Hail univerfal Lord! be bounteous ftill To give us only good; and if the night Have gather'd aught of evil, or conceal'd, Difperfe it, as now light difpels the dark, EVENING DISCOURSE
WOW came ftill evening on,
Had in her fober livery all things clad ; Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,- They to their graffy couch, thefe to their nefts Were flunk; all but the wakeful nightingale ; She all night long her amorous defcant fung: Silence was pleas'd now glow'd the firmament With living faphirs: Hefperus, that led The ftarry hoft, rode brighteft, till the moon Rifing in clouded majesty at length, Apparent queen, unveil`d her peerless light, And o'er the dark her filver mantle threw.
When Adam thus to Eve: Fair confort, th' hour Of night, and all things now retir'd to rest, Mind us of like repofe, fince God hath fet Labour and reft, as day and night, to men
Succeffive; and the timely dew of fleep Now falling, with foft flumbrous weight inclines Our eye-lids; other creatures all day long Rove idle; unemploy'd, and less need reft ; Man hath his daily work of body or of mind Appointed, which declares his dignity,
And the regard of Heav'n on all his ways! While other animals unactive range,
And of their doings God takes no account. To-morrow, ere fresh morning ftreak the east With first approach of light, we must be rifen, And at our present labour, to reform
You flow'ry arbors, yonder allies green. Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown, That mock our fcant manuring, and require' More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth: Those bloffoms alfo, and thofe drooping gums, - That lie beftrown, unfightly and unsmooth, Afk riddance if we mean to tread with ease! Mean while, as nature wills, night bids us reft.
To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorn'd.. My author and difpofer, what thou bidft
Unargu'd I obey fo God ordains;
God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more. Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise. With thee converfing I forget all time;
All feafons and their change, all please alike,
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rifing sweet, With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the fun When firft on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams, or herb, tree, fruit, and flow'r, Glift'ring with dew; fragrant the fertile earth After soft show'rs; and fweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild; then filent night,, With this her folemn bird, and this fair moon, And these the gems of heav'n, her, Aarry train: But neither breath of morn, when the afcends With charm of earliest birds; nor rifing fan On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, Glift'ring with dew; nor fragrance after fhowers; Nor grateful evening mild; nor filent night
With this her folemn bird; nor walk by moon, Or glittering ftar-light, without thee is fweet, But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom This glorious fight, when fleep hath fhut all eyes!
To whom our general ancestor reply'd ; Daughter of God and man, accomplish'd Eve, These have their courfe to finish round the earth By morrow ev'ning, and from land to land In order, though to nations yet unborn, Minist'ring light prepar'd they fet and rise; Left total darkness should by night regain Her old poffeffion, and extinguish life
In Nature and all thiugs; with these foft fires
Not only enlighten, but with kindly heat Of various influence foment and warm, Temper or nourish, or in part fhed down Their filler virtue on all kinds that grow On earth, made hereby apter to receive Perfection from the fun's more potent ray.” These then, though unbeheld in deep of night, Shine not in vain; nor think though men were none That heaven would want spectators, God want praise: Millions of fpiritual creatures walk the earth Unfeen, both when we wake, and when we fleep: All these, with ceaseless praise, his works behold Both day and night: how often from the steep Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard.. Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or refponfive each to others note, Singing their great Creator? oft in bands While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk With heav'nly touch of inftumental founds In full harmonic number join'd, their fongs. Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heav'n.
Thús talking hand in hand alone they pass'd On to their blissful bow'r: it was a place Chos'n by the Sov'ran Planter, when he fram'd All things to man's delightful ufe: the roof Of thickeft covert was inwoven fhade Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew
•Of firm and fragrant leaf: on either fide Acanthus, and each odorous bufhy shrub Fenc'd up the verdant wall, each beauteous flow'r. Iris, all hues; rofes and jeffamine,
Rear'd high their flourish'd heads between, and wrought Mofaic; under foot the violet,
Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay
Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone Of costliest emblem: other creature here,
Beaft, bird, infect, or worm, durft enter none; Such was their awe of man.
More facred and fequèfter'd, though but feign'd, Pan or Sylvanus never flept, nor nymph,
Nor Faunus haunted. Here, in clofe recefs, With flowers, garlands, and sweet-smelling herbs Efpoufed Eve deck'd first her nuptial bed, And heav'nly quires the hymenæan fung, What day the genial angel to our fire Brought her in naked beauty more adorn'd, More lovely than Pandora, whom the Gods Endowed with all their gifts, and O too like In fad event, who to the unwifer fon Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she infnar'd Mankind with her fair looks, to be aveng'd On him who had ftole Jove's authentic fire.
Thus at their fhady lodge arriv'd, both stood, Both turn'd, and under open fky ador'd
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