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 wakest;

As once thou sleptst, while she to life was formed.”

To whom thus Adam gratefully replied.

“Ascend, I follow thee, safe Guide, the path

Thou leadest 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, and their glory.

His eye might there command wherever stood

City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls

Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir’s throne,

To Paquin of Sinaean kings; and thence

To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul,

Down to the golden Chersonese; or where

The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since

In Hispahan; or where the Russian Ksar

In Mosco; or the Sultan in Bizance,

Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken

The empire of Negus to his utmost port

Ercoco, and the less maritim kings

Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,

And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm

Of Congo, and Angola farthest south;

Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount

The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez and Sus,

Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen;

On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway

The world: in spirit perhaps he also saw

Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume,

And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat

Of Atabalipa; and yet unspoiled

Guiana, whose great city Geryon’s sons

Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights

Michael from Adam’s eyes the film removed,

Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight

Had bred; then purged with euphrasy and rue

The visual nerve, for he had much to see;

And from the well of life three drops instilled.

So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,

Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,

That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes,

Sunk down, and all his spirits became entranced;

But him the gentle Angel by the hand

Soon raised, and his attention thus recalled.