Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (54 page)

621–22.
every … habitation:
On the possibility of other worlds being inhabited, see 3.566–71, 8.152–58. On the possibility that man might colonize other worlds, see 3.667–70 and 5.500.

622–23.
thou know’st/Their seasons:
“It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1.7).

624.
nether ocean
: the earth’s seas, the waters below the firmament.

628–29.
to rule/Over his works:
“Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands” (Ps. 8.6).

631–32.
thrice … happiness:
an adaptation of Vergil’s
Georg
. 2.458, and one of a number of statements in the poem about the close relationship between Adam and Eve’s happiness and their knowledge of that happiness. See 4.774–75 especially.

632.
persevere
: continue in a state of grace.

636.
face of things
: the visible world surrounding us.

The angel
¹
ended, and in Adam’s ear

So charming left his voice, that he a while

Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear;

Then as new waked thus gratefully replied.

“What thanks sufficient, or what recompense

Equal have I to render thee, divine

Historian, who thus largely hast allayed

The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed

This friendly condescension
⁹
to relate

Things else by me unsearchable, now heard

With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,

With glory attributed to the high

Creator; something yet of doubt remains,

Which only thy solution can resolve.

When I
¹⁵
behold this goodly frame, this world

Of heav’n and Earth consisting, and compute

Their magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a grain
¹⁷
,

An atom, with the firmament compared

And all her numbered
¹⁹
stars, that seem to roll

Spaces incomprehensible (for such

Their distance argues and their swift return

Diurnal) merely to officiate
²²
light

Round this opacous
²³
Earth, this punctual spot,

One day and night; in all their vast survey

Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire
²⁵
,

How nature wise and frugal could commit

Such disproportions, with superfluous hand

So many nobler bodies to create,

Greater so manifold to this one use,

For aught appears
³⁰
, and on their orbs impose

Such restless revolution day by day

Repeated, while the sedentary
³²
Earth,

That better might with far less compass move,

Served by more noble than herself, attains

Her end without least motion, and receives,

As tribute such a sumless
³⁶
journey brought

Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;

Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.”

   So spake our sire, and by his count’nance seemed

Ent’ring on studious thoughts abstruse, which Eve

Perceiving where she sat retired in sight,

With lowliness majestic from her seat,

And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,

Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flow’rs,

To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,

Her nursery; they at her coming sprung

And touched by her fair tendance gladlier grew.

Yet went she not, as not with such discourse

Delighted, or not capable her ear

Of what was high: such pleasure she reserved,

Adam relating, she sole auditress;

Her husband the relater she preferred

Before the angel, and of him to ask

Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix

Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute

With conjugal caresses; from his lip

Not words alone pleased her. O when meet now

Such pairs, in love and mutual honor joined?

With goddesslike demeanor forth she went;

Not unattended, for on her as queen

A pomp of winning Graces waited still,

And from about her shot darts of desire
⁶²

Into all eyes to wish her still in sight.

And Raphael now to Adam’s doubt proposed

Benevolent and facile
⁶⁵
thus replied.

   “To ask or search I blame thee not, for heav’n

Is as the book of God
⁶⁷
before thee set,

Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn

His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:

This to attain, whether heav’n move or Earth
⁷⁰
,

Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest

From man or angel the great Architect

Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

His secrets to be scanned by them who ought

Rather admire
⁷⁵
; or if they list to try

Conjecture, he his fabric of the heav’ns

Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move

His laughter
⁷⁸
at their quaint opinions wide

Hereafter, when they come to model heav’n

And calculate
⁸⁰
the stars, how they will wield

The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive

To save appearances
⁸²
, how gird the sphere

With centric and eccentric
⁸³
scribbled o’er,

Cycle and
⁸⁴
epicycle, orb in orb:

Already
⁸⁵
by thy reasoning this I guess,

Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest

That bodies bright and greater should not serve

The less not bright, nor heav’n such journeys run,

Earth sitting still, when she alone receives

The benefit: consider first, that great

Or bright infers not excellence: the Earth

Though, in comparison of heav’n, so small,

Nor glistering, may of solid good contain

More plenty than the sun that barren shines

Whose virtue on itself works no effect,

But in the fruitful Earth; there first received

His beams, unactive else, their vigor find.

Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries

Officious
⁹⁹
, but to thee Earth’s habitant.

And for the Heav’n’s wide circuit, let it speak

The Maker’s high magnificence, who built

So spacious, and his line stretched out so far;

That man may know he dwells not in his own;

An edifice too large for him to fill,

Lodged in a small partition, and the rest

Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.

The swiftness of those circles attribute,

Though numberless, to his omnipotence,

That
¹⁰⁹
to corporeal substances could add

Speed almost spiritual; me thou think’st not slow,

Who since the morning hour set out from Heav’n

Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived

In Eden, distance inexpressible

By numbers that have name. But this I urge,

Admitting motion in the heav’ns, to show

Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;

Not that I so affirm
¹¹⁷
, though so it seem

To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.

