Book 4.
Paradise Lost.
Of Eden planted; Eden stretchd her Line 210From Auran Eastward to the Royal TowrsOf great Seleucia, built by Grecian Kings,Or where the Sons of Eden long beforeDwelt in Telassar: in this pleasant soileHis farr more pleasant Garden God ordaind;Out of the fertil ground he caus'd to growAll Trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste; And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,High eminent, blooming Ambrosial FruitOf vegetable Gold; and next to Life 220Our Death the Tree of Knowledge grew fast by, Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill. Southward through Eden went a River large, Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggie hillPass'd underneath ingulft, for God had thrown That Mountain as his Garden mould high rais'd Upon the rapid current, which through veinsOf porous Earth with kindly thirst up drawn, Rose a fresh Fountain, and with many a rill Waterd the Garden; thence united fell 230Down the steep glade, and met the neather Flood, Which from his darksom passage now appeers, And now divided into four main Streams,Runs divers, wandring many a famous Realme And Country whereof here needs no account, But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,How from that Saphire Fount the crisped Brooks, Rowling on Orient Pearl and sands of Gold, With mazie error under pendant shadesRan Nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 240Flours worthy of Paradise which not nice Art
In
