Now had the Almighty Father from above, From the pure Empyrean where he sits High throned above all highth, bent down his eye, His own works and their works at once to view: About him all the Sanctities of Heaven Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received Beatitude past utterance; on his right The radiant image of his glory sat, His only Son. On Earth he first beheld Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the Happy Garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love, In blissful solitude. He then surveyed Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there, Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night In the dun air sublime, and ready now To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet On the bare outside of this World, that seemed Firm land imbosomed without firmament, Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. Him God beholding from his prospect high, Wherein past, present, future, he beholds, Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake: