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Well manag’d; of that skill the more thou know’st,

       The more she will acknowledge thee her Head,

       And to realities yeild all her shows;

       Made so adorn for thy delight the more,

       So awful, that with honour thou maist love

       Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise.

       But if the sense of touch whereby mankind

       Is propagated seem such dear delight

       Beyond all other, think the same voutsaf’t

       To Cattel and each Beast; which would not be

       To them made common & divulg’d, if aught

       Therein enjoy’d were worthy to subdue

       The Soule of Man, or passion in him move.

       What higher in her societie thou findst

       Attractive, human, rational, love still;

       In loving thou dost well, in passion not,

       Wherein true Love consists not; love refines

       The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat

       In Reason, and is judicious, is the scale

       By which to heav’nly Love thou maist ascend,

       Not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause

       Among the Beasts no Mate for thee was found.

      To whom thus half abash’t Adam repli’d. Neither her out-side formd so fair, nor aught In procreation common to all kindes (Though higher of the genial Bed by far, And with mysterious reverence I deem) So much delights me, as those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions, mixt with Love And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign’d Union of Mind, or in us both one Soule; Harmonie to behold in wedded pair More grateful then harmonious sound to the eare. Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose What inward thence I feel, not therefore foild, Who meet with various objects, from the sense Variously representing; yet still free Approve the best, and follow what I approve. To love thou blam’st me not, for love thou saist Leads up to Heav’n, is both the way and guide; Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask; Love not the heav’nly Spirits, and how thir Love Express they, by looks onely, or do they mix Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?

      To whom the Angel with a smile that glow’d

       Celestial rosie red, Loves proper hue,

       Answer’d. Let it suffice thee that thou know’st

       Us happie, and without Love no happiness.

       Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy’st

       (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy

       In eminence, and obstacle find none

       Of membrane, joynt, or limb, exclusive barrs:

       Easier then Air with Air, if Spirits embrace,

       Total they mix, Union of Pure with Pure

       Desiring; nor restrain’d conveyance need

       As Flesh to mix with Flesh, or Soul with Soul.

       But I can now no more; the parting Sun

       Beyond the Earths green Cape and verdant Isles

       Hesperean sets, my Signal to depart. Be strong, live happie, and love, but first of all Him whom to love is to obey, and keep His great command; take heed least Passion sway Thy Judgement to do aught, which else free Will Would not admit; thine and of all thy Sons The weal or woe in thee is plac’t; beware. I in thy persevering shall rejoyce, And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fall Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies. Perfet within, no outward aid require; And all temptation to transgress repel.

      So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus Follow’d with benediction. Since to part, Go heavenly Guest, Ethereal Messenger, Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore. Gentle to me and affable hath been Thy condescension, and shall be honour’d ever With grateful Memorie: thou to mankind Be good and friendly still, and oft return.

      So parted they, the Angel up to Heav’n

       From the thick shade, and Adam to his Bowre.

      THE END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK.

      PARADISE LOST

      BOOK VIII.

       Table of Contents

      No more of talk where God or Angel Guest

       With Man, as with his Friend, familiar us’d

       To sit indulgent, and with him partake

       Rural repast, permitting him the while

       Venial discourse unblam’d: I now must change

       Those Notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breach

       Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt

       And disobedience: On the part of Heav’n

       Now alienated, distance and distaste,

       Anger and just rebuke, and judgement giv’n,

       That brought into this World a world of woe,

       Sinne and her shadow Death, and Miserie

       Deaths Harbinger: Sad task, yet argument

       Not less but more Heroic then the wrauth

       Of stern Achilles on his Foe pursu’d Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous’d, Or Neptun’s ire or Juno’s, that so long Perplex’d the Greek and Cytherea’s Son; If answerable style I can obtaine Of my Celestial Patroness, who deignes Her nightly visitation unimplor’d, And dictates to me slumbring, or inspires Easie my unpremeditated Verse: Since first this subject for Heroic Song Pleas’d me long choosing, and beginning late; Not sedulous by Nature to indite Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument Heroic deem’d, chief maistrie to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabl’d Knights In Battels feign’d; the better fortitude Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom Unsung; or to describe Races and Games, Or tilting Furniture, emblazon’d Shields, Impreses quaint, Caparisons and Steeds; Bases and tinsel Trappings, gorgious Knights At Joust and Torneament; then marshal’d Feast Serv’d up in Hall with Sewers, and Seneshals; The skill of Artifice or Office mean, Not that which justly gives Heroic name To Person or to Poem. Mee of these Nor skilld nor studious, higher Argument Remaines, sufficient of it self to raise That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climat, or Years damp my intended wing Deprest, and much they may, if all be mine, Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear.

      The Sun was sunk, and after him the Starr

       Of Hesperus, whose Office is to bring Twilight upon the Earth, short Arbiter Twixt Day and Night, and now from end to end Nights Hemisphere had veild the Horizon round: When Satan who late fled before the threats Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv’d In meditated fraud and malice, bent On mans destruction, maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself, fearless return’d. By Night he fled, and at Midnight return’d From compassing the Earth, cautious of day, Since Uriel Regent of the Sun descri’d His entrance, and forewarnd the Cherubim That kept thir watch; thence full of anguish driv’n, The space of seven continu’d Nights he rode With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line He circl’d, four times cross’d the Carr of Night From Pole to Pole, traversing each Colure; On the eighth return’d, and on the Coast averse From entrance or Cherubic Watch, by stealth Found unsuspected way. There was a place, Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wraught the change, Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life; In with the River sunk, and with it rose Satan involv’d in rising Mist, then sought Where to lie hid; Sea he had searcht and Land From Eden over Pontus, and

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