{
 "id": "john-milton/book-viii",
 "title": "Book VIII",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Milton",
 "poet_slug": "john-milton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Paradise Lost",
 "book_slug": "paradise-lost",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 8,
 "container": "Book VIII",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1674,
  "venue": "Paradise Lost (1674)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
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  ]
 },
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  "repo": "standardebooks/john-milton_paradise-lost",
  "file": "book-8.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000634929"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
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  "n_stanzas": 21,
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  [
   {
    "text": "The Angel ended, and in Adam’s ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So charming left his voice that he a while",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, as new-waked, thus gratefully replied:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“What thanks sufficient, or what recompense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Equal, have I to render thee, divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Historian, who thus largely hast allayed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This friendly condescension to relate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Things else by me unsearchable, now heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With glory attributed to the high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creator? Something yet of doubt remains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which only thy solution can resolve.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I behold this goodly frame, this World",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Heaven and Earth consisting, and compute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their magnitudes; this Earth, a spot, a grain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An atom, with the firmament compared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spaces incomprehensible (for such",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their distance argues, and their swift return",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Diurnal) merely to officiate light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One day and night, in all their vast survey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Useless besides; reasoning I oft admire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such disproportions, with superfluous hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So many nobler bodies to create,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greater so manifold, to this one use,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For aught appears, and on their orbs impose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such restless revolution day by day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Repeated, while the sedentary Earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That better might with far less compass move,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Served by more noble than herself, attains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her end without least motion, and receives,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As tribute, such a sumless journey brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With lowliness majestic from her seat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, touched by her fair tendance, gladlier grew.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet went she not as not with such discourse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Delighted, or not capable her ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of what was high: such pleasure she reserved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adam relating, she sole auditress;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her husband the relater she preferred",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the Angel, and of him to ask",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With conjugal caresses:⁠—from his lip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not words alone pleased her. Oh, when meet now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not unattended; for on her as queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pomp of winning Graces waited still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from about her shot darts of desire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Raphael now to Adam’s doubt proposed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Benevolent and facile thus replied:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“To ask or search I blame thee not; for heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is as the Book of God before thee set,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This to attain, whether heaven move or Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Man or Angel the great Architect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His secrets, to be scanned by them who ought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rather admire. Or if they list to try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conjecture, he his fabric of the heavens",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His laughter at their quaint opinions wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hereafter, when they come to model heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And calculate the stars; how they will wield",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To save appearances; how gird the sphere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With centric and eccentric scribbled o’er,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Already by thy reasoning this I guess,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That bodies bright and greater should not serve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The less not bright, nor heaven such journeys run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth sitting still, when she alone receives",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The benefit. Consider, first, that great",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or bright infers not excellence: the Earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though, in comparison of heaven, so small,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor glistering, may of solid good contain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More plenty than the sun that barren shines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose virtue on itself works no effect,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the fruitful Earth; there first received,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Officious, but to thee, Earth’s habitant.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for the heaven’s wide circuit, let it speak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Maker’s high magnificence, who built",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So spacious, and his line stretched out so far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Man may know he dwells not in his own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An edifice too large for him to fill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lodged in a small partition, and the rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The swiftness of those circles attribute,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though numberless, to his omnipotence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That to corporeal substances could add",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speed almost spiritual. Me thou think’st not slow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who since the morning-hour set out from Heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Eden, distance inexpressible",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By numbers that have name. But this I urge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Admitting motion in the heavens, to show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not that I so affirm, though so it seem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God, to remove his ways from human sense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Placed heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If it presume, might err in things too high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And no advantage gain. What if the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be centre to the World, and other stars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By his attractive virtue and their own",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Incited, dance about him various rounds?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their wandering course, now high, now low, then hid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In six thou seest; and what if seventh to these",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The planet Earth, so steadfast though she seem,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Insensibly three different motions move?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moved contrary with thwart obliquities,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or save the sun his labour, and that swift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invisible else above all stars, the wheel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If Earth, industrious of herself, fetch day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Travelling east, and with her part averse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the sun’s beam meet night, her other part",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still luminous by his ray. What if that light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the terrestrial moon be as a star,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enlightening her by day, as she by night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This Earth⁠—reciprocal, if land be there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fields and inhabitants? Her spots thou seest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Allotted there; and other suns, perhaps,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Communicating male and female light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which two great sexes animate the World,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For such vast room in Nature unpossessed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By living soul, desert and desolate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down to this habitable, which returns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But whether thus these things, or whether not⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether the sun, predominant in heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the sun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He from the east his flaming road begin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or she from west her silent course advance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On her soft axle, while she paces even,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bears thee soft with the smooth air along⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leave