Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/265

In goodness and in power pre-eminent.
Tell me how may I know him, how adore,280
From whom I have that thus I move and live,
And feel that I am happier than I know.
"While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither,
From where I first drew air, and first beheld
This happy light, when answer none returned,
On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers,
Pensive I sat me down; there gentle sleep
First found me, and with soft oppression seized
My drowsied sense, untroubled though I thought
I then was passing to my former state290
Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:
When suddenly stood at my head a dream,
Whose inward apparition gently moved
My fancy to believe I yet had being,
And lived. One came, methought, of shape divine,
And said:—'Thy mansion wants thee, Adam; rise,
First Man, of men innumerable ordained
First Father! called by thee, I come thy guide
To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.'—
So saying, by the hand he took me, raised,300
And over fields and waters, as in air,
Smooth sliding without step, last led me up
A woody mountain, whose high top was plain,
A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees
Planted, with walks and bowers, that what I saw