Hell their fit habitation fraught with fire With jubilee advanc'd: and as they went, What might have else to human race been hid; Which would be all his solace and revenge, Of disobedience; firm they might have stood, END OF THE SIXTH BOOK. THE ARGUMENT. RAPHAEL, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created: that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory and attendence of angels, to perform the work of creation in six days: the angels celebrate with hymns the perfor mance thereof, and his re-ascension into Heaven. PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. DESCEND from heav'n, Urania, by that name, The meaning, not the name I call: for thou Lest from this flying steed unrein'd (as once Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues ; Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard If they transgress, and slight that sole command, Of all tastes else to please their appetite, With admiration and deep muse, to hear Of things so high and strange, things to their thought So unimaginable as hate in heav'n, And war so near the peace of God in bliss With such confusion: but the evil soon With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repeal'd and now Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know What nearer might concern him, how this world |