BOOK VII.

Descend from Heav’n _Urania_, by that name

If rightly thou art call’d, whose Voice divine

Following, above th’ _Olympian_ Hill I soare,

Above the flight of _Pegasean_ wing.

The meaning, not the Name I call: for thou

Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top

Of old _Olympus_ dwell’st, but Heav’nlie borne,

Before the Hills appeerd, or Fountain flow’d,

Thou with Eternal wisdom didst converse,

Wisdom thy Sister, and with her didst play

In presence of th’ Almightie Father, pleas’d

With thy Celestial Song. Up led by thee

Into the Heav’n of Heav’ns I have presum’d,

An Earthlie Guest, and drawn Empyreal Aire,

Thy tempring; with like safetie guided down

Return me to my Native Element:

Least from this flying Steed unrein’d, (as once

_Bellerophon_, though from a lower Clime)

Dismounted, on th’ _Aleian_ Field I fall

Erroneous, there to wander and forlorne.

Half yet remaines unsung, but narrower bound

Within the visible Diurnal Spheare;

Standing on Earth, not rapt above the Pole,

More safe I Sing with mortal voice, unchang’d

To hoarce or mute, though fall’n on evil dayes,

On evil dayes though fall’n, and evil tongues;

In darkness, and with dangers compast rouud,

And solitude; yet not alone, while thou

Visit’st my slumbers Nightly, or when Morn

Purples the East: still govern thou my Song,

_Urania_, and fit audience find, though few.

But drive farr off the barbarous dissonance

Of _Bacchus_ and his Revellers, the Race

Of that wilde Rout that tore the _Thracian_ Bard

In _Rhodope_, where Woods and Rocks had Eares

To rapture, till the savage clamor dround

Both Harp and Voice; nor could the Muse defend

Her Son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:

For thou art Heav’nlie, shee an empty dreame.

Say Goddess, what ensu’d when _Raphael_,

The affable Arch-angel, had forewarn’d

_Adam_ by dire example to beware

Apostasie, by what befell in Heaven

To those Apostates, least the like befall

In Paradise to _Adam_ or his Race,

Charg’d not to touch the interdicted Tree,

If they transgress, and slight that sole command,

So easily obeyd amid the choice

Of all tasts else to please thir appetite,

Though wandring. He with his consorted _Eve_

The storie heard attentive, and was fill’d

With admiration, and deep Muse to heare

Of things so high and strange, things to thir thought

So unimaginable as hate in Heav’n,

And Warr so neer the Peace of God in bliss

With such confusion: but the evil soon

Driv’n back redounded as a flood on those

From whom it sprung, impossible to mix

With Blessedness. Whence _Adam_ soon repeal’d

The doubts that in his heart arose: and now

Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know

What neerer might concern him, how this World

Of Heav’n and Earth conspicuous first began,

When, and whereof created, for what cause,

What within _Eden_ or without was done

Before his memorie, as one whose drouth

Yet scarce allay’d still eyes the current streame,

Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,

Proceeded thus to ask his Heav’nly Guest.

Great things, and full of wonder in our eares,

Farr differing from this World, thou hast reveal’d

Divine Interpreter, by favour sent

Down from the Empyrean to forewarne

Us timely of what might else have bin our loss,

Unknown, which human knowledg could not reach:

For which to the infinitly Good we owe

Immortal thanks, and his admonishment

Receave with solemne purpose to observe

Immutably his sovran will, the end

Of what we are. But since thou hast voutsaf’t

Gently for our instruction to impart

Things above Earthly thought, which yet concernd

Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemd,

Deign to descend now lower, and relate

What may no less perhaps availe us known,

How first began this Heav’n which we behold

Distant so high, with moving Fires adornd

Innumerable, and this which yeelds or fills

All space, the ambient Aire wide interfus’d

Imbracing round this florid Earth, what cause

Mov’d the Creator in his holy Rest

Through all Eternitie so late to build

In _Chaos_, and the work begun, how soon

Absolv’d, if unforbid thou maist unfould

What wee, not to explore the secrets aske

Of his Eternal Empire, but the more

To magnifie his works, the more we know.