God to remove his ways from human sense,

Placed heav’n from Earth so far, that earthly sight,

If it presume, might err in things too high,

And no advantage gain. What if the sun

Be center to the world, and other stars

By his attractive virtue
¹²⁴
and their own

Incited, dance about him various rounds?

Their wand’ring course now high, now low, then hid,

Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

In six
¹²⁸
thou seest, and what if sev’nth to these

The planet Earth
¹²⁹
, so steadfast though she seem,

Insensibly three different motions
¹³⁰
move?

Which else
¹³¹
to several spheres thou must ascribe,

Moved contrary with thwart obliquities,

Or save
¹³³
the sun his labor, and that swift

Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,

Invisible else above all stars, the wheel

Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,

If Earth industrious of herself fetch day

Traveling east, and with her part averse

From the sun’s beam meet night, her other part

Still luminous by his ray. What if that light

Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,

To the terrestrial moon be as a star

Enlight’ning her by day, as she by night

This Earth? Reciprocal, if land be there,

Fields and inhabitants
¹⁴⁵
: her spots thou seest

As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce

Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat

Allotted there; and other suns
¹⁴⁸
perhaps

With their attendant moons thou wilt descry

Communicating male and female light
¹⁵⁰
,

Which two
¹⁵¹
great sexes animate the world,

Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.

For such vast room in nature unpossessed

By living soul, desert and desolate,

Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute

Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far

Down to this habitable, which returns

Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.

But whether thus these things, or whether not,

Whether the sun predominant in heav’n

Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the sun,

He
¹⁶²
from the east his flaming road begin,

Or she
¹⁶³
from west her silent course advance

With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps

On her soft axle, while she paces ev’n,

And bears thee soft with the smooth air along,

Solicit not
¹⁶⁷
thy thoughts with matters hid,

Leave them to God above, him serve and fear;

Of other creatures, as him pleases best,

Wherever placed, let him dispose: joy thou

In what he gives to thee, this Paradise

And thy fair Eve; heav’n is for thee too high

To know what passes there; be lowly wise:

Think only what concerns thee and thy being;

Dream not of other worlds, what creatures
¹⁷⁵
there

Live, in what state, condition or degree,

Contented that thus far hath been revealed

Not of Earth only but of highest Heav’n.”

   To whom thus Adam cleared of doubt, replied.

“How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure

Intelligence of Heav’n, angel serene,

And freed from intricacies, taught to live,

The easiest way
¹⁸³
, nor with perplexing thoughts

To interrupt the sweet of life, from which

God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,

And not molest us, unless we ourselves

Seek them with wand’ring thoughts, and notions vain.

But apt the mind or fancy is to rove

Unchecked, and of her roving is no end;

Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn,

That not to know at large of things remote

From use, obscure and subtle, but to know

That which before us lies in daily life,

Is the prime wisdom; what is more, is fume
¹⁹⁴
,

Or emptiness, or fond
¹⁹⁵
impertinence,

And renders us in things that most concern

Unpracticed, unprepared, and still to seek
¹⁹⁷
.

Therefore from this high pitch let us descend

A lower flight, and speak of things at hand

Useful, whence haply mention may arise

Of something not unseasonable to ask

By sufferance
²⁰²
, and thy wonted favor deigned.

Thee I have heard relating what was done

Ere my remembrance: now hear me relate

My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard;

And day is yet not spent; till then thou seest

How subtly to detain thee I devise,

Inviting thee to hear while I relate,

Fond
²⁰⁹
, were it not in hope of thy reply:

For while I sit with thee, I seem in Heav’n,

And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear

Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst

And hunger both, from labor, at the hour

Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill,

Though pleasant, but thy words with grace divine

Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety.”

   To whom thus Raphael answered Heav’nly meek.

“Nor are thy lips ungraceful, sire of men,

Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee

Abundantly his gifts hath also poured

Inward and outward both, his image fair:

Speaking or mute all comeliness and grace

Attends thee, and each word, each motion forms.

Nor less think we in Heav’n of thee on Earth

Than of our fellow servant
²²⁵
, and inquire

Gladly into the ways of God with man
²²⁶
:

For God we see hath honored thee, and set

On man his equal love: say therefore on;

For I that day
²²⁹
was absent, as befell,

Bound on a voyage uncouth
²³⁰
and obscure,

Far on excursion toward the gates of Hell;

Squared in full legion (such command we had)

To see that none thence issued forth a spy,

Or enemy, while God was in his work,

Lest he incensed at such eruption bold,

Destruction with creation might have mixed.

Not that they durst without his leave attempt,

But us he sends upon his high behests

For state
²³⁹
, as sov’reign King, and to inure

Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut

The dismal gates, and barricadoed strong;

But long ere our approaching heard within

Noise, other
²⁴³
than the sound of dance or song,

Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

Glad we returned up to the coasts of light

Ere Sabbath evening
²⁴⁶
: so we had in charge.

But thy relation now; for I attend,

Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine.”

   So spake the godlike power, and thus our sire.

“For man to tell how human life began

Is hard; for who himself beginning knew?