The earth to yield; unsavoury food perhaps
To spiritual natures; only this I know,
That one celestial Father gives to all."

To whom the angel: "Therefore what he gives

(Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part
Spiritual, may of purer spirits be found
No ungrateful food: and food alike those pure
Intelligential substances require.

As doth your rational; and both contain
Within them every lower faculty
Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,
Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate,
And corporeal to incorporeal turn.
For know, whatever was created needs

To be sustain'd and fed: of elements
The grosser feeds the purer, earth the sea,
Earth and the sea feed air, the air those fires
Ethereal, and as lowest first the moon;
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurg'd
Vapours not yet into her substance turn'd.
Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale
From her moist continent to higher orbs.
The sun, that light imparts to all, receives
From all his elemental recompence
In humid exhalations, and at even
Sups with the ocean. Though in heaven the trees
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines (morn
Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each
We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground
Cover'd with pearly grain : yet God hath here
Varied his bounty so with new delights,
As may compare with heaven; and to taste
Think not I shall be nice." So down they sat,
And to their viands fell; nor seemingly
The angel, nor in mist, the common gloss
Of theologians, but with keen dispatch
Of real hunger, and concoctive heat
To transubstantiate; what redounds, transpires
Through spirits with ease; nor wonder, if by fire

Of sooty coal the empiric alchymist
Can turn, or holds it possible to tarn,
Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
As from the mine. Meanwhile ttable Eve
Minister'd naked, and their flowing cups
With pleasant liquors crown'd. O innocence
Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,

Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
Enamour'd at that sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reign'd, nor jealousy
Was understood, the injur'd lover's hell.

[fic'd,

Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufNot burden'd nature, sudden mind arose In Adam, not to let the occasion pass Given him by this great conference, to know Of things above his world, and of their being Who dwell in heaven, whose excellence he saw Transcend his own so far: whose radiant forms, Divine effulgence, whose high power, so far Exceeded human: and his wary speech Thus to the empyreal minister he fram'd:

"Inhabitant with God, now know I well
Thy favour, in this honour done to man;
Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsaf 'd
To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,
Food not of angels, yet accepted so,

As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
At heaven's high feasts to have fed: yet what com-

pare?"

To whom the winged hierarch replied:
"O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom
All things proceed, and up to him return,
If not deprav'd from good, created all,
Such to perfection, one first matter all,
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and, in things that live, of life;
But more refin'd, more spirituous, and pure,
As nearer to him plac'd, or nearer tending
Each in their severel native spheres assign'd,

Tiil body up to spirit work, in bounds Proportion'd to each kind. So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the

leaves

More aëry, last the bright consummate flower
Spirits odorous breathes! flowers and their fruit
Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublim'd,
To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
To intellectual; give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding; whence the soul
Rea on receives, and reason is her being,
Discursive, or intuitive; discourse
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours,
Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
Wonder not then, what God for you saw good
If I refuse not, but convert, as you,
To proper substance. Time may come, when men
With angels may participate, and find
No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare:
And from these corporal nutriments perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improv'd by tract of time, and, wing'd, ascend
Ethereal, as we; or may, at choice,
Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell;
If ye be found obedient, and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire,
Whose progeny you are. Meanwhile enjoy
Your fill what happiness this happy state
Can comprehend, incapable of more."

To whom the patriarch of mankind replied :
"O favourable spirit, propitious guest,
Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set
From centre to circumference; whereon,
In contemplation of created things,
By steps we may ascend to God. But say,
What meant that caution join'd, "If ye be found
Obedient?" Can we want obedience then
To him, or possibly his love desert,..

Who form'd us from the dust, and plac'd us here
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
Human desires can seek or apprehend ?"

To whom the angel : "Son of heaven and earth,
Attend: that thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continuest such, owe to thyself,
That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.
This was that caution given thee; be advis'd
God made thee perfect, not immutable;
And good he made thee; but to persevere
He left it in thy power; ordain'd thy wil
By nature free, not over-rul'd by fate
Inextricable, or strict necessity:
Our voluntary service he requires,
Not our necessitated; such with him
Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for ho
Can hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve
Willing or no, who will but what they must
By destiny, and can no other choose?
Myself, and all the angelic host, that stand
In sight of God, enthron'd, our happy state
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;
On other surety none: freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not, in this we stand or fall;
And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen,
And so from heaven to deepest hell; O fall
From what high state of bliss, into what woe!"

To whom our great progenitor: " Thy words Attentive, and with more delighted ear, Divine instructor, I have heard, than when Cherubic songs by night from neighbouring hills Aërial music send: nor knew I not To be both will and deed created free; Yet that we never shall forget to love Our Maker, and obey him whose command Single is yet so just, my constant thoughts Assured me, and still assure: though what tho

:

Hath pass'd in heaven, some doubt within me

move,

But more desire to hear, if thou consent.
The full relation, which must needs be strange,
Worthy of sacred silence to be heard;
And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun
Hath finish'd half his journey, and scarce begins
His other half in the great zone of heaven."

Thus Adam made request: and Kaphael,
After short pause assenting, thus began :

" High matter thou enjoin'st me, O prime of
Sad task and hard: for how shall I relate (men,
To human sense the invisible exploits
Of warring spirits? how without remorse,
The ruin of so many glorious once
And perfect while they stood? how last unfold *
The secrets of another world, perhaps
Not lawful to reveal; yet for thy good
This is dispens'd; and what surmounts the reach
Of human sense, I shall delineate so,
By likening spiritual to corporal forms,

As may express them best; though what if earth
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?
"As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild
Reign'd where these heavens now roll, where earth

now rests

Upon her centre pois'd; when on a day,
(For time, though in eternity, applied
To motion, measures all things durable
By present, past, and future,) on such day
As heaven's great year brings forth, the empyrea.

[hos

Of angels by imperial summons call'd
Innumerable before the Almighty's throne
Forthwith, from all the ends of heaven appear'd
Under their hierarchs in orders bright:
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve