“Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given Charge and strict watch, that to this happy place No evil thing approach or enter in. This day at highth of noon came to my sphere A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know More of the Almighty’s works, and chiefly Man, God’s latest image. I described his way Bent all on speed, and marked his aery gait; But in the mount that lies from Eden north, Where he first lighted, soon discerned his looks Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured. Mine eye pursued him still, but under shade Lost sight of him. One of the banished crew, I fear, hath ventured from the Deep, to raise New troubles; him thy care must be to find.”
To whom the winged warrior thus returned: “Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect sight, Amid the Sun’s bright circle where thou sitt’st, See far and wide. In at this gate none pass The vigilance here placed, but such as come Well-known from Heaven; and since meridian hour No creature thence. If Spirit of other sort, So minded, have o’erleaped these earthy bounds On purpose, hard thou know’st it to exclude Spiritual substance with corporeal bar. But if within the circuit of these walks, In whatsoever shape, he lurk of whom Thou tell’st, by morrow dawning I shall know.”
So promised he; and Uriel to his charge Returned on that bright beam, whose point now raised Bore him slope downward to the sun, now fallen Beneath the Azores; whether the prime orb, Incredible how swift, had thither rolled Diurnal, or this less volubil Earth, By shorter flight to the east, had left him there, Arraying with reflected purple and gold The clouds that on his western throne attend.