[Adam muses:]

 

When I behold this goodly Frame, this World

Of Heav'n and Earth consisting, and compute,

Their magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a grain,

An Atom, with the Firmament compared

And all her numbered Stars, that seem to roll

Spaces incomprehensible (for such

Their distance argues and their swift return

Diurnal) merely to officiate light

Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot,

One day and night; in all their vast survey

Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire,

How Nature wise and frugal could commit

Such disproportions, with superfluous hand

So many nobler Bodies to create,

Greater so manifold to this one use,

For aught appears, and on their Orbs impose

Such restless revolution day by day

Repeated, while the sedentary Earth,

That better might with far less compass move,

Served by more noble then herself, attains

Her end without least motion, and receives,

As Tribute such a sumless journey brought

Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;

Speed, to describe whose swiftness Number fails.

 

​

[The Angel Raphael responds:]

 

To ask or search I blame thee not, for Heav'n

Is as the Book of God before thee set,

Wherein to read his wondrous Works, and learn

His Seasons, Hours, or Days, or Months, or Years:

This to attain, whether Heav'n move or Earth,

Imports not, if thou reckon right, the rest

From Man or Angel the great Architect

Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

His secrets to be scanned by them who ought

Rather admire; or if they list to try

Conjecture, he his Fabric of the Heav'ns

Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move

His laughter at their quaint Opinions wide

Hereafter, when they come to model Heav'n

And calculate the Stars, how they will wield

The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive

To save appearances, how gird the Sphere

With Centric and Eccentric scribbled o'er,

Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb:

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,

Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest

That bodies bright and greater should not serve

The less not bright, nor Heav'n such journeys run,

Earth sitting still, when she alone receives

The benefit: consider first, that Great

Or Bright infers not Excellence: the Earth

Though, in comparison of Heav'n, so small,

Nor glistering, may of solid good contain

More plenty then the Sun that barren shines,

Whose virtue on itself works no effect,

But in the fruitful Earth; there first received

His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.

Yet not to Earth are those bright Luminaries

Officious, but to thee Earths habitant.

And for the Heav'ns wide Circuit, let it speak

The Makers high magnificence, who built

So spacious, and his Line stretched out so far;

That Man may know he dwells not in his own;

An Edifice too large for him to fill,

Lodged in a small partition, and the rest

Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.

The swiftness of those Circles attribute,

Though numberless, to his Omnipotence,

That to corporeal substances could add

Speed almost Spiritual; mee thou thinkst not slow,

Who since the Morning hour set out from Heav'n

Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived

In Eden, distance inexpressible

By Numbers that have name. But this I urge,

Admitting Motion in the Heav'ns, to shew

Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;

Not that I so affirm, though so it seem

To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.

God to remove his ways from human sense,

Placed Heav'n from Earth so far, that earthly sight,

If it presume, might err in things too high,

And no advantage gain. What if the Sun

Be Centre to the World, and other Stars

By his attractive virtue and their own

Incited, dance about him various rounds?

Their wand’ring course now high, now low, then hid,

Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

In six thou seest, and what if sev'nth to these

The Planet Earth, so steadfast though she seem,

Insensibly three different Motions move?

Which else to several Spheres thou must ascribe,

Moved contrary with thwart obliquities,

Or save the Sun his labour, and that swift

Nocturnal and Diurnal rhomb supposed,

Invisible else above all Stars, the Wheel

Of Day and Night; which needs not thy belief,

If Earth industrious of herself fetch Day

Travelling East, and with her part averse

From the Suns beam meet Night, her other part

Still luminous by his ray. What if that light

Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,

To the terrestrial Moon be as a Starr

Enlightening her by Day, as she by Night

This Earth? reciprocal, if Land be there,

Fields and Inhabitants: Her spots thou seest

As Clouds, and Clouds may rain, and Rain produce

Fruits in her soft'nd Soil, for some to eat

Allotted there; and other Suns perhaps

With their attendant Moons thou wilt descry

Communicating Male and Female Light,

Which two great Sexes animate the World,

Stored in each Orb perhaps with some that live.

For such vast room in Nature unpossessed

By living Soule, desert and desolate,

Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute

Each Orb a glimpse of Light, conveyed so far

Down to this habitable, which returns

Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.

But whether thus these things, or whether not,

Whether the Sun predominant in Heav'n

Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the Sun,

He from the East his flaming rode begin,

Or She from West her silent course advance

With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps

On her soft Axle, while she paces Eev'n,

And bears thee soft with the smooth Air along,

Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,

Leave them to God above, him serve and fear;

Of other Creatures, as him pleases best,

Wherever placed, let him dispose: joy thou

In what he gives to thee, this Paradise

And thy faire Eve; Heav'n is for thee too high

To know what passes there; be lowly wise:

Think only what concerns thee and thy being;

Dream not of other Worlds, what Creatures there

Live, in what state, condition or degree,

Contented that thus far hath been revealed

Not of Earth only but of highest Heav'n.