"With the fixed stars,-fixed in their orb that flies;
"And ye five other wandering fires! that move
"In mystic dance, not without song, resound
"His praise, who out of darkness called up light.
"Air, and ye elements! the eldest birth
"Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run
66 Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix
"And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change
'Vary to our great Maker still new praise.
"Ye mists and exhalations! that now rise "From hill or streaming lake, dusky or gray, "Till the Sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, 66 'In honour to the world's great Author rise; "Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky, “Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
Rising or falling still advance his praise.
"His praise, ye winds! that from four quarters blow, "Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines, "With every plant, in sign of worship, wave.
"Fountains! and ye that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise. "Join voices, all ye living souls! ye birds, "That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend, "Bear on your wings, and in your notes, his praise. "Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk "The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep! "Witness if I be silent, morn or even, "To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade, "Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise. Hail, universal Lord! be bounteous still "To give us only good; and, if the night
"Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark!"
So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts
Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted calm.
On to their morning's rural work they haste,
Among sweet dews and flowers, where any row
Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far
Their pampered boughs, and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces: or they led the vine
To wed her elm; she, spoused, about him twines
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn
His barren leaves. Them, thus employed, beheld
With pity Heaven's high King, and to him called
Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deigned
To travel with Tobias, and secured
His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid.
"Raphael," said he, "thou hear'st what stir on Earth
“Satan, from Hell scaped through the darksome gulf,
"Hath raised in Paradise; and how disturbed
"This night the human pair; how he designs,
"In them at once, to ruin all mankind.
"Go therefore, half this day, as friend with friend,
"Converse with Adam, in what bower or shade
"Thou find'st him, from the heat of noon retired
"To respite his day-labour with repast,
"Or with repose; and such discourse bring on,
"As may advise him of his happy state;
Happiness in his power left free to will,
"Left to his own free will, his will though free,
"Yet mutable; whence warn him to beware
"He swerve not, too secure. Tell him withal
"His danger, and from whom; what enemy,
"Late fallen himself from Heaven, is plotting now
"The fall of others from like state of bliss ;
"By violence? no, for that shall be withstood;
"But by deceit and lies: this let him know,
Lest, wilfully transgressing, he pretend
"Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned."
So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfilled
All justice: nor delayed the winged saint
After his charge received; but from among
Thousand celestial ardours, where he stood
Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light,
Flew through the midst of Heaven: the angelic quires,
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way
Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate
Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide
On golden hinges turning, as, by work
Divine, the sovereign Architect had framed.
From hence (no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight,
Star interposed), however small, he sees,
Not unconform to other shining globes,
Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned
Above all hills: as, when by night the glass
Of Galileo, less assured, observes
Imagined lands and regions in the Moon:
Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades,
Delos, or Samos, first appearing, kens
A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds; with steady wing
Now on the polar winds; then, with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air; till, within soar
Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems
A phoenix, gazed by all as that sole bird,
When, to enshrine his relics in the Sun's
Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.
At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise
He lights, and to his proper shape returns,
A Seraph winged: six wings he wore, to shape
His lineaments divine: the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast
With regal ornament; the middle pair
Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold,
And colours dipped in Heaven; the third his feet
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail,
Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands
Of angels under watch; and to his state,
And to his message high, in honour rise;
For on some message high they guessed him bound.
Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come
Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm,—
A wilderness of sweets! for Nature here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
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