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Enough is left besides to search and know;

But knowledge is as food, and needs no less

But knowledge is as food, and needs no less

Her temperance over appetite, to know

In measure what the mind may well contain;

Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns

Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven—So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of Angels, than that star the stars among—Fell with his flaming legions through the Deep Into his place, and the great Son returned Victorious with his saints, the Omnipotent Eternal Father from his throne beheld Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake:

At least our envious foe hath failed, who thought All like himself rebellious; by whose aid This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed, He trusted to have seized, and into fraud Drew many, whom their place knows here no more, Yet far the greater part have kept, I see, Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains Number sufficient to possess her realms Though wide, and this high temple to frequent With ministeries due, and solemn rites. But, lest his heart exhalt him in the harm Already done, to have dispeopled heaven, My damage fondly deemed, I can repair That detriment, if such it be, to lose Self-lost; and in a moment will create Another world, out of one man a race Of men innumerable, there to dwell; Not here, till by degrees of merit raised, They open to themselves at length the way Up hither, under long obedience tried, And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth,

Moved the Creator, in his holy rest Through all eternity, so late to build In Chaos; and the work begun, how soon Absolved; if unforbid thou mayest unfold What we, not to explore the secrets, ask Of His eternal empire, but the more To magnify his works, the more we know. And the great light of day yet wants to run Much of his race, though steep. Suspense in heaven, Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears, And longer will delay, to hear thee tell His generation, and the rising birth Of nature from the unapparent deep; Or if the star of evening and the moon Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring Silence; and sleep, listening to thee, will watch; Or we can bid his absence, till thy song End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.

Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought;

And thus the godlike Angel answered mild:

This also thy request, with caution asked,

Obtain; though, to recount almighty works,

What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,

Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?

Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve

To glorify the Maker, and infer

Thee¹ also happier, shall not be withheld

Thy hearing; such commission from above

I have received, to answer thy desire

Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain

To ask; nor let thine own inventions hope

Things not revealed which the invisible King,

Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night,

To none communicable in Earth or Heaven.

Infer thee.—Help thee—make thee to be.