Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/276

The more she will acknowledge thee her head,
And to realities yield all her shews;
Made so adorn for thy delight the more,
So awful, that with honor thou mayest love
Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise.
But if the sense of touch, whereby mankind
Is propagated, seem such dear delight580
Beyond all other, think the same vouchsafed
To cattle and each beast; which would not be
To them made common and divulged, if aught
Therein ehjoyed were worthy to subdue
The soul of Man, or passion in him move.
What higher in her society thou findest,
Attractive, human, rational, love still;
In loving thou dost well; in passion not,
Wherein true love consists not; love refines
The thought, and heart enlarges, hath his seat590
In reason, and is judicious, is the scale
By which to heavenly love thou mayst ascend,
Not sunk in carnal pleasure; for which cause
Among the beasts no mate for thee was found."
To whom thus, half abashed, Adam, replied:
"Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught
In procreation, common to all kinds—
Though higher of the genial bed by far,
And with mysterious reverence I deem—
So much delights me, as those graceful acts,600
Those thousand decencies, that daily flow