Chapter 15 14
Such happy interview and fair event
Of love and youth not lost, Songs, Garlands, Flours,
And charming Symphonies attachd the heart [ 595 ]
Of Adam, soon enclind to admit delight,
The bent of Nature; which he thus expressd.
True opener of mine eyes, prime Angel blest,
Much better seems this Vision, and more hope
Of peaceful days portends, then those two past; [ 600 ]
Those were of hate and death, or pain much worse,
Here Nature seems fulfilled in all her ends.
To whom thus Michael. Judg not what is best
By pleasure, though to Nature seeming meet,
Created, as thou art, to nobler end [ 605 ]
Holie and pure, conformity divine.
Those Tents thou sawst so pleasant, were the Tents
Of wickedness, wherein shall dwell his Race
Who slew his Brother;
Of Arts that polish Life, Inventers rare, [ 610 ]
Unmindful of thir Maker, though his Spirit
Taught them, but they his gifts acknowledged none.
Yet they a beauteous of spring shall beget;
For that fair female Troop thou sawst, that seemsd
Of Goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay, [ 615 ]
Yet empty of all good wherein consists
Woman domestic honor and chief praise;
Bred only and completed to the taste
Of lustful appetite, to sing, to dance,
To dress, and troule the Tongue, and troule the Eye. [ 620 ]
To these that sober Race of Men, whose lives
Religious titled them the Sons of God,
Shall yield up all thir vertue, all thir fame
Ignobly, to the traines and to the smiles
Of these fair Atheists, and now swim in joy, [ 625 ]
(Erelong to swim at large) and laugh; for which
The world erelong a world of tears must weepe.
To whom thus Adam of short joy bereft.
O pittie and shame, that they who to live well
Entered so faire, should turn aside to tread [ 630 ]
Paths indirect, or in the mid way faint!