When Adam thus to Eve. Fair Confort, th'hour Of night, and all things now retir'd to rest Mind us of like repose; since God hath fet Labor and reft, as day and night, to men Succeffive; and the timely dew of sleep,
Now falling with soft flumbrous weight inclines 615
Our eye-lids: other creatures all day long
Rove idle,unemploy'd, and less need rest;
Man hath his daily work of body or mind
Appointed, which declares his dignity,
And the regard of Heav'n on all his ways;
While other animals unactive range,
And of their doings God takes no account.
To morrow, ere fresh morning streak the eaft
With first approach of light, we must be risen,
And at our pleasant labor, to reform
Yon flow'ry arbors, yonder alleys green,
Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown,
That mock our scant manuring, and require
More hands than ours to`lop their wanton growth:
Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums, 630
That lie beftrown unfightly and unsmooth,
Afk riddance, if we mean to tread with ease;
Mean while, as Nature wills, night bids us rest.
To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorn'd.
My Author and Disposer, what thou bidst
Unargued I obey; fo God ordains;
God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more
Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise.
With thee converfing I forget all time,
All feasons and their change; all please alike. 640
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rifing fweet,
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glift'ring with dew; fragrant the fertil earth 645
After foft fhow'rs; and fweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night,
With this her folemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these, the gems of Heav'n, her starry train:
But neither breath of morn, when she afcends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glift'ring with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild; nor filent night
With this her folemn bird; nor walk by moon, 655
Or glittering ftar-light, without thee is sweet.
But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom
This glorious fight, when fleep hath fhut all eyes?
To whom our general anceflor reply'd.
Daughter of God and Man, accomplish'd Eve, 660
These have their course to finish round the earth,
By morrow evening; and from land to land
In order, though to nations yet unborn,
Miniftring light prepar'd, they set and rise;
Left total darkness should by night regain
Her old poffeffion, and extinguish life
In nature and all things, which these foft fires
Not only inlighten, but with kindly heat,
Of various influence, foment and warm,
Temper or nourish; or in part fhed down
Their ftellar virtue on all kinds that grow
On earth, made hereby apter to receive
Perfection from the fun's more potent ray.
These then, though unbeheld in deep of night,
Shine not in vain; nor think, though men were none,
That Heav'n would want spectators, God want praise:
Millions of fpiritual creatures walk the earth,
Unseen, both when we wake, and when we fleep:
All these,with ceaseless praise,his works behold
Both day and night: how often from the fteep 680
Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celestial voices,to the midnight air,
Sole, or responsive each to others note,
Singing their great Creator? oft in bands
While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,685
With heav'nly touch of inftrumental sounds,
In full harmonic number join'd, their fongs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to Heaven.
Thus talking,hand in.hand,alone they pafs'd
On to their blissful bow'r; it was a place
Chos'n by the fovran Planter, when he fram'd
All things to Man's delightful use; the roof,
Of thickest covert, was inwoven fhade
Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew
Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either fide
Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub
Fenc'd up the verdant wall; each beauteous flower, Iris all hues, rofes, and jeffamin
Reard high their florish'd heads between, and wrought Mofaic; underfoot the violet,
Crocus, and hyacinth,with rich inlay,
Broider'd the ground; more color'd than with stone
Of coftlieft emblem: other creature here,
Beaft, bird, infect, or worm,durft enter none;
Such was their awe of Man. In fhadier bower 705
More facred and sequester'd, though but feign'd,
Pan or Sylvanus never flept, nor Nymph,
Nor Faunus haunted. Here in close recefs
With flowers, garlands, and fweet-smelling herbs
Espoused Eve deck'd first her nuptial bed,
And heav'nly quires the hymenæan fung;
What day the genial Angel to our fire
Brought her,in naked beauty more adorn'd,
More lovely than Pandora, whom the Gods
Endow'd with all their gifts; and O too like
In fad event, when to th'unwifer fon
Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she infnar'd
Mankind with her fair looks, to be aveng'd
On him who had stole Jove's authentic fire.
Thus at their fhady lodge arriv'd, both stood, 720
Both turn'd, and under open sky ador'd
The God that made both sky, air, earth and heaven,
Which they beheld, the moon's refplendent globe,
And ftarry pole: Thou also mad'st the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day,
Which we in our appointed work employ'd
Have finish'd, happy in our mutual help,
And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss,
Ordain'd by thee; and this delicious place
For us too large, where thy abundance wants 730
Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground.
But thou hast promis'd from us two a race
To fill the earth, who shall with us extol
Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake,
And when we seek, as now, thy gift of fleep. 735
This faid, unanimous, and other rites
Obferving none, but adoration pure,
Which God likes beft, into their inmost bower
Handed they went; and, eas'd the putting off
These troublesome disguises which we wear,
Strait fide by fide were laid; nor turn'd I ween
Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites
Mysterious of connubial love refus'd:
Whatever hypocrites aufterely talk
Of purity, and place, and innocence,
Defaming as impure what God declares
Pure, and commands to fome, leaves free to all.
Our Maker bids increafe; who bids abftain
But our Destroyer, foe to God and Man?
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