To whom thus Michael, with regard benign: “Adam, thou know’st Heaven his, and all the Earth, Not this rock only; his omnipresence fills Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives, Fomented by his virtual power and warmed. All the Earth he gave thee to possess and rule, No despicable gift; surmise not, then, His presence to these narrow bounds confined Of Paradise or Eden. This had been Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread All generations, and had hither come From all the ends of the Earth, to celebrate And reverence thee their great progenitor. But this pre-eminence thou hast lost, brought down To dwell on even ground now with thy sons. Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain God is, as here, and will be found alike Present, and of his presence many a sign, Still following thee, still compassing thee round With goodness and paternal love, his face Express, and of his steps the track divine. Which that thou may’st believe, and be confirmed, Ere thou from hence depart, know I am sent To show thee what shall come in future days To thee and to thy offspring. Good with bad Expect to hear, supernal grace contending With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn True patience, and to temper joy with fear And pious sorrow, equally inured By moderation either state to bear, Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead Safest thy life, and best prepared endure Thy mortal passage when it comes. Ascend This hill; let Eve (for I have drenched her eyes) Here sleep below while thou to foresight wak’st, As once thou slept’st, while she to life was formed.”
To whom thus Adam gratefully replied: “Ascend; I follow thee, safe guide, the path Thou lead’st me, and to the hand of Heaven submit, However chastening; to the evil turn My obvious breast, arming to overcome By suffering, and earn rest from labour won, If so I may attain.” So both ascend In the visions of God. It was a hill, Of Paradise the highest, from whose top The hemisphere of Earth, in clearest ken, Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect lay. Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round, Whereon for different cause the Tempter set Our second Adam, in the wilderness, To show him all Earth’s kingdoms