them to God above; him serve and fear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of other creatures, as him pleases best,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever placed, let him dispose; joy thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In what he gives to thee, this Paradise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thy fair Eve; Heaven is for thee too high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To know what passes there; be lowly wise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Think only what concerns thee and thy being;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Live, in what state, condition, or degree;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contented that thus far hath been revealed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom thus Adam, cleared of doubt, replied:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Intelligence of Heaven, Angel serene,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, freed from intricacies, taught to live",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To interrupt the sweet of life, from which",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And not molest us, unless we ourselves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek them with wandering thoughts, and notions vain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But apt the mind or fancy is to rove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unchecked; and of her roving is no end,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That not to know at large of things remote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From use, obscure and subtle, but to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That which before us lies in daily life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is the prime wisdom: what is more is fume,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or emptiness, or fond impertinence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And renders us in things that most concern",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore from this high pitch let us descend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lower flight, and speak of things at hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Useful; whence haply mention may arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of something not unseasonable to ask,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By sufferance, and thy wonted favour, deigned.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee I have heard relating what was done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere my remembrance; now hear me relate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And day is yet not spent; till then thou seest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How subtly to detain thee I devise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inviting thee to hear while I relate⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fond, were it not in hope of thy reply.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hunger both, from labour, at the hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sweet repast: they satiate, and soon fill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though pleasant; but thy words, with grace divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom thus Raphael answered, Heavenly meek:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Nor are thy lips ungraceful, Sire of Men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abundantly his gifts hath also poured,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inward and outward both, his image fair:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speaking or mute, all comeliness and grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attends thee, and each word, each motion, forms.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor less think we in Heaven of thee on Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than of our fellow-servant, and inquire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gladly into the ways of God with Man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For God, we see, hath honoured thee, and set",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Man his equal love. Say therefore on;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I that day was absent, as befell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bound on a voyage uncouth and obscure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far on excursion toward the gates of Hell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Squared in full legion (such command we had),",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see that none thence issued forth a spy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or enemy, while God was in his work;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest he, incensed at such eruption bold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Destruction with Creation might have mixed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not that they durst without his leave attempt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But us he sends upon his high behests",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For state, as sovereign King, and to inure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dismal gates, and barricadoed strong;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, long ere our approaching, heard, within",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Noise, other than the sound of dance or song;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glad we returned up to the coasts of light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere Sabbath-evening; so we had in charge.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thy relation now; for I attend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So spake the godlike Power, and thus our sire:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“For Man to tell how human life began",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is hard; for who himself beginning knew?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Desire with thee still longer to converse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Induced me. As new-waked from soundest sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In balmy sweat, which with his beams the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gazed a while the ample sky, till raised",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By quick instinctive motion up I sprung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As thitherward endeavouring, and upright",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood on my feet. About me round I saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creatures that lived and moved, and walked or flew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With fragrance and with joy my heart o’erflowed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Myself I then perused, and limb by limb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With supple joints, as lively vigour led;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But who I was, or where, or from what cause,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knew not. To speak I tried, and forthwith spake;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My tongue obeyed, and readily could name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whate’er I saw. ‘Thou Sun,’ said I, ‘fair light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ye that live and move, fair creatures, tell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not of myself; by some great Maker then,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In goodness and in power pre-eminent.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell me, how may I know him, how adore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From whom I have that thus I move and live,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And feel that I am happier than I know!’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From where I first drew air, and first beheld",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This happy light, when answer none returned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pensive I sat me down; there gentle sleep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First found me, and with soft oppression seized",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My drowsed sense, untroubled, though I thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I then was passing to my former state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When suddenly stood at my head a dream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose inward apparition gently moved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My fancy to believe I yet had being,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lived. One came, methought, of shape divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said, ‘Thy mansion wants thee, Adam; rise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First Man, of men innumerable ordained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First father! called by thee, I come thy guide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So saying, by the hand he took me, raised,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And over fields and waters, as in air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smooth sliding without step, last led me up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woody mountain, whose high top was plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Planted, with walks and bowers, that what I saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemed. Each tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loaden with fairest fruit, that hung to the eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pluck and eat; whereat I waked, and found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before mine eyes all real, as the dream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had lively shadowed. Here had new begun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My wandering, had not He, who was my guide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up hither, from among the trees appeared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Presence Divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In adoration at his feet I fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Submiss. He reared me, and, ‘Whom thou sought’st I am,’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said mildly, ‘Author of all this thou seest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above, or round about thee, or beneath.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This Paradise I give thee; count it thine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of every tree that in the garden grows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But of the Tree whose operation brings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the garden by the Tree of Life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shun the bitter consequence: for know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The day thou eat’st thereof, my sole command",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From that day mortal, and this happy state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of woe and sorrow.’ Sternly he pronounced",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rigid interdiction, which resounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Returned, and gracious purpose thus renewed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee and to thy race I give; as lords",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Possess it, and all things that therein live,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or live in sea or air⁠—beast, fish, and fowl.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sign whereof, each bird, and beast behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After their kinds; I bring them to receive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thee their names, and pay thee fealty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With low subjection; understand the same",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of fish within their watery residence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not hither summoned, since they cannot change",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their element to draw the thinner air.’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Approaching two and two; these cowering low",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With blandishment; each bird stooped on his wing.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I named them as they passed, and understood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their nature; with such knowledge God endued",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sudden apprehension. But in these",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I found not what, methought, I wanted still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to the Heavenly Vision thus presumed:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘O, by what name⁠—for thou above all these,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surpassest far my naming⁠—how may I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adore thee, Author of this Universe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all this good to Man, for whose well-being",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So amply, and with hands so liberal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast provided all things? But with me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I see not who partakes. In solitude",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What happiness? who can enjoy alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus I presumptuous; and the Vision bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As with a smile more brightened, thus replied:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘What call’st thou solitude? Is not the Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With various living creatures, and the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Replenished, and all these at thy command",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To come and play before thee? Know’st thou not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their language and their ways? They also know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reason not contemptibly; with these",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Find pastime, and bear rule; thy realm is large.’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So spake the universal Lord, and seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So ordering. I, with leave of speech implored,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And humble deprecation, thus replied:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Let not my words offend thee, Heavenly Power!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My Maker, be propitious while I speak.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hast thou not made me here thy substitute,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And these inferior far beneath me set?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among unequals what society",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can sort, what harmony or true delight?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which must be mutual, in proportion, due",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Given and received; but in disparity,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The one intense, the other still remiss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tedious alike. Of fellowship I speak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such as I seek, fit to participate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All rational delight, wherein the brute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cannot be human consort: they rejoice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each with their kind, lion with lioness;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So well converse, nor with the ox the ape;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worse then can man with beast, and least of all.’",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Whereto the Almighty answered, not displeased:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘A nice and subtle happiness, I see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy associates, Adam, and wilt taste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What think’st thou then of me, and this my state?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of happiness, or not? who am alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From all eternity; for none I know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Second to me or like, equal much less.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How have I then with whom to hold converse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save with the creatures which I made, and those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me inferior, infinite descents",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath what other creatures are to thee?’",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“He ceased; I lowly answered: ‘To attain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The highth and depth of thy eternal ways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All human thoughts come short, Supreme of things!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is no deficience found; not so is Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in degree⁠—the cause of his desire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By conversation with his like to help",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or solace his defects. No need that thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should’st propagate, already infinite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And through all numbers absolute, though One;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Man by number is to manifest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His single imperfection, and beget",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like of his like, his image multiplied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In unity defective; which requires",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Collateral love, and dearest amity.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, in thy secrecy although alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Best with thyself accompanied, seek’st not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Social communication; yet, so pleased,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of union or communion, deified;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, by conversing, cannot these erect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From prone, nor in their ways complacence find.’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus I emboldened spake, and freedom used",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Permissive, and acceptance found; which gained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This answer from the gracious Voice Divine:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And find thee knowing not of beasts alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which thou hast rightly named, but of thyself,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Expressing well the spirit within thee free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My image, not imparted to the brute;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose fellowship therefore, unmeet for thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And be so minded still. I, ere thou spak’st,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knew it not good for Man to be alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And no such company as then thou saw’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Intended thee⁠—for trial only brought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see how thou couldst judge of fit and meet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What next I bring shall please thee, be assured,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy wish exactly to thy heart’s desire.’",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“He ended, or I heard no more; for now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My earthly by his Heavenly overpowered,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which it had long stood under, strained to the highth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that celestial colloquy sublime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As with an object that excels the sense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, called",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Nature as in aid, and closed mine eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of fancy, my internal sight; by which,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the Shape",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still glorious before whom awake I stood;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who stooping opened my left side, and took",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under his forming hands a creature grew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man-like, but different sex, so lovely fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That what seemed fair in all the world seemed now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in her looks, which from that time infused",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweetness into my heart unfelt before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And into all things from her air inspired",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spirit of love and amorous delight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She disappeared, and left me dark; I waked",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find her, or for ever to deplore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When, out of hope, behold her not far off,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make her amiable. On she came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Led by her Heavenly Maker, though unseen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And guided by his voice, nor uninformed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of nuptial sanctity and marriage rites.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In every gesture dignity and love.