By Nature as in aid, and clos'd mine eyes.
Mine eyes he clos'd, but open left the cell
Of fancy my internal fight, by which
Abstract as in a trance methought I saw,
Though fleeping, where I lay, and faw the shape
Still glorious before whom awake I stood:
Who ftooping open'd my left fide, and took
From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,
And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the
wound,

But fuddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd :
The rib he form'd and fashion'd with his hands;
Under his forming hands a creature grew
Manlike, but different fex, fo lovely fair,
That what feem'd fair in all the world, feem'd now
Mean, or in her fumm'd up, in her contain'd
And in her looks, which from that time infus'd
Sweetness into my heart unfelt before,
And into all things from her air infpir'd
The fpirit of love and amorous delight.
She difappear'd, and left me dark: I wak'd
To find her, or for ever to deplore

Her loís, and other pleasures all abjure :
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I faw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow
To make her amiable: on she came,
Led by her heav'nly Maker, though unfeen,
And guided by his voice, nor uninform'd
Of nuptial's fanctity and marriage rites:
Grace was in all her fteps, Heav'n in her eye,
In every gefture dignity and love.

I overjoy'd could not forbear aloud.

This turn hath made amends; thou haft fulfill'd Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, Giver of all things fair, but fairest this Of all thy gifts, nor enviest, I now fee Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself Before me; Woman is her name, of Man Extracted; for this caufe he fhall forego Father and mother, and to his wife adhere; And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one foul. She heard me thus; and tho' divinely brought Yet innocence and virgin modefty, Her virtue and the confcience of her worth, That would be woo'd, and not unfought be won, Not obvious, not obtrufive, but retir'd The more defirable, or to fay all, Nature herfelf, though pure of finful thought, Wrought in her fo, that fecing me, fhe turn'd; I follow'd her, fhe what was honour knew, And with obfequous majefty approv'd My pleaded reafon. To the nuptial bower I led her blushing like the Morn: all Heav'n, And happy coníitellations on that hour Shed their felecteft influence; the Earth Gave fign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whiper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rofe, flung odours from the fpicy fhrub, Duporting till the amorous bird of night Sang fpoufal, and bid hafte the evening ftar On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp. Thus have I told thee all my ftate, and brought Aly story to the fum of earthly blits

Which I enjoy, and muft confefs to find
In all things elfe delight indeed, but fuch
As us'd or not, works in the mind no change,
Nor vehement defire, thefe delicacies

[ers,

I mean of tafte, fight, fmell, herbs, fruits, and flow-
Walks, and the melody of birds; but here
Far otherwise, transported I behold,
Transported touch; here paflion first I felt,
Commotion ftrange, in all enjoyments elfe
Superior and unmov'd, here only weak
Against the charm of Beauty's powerful glance.
Or nature fail'd in me, and left some part
Not proof enough fuch object to sustain,
Or from my fide fubducting, took perhaps
More than enough; at least on her beftow'd
Too much of ornament, in outward fhew
Elaborate, of inward lefs exact.

For well I understand in the prime end
Of Nature her th' inferior, in the mind
And inward faculties which most excel,
In outward also her refembling lefs

His image who made both, and lefs exprefling
The character of that dominion given
O er other creatures; yet when I approach
Her lovelinefs, fo abfolute fhe feems,
And in herself complete, fo well to know
Her own, that what the wills to do or fay
Seems wifeft, virtuousest, discreetest, beft;
All higher knowledge in her prefence falls
Degraded, Wifdom in difcourfe with her
Lofes difcountenanc'd, and like Folly fhews;
Authority and Reason on her wait,
As one intended first, not after made
Occafionally; and to confummate all,
Greatnefs of mind, and Nobleness their feat
Build in her loveliest, and create an awe
About her, as a guard angelic plac'd.

