101

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK VIII.

THE ARGUMENT.

Adam inquires concerning celestial motions, is doubtfully answer'd, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge. Adam assents; and still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remember'd since his own creation; his placing in Paradise; his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve. His discourse with the angel thereupon; who, after admonitions repeated, departs.

:

THE angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice, that he awhile
Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear :
Then, as new wak'd, thus gratefully replied.

What thanks sufficient, or what recompence
Equal, have I to render thee, divine
Historian ? who thus largely hast allay'd

5

1 The angel] In the first edition of this poem in ten books, here was only this line,

To whom thus Adam gratefully replied. This would have been too abrupt a beginning for a new book.

Newton. 6 What thanks] See Beaumont's Psyche, c. xii. st. 171.

• My soule's sweet friend, what thanks can I repay
For all this honey which thy tongue hath shed.'

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16

The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsaf'd
This friendly condescension 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 behold this goodly frame, this world,
Of heaven and earth consisting, and compute
Their magnitudes, this earth a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the firmament compar'd
And all her number'd stars, that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible, for such
Their distance argues, and their swift return
Diurnal, merely to officiate light
Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot,
One day and night, in all their vast survey
Useless besides ; reasoning I oft admire,
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, and on their orbs impose
Such restless revolution day by day

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25

20

8 The thirst] See Dante Il Purgator. C. xviii. ver. 4.

Ed io, cui nuova sete ancor frugava,

Di fuor taceva, e dentro dicea.' 9 condescension Conversation, ver. 649. Bentl. MS 14 solution] Decision. Bentl. MS. 15 goodly] Hamlet, act ii. scene ii.

• This goodly frame the Earth.'

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Repeated, while the sedentary 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 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 seem'd Entering on studious thoughts abstruse ; which

Eve Perceiving where she sat retird 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 flowers, To visit how they prosper'd, bud and bloom, Her nursery; they' at her coming sprung, And touch'd 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 reserv’d, 50 Adam relating, she sole auditress ; Her husband the relater she preferr'd Before the angel, and of him to ask Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix

45

6

46 sprurig] So Marino Adon. c. iii. st. 65, and c. vi. st. 146.

• Tutto al venir d'Adon par che ridenti

Rivesta il bel giardin novi colori.' Thyer. 58 to ask] In accordance with St. Paul, 1. Corinth. xiv. 35. 'And if they (women) will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home.'

55

60

Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses; from his lip
Not words alone pleas'd her. O when meet now
Such pairs, in love and mutual honour join'd ?
With goddess-like demeanour 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
Into all eyes to wish her still in sight.
And Raphael now to Adam's doubt propos'd
Benevolent and facile thus replied.

To ask or search I blame thee not, for heaven
Is as the book of God before thee set,
Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn
His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years.
This to attain, whether heaven move or earth
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 scann'd by them who ought
Rather admire; or if they list to try

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70

75 85

Conjecture, he his fabric of the heavens
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to model heaven
And calculate the stars, how they will wield
The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive,
To save appearances; how gird the sphere
With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.
Already 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 heaven 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 heaven, 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 receiv'd

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96

79 when] Manilii Astr. iv. 158.

Inveniunt et in astra vias, numerisque modisque

Consummant orbem,'88 eccentric) See Dekker's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, p. 43. •In gibberish no man understands of quartiles, aspects, centricall, eccentrical, cosmial, acronicall,' &c.; and Lisle's Du Bartas, 174. Concentrike, excen tricke, epicycle, apogee.' Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 140142.