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author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-03-09 13:19:48 +0000 |
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committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-03-09 13:20:02 +0000 |
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parent | Releasing debian version 1.43.2-1. (diff) | |
download | netdata-58daab21cd043e1dc37024a7f99b396788372918.tar.xz netdata-58daab21cd043e1dc37024a7f99b396788372918.zip |
Merging upstream version 1.44.3.
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+This is the February 1992 Project Gutenberg release of:
+
+Paradise Lost by John Milton
+
+The oldest etext known to Project Gutenberg (ca. 1964-1965)
+(If you know of any older ones, please let us know.)
+
+
+Introduction (one page)
+
+This etext was originally created in 1964-1965 according to Dr.
+Joseph Raben of Queens College, NY, to whom it is attributed by
+Project Gutenberg. We had heard of this etext for years but it
+was not until 1991 that we actually managed to track it down to
+a specific location, and then it took months to convince people
+to let us have a copy, then more months for them actually to do
+the copying and get it to us. Then another month to convert to
+something we could massage with our favorite 486 in DOS. After
+that is was only a matter of days to get it into this shape you
+will see below. The original was, of course, in CAPS only, and
+so were all the other etexts of the 60's and early 70's. Don't
+let anyone fool you into thinking any etext with both upper and
+lower case is an original; all those original Project Gutenberg
+etexts were also in upper case and were translated or rewritten
+many times to get them into their current condition. They have
+been worked on by many people throughout the world.
+
+In the course of our searches for Professor Raben and his etext
+we were never able to determine where copies were or which of a
+variety of editions he may have used as a source. We did get a
+little information here and there, but even after we received a
+copy of the etext we were unwilling to release it without first
+determining that it was in fact Public Domain and finding Raben
+to verify this and get his permission. Interested enough, in a
+totally unrelated action to our searches for him, the professor
+subscribed to the Project Gutenberg listserver and we happened,
+by accident, to notice his name. (We don't really look at every
+subscription request as the computers usually handle them.) The
+etext was then properly identified, copyright analyzed, and the
+current edition prepared.
+
+To give you an estimation of the difference in the original and
+what we have today: the original was probably entered on cards
+commonly known at the time as "IBM cards" (Do Not Fold, Spindle
+or Mutilate) and probably took in excess of 100,000 of them. A
+single card could hold 80 characters (hence 80 characters is an
+accepted standard for so many computer margins), and the entire
+original edition we received in all caps was over 800,000 chars
+in length, including line enumeration, symbols for caps and the
+punctuation marks, etc., since they were not available keyboard
+characters at the time (probably the keyboards operated at baud
+rates of around 113, meaning the typists had to type slowly for
+the keyboard to keep up).
+
+This is the second version of Paradise Lost released by Project
+Gutenberg. The first was released as our October, 1991 etext.
+
+
+
+
+
+Paradise Lost
+
+
+
+
+Book I
+
+
+Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
+Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
+Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
+With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
+Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
+Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
+Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
+That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
+In the beginning how the heavens and earth
+Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
+Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
+Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
+Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
+That with no middle flight intends to soar
+Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
+Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
+And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
+Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,
+Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
+Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
+Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,
+And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
+Illumine, what is low raise and support;
+That, to the height of this great argument,
+I may assert Eternal Providence,
+And justify the ways of God to men.
+ Say first--for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
+Nor the deep tract of Hell--say first what cause
+Moved our grand parents, in that happy state,
+Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off
+From their Creator, and transgress his will
+For one restraint, lords of the World besides.
+Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
+ Th' infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,
+Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
+The mother of mankind, what time his pride
+Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
+Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
+To set himself in glory above his peers,
+He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
+If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
+Against the throne and monarchy of God,
+Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
+With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
+Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,
+With hideous ruin and combustion, down
+To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
+In adamantine chains and penal fire,
+Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
+ Nine times the space that measures day and night
+To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew,
+Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
+Confounded, though immortal. But his doom
+Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
+Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
+Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes,
+That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,
+Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.
+At once, as far as Angels ken, he views
+The dismal situation waste and wild.
+A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,
+As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
+No light; but rather darkness visible
+Served only to discover sights of woe,
+Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
+And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
+That comes to all, but torture without end
+Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
+With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
+Such place Eternal Justice has prepared
+For those rebellious; here their prison ordained
+In utter darkness, and their portion set,
+As far removed from God and light of Heaven
+As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole.
+Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell!
+There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed
+With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
+He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side,
+One next himself in power, and next in crime,
+Long after known in Palestine, and named
+Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
+And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words
+Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:--
+ "If thou beest he--but O how fallen! how changed
+From him who, in the happy realms of light
+Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
+Myriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league,
+United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
+And hazard in the glorious enterprise
+Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
+In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest
+From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved
+He with his thunder; and till then who knew
+The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,
+Nor what the potent Victor in his rage
+Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,
+Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
+And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
+That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
+And to the fierce contentions brought along
+Innumerable force of Spirits armed,
+That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
+His utmost power with adverse power opposed
+In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
+And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
+All is not lost--the unconquerable will,
+And study of revenge, immortal hate,
+And courage never to submit or yield:
+And what is else not to be overcome?
+That glory never shall his wrath or might
+Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
+With suppliant knee, and deify his power
+Who, from the terror of this arm, so late
+Doubted his empire--that were low indeed;
+That were an ignominy and shame beneath
+This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods,
+And this empyreal sybstance, cannot fail;
+Since, through experience of this great event,
+In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
+We may with more successful hope resolve
+To wage by force or guile eternal war,
+Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,
+Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy
+Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."
+ So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain,
+Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair;
+And him thus answered soon his bold compeer:--
+ "O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers
+That led th' embattled Seraphim to war
+Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds
+Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King,
+And put to proof his high supremacy,
+Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate,
+Too well I see and rue the dire event
+That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat,
+Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host
+In horrible destruction laid thus low,
+As far as Gods and heavenly Essences
+Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains
+Invincible, and vigour soon returns,
+Though all our glory extinct, and happy state
+Here swallowed up in endless misery.
+But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now
+Of force believe almighty, since no less
+Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours)
+Have left us this our spirit and strength entire,
+Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
+That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
+Or do him mightier service as his thralls
+By right of war, whate'er his business be,
+Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
+Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep?
+What can it the avail though yet we feel
+Strength undiminished, or eternal being
+To undergo eternal punishment?"
+ Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied:--
+"Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable,
+Doing or suffering: but of this be sure--
+To do aught good never will be our task,
+But ever to do ill our sole delight,
+As being the contrary to his high will
+Whom we resist. If then his providence
+Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
+Our labour must be to pervert that end,
+And out of good still to find means of evil;
+Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps
+Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
+His inmost counsels from their destined aim.
+But see! the angry Victor hath recalled
+His ministers of vengeance and pursuit
+Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail,
+Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid
+The fiery surge that from the precipice
+Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder,
+Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,
+Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
+To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.
+Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn
+Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
+Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
+The seat of desolation, void of light,
+Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
+Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
+From off the tossing of these fiery waves;
+There rest, if any rest can harbour there;
+And, re-assembling our afflicted powers,
+Consult how we may henceforth most offend
+Our enemy, our own loss how repair,
+How overcome this dire calamity,
+What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
+If not, what resolution from despair."
+ Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,
+With head uplift above the wave, and eyes
+That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides
+Prone on the flood, extended long and large,
+Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
+As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
+Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,
+Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
+By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast
+Leviathan, which God of all his works
+Created hugest that swim th' ocean-stream.
+Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam,
+The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,
+Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
+With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,
+Moors by his side under the lee, while night
+Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.
+So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay,
+Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence
+Had risen, or heaved his head, but that the will
+And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
+Left him at large to his own dark designs,
+That with reiterated crimes he might
+Heap on himself damnation, while he sought
+Evil to others, and enraged might see
+How all his malice served but to bring forth
+Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn
+On Man by him seduced, but on himself
+Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured.
+ Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
+His mighty stature; on each hand the flames
+Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and,rolled
+In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.
+Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
+Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air,
+That felt unusual weight; till on dry land
+He lights--if it were land that ever burned
+With solid, as the lake with liquid fire,
+And such appeared in hue as when the force
+Of subterranean wind transprots a hill
+Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side
+Of thundering Etna, whose combustible
+And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire,
+Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
+And leave a singed bottom all involved
+With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole
+Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate;
+Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood
+As gods, and by their own recovered strength,
+Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.
+ "Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,"
+Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat
+That we must change for Heaven?--this mournful gloom
+For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
+Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid
+What shall be right: farthest from him is best
+Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme
+Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
+Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
+Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,
+Receive thy new possessor--one who brings
+A mind not to be changed by place or time.
+The mind is its own place, and in itself
+Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
+What matter where, if I be still the same,
+And what I should be, all but less than he
+Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
+We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
+Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
+Here we may reigh secure; and, in my choice,
+To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
+Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
+But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
+Th' associates and co-partners of our loss,
+Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool,
+And call them not to share with us their part
+In this unhappy mansion, or once more
+With rallied arms to try what may be yet
+Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?"
+ So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub
+Thus answered:--"Leader of those armies bright
+Which, but th' Omnipotent, none could have foiled!
+If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
+Of hope in fears and dangers--heard so oft
+In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
+Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults
+Their surest signal--they will soon resume
+New courage and revive, though now they lie
+Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,
+As we erewhile, astounded and amazed;
+No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!"
+ He scare had ceased when the superior Fiend
+Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,
+Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
+Behind him cast. The broad circumference
+Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
+Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
+At evening, from the top of Fesole,
+Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
+Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
+His spear--to equal which the tallest pine
+Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
+Of some great ammiral, were but a wand--
+He walked with, to support uneasy steps
+Over the burning marl, not like those steps
+On Heaven's azure; and the torrid clime
+Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire.
+Nathless he so endured, till on the beach
+Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called
+His legions--Angel Forms, who lay entranced
+Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
+In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
+High over-arched embower; or scattered sedge
+Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed
+Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew
+Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,
+While with perfidious hatred they pursued
+The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
+From the safe shore their floating carcases
+And broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown,
+Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood,
+Under amazement of their hideous change.
+He called so loud that all the hollow deep
+Of Hell resounded:--"Princes, Potentates,
+Warriors, the Flower of Heaven--once yours; now lost,
+If such astonishment as this can seize
+Eternal Spirits! Or have ye chosen this place
+After the toil of battle to repose
+Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
+To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
+Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
+To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds
+Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
+With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon
+His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern
+Th' advantage, and, descending, tread us down
+Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
+Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf?
+Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!"
+ They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung
+Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
+On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
+Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.
+Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
+In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
+Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed
+Innumerable. As when the potent rod
+Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,
+Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud
+Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,
+That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
+Like Night, and darkened all the land of Nile;
+So numberless were those bad Angels seen
+Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell,
+'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;
+Till, as a signal given, th' uplifted spear
+Of their great Sultan waving to direct
+Their course, in even balance down they light
+On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain:
+A multitude like which the populous North
+Poured never from her frozen loins to pass
+Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons
+Came like a deluge on the South, and spread
+Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands.
+Forthwith, form every squadron and each band,
+The heads and leaders thither haste where stood
+Their great Commander--godlike Shapes, and Forms
+Excelling human; princely Dignities;
+And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones,
+Though on their names in Heavenly records now
+Be no memorial, blotted out and rased
+By their rebellion from the Books of Life.
+Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
+Got them new names, till, wandering o'er the earth,
+Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
+By falsities and lies the greatest part
+Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
+God their Creator, and th' invisible
+Glory of him that made them to transform
+Oft to the image of a brute, adorned
+With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
+And devils to adore for deities:
+Then were they known to men by various names,
+And various idols through the heathen world.
+ Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last,
+Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch,
+At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth
+Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
+While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof?
+ The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell
+Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix
+Their seats, long after, next the seat of God,
+Their altars by his altar, gods adored
+Among the nations round, and durst abide
+Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned
+Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed
+Within his sanctuary itself their shrines,
+Abominations; and with cursed things
+His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned,
+And with their darkness durst affront his light.
+First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
+Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;
+Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
+Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire
+To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
+Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain,
+In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
+Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
+Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
+Of Solomon he led by fraoud to build
+His temple right against the temple of God
+On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
+The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
+And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.
+Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's sons,
+From Aroar to Nebo and the wild
+Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
+And Horonaim, Seon's real, beyond
+The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines,
+And Eleale to th' Asphaltic Pool:
+Peor his other name, when he enticed
+Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
+To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
+Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged
+Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove
+Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate,
+Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.
+With these came they who, from the bordering flood
+Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
+Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
+Of Baalim and Ashtaroth--those male,
+These feminine. For Spirits, when they please,
+Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
+And uncompounded is their essence pure,
+Not tried or manacled with joint or limb,
+Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
+Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose,
+Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,
+Can execute their airy purposes,
+And works of love or enmity fulfil.
+For those the race of Israel oft forsook
+Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left
+His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
+To bestial gods; for which their heads as low
+Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear
+Of despicable foes. With these in troop
+Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called
+Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns;
+To whose bright image nigntly by the moon
+Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs;
+In Sion also not unsung, where stood
+Her temple on th' offensive mountain, built
+By that uxorious king whose heart, though large,
+Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell
+To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
+Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
+The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
+In amorous ditties all a summer's day,
+While smooth Adonis from his native rock
+Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
+Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale
+Infected Sion's daughters with like heat,
+Whose wanton passions in the sacred proch
+Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,
+His eye surveyed the dark idolatries
+Of alienated Judah. Next came one
+Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark
+Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off,
+In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge,
+Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers:
+Dagon his name, sea-monster,upward man
+And downward fish; yet had his temple high
+Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
+Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
+And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
+Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat
+Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
+Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
+He also against the house of God was bold:
+A leper once he lost, and gained a king--
+Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew
+God's altar to disparage and displace
+For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
+His odious offerings, and adore the gods
+Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared
+A crew who, under names of old renown--
+Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train--
+With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
+Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek
+Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms
+Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape
+Th' infection, when their borrowed gold composed
+The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king
+Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,
+Likening his Maker to the grazed ox--
+Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed
+From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke
+Both her first-born and all her bleating gods.
+Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd
+Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
+Vice for itself. To him no temple stood
+Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he
+In temples and at altars, when the priest
+Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled
+With lust and violence the house of God?
+In courts and palaces he also reigns,
+And in luxurious cities, where the noise
+Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,
+And injury and outrage; and, when night
+Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
+Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
+Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night
+In Gibeah, when the hospitable door
+Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape.
