. “Thy words

Attentive, and with more delighted ear,

Divine instructor, I have heard, than when

Cherubic songs
⁵⁴⁷
by night from neighboring hills

Aerial music send: nor knew I not

To be both will and deed created free;

Yet that we never shall forget to love

Our Maker, and obey him whose command

Single, is yet
⁵⁵²
so just, my constant thoughts

Assured me, and still assure: though what thou tell’st

Hath passed in Heav’n, some doubt within me move,

But more desire to hear, if thou consent,

The full relation, which must needs be strange,

Worthy of sacred silence
⁵⁵⁷
to be heard;

And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun

Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins

His other half in the great zone of heav’n.”

   Thus Adam made request, and Raphael

After short pause assenting, thus began.

   “High matter thou enjoin’st me, O prime of men,

Sad task and hard, for how shall I relate

To human sense th’ invisible exploits

Of warring spirits; how without remorse
⁵⁶⁶

The ruin of so many glorious once

And perfect while they stood; how last unfold

The secrets of another world, perhaps

Not lawful to reveal? Yet for thy good

This is dispensed
⁵⁷¹
, and what surmounts the reach

Of human sense, I shall delineate so,

By lik’ning spiritual to corporal forms
⁵⁷³
,

As may express them best, though what if Earth

Be but
⁵⁷⁵
the shadow of Heav’n, and things therein

Each to other like, more than on Earth is thought
⁵⁷⁶
?

   “As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild

Reigned where these heav’ns now roll, where Earth now rests

Upon her center poised, when on a day

(For time
⁵⁸⁰
, though in eternity, applied

To motion, measures all things durable

By present, past, and future) on such day

As Heav’n’s great year
⁵⁸³
brings forth, th’ empyreal host

Of angels by imperial summons called,

Innumerable before th’ Almighty’s throne

Forthwith from all the ends of Heav’n appeared

Under their hierarchs in orders bright;

Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced,

Standards, and gonfalons
⁵⁸⁹
twixt van and rear

Stream in the air, and for distinction serve

Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees;

Or in their glittering tissues bear emblazed

Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love

Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs

Of circuit inexpressible they stood,

Orb within orb, the Father infinite,

By whom in bliss embosomed sat the Son,

Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top

Brightness had made invisible, thus spake.

   “ ‘Hear all ye angels, progeny of light,

Thrones, Dominations,
⁶⁰¹
Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,

Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand.

This day I have begot
⁶⁰³
whom I declare

My only Son, and on this holy hill

Him have anointed, whom ye now behold

At my right hand; your head I him appoint;

And by myself have sworn
⁶⁰⁷
to him shall bow

All knees in Heav’n, and shall confess him Lord:

Under his great vicegerent
⁶⁰⁹
reign abide

United as one individual
⁶¹⁰
soul

Forever happy: him who disobeys
⁶¹¹

Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day

Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls

Into utter darkness, deep engulfed, his place

Ordained without redemption, without end.’

   “So spake th’ Omnipotent, and with his words

All seemed well pleased, all seemed, but were not all.

That day, as other solemn days
⁶¹⁸
, they spent

In song and dance about the sacred hill,

Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere

Of planets and of fixed
⁶²¹
in all her wheels

Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,

Eccentric
⁶²³
, intervolved, yet regular

Then most, when most irregular they seem,

And in their motions harmony divine

So smooths her charming tones, that God’s own ear

Listens delighted. Evening now
⁶²⁷
approached

(For we have also our evening and our morn,

We ours for change delectable, not need)

Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn

Desirous; all in circles as they stood,

Tables are set, and on a sudden piled

With angel’s food, and rubied nectar flows

In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heav’n.

On flow’rs
⁶³⁶
reposed, and with fresh flow’rets crowned,

They eat, they drink, and in communion
⁶³⁷
sweet

Quaff immortality and joy, secure

Of surfeit where full measure only bounds

Excess, before th’ all bounteous King, who show’red

With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.

Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled

From that high mount of God, whence light and shade

Spring both, the face of brightest Heav’n had changed

To grateful twilight (for night comes not there

In darker veil) and roseate dews disposed

All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest,

Wide over all the plain, and wider far

Than all this globous earth in plain outspread,

(Such are the courts of God) th’ angelic throng

Dispersed in bands and files their camp extend

By living streams among the trees of life
⁶⁵²
,

Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared,

Celestial tabernacles, where they slept

Fanned with cool winds, save those who in their course

Melodious hymns about the sov’reign throne

Alternate all night long: but not so waked

Satan, so call him now, his former name
⁶⁵⁸

Is heard no more in Heav’n; he of the first,

If not the first Archangel, great in power,

In favor and in pre-eminence, yet fraught

With envy against the Son of God, that day

Honored by his great Father, and proclaimed

Messiah
⁶⁶⁴
King anointed, could not bear

Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired.

Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain,

Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour

Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved

With all his legions to dislodge
⁶⁶⁹
, and leave

Unworshipped, unobeyed the throne supreme

Contemptuous, and his next subordinate
⁶⁷¹

Awak’ning, thus to him in secret spake.

   “ ‘Sleep’st thou
⁶⁷³
companion dear, what sleep can close

Thy eyelids? And remember’st what decree

Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips

Of Heav’n’s Almighty? Thou to me thy thoughts

Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart;

Both waking we were one; how then can now

Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou seest imposed;

New laws from him who reigns, new minds
⁶⁸⁰
may raise

In us who serve, new counsels, to debate

What doubtful may ensue, more in this place

To utter is not safe. Assemble thou

Of all those myriads which we lead the chief;

Tell them that by command
⁶⁸⁵
, ere yet dim night

Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste,

And all who under me their banners wave,

Homeward with flying march where we possess

The quarters of the north
⁶⁸⁹
, there to prepare

Fit entertainment to receive our King

The great Messiah, and his new commands,

Who speedily through all the hierarchies

Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.’

   “So spake the false Archangel, and infused

Bad influence
⁶⁹⁵
into th’ unwary breast

Of his associate; he together calls,

Or several one by one, the regent powers,

Under him regent, tells, as he was taught,

That the most high commanding, now ere night,

Now ere dim night had disencumbered Heav’n,
⁷⁰⁰

The great hierarchal standard was to move;

Tells the suggested cause, and cast between

Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound

Or taint integrity; but all obeyed

The wonted signal, and superior voice

Of their great potentate; for great indeed

His name, and high was his degree in Heav’n;

His count’nance, as the morning star that guides

The starry flock, allured them, and with lies

Drew after him the third part
⁷¹⁰
of Heav’n’s host:

Meanwhile th’ eternal eye, whose sight discerns

Abstrusest
⁷¹²
thoughts, from forth his holy mount

And from within the golden lamps that burn

Nightly before him, saw without their light

Rebellion rising, saw in whom, how spread

Among the sons of morn, what multitudes

Were banded to oppose his high decree;

And smiling
⁷¹⁸
to his only Son thus said.

   “ ‘Son, thou in whom my glory I behold

In full resplendence, heir of all my might,

Nearly
⁷²¹
it now concerns us to be sure

Of our omnipotence, and with what arms

We mean to hold what anciently we claim

Of deity or empire, such a foe

Is rising, who intends to erect his throne
⁷²⁵

Equal to ours, throughout the spacious north;

Nor so content, hath in his thought to try

In battle, what our power is, or our right.

Let us advise, and to this hazard draw

With speed what force is left, and all employ