Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
Or where the sons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordained.
Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;
And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by--
Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill
Passed underneath ingulfed; for God had thrown
That mountain, as his garden mould, high raised
Upon the rapid current, which, through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Watered the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darksome passage now appears,
And now, divided into four main streams,
Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm
And country whereof here needs no account;
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell
How, from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks,
Boiling on orient-pearl and sands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain,
Both where the morning Sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierced shade
Imbrowned the noontide bowers.--iv. 205-46.

Milton's description of Paradise is not less remarkable in its way than
the lurid scenes depicted by him in Pandemonium. The versatility of his
poetic genius is nowhere more apparent than in the charming pastoral
verse contained in this part of his poem. The poet has lavished the
whole wealth of his luxuriant imagination in his description of Eden and
blissful Paradise with its 'vernal airs' and 'gentle gales,' its verdant
meads, and murmuring streams, 'rolling on orient-pearl and sands of
gold;' its stately trees laden with blossom and fruit; its spicy groves
and shady bowers, over which there breathed the eternal Spring.

In Book IX. Satan expresses himself in an eloquent apostrophe to the
primitive Earth, over which he previously wandered for seven days--

O