+ These were the prime in order and in might:
+The rest were long to tell; though far renowned
+Th' Ionian gods--of Javan's issue held
+Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth,
+Their boasted parents;--Titan, Heaven's first-born,
+With his enormous brood, and birthright seized
+By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove,
+His own and Rhea's son, like measure found;
+So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete
+And Ida known, thence on the snowy top
+Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air,
+Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff,
+Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
+Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old
+Fled over Adria to th' Hesperian fields,
+And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost Isles.
+ All these and more came flocking; but with looks
+Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared
+Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their Chief
+Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost
+In loss itself; which on his countenance cast
+Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride
+Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
+Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised
+Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears.
+Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound
+Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared
+His mighty standard. That proud honour claimed
+Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall:
+Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled
+Th' imperial ensign; which, full high advanced,
+Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind,
+With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,
+Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while
+Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds:
+At which the universal host up-sent
+A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond
+Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.
+All in a moment through the gloom were seen
+Ten thousand banners rise into the air,
+With orient colours waving: with them rose
+A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
+Appeared, and serried shields in thick array
+Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move
+In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood
+Of flutes and soft recorders--such as raised
+To height of noblest temper heroes old
+Arming to battle, and instead of rage
+Deliberate valour breathed, firm, and unmoved
+With dread of death to flight or foul retreat;
+Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
+With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase
+Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
+From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they,
+Breathing united force with fixed thought,
+Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed
+Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil. And now
+Advanced in view they stand--a horrid front
+Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise
+Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield,
+Awaiting what command their mighty Chief
+Had to impose. He through the armed files
+Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse
+The whole battalion views--their order due,
+Their visages and stature as of gods;
+Their number last he sums. And now his heart
+Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength,
+Glories: for never, since created Man,
+Met such embodied force as, named with these,
+Could merit more than that small infantry
+Warred on by cranes--though all the giant brood
+Of Phlegra with th' heroic race were joined
+That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side
+Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds
+In fable or romance of Uther's son,
+Begirt with British and Armoric knights;
+And all who since, baptized or infidel,
+Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban,
+Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,
+Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore
+When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
+By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond
+Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed
+Their dread Commander. He, above the rest
+In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
+Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost
+All her original brightness, nor appeared
+Less than Archangel ruined, and th' excess
+Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen
+Looks through the horizontal misty air
+Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon,
+In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
+On half the nations, and with fear of change
+Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone
+Above them all th' Archangel: but his face
+Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care
+Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows
+Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride
+Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast
+Signs of remorse and passion, to behold
+The fellows of his crime, the followers rather
+(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned
+For ever now to have their lot in pain--
+Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced
+Of Heaven, and from eteranl splendours flung
+For his revolt--yet faithful how they stood,
+Their glory withered; as, when heaven's fire
+Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines,
+With singed top their stately growth, though bare,
+Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared
+To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
+From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
+With all his peers: attention held them mute.
+Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn,
+Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last
+Words interwove with sighs found out their way:--
+ "O myriads of immortal Spirits! O Powers
+Matchless, but with th' Almighth!--and that strife
+Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire,
+As this place testifies, and this dire change,
+Hateful to utter. But what power of mind,
+Forseeing or presaging, from the depth
+Of knowledge past or present, could have feared
+How such united force of gods, how such
+As stood like these, could ever know repulse?
+For who can yet believe, though after loss,
+That all these puissant legions, whose exile
+Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend,
+Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?
+For me, be witness all the host of Heaven,
+If counsels different, or danger shunned
+By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns
+Monarch in Heaven till then as one secure
+Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
+Consent or custom, and his regal state
+Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed--
+Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
+Henceforth his might we know, and know our own,
+So as not either to provoke, or dread
+New war provoked: our better part remains
+To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
+What force effected not; that he no less
+At length from us may find, who overcomes
+By force hath overcome but half his foe.
+Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife
+There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long
+Intended to create, and therein plant
+A generation whom his choice regard
+Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven.
+Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
+Our first eruption--thither, or elsewhere;
+For this infernal pit shall never hold
+Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th' Abyss
+Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
+Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired;
+For who can think submission? War, then, war
+Open or understood, must be resolved."
+ He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew
+Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
+Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
+Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged
+Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
+Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
+Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.
+ There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top
+Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire
+Shone with a glossy scurf--undoubted sign
+That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
+The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed,
+A numerous brigade hastened: as when bands
+Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed,
+Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
+Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on--
+Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
+From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts
+Were always downward bent, admiring more
+The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
+Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
+In vision beatific. By him first
+Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
+Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands
+Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth
+For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
+Opened into the hill a spacious wound,
+And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire
+That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
+Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
+Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell
+Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
+Learn how their greatest monuments of fame
+And strength, and art, are easily outdone
+By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
+What in an age they, with incessant toil
+And hands innumerable, scarce perform.
+Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,
+That underneath had veins of liquid fire
+Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude
+With wondrous art founded the massy ore,
+Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross.
+A third as soon had formed within the ground
+A various mould, and from the boiling cells
+By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook;
+As in an organ, from one blast of wind,
+To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.
+Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
+Rose like an exhalation, with the sound
+Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet--
+Built like a temple, where pilasters round
+Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
+With golden architrave; nor did there want
+Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven;
+The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon
+Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
+Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine
+Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat
+Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
+In wealth and luxury. Th' ascending pile
+Stood fixed her stately height, and straight the doors,
+Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide
+Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth
+And level pavement: from the arched roof,
+Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
+Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
+With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light
+As from a sky. The hasty multitude
+Admiring entered; and the work some praise,
+And some the architect. His hand was known
+In Heaven by many a towered structure high,
+Where sceptred Angels held their residence,
+And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King
+Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
+Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright.
+Nor was his name unheard or unadored
+In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
+Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
+From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
+Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn
+To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
+A summer's day, and with the setting sun
+Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star,
+On Lemnos, th' Aegaean isle. Thus they relate,
+Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
+Fell long before; nor aught aviled him now
+To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he scape
+By all his engines, but was headlong sent,
+With his industrious crew, to build in Hell.
+ Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command
+Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony
+And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim
+A solemn council forthwith to be held
+At Pandemonium, the high capital
+Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called
+From every band and squared regiment
+By place or choice the worthiest: they anon
+With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
+Attended. All access was thronged; the gates
+And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
+(Though like a covered field, where champions bold
+Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair
+Defied the best of Paynim chivalry
+To mortal combat, or career with lance),
+Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air,
+Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees
+In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides.
+Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
+In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
+Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank,
+The suburb of their straw-built citadel,
+New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer
+Their state-affairs: so thick the airy crowd
+Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given,
+Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed
+In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons,
+Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
+Throng numberless--like that pygmean race
+Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves,
+Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side
+Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
+Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon
+Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth
+Wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance
+Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;
+At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
+Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms
+Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large,
+Though without number still, amidst the hall
+Of that infernal court. But far within,
+And in their own dimensions like themselves,
+The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
+In close recess and secret conclave sat,
+A thousand demi-gods on golden seats,
+Frequent and full. After short silence then,
+And summons read, the great consult began.
