The Complete Poetry of John Milton (100 page)

   10        
Things else by me unsearchable, now heard

               
With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,

               
With glorie attributed to the high

               
Creator; something yet of doubt remains,

               
Which onely thy solution can resolve.

   15        
When I behold this goodly Frame, this World
¹

               
Of Heav’n and Earth consisting, and compute,

               
Thir magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a grain,

               
An Atom, with the Firmament compar’d

               
And all her numberd Starrs, that seem to rowl

   20        
Spaces incomprehensible (for such

               
Thir distance argues and thir swift return

               
Diurnal) meerly to officiate
²
light

               
Round this opacous
³
Earth, this punctual
⁴
spot,

               
One day and night; in all thir vast survey

   25        
Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire,
⁵

               
How Nature wise and frugal could commit

               
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand

               
So many nobler Bodies to create,

               
Greater so manifold to this one use,

   30        
For aught appeers, and on thir Orbs impose

               
Such restless revolution day by day

               
Repeated, while the sedentarie Earth,

               
That better might with farr less compass move,

               
Serv’d by more noble then her self, attains

   35        
Her end without least motion, and receaves,

               
As Tribute such a sumless
⁶
journey brought

               
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;

               
Speed, to describe whose swiftness Number fails.

           
      
       So spake our Sire, and by his count’nance seemd

   40        
Entring on studious thoughts abstruse, which
Eve

               
Perceaving where she sat retir’d in sight,

               
With lowliness Majestic from her seat,

               
And Grace that won who saw to wish her stay,

               
Rose, and went forth among her Fruits and Flowrs,

   45        
To visit how they prosper’d, bud and bloom,

               
Her Nurserie; they at her coming sprung

               
And toucht by her fair tendance gladlier grew.

               
Yet went she not, as not with such discourse

               
Delighted, or not capable her ear

   50        
Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv’d,

               
Adam
relating, she sole Auditress;

               
Her Husband the Relater she preferr’d

               
Before the Angel, and of him to ask

               
Chose rather; hee, she knew would intermix

   55        
Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute

               
With conjugal Caresses, from his Lip

               
Not Words alone pleas’d her. O when meet now

               
Such pairs, in Love and mutual Honour joyn’d?

               
With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went;

   60        
Not unattended, for on her as Queen

               
A pomp
⁷
of winning Graces waited still,

               
And from about her shot Darts of desire

               
Into all Eyes to wish her still in sight.

               
And
Raphael
now to
Adam
’s doubt propos’d

   65        
Benevolent and facil
⁸
thus repli’d.

           
      
       To ask or search I blame thee not, for Heav’n

               
Is as the Book of God before thee set,

               
Wherein to read his wondrous Works, and learn

               
His Seasons, Hours, or Dayes, or Months, or Yeares:

   70        
This to attain, whether Heav’n move or Earth,

               
Imports not, if thou reck’n right, the rest

               
From Man or Angel the great Architect

               
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

               
His secrets to be scann’d by them who ought

   75        
Rather admire; or if they list to try

               
Conjecture, he his Fabric of the Heav’ns

               
Hath left to thir disputes, perhaps to move

               
His laughter at thir quaint Opinions wide
⁹

               
Hereafter, when they come to model Heav’n

   80        
And calculate the Starrs, how they will weild

               
The mightie frame, how build, unbuild, contrive

               
To save appeerances,
¹⁰
how gird the Sphear

               
With Centric and Eccentric scribl’d o’re,

               
Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb:

   85        
Alreadie by thy reasoning this I guess,

               
Who art to lead thy ofspring, and supposest

               
That bodies bright and greater should not serve

               
The less not bright, nor Heav’n such journies run,

               
Earth sitting still, when she alone receaves

   90        
The benefit: consider first, that Great

               
Or Bright inferrs not Excellence: the Earth

               
Though, in comparison of Heav’n, so small,

               
Nor glistering, may of solid good contain

               
More plenty then the Sun that barren shines,

   95        
Whose vertue on it self works no effect,

               
But in the fruitful Earth; there first receav’d

               
His beams, unactive else, thir vigour find.

               
Yet not to Earth are those bright Luminaries

               
Officious, but to thee Earths habitant.

   100     
And for the Heav’ns wide Circuit, let it speak

               
The Makers high magnificence, who built

               
So spacious, and his Line stretcht out so farr;

               
That Man may know he dwells not in his own;

               
An Edifice too large for him to fill,

   105     
Lodg’d in a small partition, and the rest

               
Ordain’d for uses to his Lord best known.

               
The swiftness of those Circles attribute,

               
Though numberless, to his Omnipotence,

               
That to corporeal substances could add

   110     
Speed almost Spiritual; mee thou thinkst not slow,

               
Who since the Morning hour set out from Heav’n

               
Where God resides, and ere mid-day arriv’d

               
In
Eden
, distance inexpressible

               
By Numbers that have name. But this I urge,

   115     
Admitting Motion in the Heav’ns, to shew

               
Invalid that which thee to doubt it mov’d;

               
Not that I so affirm, though so it seem

               
To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.

               
God to remove his wayes from human sense,

   120     
Plac’d Heav’n from Earth so farr, that earthly sight,

               
If it presume, might err in things too high,

               
And no advantage gain. What if the Sun

               
Be Center to the World, and other Starrs

               
By his attractive vertue
¹¹
and thir own

   125     
Incited, dance about him various rounds?

               
Thir wandring course now high, now low, then hid,

               
Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

               
In six thou seest, and what if sev’nth to these

               
The Planet Earth, so stedfast though she seem,

   130     
Insensibly
¹²
three different Motions move?

               
Which else to several Sphears thou must ascribe,

               
Mov’d contrarie with thwart obliquities,
¹³

               
Or save the Sun his labour, and that swift

               
Nocturnal and Diurnal rhomb
¹⁴
suppos’d,

   135     
Invisible else above all Starrs, the Wheel

               
Of Day and Night; which needs not thy beleef,

               
If Earth industrious of her self fetch Day

               
Travelling East, and with her part averse

               
From the Suns beam meet Night, her other part

   140     
Still luminous by his ray. What if that light

               
Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,

               
To the terrestrial Moon be as a Starr

               
Enlightning her by Day, as she by Night

               
This Earth? reciprocal, if Land be there,

   145     
Feilds and Inhabitants: Her spots thou seest

               
As Clouds, and Clouds may rain, and Rain produce

               
Fruits in her soft’n’d Soil, for some to eat

               
Allotted there; and other Suns perhaps

               
With thir attendant Moons thou wilt descrie

   150     
Communicating Male and Femal
¹⁵
Light,

               
Which two great Sexes animate the World,

               
Stor’d in each Orb perhaps with some that live.

               
For such vast room in Nature unpossest

               
By living Soul, desert and desolate,

   155     
Onely to shine, yet scarce to contribute

               
Each Orb a glimps of Light, conveyd so farr

               
Down to this habitable, which returns

               
Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.
¹⁶

               
But whether thus these things, or whether not,

   160     
Whether the Sun predominant in Heav’n

               
Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the Sun,

               
Hee from the East his flaming rode begin,

               
Or Shee from West her silent course advance

               
With inoffensive
¹⁷
pace that spinning sleeps

   165     
On her soft Axle, while she paces Eev’n,

               
And beares thee soft with the smooth Air along,

               
Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,

               
Leave them to God above, him serve and fear;

               
Of other Creatures, as him pleases best,