Seite 109 von 239

121

Those happy places thou hast deigned a while

To want, and honour these; vouchsafe with us

Two only, who yet by sovereign gift possess

This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower

To rest, and what the garden choicest bears

To sit and taste, till this meridian heat

Be over, and the sun more cool decline.

Whom thus the angelic Virtue answered mild: Adam, I therefore came; nor art thou such Created, or such place hast here to dwell, As may not oft invite, though spirits of Heaven, To visit thee. Lead on then where thy bower O'ershades; for these mid hours, till evening rise, I have at will. So to the sylvan lodge They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled,2 With flowerets decked, and fragrant smells. But Eve, Undecked save with herself, more lovely fair Than wood-nymph, or the fairest goddess feigned Of three that in Mount Ida naked strove,3 Stood to entertain her guest from heaven; no veil She needed, virtue proof; no thought infirm Altered her cheek. On whom the angel "Hail!" Bestowed, the holy salutation used Long after to blest Mary, second Eve.

Hail, mother of mankind, whose fruitful womb

Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons,

Than with these various fruits the trees of God

Have heaped this table. Raised of grassy turf

Their table was, and mossy seats had round,

And on her ample square from side to side,

All autumn piled, though spring and autumn here

Danced hand in hand. A while discourse they hold,

No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began

Angelic Virtue.—The Virtues were an order of their own—high in rank in the celestial hierarchy.

Like Pomona's arbour smiled.—Pomona was the goddess of fruit trees.

\* Of three that in Mount Ida naked strove. - Juno, Minerva, and Venus thus appealed to the judgment of Paris.

Our author: Heavenly stranger, please to taste

These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom

All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends,

To us for food and for delight hath caused

The Earth to yield; unsavoury food perhaps

To spiritual natures; only this I know,

That one celestial Father gives to all.

To whom the Angel: Therefore what He gives-Whose praise be ever sung-to man in part Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found No ungrateful food: and food alike those pure Intelligential substances require, As doth your rational; and both contain Within them every lower faculty Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, Tasting, concoct, digest, assimilate, And corporeal to incorporeal turn. For know, whatever was created needs To be sustained and fed: of elements The grosser feeds the purer, earth the sea, Earth and the sea feed air, the air those fires Ethereal, and as lowest, first the moon; Whence in her visage round those spots, Vapours not yet into her substance turned. Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs. The sun, that light imparts to all, receives From all his alimental recompense In humid exhalations, and at even Sups with the ocean. Though in Heaven the trees Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn, We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground Covered with pearly grain; yet God hath here Varied his bounty so with new delights, As may compare with Heaven; and to taste