+
+
+
+Book II
+
+
+High on a throne of royal state, which far
+Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
+Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
+Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
+Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
+To that bad eminence; and, from despair
+Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
+Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue
+Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught,
+His proud imaginations thus displayed:--
+ "Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven!--
+For, since no deep within her gulf can hold
+Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen,
+I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent
+Celestial Virtues rising will appear
+More glorious and more dread than from no fall,
+And trust themselves to fear no second fate!--
+Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven,
+Did first create your leader--next, free choice
+With what besides in council or in fight
+Hath been achieved of merit--yet this loss,
+Thus far at least recovered, hath much more
+Established in a safe, unenvied throne,
+Yielded with full consent. The happier state
+In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw
+Envy from each inferior; but who here
+Will envy whom the highest place exposes
+Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim
+Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
+Of endless pain? Where there is, then, no good
+For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
+From faction: for none sure will claim in Hell
+Precedence; none whose portion is so small
+Of present pain that with ambitious mind
+Will covet more! With this advantage, then,
+To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
+More than can be in Heaven, we now return
+To claim our just inheritance of old,
+Surer to prosper than prosperity
+Could have assured us; and by what best way,
+Whether of open war or covert guile,
+We now debate. Who can advise may speak."
+ He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king,
+Stood up--the strongest and the fiercest Spirit
+That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair.
+His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed
+Equal in strength, and rather than be less
+Cared not to be at all; with that care lost
+Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse,
+He recked not, and these words thereafter spake:--
+ "My sentence is for open war. Of wiles,
+More unexpert, I boast not: them let those
+Contrive who need, or when they need; not now.
+For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest--
+Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait
+The signal to ascend--sit lingering here,
+Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
+Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
+The prison of his ryranny who reigns
+By our delay? No! let us rather choose,
+Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
+O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way,
+Turning our tortures into horrid arms
+Against the Torturer; when, to meet the noise
+Of his almighty engine, he shall hear
+Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see
+Black fire and horror shot with equal rage
+Among his Angels, and his throne itself
+Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire,
+His own invented torments. But perhaps
+The way seems difficult, and steep to scale
+With upright wing against a higher foe!
+Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench
+Of that forgetful lake benumb not still,
+That in our porper motion we ascend
+Up to our native seat; descent and fall
+To us is adverse. Who but felt of late,
+When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
+Insulting, and pursued us through the Deep,
+With what compulsion and laborious flight
+We sunk thus low? Th' ascent is easy, then;
+Th' event is feared! Should we again provoke
+Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find
+To our destruction, if there be in Hell
+Fear to be worse destroyed! What can be worse
+Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned
+In this abhorred deep to utter woe!
+Where pain of unextinguishable fire
+Must exercise us without hope of end
+The vassals of his anger, when the scourge
+Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
+Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus,
+We should be quite abolished, and expire.
+What fear we then? what doubt we to incense
+His utmost ire? which, to the height enraged,
+Will either quite consume us, and reduce
+To nothing this essential--happier far
+Than miserable to have eternal being!--
+Or, if our substance be indeed divine,
+And cannot cease to be, we are at worst
+On this side nothing; and by proof we feel
+Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven,
+And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
+Though inaccessible, his fatal throne:
+Which, if not victory, is yet revenge."
+ He ended frowning, and his look denounced
+Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous
+To less than gods. On th' other side up rose
+Belial, in act more graceful and humane.
+A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
+For dignity composed, and high exploit.
+But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
+Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
+The better reason, to perplex and dash
+Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low--
+ To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
+Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the ear,
+And with persuasive accent thus began:--
+ "I should be much for open war, O Peers,
+As not behind in hate, if what was urged
+Main reason to persuade immediate war
+Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast
+Ominous conjecture on the whole success;
+When he who most excels in fact of arms,
+In what he counsels and in what excels
+Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair
+And utter dissolution, as the scope
+Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.
+First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are filled
+With armed watch, that render all access
+Impregnable: oft on the bodering Deep
+Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing
+Scout far and wide into the realm of Night,
+Scorning surprise. Or, could we break our way
+By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise
+With blackest insurrection to confound
+Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy,
+All incorruptible, would on his throne
+Sit unpolluted, and th' ethereal mould,
+Incapable of stain, would soon expel
+Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
+Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope
+Is flat despair: we must exasperate
+Th' Almighty Victor to spend all his rage;
+And that must end us; that must be our cure--
+To be no more. Sad cure! for who would lose,
+Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
+Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
+To perish rather, swallowed up and lost
+In the wide womb of uncreated Night,
+Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows,
+Let this be good, whether our angry Foe
+Can give it, or will ever? How he can
+Is doubtful; that he never will is sure.
+Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire,
+Belike through impotence or unaware,
+To give his enemies their wish, and end
+Them in his anger whom his anger saves
+To punish endless? 'Wherefore cease we, then?'
+Say they who counsel war; 'we are decreed,
+Reserved, and destined to eternal woe;
+Whatever doing, what can we suffer more,
+What can we suffer worse?' Is this, then, worst--
+Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms?
+What when we fled amain, pursued and struck
+With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought
+The Deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed
+A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay
+Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse.
+What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,
+Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage,
+And plunge us in the flames; or from above
+Should intermitted vengeance arm again
+His red right hand to plague us? What if all
+Her stores were opened, and this firmament
+Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
+Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall
+One day upon our heads; while we perhaps,
+Designing or exhorting glorious war,
+Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled,
+Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey
+Or racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk
+Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains,
+There to converse with everlasting groans,
+Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved,
+Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse.
+War, therefore, open or concealed, alike
+My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile
+With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye
+Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's height
+All these our motions vain sees and derides,
+Not more almighty to resist our might
+Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles.
+Shall we, then, live thus vile--the race of Heaven
+Thus trampled, thus expelled, to suffer here
+Chains and these torments? Better these than worse,
+By my advice; since fate inevitable
+Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,
+The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do,
+Our strength is equal; nor the law unjust
+That so ordains. This was at first resolved,
+If we were wise, against so great a foe
+Contending, and so doubtful what might fall.
+I laugh when those who at the spear are bold
+And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear
+What yet they know must follow--to endure
+Exile, or igominy, or bonds, or pain,
+The sentence of their Conqueror. This is now
+Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear,
+Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit
+His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed,
+Not mind us not offending, satisfied
+With what is punished; whence these raging fires
+Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames.
+Our purer essence then will overcome
+Their noxious vapour; or, inured, not feel;
+Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed
+In temper and in nature, will receive
+Familiar the fierce heat; and, void of pain,
+This horror will grow mild, this darkness light;
+Besides what hope the never-ending flight
+Of future days may bring, what chance, what change
+Worth waiting--since our present lot appears
+For happy though but ill, for ill not worst,
+If we procure not to ourselves more woe."
+ Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb,
+Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth,
+Not peace; and after him thus Mammon spake:--
+ "Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven
+We war, if war be best, or to regain
+Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then
+May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield
+To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife.
+The former, vain to hope, argues as vain
+The latter; for what place can be for us
+Within Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord supreme
+We overpower? Suppose he should relent
+And publish grace to all, on promise made
+Of new subjection; with what eyes could we
+Stand in his presence humble, and receive
+Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne
+With warbled hyms, and to his Godhead sing
+Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits
+Our envied sovereign, and his altar breathes
+Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,
+Our servile offerings? This must be our task
+In Heaven, this our delight. How wearisome
+Eternity so spent in worship paid
+To whom we hate! Let us not then pursue,
+By force impossible, by leave obtained
+Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state
+Of splendid vassalage; but rather seek
+Our own good from ourselves, and from our own
+Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,
+Free and to none accountable, preferring
+Hard liberty before the easy yoke
+Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear
+Then most conspicuous when great things of small,
+Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse,
+We can create, and in what place soe'er
+Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain
+Through labour and endurance. This deep world
+Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst
+Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire
+Choose to reside, his glory unobscured,
+And with the majesty of darkness round
+Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar.
+Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell!