And the great Light of Day yet wants to run

Much of his Race though steep, suspens in Heav’n

Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he heares,

And longer will delay to heare thee tell

His Generation, and the rising Birth

Of Nature from the unapparent Deep:

Or if the Starr of Eevning and the Moon

Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring

Silence, and Sleep listning to thee will watch,

Or we can bid his absence, till thy Song

End, and dismiss thee ere the Morning shine.

Thus _Adam_ his illustrous Guest besought:

And thus the Godlike Angel answerd milde.

This also thy request with caution askt

Obtaine: though to recount Almightie works

What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,

Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?

Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve

To glorifie the Maker, and inferr

Thee also happier, shall not be withheld

Thy hearing, such Commission from above

I have receav’d, to answer thy desire

Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain

To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope

Things not reveal’d, which th’ invisible King,

Onely Omniscient, hath supprest in Night,

To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:

Anough is left besides to search and know.

But Knowledge is as food, and needs no less

Her Temperance over Appetite, to know

In measure what the mind may well contain,

Oppresses else with Surfet, and soon turns

Wisdom to Folly, as Nourishment to Winde.

Know then, that after _Lucifer_ from Heav’n

(So call him, brighter once amidst the Host

Of Angels, then that Starr the Starrs among)

Fell with his flaming Legions through the Deep

Into his place, and the great Son returnd

Victorious with his Saints, th’ Omnipotent

Eternal Father from his Throne beheld

Thir multitude, and to his Son thus spake.

At least our envious Foe hath fail’d, who thought

All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

This inaccessible high strength, the seat

Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,

He trusted to have seis’d, and into fraud

Drew many, whom thir place knows here no more;

Yet farr the greater part have kept, I see,

Thir station, Heav’n yet populous retaines

Number sufficient to possess her Realmes

Though wide, and this high Temple to frequent

With Ministeries due and solemn Rites:

But least his heart exalt him in the harme

Already done, to have dispeopl’d Heav’n,

My damage fondly deem’d, I can repaire

That detriment, if such it be to lose

Self-lost, and in a moment will create

Another World, out of one man a Race

Of men innumerable, there to dwell,

Not here, till by degrees of merit rais’d

They open to themselves at length the way

Up hither, under long obedience tri’d,

And Earth be chang’d to Heavn, & Heav’n to Earth,

One Kingdom, Joy and Union without end.

Mean while inhabit laxe, ye Powers of Heav’n,

And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee

This I perform, speak thou, and be it don:

My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee

I send along, ride forth, and bid the Deep

Within appointed bounds be Heav’n and Earth,

Boundless the Deep, because I am who fill

Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.

Though I uncircumscrib’d my self retire,

And put not forth my goodness, which is free

To act or not, Necessitie and Chance

Approach not mee, and what I will is Fate.

So spake th’ Almightie, and to what he spake

His Word, the Filial Godhead, gave effect.

Immediate are the Acts of God, more swift

Then time or motion, but to human ears

Cannot without process of speech be told,

So told as earthly notion can receave.

Great triumph and rejoycing was in Heav’n

When such was heard declar’d the Almightie’s will;

Glorie they sung to the most High, good will

To future men, and in thir dwellings peace:

Glorie to him whose just avenging ire

Had driven out th’ ungodly from his sight

And th’ habitations of the just; to him

Glorie and praise, whose wisdom had ordain’d

Good out of evil to create, in stead

Of Spirits maligne a better Race to bring

Into thir vacant room, and thence diffuse

His good to Worlds and Ages infinite.

So sang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son

On his great Expedition now appeer’d,

Girt with Omnipotence, with Radiance crown’d

Of Majestie Divine, Sapience and Love

Immense, and all his Father in him shon.

About his Chariot numberless were pour’d

Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,

And Vertues, winged Spirits, and Chariots wing’d,

From the Armoury of God, where stand of old

Myriads between two brazen Mountains lodg’d

Against a solemn day, harnest at hand,

Celestial Equipage; and now came forth

Spontaneous, for within them Spirit livd,

Attendant on thir Lord: Heav’n op’nd wide

Her ever during Gates, Harmonious sound

On golden Hinges moving, to let forth

The King of Glorie in his powerful Word

And Spirit coming to create new Worlds.

On heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore

They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss

Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde,

Up from the bottom turn’d by furious windes

And surging waves, as Mountains to assault

Heav’ns highth, and with the Center mix the Pole.

Silence, ye troubl’d waves, and thou Deep, peace,

Said then th’ Omnific Word, your discord end:

Nor staid, but on the Wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in Paternal Glorie rode

Farr into _Chaos_, and the World unborn;

For _Chaos_ heard his voice: him all his Traine

Follow’d in bright procession to behold

Creation, and the wonders of his might.

Then staid the fervid Wheeles, and in his hand

He took the golden Compasses, prepar’d

In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe

This Universe, and all created things:

One foot he center’d, and the other turn’d

Round through the vast profunditie obscure,

And said, thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds,

This be thy just Circumference, O World.

Thus God the Heav’n created, thus the Earth,

Matter unform’d and void: Darkness profound

Cover’d th’ Abyss: but on the watrie calme

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspred,

And vital vertue infus’d, and vital warmth

Throughout the fluid Mass, but downward purg’d

The black tartareous cold infernal dregs

Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob’d

Like things to like, the rest to several place

Disparted, and between spun out the Air,

And Earth self-ballanc’t on her Center hung.

Let ther be Light, said God, and forthwith Light

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure

Sprung from the Deep, and from her Native East

To journie through the airie gloom began,

Sphear’d in a radiant Cloud, for yet the Sun

Was not; shee in a cloudie Tabernacle

Sojourn’d the while. God saw the Light was good;

And light from darkness by the Hemisphere

Divided: Light the Day, and Darkness Night

He nam’d. Thus was the first Day Eev’n and Morn:

Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the Celestial Quires, when Orient Light

Exhaling first from Darkness they beheld;

Birth-day of Heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout

The hollow Universal Orb they fill’d,

And touch’t thir Golden Harps, & hymning prais’d

God and his works, Creatour him they sung,

Both when first Eevning was, and when first Morn.

Again, God said, let ther be Firmament

Amid the Waters, and let it divide

The Waters from the Waters: and God made

The Firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,

Transparent, Elemental Air, diffus’d

In circuit to the uttermost convex

Of this great Round: partition firm and sure,

The Waters underneath from those above

Dividing: for as Earth, so hee the World

Built on circumfluous Waters calme, in wide

Crystallin Ocean, and the loud misrule

Of _Chaos_ farr remov’d, least fierce extreames

Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:

And Heav’n he nam’d the Firmament: So Eev’n

And Morning _Chorus_ sung the second Day.

The Earth was form’d, but in the Womb as yet

Of Waters, Embryon immature involv’d,

Appeer’d not: over all the face of Earth

Main Ocean flow’d, not idle, but with warme

Prolific humour soft’ning all her Globe,

Fermented the great Mother to conceave,

Satiate with genial moisture, when God said

Be gather’d now ye Waters under Heav’n

Into one place, and let dry Land appeer.

Immediately the Mountains huge appeer

Emergent, and thir broad bare backs upheave

Into the Clouds, thir tops ascend the Skie:

So high as heav’d the tumid Hills, so low

Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,

Capacious bed of Waters: thither they

Hasted with glad precipitance, uprowld

As drops on dust conglobing from the drie;

Part rise in crystal Wall, or ridge direct,

For haste; such flight the great command impress’d

On the swift flouds: as Armies at the call

Of Trumpet (for of Armies thou hast heard)

Troop to thir Standard, so the watrie throng,

Wave rowling after Wave, where way they found,

If steep, with torrent rapture, if through Plaine,

Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them Rock or Hill,

But they, or under ground, or circuit wide

With Serpent errour wandring, found thir way,

And on the washie Oose deep Channels wore;

Easie, e’re God had bid the ground be drie,

All but within those banks, where Rivers now

Stream, and perpetual draw thir humid traine.

The dry Land, Earth, and the great receptacle

Of congregated Waters he call’d Seas:

And saw that it was good, and said, Let th’ Earth

Put forth the verdant Grass, Herb yeilding Seed,

And Fruit Tree yeilding Fruit after her kind;

Whose Seed is in her self upon the Earth.