To whom the angel with contracted brow.
Accufe not Nature, the hath done her part;
Do thou but thine, and be not diffident
Of Wisdom; fhe deferts thee not, if thou
Difmifs not her, when most thou need'it her nigh,
By attributing over much to things
Lefs excellent, as thou thyfelf perceiv'st.
For what admir'ft thou, what tranfports thee fo?
An outside, fair no doubt, and worthy well
Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love,
Not thy fubjection: weigh with her thyself;
Then value oft-times nothing profits more,
Than felf esteem, grounded on juft and right
Well manag'd; of that skill the more thou know'st,
The more the will acknowledge thee her head,
And to realities yield all her fhews :
Made fo adorn for thy delight the more,
So awful, that with honour thou may'st love
Thy mate, who fees when thou art feen least wife.
But if the fenfe of touch whereby mankind
Is propagated feem fuch dear delight
Beyond all other, think the fame vouchsaf'd
To cattle and each beast; which would not be
To them made common and divulg'd, if ought
Therein enjoy'd were worthy to fubdue
The foul of man, or paffion in him move.
What higher in her fociety thou find'st
Attractive, human, rational, love ftill

In loving thou dost well, in a passion not,
Wherein true love confifts not; Love refines
The thoughts, and heart inlarges, hath his feat
In reafon, and is judicious, is the scale
By which to heav'nly love thou mayst ascend,
Not funk in carnal pleasure, for which caufe
Among the beasts no mate for thee was found.
To whom thus half abafh'd Adam reply'd :
Neither her outfide form'd fo fair, nor ought
In procreation common to all kinds
(Though higher of the genial bed by far,
And with myfterious reverence I deem)
So much delights me, as thofe graceful acts,
Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions mix'd with love
And fweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd
Union of mind, or in us both one foul;
Harmony to behold in wedded pair
More grateful than harmonious found to th' ear.
Yet thefe fubjects not; I to thee difclofe

What inward thence I feel, not therefore foil'd,
Who meet with various objects, from the fenfe
Variously reprefenting; yet ftill free

Approve the beft, and follow what I approve.
To love thou blam'ft me not, for love thou fay'st
Leads up to Heav'n, is both the way and guide;
Bear with me then, if lawful what I afk;
Love not the heav'nly fp'rits, and how their love
Exprefs they, by looks only', or do they mix
Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?

To whom the angel, with a fmile that glow'd
Celestial rofy red, Love's proper hue,
Anfwer'd. Let it fuffice thee that thou know'st

Us happy', and without love on' happiness.
Whatever pure thou in the body' enjoy'st
(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy
In eminence, and obstacle find none
Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars;
Eafier than air with air, if fp'rits embrace,
Total they mix, union of pure with pure
Defiring; nor reftrain'd conveyance need
As flesh to mix with flesh, or foul with foul.
But I can now no more; the parting fun
Beyond the Earth s green cape and verdant ifles
Hefperian fets, my fignal to depart.

Be ftrong, live happy, and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
His great command; take heed left paffion fway
Thy judgment to do ought, which elfe free will
Would not admit; thine and of all thy fons
The weal or woe in thee is plac'd; beware,
I in thy perfevering fhall rejoice,

And all the Bleft; fiand fast; to stand or fall
Free in thine own arbitrement it lies,
Perfect within, no outward aid require;
And all temptation to tranfgrefs repel.

So faying, he arofe; whom Adam thus
Follow'd with benediction: fince to part,
Go heav'nly guest, ethereal meffenger,
Sent from whofe fovreign goodness I adore.
Gentle to me and affable hath been
Thy condefcenfion, and shall be honour'd ever
With grateful memory: thou to mankind
Be good and friendly still, and oft return.

So parted they, the angel up to Heav'n From the thick fhade, and Adam to his bower.

Climate, or years damp my intended wing
Deprefs'd, and much they may, if all be mine,
Not hers who brings it nightly to my car.

The fun was funk, and after him the ar
Of Hefperus, whofe office is to bring
Twilight upon the Earth, fhort arbiter

'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end
Night s hemifphere had veil'd th horizon round:
When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd
In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On man's deftruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himfelf, fearlefs return'd.
By night he fled, and at midnight return'd
From compafling the earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel regent of the fun defcry'd
His entrance, and forewarn'd the cherubim
That kept their watch; thence full of anguish
driven,

The space of fev'n continued nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line
He circl'd, four times crofs'd the ear of Night
From pole to pole, traverfing colure;

On th' eighth return'd, and on the coaft averfe
From entrance or cherubic watch, by stealth
Found anfufpected way. There was a place,
Now not, though Sin not Time, fift wrought
the change

