The less not bright, nor Heaven such journies run,
Earth sitting still, when she alone receives
The benefit. Consider, first, that great
Or bright infers not excellence. The Earth,
Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small,
Nor glistering, may of solid good contain
More plenty than the Sun that barren shines,
Whose virtue on itself works no effect,
But in the fruitful Earth; there first received,
His beams, inactive else, their vigour find,
Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee, Earth's habitant.
And, for the Heaven's wide circuit, let it speak
The Maker's high magnificence, who built
So spacious, and his line stretched out so far,
That Man may know he dwells not in his own--
An edifice too large for him to fill,
Lodged in a small partition; and the rest
Ordained for uses to his Lord best known,
The swiftness of those Circles attribute,
Though numberless, to his Omnipotence,
That to corporeal substances could add
Speed almost spiritual. Me thou think'st not slow,
Who since the morning-hour set out from Heaven
Where God resides, and ere midday arrived
In Eden--distance inexpressible
By numbers that have name. But this I urge,
Admitting motion in the Heavens, to show
Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;
Not that I so affirm, though so it seem
To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.
God, to remove his ways from human sense,
Placed Heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight,
If it presume, might err in things too high,
And no advantage gain.--viii. 85-122.

Notwithstanding the Angel's severe criticism of the Ptolemaic system, he
does not unreservedly support the conclusions arrived at by Adam, but
endeavours to show that his reasoning may not be altogether correct. He
questions the validity of his argument that bodies of greater size and
brightness should not serve the smaller, though not bright, and that
heaven should move, while the Earth remained at rest. He argues that
great or bright infers not excellence, and that the Earth, though small,
may contain more virtue than the Sun, that 'barren shines,' whose beams
create no beneficial effect, except when directed on the fruitful
Earth. He reminds Adam that those bright luminaries minister not to the
Earth, but to himself, 'Earth's habitant,' and directs his attention to
the magnificence