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So spake the Universal Lord, and seemed So ordering. I, with leave of speech implored, And humble deprecation, thus replied:

PARADISE LOST.

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Let not my words offend thee, heavenly Power: My Maker, be propitious, while I speak. Hast thou not made me here thy substitute, And these inferior far beneath me set? Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight? Which must be mutual, in proportion due Given and received; but, in disparity, The one intense, the other still remiss, Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove Tedious alike. Of fellowship I speak Such as I seek, fit to participate All rational delight, wherein the brute Cannot be human consort. They rejoice Each with their kind, lion with lioness; So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined; Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, So well converse, nor with the ox the ape; Worse, then, can man with beast, and least of all.

Whereto the Almighty answered, not displeased:

A nice and subtle happiness, I see

Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice

Of thy associates, Adam, and wilt taste

No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.

What think'st thou, then, of me, and this my state?

Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed

Of happiness, or not, who am alone

From all eternity? for none I know

Second to me, or like, equal much less.

How have I, then, with whom to hold converse,

Save with the creatures which I made, and those

To me inferior, infinite descents

Beneath what other creatures are to thee?

In sign whereof, each bird and beast behold

After their kinds, I bring them to receive

From thee their names,¹ and pay thee fealty

With low subjection. Understand the same

Of fish within her watery residence,

Not hither summoned, since they cannot change

Their element to draw the thinner air.

As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold,

Approaching two and two; these cowering low

With blandishment, each bird stooped on his wing.

I named them as they passed, and understood

Their nature; with such knowledge God endued

My sudden apprehension. But in these

I found not what me thought I wanted still;

And to the heavenly vision thus presumed:

Oh, by what name, for Thou above all these,

Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher,

Surpassest far my naming; how may I

Adore thee, Author of this universe,

And all this good to man? for whose well-being

So amply, and with hands so liberal,

Thou hast provided all things. But with me

I see not who partakes. In solitude

What happiness? Who can enjoy alone,

Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?

Thus I, presumptuous; and the Vision bright,

As with a smile more brightened, thus replied:

What call'st thou solitude? Is not the Earth With various living creatures, and the air, Replenished, and all these at thy command To come and play before thee? Know'st thou not Their language and their ways? They also know, And reason not contemptibly; with these Find pastime, and bear rule; thy realm is large.

1 From thee their names.—"The Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." (Gen. ii. 19.)