+As he our darkness, cannot we his light
+Imitate when we please? This desert soil
+Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
+Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise
+Magnificence; and what can Heaven show more?
+Our torments also may, in length of time,
+Become our elements, these piercing fires
+As soft as now severe, our temper changed
+Into their temper; which must needs remove
+The sensible of pain. All things invite
+To peaceful counsels, and the settled state
+Of order, how in safety best we may
+Compose our present evils, with regard
+Of what we are and where, dismissing quite
+All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise."
+ He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled
+Th' assembly as when hollow rocks retain
+The sound of blustering winds, which all night long
+Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
+Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance
+Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay
+After the tempest. Such applause was heard
+As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased,
+Advising peace: for such another field
+They dreaded worse than Hell; so much the fear
+Of thunder and the sword of Michael
+Wrought still within them; and no less desire
+To found this nether empire, which might rise,
+By policy and long process of time,
+In emulation opposite to Heaven.
+Which when Beelzebub perceived--than whom,
+Satan except, none higher sat--with grave
+Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed
+A pillar of state. Deep on his front engraven
+Deliberation sat, and public care;
+And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
+Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood
+With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
+The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look
+Drew audience and attention still as night
+Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake:--
+ "Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven,
+Ethereal Virtues! or these titles now
+Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called
+Princes of Hell? for so the popular vote
+Inclines--here to continue, and build up here
+A growing empire; doubtless! while we dream,
+And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed
+This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat
+Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt
+From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league
+Banded against his throne, but to remain
+In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,
+Under th' inevitable curb, reserved
+His captive multitude. For he, to be sure,
+In height or depth, still first and last will reign
+Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part
+By our revolt, but over Hell extend
+His empire, and with iron sceptre rule
+Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven.
+What sit we then projecting peace and war?
+War hath determined us and foiled with loss
+Irreparable; terms of peace yet none
+Vouchsafed or sought; for what peace will be given
+To us enslaved, but custody severe,
+And stripes and arbitrary punishment
+Inflicted? and what peace can we return,
+But, to our power, hostility and hate,
+Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow,
+Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least
+May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice
+In doing what we most in suffering feel?
+Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need
+With dangerous expedition to invade
+Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege,
+Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find
+Some easier enterprise? There is a place
+(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven
+Err not)--another World, the happy seat
+Of some new race, called Man, about this time
+To be created like to us, though less
+In power and excellence, but favoured more
+Of him who rules above; so was his will
+Pronounced among the Gods, and by an oath
+That shook Heaven's whole circumference confirmed.
+Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn
+What creatures there inhabit, of what mould
+Or substance, how endued, and what their power
+And where their weakness: how attempted best,
+By force of subtlety. Though Heaven be shut,
+And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure
+In his own strength, this place may lie exposed,
+The utmost border of his kingdom, left
+To their defence who hold it: here, perhaps,
+Some advantageous act may be achieved
+By sudden onset--either with Hell-fire
+To waste his whole creation, or possess
+All as our own, and drive, as we were driven,
+The puny habitants; or, if not drive,
+Seduce them to our party, that their God
+May prove their foe, and with repenting hand
+Abolish his own works. This would surpass
+Common revenge, and interrupt his joy
+In our confusion, and our joy upraise
+In his disturbance; when his darling sons,
+Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse
+Their frail original, and faded bliss--
+Faded so soon! Advise if this be worth
+Attempting, or to sit in darkness here
+Hatching vain empires." Thus beelzebub
+Pleaded his devilish counsel--first devised
+By Satan, and in part proposed: for whence,
+But from the author of all ill, could spring
+So deep a malice, to confound the race
+Of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell
+To mingle and involve, done all to spite
+The great Creator? But their spite still serves
+His glory to augment. The bold design
+Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy
+Sparkled in all their eyes: with full assent
+They vote: whereat his speech he thus renews:--
+"Well have ye judged, well ended long debate,
+Synod of Gods, and, like to what ye are,
+Great things resolved, which from the lowest deep
+Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate,
+Nearer our ancient seat--perhaps in view
+Of those bright confines, whence, with neighbouring arms,
+And opportune excursion, we may chance
+Re-enter Heaven; or else in some mild zone
+Dwell, not unvisited of Heaven's fair light,
+Secure, and at the brightening orient beam
+Purge off this gloom: the soft delicious air,
+To heal the scar of these corrosive fires,
+Shall breathe her balm. But, first, whom shall we send
+In search of this new World? whom shall we find
+Sufficient? who shall tempt with wandering feet
+The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss,
+And through the palpable obscure find out
+His uncouth way, or spread his airy flight,
+Upborne with indefatigable wings
+Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive
+The happy Isle? What strength, what art, can then
+Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe,
+Through the strict senteries and stations thick
+Of Angels watching round? Here he had need
+All circumspection: and we now no less
+Choice in our suffrage; for on whom we send
+The weight of all, and our last hope, relies."
+ This said, he sat; and expectation held
+His look suspense, awaiting who appeared
+To second, or oppose, or undertake
+The perilous attempt. But all sat mute,
+Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; and each
+In other's countenance read his own dismay,
+Astonished. None among the choice and prime
+Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found
+So hardy as to proffer or accept,
+Alone, the dreadful voyage; till, at last,
+Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised
+Above his fellows, with monarchal pride
+Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake:--
+ "O Progeny of Heaven! Empyreal Thrones!
+With reason hath deep silence and demur
+Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way
+And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
+Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire,
+Outrageous to devour, immures us round
+Ninefold; and gates of burning adamant,
+Barred over us, prohibit all egress.
+These passed, if any pass, the void profound
+Of unessential Night receives him next,
+Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being
+Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf.
+If thence he scape, into whatever world,
+Or unknown region, what remains him less
+Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape?
+But I should ill become this throne, O Peers,
+And this imperial sovereignty, adorned
+With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed
+And judged of public moment in the shape
+Of difficulty or danger, could deter
+Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume
+These royalties, and not refuse to reign,
+Refusing to accept as great a share
+Of hazard as of honour, due alike
+To him who reigns, and so much to him due
+Of hazard more as he above the rest
+High honoured sits? Go, therefore, mighty Powers,
+Terror of Heaven, though fallen; intend at home,
+While here shall be our home, what best may ease
+The present misery, and render Hell
+More tolerable; if there be cure or charm
+To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain
+Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch
+Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad
+Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek
+Deliverance for us all. This enterprise
+None shall partake with me." Thus saying, rose
+The Monarch, and prevented all reply;
+Prudent lest, from his resolution raised,
+Others among the chief might offer now,
+Certain to be refused, what erst they feared,
+And, so refused, might in opinion stand
+His rivals, winning cheap the high repute
+Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they
+Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice
+Forbidding; and at once with him they rose.
+Their rising all at once was as the sound
+Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend
+With awful reverence prone, and as a God
+Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.
+Nor failed they to express how much they praised
+That for the general safety he despised
+His own: for neither do the Spirits damned
+Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast
+Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
+Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal.
+ Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
+Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief:
+As, when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
+Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
+Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element
+Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower,
+If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
+Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
+The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
+Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
+O shame to men! Devil with devil damned
+Firm concord holds; men only disagree
+Of creatures rational, though under hope
+Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace,
+Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife
+Among themselves, and levy cruel wars
+Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:
+As if (which might induce us to accord)
+Man had not hellish foes enow besides,
+That day and night for his destruction wait!
