Chapter 3 2

Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year [ 40 ] Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of Evn or Morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose, Or flocks, or heards, or human face divine; But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark [ 45 ] Surrounds me, from the painful ways of men Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair Presented with a Universal blanc Of Natures works to mee expungd and rasd, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. [ 50 ]

So much the rather thou Celestial light Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight. [ 55 ] Now had the Almighty Father from above, From the pure Empyrean where he sits High Thrond above all highth, bent down his eye, His own works and their works at once to view: About him all the Sanctities of Heaven [ 60 ] Stood thick as Starrs, and from his sight received Beatitude past utterance; on his right The radiant image of his Glory sat,

His only Son; On Earth he first beheld Our two first Parents, yet the only two [ 65 ] Of humanity, in the happy Garden plact, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivaled love In blissful solitude; he then surveyed Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there [ 70 ] Coasting the wall of Heavn on this side Night In the dun Air sublime, and ready now To stoop with worn wings, and willing feet On the bare outside of this World, that seems to Firm land imbosomd without Firmament, [ 75 ] Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.