Worthy of sacred silence
to be heard;
And we have yet large day, for scarce the
sun
Hath finished half his journey, and scarce
begins
His other half in the
great zone of Heaven.”
Thus Adam made request; and Raphael,
After short pause assenting, thus began.
“High matter thou enjoinest me, O prime
of men,
Sad task and
hard: For how shall I relate
To human sense
the invisible exploits
Of warring Spirits? how,
without remorse,
The ruin of so
many glorious once
And perfect
while they stood? how last unfold
The secrets of
another world, perhaps
Not lawful to
reveal? yet for thy good
This is
dispensed; and what surmounts the reach
Of human
sense, I shall delineate so,
By likening
spiritual to corporal forms,
As may express
them best; though what if Earth
Be but a
shadow of Heaven, and things therein
Each to other
like, more than on earth is thought?”