+ The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth
+In order came the grand infernal Peers:
+Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed
+Alone th' antagonist of Heaven, nor less
+Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme,
+And god-like imitated state: him round
+A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed
+With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms.
+Then of their session ended they bid cry
+With trumpet's regal sound the great result:
+Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
+Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy,
+By herald's voice explained; the hollow Abyss
+Heard far adn wide, and all the host of Hell
+With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim.
+Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised
+By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers
+Disband; and, wandering, each his several way
+Pursues, as inclination or sad choice
+Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find
+Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain
+The irksome hours, till his great Chief return.
+Part on the plain, or in the air sublime,
+Upon the wing or in swift race contend,
+As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields;
+Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
+With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form:
+As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
+Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
+To battle in the clouds; before each van
+Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears,
+Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms
+From either end of heaven the welkin burns.
+Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell,
+Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
+In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar:--
+As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
+With conquest, felt th' envenomed robe, and tore
+Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines,
+And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
+Into th' Euboic sea. Others, more mild,
+Retreated in a silent valley, sing
+With notes angelical to many a harp
+Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall
+By doom of battle, and complain that Fate
+Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance.
+Their song was partial; but the harmony
+(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?)
+Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment
+The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet
+(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense)
+Others apart sat on a hill retired,
+In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
+Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate--
+Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
+And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.
+Of good and evil much they argued then,
+Of happiness and final misery,
+Passion and apathy, and glory and shame:
+Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy!--
+Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm
+Pain for a while or anguish, and excite
+Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast
+With stubborn patience as with triple steel.
+Another part, in squadrons and gross bands,
+On bold adventure to discover wide
+That dismal world, if any clime perhaps
+Might yield them easier habitation, bend
+Four ways their flying march, along the banks
+Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge
+Into the burning lake their baleful streams--
+Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
+Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
+Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
+Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton,
+Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
+Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
+Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
+Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
+Forthwith his former state and being forgets--
+Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
+Beyond this flood a frozen continent
+Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
+Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
+Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
+Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,
+A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
+Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
+Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
+Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire.
+Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
+At certain revolutions all the damned
+Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
+Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
+From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
+Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
+Immovable, infixed, and frozen round
+Periods of time,--thence hurried back to fire.
+They ferry over this Lethean sound
+Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
+And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
+The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
+In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
+All in one moment, and so near the brink;
+But Fate withstands, and, to oppose th' attempt,
+Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
+The ford, and of itself the water flies
+All taste of living wight, as once it fled
+The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
+In confused march forlorn, th' adventurous bands,
+With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast,
+Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found
+No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale
+They passed, and many a region dolorous,
+O'er many a frozen, many a fiery alp,
+Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death--
+A universe of death, which God by curse
+Created evil, for evil only good;
+Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
+Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
+Obominable, inutterable, and worse
+Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived,
+Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
+ Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man,
+Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design,
+Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell
+Explores his solitary flight: sometimes
+He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left;
+Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
+Up to the fiery concave towering high.
+As when far off at sea a fleet descried
+Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
+Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles
+Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
+Their spicy drugs; they on the trading flood,
+Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape,
+Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seemed
+Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear
+Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof,
+And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass,
+Three iron, three of adamantine rock,
+Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,
+Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat
+On either side a formidable Shape.
+The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair,
+But ended foul in many a scaly fold,
+Voluminous and vast--a serpent armed
+With mortal sting. About her middle round
+A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked
+With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
+A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,
+If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,
+And kennel there; yet there still barked and howled
+Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these
+Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
+Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore;
+Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called
+In secret, riding through the air she comes,
+Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance
+With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon
+Eclipses at their charms. The other Shape--
+If shape it might be called that shape had none
+Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
+Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,
+For each seemed either--black it stood as Night,
+Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
+And shook a dreadful dart: what seemed his head
+The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
+Satan was now at hand, and from his seat
+The monster moving onward came as fast
+With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode.
+Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admired--
+Admired, not feared (God and his Son except,
+Created thing naught valued he nor shunned),
+And with disdainful look thus first began:--
+ "Whence and what art thou, execrable Shape,
+That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance
+Thy miscreated front athwart my way
+To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass,
+That be assured, without leave asked of thee.
+Retire; or taste thy folly, and learn by proof,
+Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven."
+ To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied:--
+"Art thou that traitor Angel? art thou he,
+Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then
+Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms
+Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons,
+Conjured against the Highest--for which both thou
+And they, outcast from God, are here condemned
+To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
+And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven
+Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here and scorn,
+Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more,
+Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
+False fugitive; and to thy speed add wings,
+Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue
+Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart
+Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."
+ So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape,
+So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold,
+More dreadful and deform. On th' other side,
+Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
+Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
+That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
+In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
+Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
+Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands
+No second stroke intend; and such a frown
+Each cast at th' other as when two black clouds,
+With heaven's artillery fraught, came rattling on
+Over the Caspian,--then stand front to front
+Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
+To join their dark encounter in mid-air.
+So frowned the mighty combatants that Hell
+Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood;
+For never but once more was wither like
+To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds
+Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,
+Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat
+Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key,
+Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between.
+ "O father, what intends thy hand," she cried,
+"Against thy only son? What fury, O son,
+Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart
+Against thy father's head? And know'st for whom?
+For him who sits above, and laughs the while
+At thee, ordained his drudge to execute
+Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids--
+His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both!"
+ She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest
+Forbore: then these to her Satan returned:--
+ "So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange
+Thou interposest, that my sudden hand,
+Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds
+What it intends, till first I know of thee
+What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why,
+In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st
+Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son.
+I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
+Sight more detestable than him and thee."
+ T' whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied:--
+"Hast thou forgot me, then; and do I seem
+Now in thine eye so foul?--once deemed so fair
+In Heaven, when at th' assembly, and in sight
+Of all the Seraphim with thee combined
+In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King,
+All on a sudden miserable pain
+Surprised thee, dim thine eyes and dizzy swum
+In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
+Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide,
+Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
+Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed,
+Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized
+All th' host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid
+At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign
+Portentous held me; but, familiar grown,
+I pleased, and with attractive graces won
+The most averse--thee chiefly, who, full oft
+Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
+Becam'st enamoured; and such joy thou took'st
+With me in secret that my womb conceived
+A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,
+And fields were fought in Heaven: wherein remained
+(For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe
+Clear victory; to our part loss and rout
+Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell,
+Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down
+Into this Deep; and in the general fall
+I also: at which time this powerful key
+Into my hands was given, with charge to keep
+These gates for ever shut, which none can pass
+Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
+Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb,
+Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
+Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
+At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
+Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,
+Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain
+Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
+Transformed: but he my inbred enemy
+Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart,
+Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death!
+Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed
+From all her caves, and back resounded Death!
+I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems,
+Inflamed with lust than rage), and, swifter far,
+Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed,
+And, in embraces forcible and foul
+Engendering with me, of that rape begot
+These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
+Surround me, as thou saw'st--hourly conceived
+And hourly born, with sorrow infinite
+To me; for, when they list, into the womb
+That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw
+My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth
+Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round,
+That rest or intermission none I find.
+Before mine eyes in opposition sits
+Grim Death, my son and foe, who set them on,
+And me, his parent, would full soon devour
+For want of other prey, but that he knows
+His end with mine involved, and knows that I
+Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
+Whenever that shall be: so Fate pronounced.
+But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun
+His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
+To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
+Through tempered heavenly; for that mortal dint,
+Save he who reigns above, none can resist."
