• From “Paradise Lost,” Book III.
    HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born!
    Or of the Eternal coeternal beam
    May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
    And never but in unapproachèd light
    Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
    Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
    Or hear’st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
    ...

  • From “Paradise Lost,” Book VII.
      “LET there be light,” God said; and forthwith Light
    Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
    Sprung from the deep; and from her native east
    To journey through the aery gloom began,
    Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun
    Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
    Sojourned the while. God saw the light...