Paradise Lost
Page 37
846. Distinct: adorned.
849. pernicious: deadly, sudden; cp. l. 520.
857. goats: In Scripture the damned are compared to goats, whom at the Last Judgment Christ will gather in his left hand before passing sentence: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25.41).
861. Rolled inward: rolled up or together; cp. Rev. 6.14: “And the heaven departed [was removed] as a scroll when it is rolled together.” disclosed: bared, opened.
862. wasteful: full of emptiness (Elledge).
868. ruining: falling.
869. fate: God’s curse (2.622–23). “Fate or fatum is only what is fatum, spoken, by some almighty power” (CD 1.2 in MLM 1146).
871. Nine days they fell: After falling for nine days, they lie stunned for another nine on the lake in Hell (1.50–53). In Hesiod, the rebellious Titans fall for nine days from Heaven to Earth and nine more from earth to Tartarus (Theog. 720–25).
873. rout: mob, those defeated.
874–75. Hell … closed: “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure” (Isa. 5.14).
884. jubilee: joyful shouting.
885. palm: symbolic of triumph, as at SA 1735. “[The people] took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord” (John 22.12–13; cp. Rev. 7.9).
892. right hand: St. Paul describes Christ after his ascension into Heaven as sitting “on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1.3).
900–907. Raphael’s most explicit and specific warning of Satan’s plot against humanity and its motive. He does not mention the apprehension of Satan at Eve’s ear during the previous night.
909. Thy weaker: Eve, the “weaker vessel” (1 Pet. 3.7). She is present for Raphael’s narration and at this moment.
BOOK VII
THE ARGUMENT
Raphael at the request of Adam relates how and wherefore this world was first created: that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory and attendance of angels to perform the work of Creation in six days; the angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into Heaven.
Descend from Heav’n1 Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above th’ Olympian hill3 I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing4.
The meaning, not the name5 I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell’st, but Heav’nly born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with eternal Wisdom9 didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of th’ Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
Into the Heav’n of Heav’ns13 I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy temp’ring15; with like safety guided down
Return me to my native element:
Lest from17 this flying steed unreined, (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime18)
Dismounted, on th’ Aleian field I fall
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn.
Half yet21 remains unsung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere22;
Standing on earth, not rapt23 above the pole,
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse25 or mute, though fall’n on evil days,
On evil days though fall’n, and evil tongues26;
In darkness27, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou28
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 far off the barbarous dissonance32
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race33
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the savage clamor drowned
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art Heav’nly she an empty dream.
Say Goddess, what ensued when Raphael,
The affable archangel, had forewarned
Adam by dire example to beware
Apostasy, by what befell in Heaven
To those apostates, lest the like befall
In Paradise to Adam or his race,
Charged not to touch46 the interdicted tree,
If they transgress, and slight that sole command47,
So easily obeyed amid the choice
Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
Though wand’ring50. He with his consorted Eve
The story heard attentive, and was filled
With admiration52, and deep muse to hear
Of things so high and strange, things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heav’n,
And war so near the peace of God in bliss
With such confusion: but the evil soon
Driv’n back redounded57 as a flood on those
From whom it sprung, impossible to mix
With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed59
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know
What nearer might concern him, how this world
Of heav’n and earth conspicuous63 first began,
When, and whereof created, for what cause,
What within Eden or without was done
Before his memory, as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his Heav’nly guest.
“Great things, and full of wonder in our ears,
Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed
Divine interpreter72, by favor sent
Down from the Empyrean to forewarn
Us timely of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:
For which to the infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sov’reign will, the end79
Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed
Gently for our instruction to impart
Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed83,
Deign to descend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known85,
How first began this heav’n which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorned
Innumerable, and this which yields or fills88
All space, the ambient air wide interfused
Embracing round this florid Earth; what cause
Moved the Creator in his holy rest
Through all eternity so late to build
In Chaos, and the work begun, how soon
Absolved94, if unforbid thou may’st unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify97 his works, the more we know.
