As may compare with Heaven; and to taste Think not I shall be nice.” So down they sat, And to their viands fell; nor seemingly The Angel, nor in mist—the common gloss Of theologians—but with keen dispatch Of real hunger, and concoctive heat To transubstantiate: what redounds transpires Through Spirits with ease; nor wonder, if by fire Of sooty coal the empiric alchemist Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold, As from the mine. Meanwhile at table Eve Ministered naked, and their flowing cups With pleasant liquors crowned. O innocence Deserving Paradise! If ever, then, Then had the Sons of God excuse to have been Enamoured at that sight; but in those hearts Love unlibidinous reigned, nor jealousy Was understood, the injured lover’s hell.
Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed, Not burdened nature, sudden mind arose In Adam not to let the occasion pass, Given him by this great conference, to know Of things above his world, and of their being Who dwell in Heaven, whose excellence he saw Transcend his own so far, whose radiant forms— Divine effulgence—whose high power, so far Exceeded human; and his wary speech Thus to the empyreal minister he framed:
“Inhabitant with God, now know I well Thy favour, in this honour done to Man, Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste, Food not of Angels, yet accepted so, As that more willingly thou couldst not seem At Heaven’s high feasts to have fed: yet what compare?”
To whom the winged Hierarch replied: “O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom All things proceed, and up to him return, If not depraved from good, created all Such to perfection, one first matter all, Endued with various forms, various degrees Of substance, and, in things that live, of life; But more refined, more spiritous and pure, As nearer to him placed or nearer tending, Each in their several active spheres assigned, Till body