+ She finished; and the subtle Fiend his lore
+Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth:--
+ "Dear daughter--since thou claim'st me for thy sire,
+And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge
+Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys
+Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
+Befallen us unforeseen, unthought-of--know,
+I come no enemy, but to set free
+From out this dark and dismal house of pain
+Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host
+Of Spirits that, in our just pretences armed,
+Fell with us from on high. From them I go
+This uncouth errand sole, and one for all
+Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread
+Th' unfounded Deep, and through the void immense
+To search, with wandering quest, a place foretold
+Should be--and, by concurring signs, ere now
+Created vast and round--a place of bliss
+In the purlieus of Heaven; and therein placed
+A race of upstart creatures, to supply
+Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed,
+Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude,
+Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught
+Than this more secret, now designed, I haste
+To know; and, this once known, shall soon return,
+And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
+Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
+Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed
+With odours. There ye shall be fed and filled
+Immeasurably; all things shall be your prey."
+ He ceased; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death
+Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
+His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw
+Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced
+His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire:--
+ "The key of this infernal Pit, by due
+And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King,
+I keep, by him forbidden to unlock
+These adamantine gates; against all force
+Death ready stands to interpose his dart,
+Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might.
+But what owe I to his commands above,
+Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down
+Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,
+To sit in hateful office here confined,
+Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly born--
+Here in perpetual agony and pain,
+With terrors and with clamours compassed round
+Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
+Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
+My being gav'st me; whom should I obey
+But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon
+To that new world of light and bliss, among
+The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign
+At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
+Thy daughter and thy darling, without end."
+ Thus saying, from her side the fatal key,
+Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;
+And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train,
+Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew,
+Which, but herself, not all the Stygian Powers
+Could once have moved; then in the key-hole turns
+Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
+Of massy iron or solid rock with ease
+Unfastens. On a sudden open fly,
+With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,
+Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
+Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
+Of Erebus. She opened; but to shut
+Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood,
+That with extended wings a bannered host,
+Under spread ensigns marching, mibht pass through
+With horse and chariots ranked in loose array;
+So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth
+Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
+Before their eyes in sudden view appear
+The secrets of the hoary Deep--a dark
+Illimitable ocean, without bound,
+Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height,
+And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night
+And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
+Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
+Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
+For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce,
+Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
+Their embryon atoms: they around the flag
+Of each his faction, in their several clans,
+Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
+Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands
+Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,
+Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
+Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere
+He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,
+And by decision more embroils the fray
+By which he reigns: next him, high arbiter,
+Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss,
+The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave,
+Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
+But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
+Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
+Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
+His dark materials to create more worlds--
+Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend
+Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,
+Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith
+He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed
+With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
+Great things with small) than when Bellona storms
+With all her battering engines, bent to rase
+Some capital city; or less than if this frame
+Of Heaven were falling, and these elements
+In mutiny had from her axle torn
+The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans
+He spread for flight, and, in the surging smoke
+Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league,
+As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
+Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
+A vast vacuity. All unawares,
+Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops
+Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
+Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,
+The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
+Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
+As many miles aloft. That fury stayed--
+Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
+Nor good dry land--nigh foundered, on he fares,
+Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
+Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail.
+As when a gryphon through the wilderness
+With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
+Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
+Had from his wakeful custody purloined
+The guarded gold; so eagerly the Fiend
+O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
+With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
+And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
+At length a universal hubbub wild
+Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused,
+Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
+With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies
+Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power
+Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss
+Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask
+Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
+Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne
+Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
+Wide on the wasteful Deep! With him enthroned
+Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,
+The consort of his reign; and by them stood
+Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
+Of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and Chance,
+And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroiled,
+And Discord with a thousand various mouths.
+ T' whom Satan, turning boldly, thus:--"Ye Powers
+And Spirtis of this nethermost Abyss,
+Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy
+With purpose to explore or to disturb
+The secrets of your realm; but, by constraint
+Wandering this darksome desert, as my way
+Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
+Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek,
+What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
+Confine with Heaven; or, if some other place,
+From your dominion won, th' Ethereal King
+Possesses lately, thither to arrive
+I travel this profound. Direct my course:
+Directed, no mean recompense it brings
+To your behoof, if I that region lost,
+All usurpation thence expelled, reduce
+To her original darkness and your sway
+(Which is my present journey), and once more
+Erect the standard there of ancient Night.
+Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge!"
+ Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
+With faltering speech and visage incomposed,
+Answered: "I know thee, stranger, who thou art-- ***
+That mighty leading Angel, who of late
+Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown.
+I saw and heard; for such a numerous host
+Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep,
+With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
+Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates
+Poured out by millions her victorious bands,
+Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
+Keep residence; if all I can will serve
+That little which is left so to defend,
+Encroached on still through our intestine broils
+Weakening the sceptre of old Night: first, Hell,
+Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath;
+Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world
+Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain
+To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell!
+If that way be your walk, you have not far;
+So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed;
+Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain."
+ He ceased; and Satan stayed not to reply,
+But, glad that now his sea should find a shore,
+With fresh alacrity and force renewed
+Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,
+Into the wild expanse, and through the shock
+Of fighting elements, on all sides round
+Environed, wins his way; harder beset
+And more endangered than when Argo passed
+Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks,
+Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned
+Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steered.
+So he with difficulty and labour hard
+Moved on, with difficulty and labour he;
+But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell,
+Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain,
+Following his track (such was the will of Heaven)
+Paved after him a broad and beaten way
+Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf
+Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length,
+From Hell continued, reaching th' utmost orb
+Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse
+With easy intercourse pass to and fro
+To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
+God and good Angels guard by special grace.
+ But now at last the sacred influence
+Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven
+Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night
+A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins
+Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire,
+As from her outmost works, a broken foe,
+With tumult less and with less hostile din;
+That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
+Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,
+And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds
+Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
+Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
+Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
+Far off th' empyreal Heaven, extended wide
+In circuit, undetermined square or round,
+With opal towers and battlements adorned
+Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
+And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
+This pendent World, in bigness as a star
+Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
+Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
+Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.
+
+
+
+Book III
+
+
+Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven firstborn,
+Or of the Eternal coeternal beam
+May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light,
+And never but in unapproached light
+Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee
+Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
+Or hear"st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
+Whose fountain who shall tell? before the sun,
+Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
+Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest ***
+The rising world of waters dark and deep,
+Won from the void and formless infinite.
+Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
+Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd
+In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight
+Through utter and through middle darkness borne,
+With other notes than to the Orphean lyre
+I sung of Chaos and eternal Night;
+Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down
+The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,
+Though hard and rare: Thee I revisit safe,
+And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou
+Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
+To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
+So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,
+Or dim suffusion veil'd. Yet not the more
+Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt,
+Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
+Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
+Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath,
+That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
+Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
+So were I equall'd with them in renown,
+Thy sovran command, that Man should find grace;
+Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonides,
+And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old:
+Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
+Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
+Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid
+Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
+Seasons return; but not to me returns
+Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
+Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
+Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
+But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
+Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
+Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
+Presented with a universal blank
+Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,
+And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
+So much the rather thou, celestial Light,
+Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
+Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence
+Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
+Of things invisible to mortal sight.
