Shade above shade, a woody theatre of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops

The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung: Which to our general sire gave prospect large

Into his nether empire neighbouring round.

And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,

Blossoms and fruits at once, of golden hue,

Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colours mix'd:

On which the Sun more glad impress'd his beams

Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,

When God hath shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd

That landscape: and of pure, now purer air

Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires

Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair: now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence
they stole

Those balmy spoils. As when, to them who sail

Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds

blow

EVE'S RECOLLECTIONS.

THAT day I oft remember, when from sleep

I first awaked, and found myself reposed Under a shade on flowers, much wonder. ing where

And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.

EVE'S CONJUGAL LOVE. My author and disposer, what thou bid'st,

Unargued I obey: so God ordains;
God is thy law, thou mine: to know

no more

ing on

Of grateful Evening mild; then silent Night,

With this her solemn bird, and this fair Moon,

And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train:

But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends

With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun

On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,

Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers;

Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night,

With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon,

Or glittering star-light, without thee, is

sweet.

ADAM AND EVE'S MORNING HYMN.

THESE are thy glorious works, Parent of good,

Almighty! Thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous then!

Unspeakable, who sit'st above these heavens

To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.

Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,

Angels; for ye behold him, and with

songs

And choral symphonies, day without night,

Circle his throne rejoicing; ye, in Heaven: On Earth join all ye creatures to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and with. out end.

Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn

With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere,

While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.

Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,

Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise

In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,

And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st.

Moon, that now meet'st the orient Sun, now fly'st,

With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies;

And ye five other wandering fires, that

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 gather'd aught of evil or conceal'd, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark!

SATAN, IN HIS EXPEDITION TO THE UPPER WORLD, MEETS SIN AND DEATH.

MEANWHILE, the adversary of God and man,

Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design,

Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell

Explores his solitary flight: sometimes He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left;

Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars

Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As, when far off at sea, a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial
winds

Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring

Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood,

Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd

Far off the flying fiend. At last appear Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof,

And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass,

Three iron, three of adamantine rock Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there

sat

On either side a formidable shape; The one seem'd woman to the waist and fair;

But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd With mortal sting: About her middle round

A cry of Hell-hounds, never ceasing, bark'd

With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung

A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,,

If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,

And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd,

Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these

Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts

Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore;

Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd

In secret, riding through the air she

comes,

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance

With Lapland witches, while the labour. ing Moon

Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,

If shape it might be call'd that shape bad

none

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb, Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,

For each seem'd either: black it stood as night,

Fierce as ten furles, terrible as Hell,

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."

So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape,

So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold

More dreadful and deform. On the other side,

Incensed with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the arctic sky, and from his horrid

hair

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the

head

Levell❜d his deadly aim; their fatal hands No second stroke intend; and such a frown

Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds,

With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on

Over the Caspian, then stand front to front,

Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow

To join their dark encounter in mid air: So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell

Grew darker at their frown; so match'd they stood;

For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds

Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had