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfilled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Giver of all things fair, but fairest this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all thy gifts! nor enviest. I now see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, my self",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before me; Woman is her name, of Man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Extracted; for this cause he shall forgo",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Father and mother, and to his wife adhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.’",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“She heard me thus; and, though divinely brought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet innocence and virgin modesty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That would be wooed, and not unsought be won,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The more desirable⁠—or, to say all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I followed her; she what was honour knew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with obsequious majesty approved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I led her blushing like the Morn; all Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And happy constellations, on that hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shed their selectest influence; the Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Disporting, till the amorous bird of night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On his hill-top to light the bridal lamp.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My story to the sum of earthly bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which I enjoy, and must confess to find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all things else delight indeed, but such",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As, used or not, works in the mind no change,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor vehement desire⁠—these delicacies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walks, and the melody of birds: but here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far otherwise, transported I behold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transported touch; here passion first I felt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Commotion strange, in all enjoyments else",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Superior and unmoved, here only weak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the charm of beauty’s powerful glance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Nature failed in me, and left some part",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not proof enough such object to sustain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, from my side subducting, took perhaps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More than enough; at least on her bestowed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too much of ornament, in outward show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elaborate, of inward less exact.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For well I understand in the prime end",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Nature her the inferior, in the mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And inward faculties, which most excel;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In outward also her resembling less",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His image who made both, and less expressing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The character of that dominion given",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er other creatures. Yet when I approach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her loveliness, so absolute she seems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in herself complete, so well to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her own, that what she wills to do or say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All higher Knowledge in her presence falls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Degraded; Wisdom in discourse with her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loses discountenanced, and like Folly shows;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Authority and Reason on her wait,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As one intended first, not after made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Occasionally; and to consummate all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Build in her loveliest, and create an awe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About her, as a guard angelic placed.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom the Angel, with contracted brow:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do thou but thine, and be not diffident",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Wisdom; she deserts thee not, if thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dismiss not her, when most thou need’st her nigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By attributing overmuch to things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Less excellent, as thou thyself perceiv’st.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what admir’st thou, what transports thee so?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An outside: fair, no doubt, and worthy well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not thy subjection. Weigh with her thyself;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then value. Oft-times nothing profits more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well managed; of that skill the more thou know’st,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The more she will acknowledge thee her head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to realities yield all her shows:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made so adorn for thy delight the more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So awful, that with honour thou may’st love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But if the sense of touch, whereby mankind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is propagated, seem such dear delight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond all other, think the same vouchsafed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cattle and each beast; which would not be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To them made common and divulged, if aught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therein enjoyed were worthy to subdue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soul of Man, or passion in him move.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What higher in her society thou find’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attractive, human, rational, love still:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In loving thou dost well; in passion not,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein true love consists not. Love refines",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his seat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Reason, and is judicious; is the scale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By which to Heavenly love thou may’st ascend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not sunk in carnal pleasure; for which cause",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the beasts no mate for thee was found.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom thus, half abashed, Adam replied:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In procreation common to all kinds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Though higher of the genial bed by far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with mysterious reverence, I deem),",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So much delights me as those graceful acts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those thousand decencies, that daily flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From all her words and actions, mixed with love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Union of mind, or in us both one soul;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harmony to behold in wedded pair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What inward thence I feel, not therefore foiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who meet with various objects, from the sense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Variously representing, yet, still free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Approve the best, and follow what I approve.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To love thou blam’st me not; for love, thou say’st,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love not the Heavenly Spirits, and how their love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Express they? by looks only, or do they mix",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom the Angel, with a smile that glowed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Celestial rosy-red, love’s proper hue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Answered: “Let it suffice thee that thou know’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Us happy, and without love no happiness.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In eminence, and obstacle find none",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Easier than air with air, if Spirits embrace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Total they mix, union of pure with pure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Desiring, nor restrained conveyance need",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I can now no more; the parting sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond the Earth’s green Cape and verdant Isles",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hesperean sets, my signal to depart.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be strong, live happy, and love! but first of all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him whom to love is to obey, and keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His great command; take heed lest passion sway",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy judgment to do aught which else free will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would not admit; thine and of all thy sons",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weal or woe in thee is placed; beware!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I in thy persevering shall rejoice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the Blest. Stand fast; to stand or fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Free in thine own arbitrement it lies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perfect within, no outward aid require;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all temptation to transgress repel.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Followed with benediction: “Since to part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go, Heavenly guest, Ethereal messenger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent from whose sovereign goodness I adore!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gentle to me and affable hath been",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy condescension, and shall be honoured ever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With grateful memory; thou to Mankind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be good and friendly still, and oft return!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So parted they, the Angel up to Heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the thick shade, and Adam to his bower.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}