And the great light of day yet wants98 to run
Much of his race though steep, suspense99 in heav’n
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he hears100,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of nature from the unap
parent deep103:
Or if the star of ev’ning and the moon
Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring
Silence, and Sleep list’ning to thee will watch106,
Or we can bid his107 absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.”
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
And thus the godlike angel answered mild.
“This also thy request with caution asked
Obtain: though to recount almighty 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 glorify the Maker, and infer116
Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing, such commission from above
I have received, to answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds120; beyond abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions121 hope
Things not revealed, which th’ invisible King,
Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night,
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven124:
Enough 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 surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
“Know then, that after Lucifer from Heav’n
(So call him132, brighter once amidst the host
Of angels, than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son returned
Victorious with his saints136, th’ omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.
“ ‘At least our envious foe hath failed, who thought
All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,
He trusted to have seized, and into fraud143
Drew many, whom their place knows here no more144;
Yet far the greater part145 have kept, I see,
Their station146, Heav’n yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites:
But lest150 his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heav’n,
My damage fondly152 deemed, I can repair
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 innumerable156, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit raised
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried,
And Earth be chang’d to Heav’n, and Heav’n to Earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Meanwhile inhabit lax162, ye powers of Heav’n,
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, speak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee165
I send along, ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be heav’n and earth;
Boundless168 the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
Though I uncircumscribed myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free171
To act or not, necessity and chance172
Approach not me, and what I will is fate173.’
“So spake th’ Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead175, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God176, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech178 be told,
So told as earthly notion179 can receive.
Great triumph180 and rejoicing was in Heav’n
When such was heard declared th’ Almighty’s will;
Glory they sung to the most high, good will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace:
Glory to him whose just avenging ire
Had driven out th’ ungodly from his sight
And th’ habitations of the just; to him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained
Good out of evil188 to create, instead
Of spirits malign a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.
So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appeared,
Girt194 with omnipotence, with radiance crowned
Of majesty divine, sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were poured197
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Virtues, wingèd spirits, and chariots winged,
From the armory of God200, where stand of old
Myriads between201 two brazen mountains lodged
Against202 a solemn day, harnessed at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now203 came forth
Spontaneous, for within them spirit lived,
Attendant on their Lord: Heav’n opened wide205
Her ever-during206 gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
On Heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous212 as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heav’n’s highth, and with the center mix the pole.
“ ‘Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,’
Said then th’ omnific217 Word, ‘your discord end.’
“Nor stayed, but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Followed in bright procession to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then stayed the fervid224 wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses225, prepared
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe226
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, ‘Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just231 circumference, O world.’
Thus God the heav’n created, thus the earth,
Matter unformed and void233: darkness profound
Covered th’ abyss: but on the wat’ry calm
His brooding wings235 the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue236 infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged
The black tartareous238 cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded239, then conglobed
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted241, and between spun out the air,
And Earth self-balanced242 on her center hung.
“ ‘Let there243 be light,’ said God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure244
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east
/> To journey through the airy gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle248
Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night
He named. Thus was the first day ev’n and morn252:
Nor passed uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial choirs, when orient254 light
Exhaling255 first from darkness they beheld;
Birthday of heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they filled,
And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works; Creator him they sung,
Both when first ev’ning was, and when first morn.
“Again, God said,261 ‘Let there be firmament
Amid the waters, and let it divide
The waters from the waters’: and God made
The firmament, expanse264 of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great round267: partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing: for as Earth, so he the world269
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame273:
And heav’n he named the firmament: so ev’n
And morning chorus sung the second day.
“The Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved277,
Appeared not: over all the face of Earth
Main ocean flowed, not idle, but with warm
Prolific humor soft’ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother281 to conceive,
Satiate with genial282 moisture, when God said,
‘Be gathered now ye waters under heav’n
Into one place, and let dry land appear.’
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heaved the tumid288 hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance291, uprolled
As drops on dust conglobing292 from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall293, or ridge direct,
For haste; such flight the great command impressed
On the swift floods: as armies at the call