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

Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn’d,

Brought forth the tender Grass, whose verdure clad

Her Universal Face with pleasant green,

Then Herbs of every leaf, that sudden flour’d

Op’ning thir various colours, and made gay

Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,

Forth flourish’t thick the clustring Vine, forth crept

The smelling Gourd, up stood the cornie Reed

Embattell’d in her field: add the humble Shrub,

And Bush with frizl’d hair implicit: last

Rose as in Dance the stately Trees, and spred

Thir branches hung with copious Fruit; or gemm’d

Thir Blossoms: with high Woods the Hills were crownd,

With tufts the vallies & each fountain side,

With borders long the Rivers. That Earth now

Seemd like to Heav’n, a seat where Gods might dwell,

Or wander with delight, and love to haunt

Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rain’d

Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground

None was, but from the Earth a dewie Mist

Went up and waterd all the ground, and each

Plant of the field, which e’re it was in the Earth

God made, and every Herb, before it grew

On the green stemm; God saw that it was good:

So Eev’n and Morn recorded the Third Day.

Again th’ Almightie spake: Let there be Lights

High in th’ expanse of Heaven to divide

The Day from Night; and let them be for Signes,

For Seasons, and for Dayes, and circling Years,

And let them be for Lights as I ordaine

Thir Office in the Firmament of Heav’n

To give Light on the Earth; and it was so.

And God made two great Lights, great for thir use

To Man, the greater to have rule by Day,

The less by Night alterne: and made the Starrs,

And set them in the Firmament of Heav’n

To illuminate the Earth, and rule the Day

In thir vicissitude, and rule the Night,

And Light from Darkness to divide. God saw,

Surveying his great Work, that it was good:

For of Celestial Bodies first the Sun

A mightie Spheare he fram’d, unlightsom first,

Though of Ethereal Mould: then form’d the Moon

Globose, and everie magnitude of Starrs,

And sowd with Starrs the Heav’n thick as a field:

Of Light by farr the greater part he took,

Transplanted from her cloudie Shrine, and plac’d

In the Suns Orb, made porous to receive

And drink the liquid Light, firm to retaine

Her gather’d beams, great Palace now of Light.

Hither as to thir Fountain other Starrs

Repairing, in thir gold’n Urns draw Light,

And hence the Morning Planet guilds his horns;

By tincture or reflection they augment

Thir small peculiar, though from human sight

So farr remote, with diminution seen.

First in his East the glorious Lamp was seen,

Regent of Day, and all th’ Horizon round

Invested with bright Rayes, jocond to run

His Longitude through Heav’ns high rode: the gray

Dawn, and the _Pleiades_ before him danc’d

Shedding sweet influence: less bright the Moon,

But opposite in leveld West was set

His mirror, with full face borrowing her Light

From him, for other light she needed none

In that aspect, and still that distance keepes

Till night, then in the East her turn she shines,

Revolvd on Heav’ns great Axle, and her Reign

With thousand lesser Lights dividual holds,

With thousand thousand Starres, that then appeer’d

Spangling the Hemisphere: then first adornd

With thir bright Luminaries that Set and Rose,

Glad Eevning & glad Morn crownd the fourth day.

And God said, let the Waters generate

Reptil with Spawn abundant, living Soule:

And let Fowle flie above the Earth, with wings

Displayd on the op’n Firmament of Heav’n.

And God created the great Whales, and each

Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

The waters generated by thir kindes,

And every Bird of wing after his kinde;

And saw that it was good, and bless’d them, saying,

Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas

And Lakes and running Streams the waters fill;

And let the Fowle be multiply’d on the Earth.

Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek & Bay

With Frie innumerable swarme, and Shoales

Of Fish that with thir Finns and shining Scales

Glide under the green Wave, in Sculles that oft

Bank the mid Sea: part single or with mate

Graze the Sea weed thir pasture, & through Groves

Of Coral stray, or sporting with quick glance

Show to the Sun thir wav’d coats dropt with Gold,

Or in thir Pearlie shells at ease, attend

Moist nutriment, or under Rocks thir food

In jointed Armour watch: on smooth the Seale,

And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk

Wallowing unweildie, enormous in thir Gate

Tempest the Ocean: there Leviathan

Hugest of living Creatures, on the Deep

Stretcht like a Promontorie sleeps or swimmes,

And seems a moving Land, and at his Gilles

Draws in, and at his Trunck spouts out a Sea.

Mean while the tepid Caves, and Fens and shoares

Thir Brood as numerous hatch, from the Egg that soon

Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos’d

Thir callow young, but featherd soon and fledge

They summ’d thir Penns, and soaring th’ air sublime

With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud

In prospect; there the Eagle and the Stork

On Cliffs and Cedar tops thir Eyries build: