Paradise Lost

by John Milton

By what is past, to thee I have revealed What might have else to human race been hid;

the deep fall Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled

he who envies now thy state, Who now is plotting how he may seduce Thee also from obedience, that, with him Bereaved of happiness, thou mayest partake His punishment, eternal misery; 905 Which would be all his solace and revenge, As a despite done against the Most High, Thee once to gain companion of his woe.

let it profit thee to have heard, 910 By terrible example, the reward Of disobedience; firm they might have stood, Yet fell;

Whence Adam soon repealed 60 The doubts that in his heart arose: and now Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know What nearer might concern him, how this world Of Heaven and Earth conspicuous first began; When, and whereof created; for what cause; 65 What within Eden, or without, was done Before his memory;

to the infinitely Good we owe Immortal thanks, and his admonishment Receive, with solemn purpose to observe Immutably his sovran will, the end 80 Of what we are.

what cause Moved the Creator, in his holy rest Through all eternity, so late to build In Chaos;

we, not to explore the secrets ask Of his eternal empire, but the more To magnify his works, the more we know.

Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought: 110 And thus the Godlike Angel answered mild.

though to recount almighty works What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice, Or heart of man suffice to comprehend? 115 Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve To glorify the Maker, and infer Thee also happier, shall not be withheld Thy hearing; such commission from above I have received, to answer thy desire 120 Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain To ask; nor let thine own inventions hope Things not revealed, which the invisible King, Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night; To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:

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 130 Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

the great Son returned Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent Eternal Father from his throne beheld Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake. At least our envious Foe hath failed, who thought 140 All like himself rebellious, by whose aid This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed, He trusted to have seised, and into fraud Drew many, whom their place knows here no more:

I can repair That detriment, if such it be to lose Self-lost; and in a moment will create 155 Another world, out of one man a race Of men innumerable, 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 changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth, One kingdom, joy and union without end.

And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee This I perform; speak thou, and be it done! 165 My overshadowing Spirit and Might with thee I send along;

ride forth, and bid the Deep Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth; Boundless the Deep, because I Am who fill Infinitude,

Necessity and Chance Approach not me, and what I will is Fate.

Immediate are the acts of God, more swift Than time or motion,

to human ears Cannot without process of speech be told, So told as earthly notion can receive.

to Him Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained Good out of evil to create;

the Son On his great expedition now appeared, Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crowned 195 Of Majesty Divine; sapience and love Immense, and all his Father in him shone.

About his chariot numberless were poured Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones, And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots winged 200 From the armoury of God;

Heaven opened wide Her ever-during 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 heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turned by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains, to assault 215 Heaven’s highth, and with the center mix the pole. Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace, Said then the Omnifick Word; your discord end!

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode 220 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.

in his hand 225 He took the golden compasses, prepared In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things: One foot he centered, and the other turned Round through the vast profundity obscure; 230 And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, This be thy just circumference, O World! Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth, Matter unformed and void: Darkness ...

Earth self-balanced on her center hung. Let there be light, said God; and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, 245 Sprung from the deep; and from her native east To journey through the aery gloom began, Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good; 250 And light from darkness by the hemisphere Divided: light the Day, and darkness Night, He named. Thus was the first day even and morn:

The sixth, and of creation last,

of the sixth day yet remained: 505 There wanted yet the master-work, the end Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone And brute as other creatures,

endued With sanctity of reason, might erect His stature, and upright with front serene 510 Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven, But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes Directed in devotion, to adore 515 And worship God Supreme, who made him chief Of all his works:

therefore the Omnipotent Eternal Father (for where is not he Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake. Let us make now Man in our image, Man 520 In our similitude, and let them rule Over the fish and fowl of sea and air, Beast of the field, and ov...

This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O Man, 525 Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed The breath of life; in his own image he Created thee, in the image of God Express; and thou becamest a living soul. Male he created thee; but thy consort 530 Female, for race; then blessed mankind, and said, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth; Subdue it, and throughout domin...

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food Gave thee; all sorts are here that all the Earth yields, Variety without end;

but of the tree, Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil, Thou mayest not; in the day thou eatest, thou diest; 545 Death is the penalty imposed; beware, And govern well thy appetite; lest Sin Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

Open, ye everlasting gates! they sung, Open, ye Heavens! your living doors; let in The great Creator from his work returned Magnificent, his six days work, a World; Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign 570 To visit oft the dwellings of just men,

from work Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day, As resting on that day from all his work, But not in silence holy kept: the harp 595 Had work and rested not;

the seat of Men, Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused, 625 Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy Men, And sons of Men, whom God hath thus advanced! Created in his image, there to dwell And worship him; and in reward to rule Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air, 630 And multiply a race of worshippers Holy and just: Thrice happy, if they know Their happiness, and persevere upright! So sung they, and the empyrean rung

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,

Not words alone pleased her. O! when meet now Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?

With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went, 60 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.

Raphael now, to Adam’s doubt proposed, 65 Benevolent and f...

Heaven Is as the book of God befo...

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 scanned by them who ought 75 Rather admire; or, if they list to try Conjecture, he his fabrick 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 80 And calculate the stars, how they will wield The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive To save appearances;

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; 95 Whose virtue on itself works no effect, But in the fruitful Earth; there first received, His beams, unactive else, their vigour find. Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries Officious; but to thee, Earth’s habitant.

The Maker’s high magnificence, who built So spacious, and his line stretched out so far; That Man may know he dwells not in his own; An edifice too large for him to fill, 105 Lodged in a small partition; and the rest Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.

God, to remove his ways from human sense, 120 Placed Heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight, If it presume, might err in things too high, And no advantage gain.

Invisible else above all stars, the wheel Of day and night; which needs not thy belief, If earth, industrious of herself, fetch day Travelling east, and with her part averse From the sun’s beam meet night, her other part 140 Still luminous by his ray. What if that light, Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air, To the terrestrial moon be as a star, Enlightening her by day, as she by night This earth? reciprocal, if land be there, 145 Fields and inhabitants:

Communicating male and female light; Which two great sexes animate the world, Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.

For such vast room in Nature unpossessed By living soul, desart and desolate, 155 Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far Down to this habitable, which returns Light back to them, is obvious to dispute. But whether thus these things, or whether not; 160 But whether the sun, predominant in Heaven, Rise on the earth; or earth rise on the sun; He from the east his flaming road begin; Or she from west her silent course advance, With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps 165 On her soft axle, while she paces even, And bears thee soft with the smooth hair along; Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid; Leave them to God above; him serve, and fear!