Where Tigris at the foot of Paradife
Into a gulf shot under ground, till part
Rofe up a fountain by the Tree of Life;
In with the river funk, and with it rofe
Satan involv d in rifing mift, then fought
Where to lie hid; fea he had fearch'd and land
From Eden over Pontus, and the pool
Muotis, up beyond the river Ob;
Downward as far artarctic; and in length
Wet from Orents to the ocean barr'd
At Darien, hence to the land where flows
Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd
With narrow fearch, and with inspection deep,
Confider'd every creature, which of all
Meft oppertune right ferve his wiles, and found
The ferpent, fubt’lest beast of all the field;
Him, alter long debate, irrefolute

Of thoughts revolv'd, his final fentence chofe
Fit wefic, fitteft imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark fuggeftions hide
From therpeft fight for in the wily fnake,
Whatever fleights none would fufpicious mark,.
As from his wit and native fubtlety
Proceeding, which in other beafts obferv'd
Doubt might beget of diabolic pow'r
Active within Leyord the fense of brute.
Thus he refolv'd; but Erft from inward grief
His burfing paffion into plaints thus pour'd.

O Earth, how like to Heav'n, if not preferr'd
More juttly, feat worthier of gods, as built
With fecond thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God after better worfe would build?
Terreftrial Heav'n, danc'd round by other heav'ns
That fhine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as feems,
In thee concentring all their precious beams
Of facred influence! As God in Heav'n

Is centre, yet extends to all; fo thou
Centring receiv'ft from all thofe orbs; in thee,
Not in themselves, all their known virtue' ap-

pears

Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with gradual life

Of growth, fenfe, reafon, all fumm'd up in man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round,

If I could joy in ought, fweet interchange
Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now fea, and fhores, with foreft
crown'd,

Rocks, dens, and caves! but I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I fee
Pleasures about me, fo much more I feel
Torment within me', as from the hateful siege
Of contraries; all good to me becomes
Bane, and in Heav'n much worse would be my
But neither here feek 1; no, nor in Heav'n [ftate.
To dwell, unlefs by maft'ring Heav'n's Supreme;
Nor hope to be myfelf lefs miferable

By what I feek, but others to make fuch
As I tho' thereby worfe to me redound:
For only in deftroying I find cafe

To my relentless thoughts; and him destroyed,
Or won to what may work his utter loss,
For whom all this was made, all this will foon
Follow, as to him link'd in weal or woe,
In woe then; that deftruction wide may range :
To me fhall be the glory foie among
Th' infernal powers, in one day to have marr'd
What the Almighty ftil'd, fix nights and days
Continued making; and who knows how long
before had been contriving, tho' perhaps
Not longer than fince, I in one night freed
From fervitude inglorious well nigh half
Th' angelic name, and thinner left the throng
Of his adorers: he, to be aveng'd,
And to repair his numbers thus impair'd,
Whether fuch virtue spent of old now fail'd
More Angels to create, if they at least
Are his created, or to fpite us more,
Determin'd to advance into our room
A creature form'd of earth, and him endow,
Exalted from fo bafe original,

With heav'nly fpoils, our spoils: what he decread
H' effected; Man he made, and for him built
Magnificent this world, and Earth his feat,
Him lord pronounc'd; and, O indiguity!
Subjected to his fervice angel wings,
And flaming minifters, to watch and tend
Their earthly charge of these the vigilance
I dread; and to elude, thus wrapt in mist
O midnight vapour glide obfcure, and pry
In every bush and brake, where hap may find
The ferpent fleeping, in whofe mazy folds
To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.
Of foul defcent! that I who erft contended
With gods to fit the high'ft, am now constrain'
Into a beaft, and mix'd with bestial flime,
This effence to incarnate and imbrue,
That to the height of Deity afpir'd;
But what will not ambition and revenge
Defcend to? who afpires muít down as low

As high he foar'd, obnoxious first or laft
To baseft things. Revenge, at first tho' sweet,
Bitter e'er long, back on itfelf recoils;
Let it; I reck not, fo it light well aim'd,
Since higher I fall fhort, on him who next
Provokes my envy, this new favourite

Of Heav'n, this Man of Clay, Son of Despite,
Whom us the more to fpite, his Maker rais'd
From duft: Spite then with spite is best repaid.

So faying, through each thicket, dank or dry,
Like a black mift low creeping, he held on
His midnight search, where fooneft he might find
The ferpent: him fast fleeping foon he found
In labyrinth of many a round felf-roll d,
His head the midft, well ftor'd with subtile wiles:
Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den,
Nor nocent yet, but on the grassy herb
Fearless unfear'd he flept: in at his mouth
The Devil enter'd, and his brutal sense,
In heart or head, poffeffing foon infpir'd
With act intelligential; but his fleep
Disturb'd not, waiting clofe th' approach of morn.
Now when, as facred light began to dawn,
In Eden on the humid flowers, that breath'd
Their morning incenfe, when all things that
breathe,

From th' Earth's great altar fend up filent praise
To the Creator, and his noftrils fill
With grateful smell, forth came the human Pair,
And join'd their vocal worship to the quire
Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake
The feason, prime for sweetest scents and airs:
Then commune how that day they best may ply
Their growing work; for much their work out-
grew

The hands' difpatch of two gard'ning fo wide,
And Eve first to her husband thus began:

Adam, well may we labour still to drefs This garden, ftill to tend plant, herb, and flower, Our pleasant task injoin'd'; but till more hands Aid us, the work under our labour grows Luxurious by restraint; what we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, One night or two with wanton growth derides, Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise, Or bear what to my mind first thoughts prefent; Let us divide our labours, thou where choice Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to

wind

The woodbine round his arbour, or direc
The clasping ivy where to climb, while I
In yonder fpring of rofes intermix'd
With myrtle, find what to redress, till noon :
For while fo near each other thus all day
Our talk we choofe, what wonder if, fo near,
Looks intervene, and smiles, or object new
Casual discourse draw on, which intermits
Our day's work brought to little, the' begun
Early, and th' hour of fupper comes unearn'd

To whom mild answer Adam thus return'd:
Sole Eve, affociate fole, to me beyond
Compare, above all living creatures dear,
Well haft thou motion'd, well thy thoughts em-
ploy'd,

How we might beft fulfil the work which here

God hath affign'd us, nor of me fhalt pafs
Unprais'd for nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote.
Yet not fo ftrictly hath our Lord impos'd
Labour, as to debar us when we need
Refreshment, whether food, or talk between.
Food of the mind, or this fweet intercourse
Of looks and fmiles; for fmiles from reafon flow,
To brute deny'd, and are of love the food,
Love not the loweft end of human life.
For not to irksome toil, but to delight
He made us, and delight to reafon join'd.
Thefe paths and bowers doubt not, but our joint
hands

Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide
As we need walk, till younger hands, e'er long
Affift us: but if much converfe perhaps
Thee fatiate, to fhort abfence I could yield:
For folitude fometimes is beft fociety,
And fhort retirement urges fweet return.
But other doubt poffeffes me, left harm
Befal thee fever'd from me; for thou know'ft
What hath been warn'd us, what malicious foe
Envying our happiness, and of his own
Defpairing, feeks to work us woe and fhame
By fly affault; and fome where nigh at hand
Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find
His wifh and beft advantage, us afunder,
Hopclefs to circumvent us join'd, where cach
To other speedy aid might lend at need ;
Whether his first defign be to withdraw
Our fealty from God, or to difturb
Conjugal love, than which perhaps no blifs
Enjoy'd by us excites his envy more;

Or this, or worfe, leave not the faithful fide
That gave thee being, ftill fhades thee, and pro-

tects.

The wife, where danger or difhonour lurks,
Safeft and feemlieft by her husband stays,
Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
To whom the virgin majcity of Eve,

As one who loves, and fome unkindness meets,
With fweet auftere compofure thus reply'd
Offspring of Heav'n and Earth, and all Earth's
lord,

That fuch an enemy we have, who feeks
Our ruin, both by thee inform'd I learn,
And from the parting angel overheard,
As in a fhady nook I ftood behind,

Just then return'd at fhut of evening flowers.
But that thou shouldst my firmnefs therefore doubt
To God or thee, because we have a foe,
May tempt it, I expected not to hear.
His violence thou fear'it not, being fuch
As we, not capable of death or pain,
Can either not receive, or can repel.
His fraud is then thy fear, which plain infers
Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love
Can by his fraud be shaken or feduc'd;
Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy
breaft,

Adam, misthought of her to thee fo dear?

To whom, with healing words, Adam reply'd ; Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eye,