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Groves of thick leaftness, whose knohs and boughs 



Weep spicey fragrance, and soft dews by night 



Refreshmgly descend. The regal sun 



His measure knows, and tempers so his beams 



To the nature of the soil that bud and blossom — 



Bern- and cluster, fi-uits of every pulp, 



Kernel and juice enrich the land together. 



Beelzebub— 'Tis well ! Proceed most ■s-igilaut Apollyon ! 

 Divulge more fully thy entreasured thoughts. 



Apollyon— VTho would prefer to be of spii-itual 



Rather than eoqioral frame, when we behold 

 Beings of flesh and blood, of bone and sinew, 

 Created from the dust to equal us — 

 Nay, haply, to excel us — for beneath 

 Their proud authority all creatures stand 

 That people Adam's realm. I hovered near 

 ■\Miile animals in throngs and flocks and shoals 

 By thousands upon thousands — all who tread 

 The solid groimd or wing the limpid air, 

 Or \vith gilt flashing fins diWde the stream, 

 Each born for its peculiar element — 

 Worshipped before him ! Who, like Adam, could 

 Discern then- characters and qualities 

 Omniscient ? For he gave them all their names- 

 Names, as thou wilt obsene, of each convejing 

 The properties— a depth of wisdom which 

 Omniscience alone could have inspired ! 

 The lion of the mountain crouched to him 

 Roaring subduedly. The tiger lay 

 Submissive at his feet. The sturdy ram 

 Lowered his horns ; the elephant his trunk 

 Wreathed reverently. Snake and mailed dragon 

 Did homage to him, bear and griflin came 

 In meekness to theii- master. Insect swarms, 

 The piincely eagle and each bird that flies, 

 The whale and eveiy fish acknowledge him — 

 Behemoth and le^iathian upreared 

 Their vastness from the waters and adored him. 

 I dwell not on what praise is sung to man. 

 What warblings greet him from the roseate bowers 

 And nooks of dusky verdure, while the wind 

 Plays in the copse, runs o'er the mellow stream, 

 And fills the unsated ear with music. Had 

 Apollyon's mission been achieved, he would 

 Have soon forgotten Heav'n in I\Ian"s Elysium. 



Belial — "UTiat think'st thou of the amorous pair to whom 

 All this felicity is consecrate ? 



Apollyon — Of all the white-robed choir, no Seraph yet 



Has more entranced my gaze than Eve and Adam, 



