"
Nor stayed; but on the wings of cherubim,
Uplifted in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos and the World unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice.
Nor stayed; but on the wings of cherubim,
Uplifted in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos and the World unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice.
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
.
. . . . Headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
A like fate, Raphael warns Adam, may befall mankind if they are guilty
of disobedience.
_VII. --The New Creation_
The "affable Archangel," at Adam's request, continues his talk by
telling how the world began. Lest Lucifer should take a pride in
having "dispeopled Heaven," God announces to the Son that he will
create another world, and a race to dwell in it who may
Open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried,
And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth,
This creation is to be the work of the Son, who, girt with
omnipotence, prepares to go forth.
Heaven opened wide
Her ever-daring gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable Abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.
"Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou Deep, peace! "
Said then the omnific Word. "Your discord end!
"
Nor stayed; but on the wings of cherubim,
Uplifted in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos and the World unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice. . . .
And Earth, self-balanced on her centre hung.
The six days' creative work is then described in the order of Genesis.
_VIII. --The Creation of Adam_
Asked by Adam to tell him about the motions of the heavenly bodies,
Raphael adjures him to refrain from thought on "matters hid; to serve
God and fear; and to be lowly wise. " He then asks Adam to tell him of
his creation, he having at the time been absent on "excursion toward
the gates of Hell. " Adam complies, and relates how he appealed to
God for a companion, and was answered in the fairest of God's gifts.
Raphael warns Adam to beware lest passion for Eve sway his judgment,
for on him depends the weal or woe, not only of himself, but of all
his sons.
_IX. --The Temptation and the Fall_
While Raphael was in Paradise, for seven nights, Satan hid himself by
circling round in the shadow of the Earth, then, rising as a mist, he
crept into Eden undetected, and entered the serpent as the "fittest
imp of fraud," but not until once more lamenting that the enjoyment of
the earth was not for him. In the morning, when the human pair came
forth to their pleasant labours, Eve suggested that they should work
apart, for when near each other "looks intervene and smiles," and
casual discourse. Adam replied, defending "this sweet intercourse of
looks and smiles," and saying they had been made not for irksome toil,
but for delight.
"But if much converse perhaps
Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield;
For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
. . . . Headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
A like fate, Raphael warns Adam, may befall mankind if they are guilty
of disobedience.
_VII. --The New Creation_
The "affable Archangel," at Adam's request, continues his talk by
telling how the world began. Lest Lucifer should take a pride in
having "dispeopled Heaven," God announces to the Son that he will
create another world, and a race to dwell in it who may
Open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried,
And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth,
This creation is to be the work of the Son, who, girt with
omnipotence, prepares to go forth.
Heaven opened wide
Her ever-daring gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable Abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.
"Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou Deep, peace! "
Said then the omnific Word. "Your discord end!
"
Nor stayed; but on the wings of cherubim,
Uplifted in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos and the World unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice. . . .
And Earth, self-balanced on her centre hung.
The six days' creative work is then described in the order of Genesis.
_VIII. --The Creation of Adam_
Asked by Adam to tell him about the motions of the heavenly bodies,
Raphael adjures him to refrain from thought on "matters hid; to serve
God and fear; and to be lowly wise. " He then asks Adam to tell him of
his creation, he having at the time been absent on "excursion toward
the gates of Hell. " Adam complies, and relates how he appealed to
God for a companion, and was answered in the fairest of God's gifts.
Raphael warns Adam to beware lest passion for Eve sway his judgment,
for on him depends the weal or woe, not only of himself, but of all
his sons.
_IX. --The Temptation and the Fall_
While Raphael was in Paradise, for seven nights, Satan hid himself by
circling round in the shadow of the Earth, then, rising as a mist, he
crept into Eden undetected, and entered the serpent as the "fittest
imp of fraud," but not until once more lamenting that the enjoyment of
the earth was not for him. In the morning, when the human pair came
forth to their pleasant labours, Eve suggested that they should work
apart, for when near each other "looks intervene and smiles," and
casual discourse. Adam replied, defending "this sweet intercourse of
looks and smiles," and saying they had been made not for irksome toil,
but for delight.
"But if much converse perhaps
Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield;
For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