+Now had the Almighty Father from above,
+From the pure empyrean where he sits
+High thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye
+His own works and their works at once to view:
+About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
+Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd
+Beatitude past utterance; on his right
+The radiant image of his glory sat,
+His only son; on earth he first beheld
+Our two first parents, yet the only two
+Of mankind in the happy garden plac'd
+Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
+Uninterrupted joy, unrivall'd love,
+In blissful solitude; he then survey'd
+Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there
+Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night
+In the dun air sublime, and ready now
+To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet,
+On the bare outside of this world, that seem'd
+Firm land imbosom'd, without firmament,
+Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
+Him God beholding from his prospect high,
+Wherein past, present, future, he beholds,
+Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.
+Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage
+Transports our Adversary? whom no bounds
+Prescrib'd no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
+Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss
+Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems
+On desperate revenge, that shall redound
+Upon his own rebellious head. And now,
+Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way
+Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light,
+Directly towards the new created world,
+And man there plac'd, with purpose to assay
+If him by force he can destroy, or, worse,
+By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert;
+For man will hearken to his glozing lies,
+And easily transgress the sole command,
+Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall
+He and his faithless progeny: Whose fault?
+Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of me
+All he could have; I made him just and right,
+Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
+Such I created all the ethereal Powers
+And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd;
+Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
+Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
+Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
+Where only what they needs must do appear'd,
+Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
+What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
+When will and reason (reason also is choice)
+Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd,
+Made passive both, had serv'd necessity,
+Not me? they therefore, as to right belong$ 'd,
+So were created, nor can justly accuse
+Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
+As if predestination over-rul'd
+Their will dispos'd by absolute decree
+Or high foreknowledge they themselves decreed
+Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew,
+Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
+Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.
+So without least impulse or shadow of fate,
+Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
+They trespass, authors to themselves in all
+Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so
+I form'd them free: and free they must remain,
+Till they enthrall themselves; I else must change
+Their nature, and revoke the high decree
+Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd
+$THeir freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall.
+The first sort by their own suggestion fell,
+Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: Man falls, deceiv'd
+By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace,
+The other none: In mercy and justice both,
+Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel;
+But Mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine.
+Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill'd
+All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits elect
+Sense of new joy ineffable diffus'd.
+Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
+Most glorious; in him all his Father shone
+Substantially express'd; and in his face
+Divine compassion visibly appear'd,
+Love without end, and without measure grace,
+Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake.
+O Father, gracious was that word which clos'd
+Thy sovran command, that Man should find grace;
+, that Man should find grace;
+For which both Heaven and earth shall high extol
+Thy praises, with the innumerable sound
+Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne
+Encompass'd shall resound thee ever blest.
+For should Man finally be lost, should Man,
+Thy creature late so lov'd, thy youngest son,
+Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though join'd
+With his own folly? that be from thee far,
+That far be from thee, Father, who art judge
+Of all things made, and judgest only right.
+Or shall the Adversary thus obtain
+His end, and frustrate thine? shall he fulfill
+His malice, and thy goodness bring to nought,
+Or proud return, though to his heavier doom,
+Yet with revenge accomplish'd, and to Hell
+Draw after him the whole race of mankind,
+By him corrupted? or wilt thou thyself
+Abolish thy creation, and unmake
+For him, what for thy glory thou hast made?
+So should thy goodness and thy greatness both
+Be question'd and blasphem'd without defence.
+To whom the great Creator thus replied.
+O son, in whom my soul hath chief delight,
+Son of my bosom, Son who art alone.
+My word, my wisdom, and effectual might,
+All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all
+As my eternal purpose hath decreed;
+Man shall not quite be lost, but sav'd who will;
+Yet not of will in him, but grace in me
+Freely vouchsaf'd; once more I will renew
+His lapsed powers, though forfeit; and enthrall'd
+By sin to foul exorbitant desires;
+Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand
+On even ground against his mortal foe;
+By me upheld, that he may know how frail
+His fallen condition is, and to me owe
+All his deliverance, and to none but me.
+Some I have chosen of peculiar grace,
+Elect above the rest; so is my will:
+The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd
+Their sinful state, and to appease betimes
+The incensed Deity, while offer'd grace
+Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,
+What may suffice, and soften stony hearts
+To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.
+To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,
+Though but endeavour'd with sincere intent,
+Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut.
+And I will place within them as a guide,
+My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear,
+Light after light, well us'd, they shall attain,
+And to the end, persisting, safe arrive.
+This my long sufferance, and my day of grace,
+They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste;
+But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more,
+That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;
+And none but such from mercy I exclude.
+But yet all is not done; Man disobeying,
+Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins
+Against the high supremacy of Heaven,
+Affecting God-head, and, so losing all,
+To expiate his treason hath nought left,
+But to destruction sacred and devote,
+He, with his whole posterity, must die,
+Die he or justice must; unless for him
+Some other able, and as willing, pay
+The rigid satisfaction, death for death.
+Say, heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love?
+Which of you will be mortal, to redeem
+Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?
+Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?
+And silence was in Heaven: $ on Man's behalf
+He ask'd, but all the heavenly quire stood mute,
+Patron or intercessour none appear'd,
+Much less that durst upon his own head draw
+The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
+And now without redemption all mankind
+Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell
+By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
+In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
+His dearest mediation thus renew'd.
+Father, thy word is past, Man shall find grace;
+And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,
+The speediest of thy winged messengers,
+To visit all thy creatures, and to all
+Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought?
+Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid
+Can never seek, once dead in sins, and lost;
+Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
+Indebted and undone, hath none to bring;
+Behold me then: me for him, life for life
+I offer: on me let thine anger fall;
+Account me Man; I for his sake will leave
+ Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
+ Freely put off, and for him lastly die
+ Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage.
+ Under his gloomy power I shall not long
+ Lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to possess
+ Life in myself for ever; by thee I live;
+ Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,
+ All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid,
+ $ thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
+ His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
+ For ever with corruption there to dwell;
+ But I shall rise victorious, and subdue
+ My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.
+ Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop
+ Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed;
+ I through the ample air in triumph high
+ Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show
+The powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight
+ Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,
+ While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes;
+ Death last, and with his carcase glut the grave;
+ Then, with the multitude of my redeemed,
+ Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return,
+ Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
+ Of anger shall remain, but peace assured
+ And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more
+ Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.
+ His words here ended; but his meek aspect
+ Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
+ To mortal men, above which only shone
+ Filial obedience: as a sacrifice
+ Glad to be offered, he attends the will
+ Of his great Father. Admiration seized
+ All Heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend,
+ Wondering; but soon th' Almighty thus replied.
+ O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace
+ Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou
+ My sole complacence! Well thou know'st how dear
+ To me are all my works; nor Man the least,
+ Though last created, that for him I spare
+ Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,
+ By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.
+
+ 00021053
+ Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,
+ Their nature also to thy nature join;
+ And be thyself Man among men on Earth,
+ Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
+ By wondrous birth; be thou in Adam's room
+The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
+As in him perish all men, so in thee,
+As from a second root, shall be restored
+As many as are restored, without thee none.
+His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit,
+Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce
+Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
+And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
+Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
+Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die,
+And dying rise, and rising with him raise
+His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.
+So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,
+Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
+So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
+So easily destroyed, and still destroys
+In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
+Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume
+Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
+Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss
+Equal to God, and equally enjoying
+God-like fruition, quitted all, to save
+A world from utter loss, and hast been found
+By merit more than birthright Son of God,
+Found worthiest to be so by being good,
+Far more than great or high; because in thee
+Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;
+Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
+With thee thy manhood also to this throne:
+Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign
+Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
+Anointed universal King; all power
+I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
+Thy merits; under thee, as head supreme,
+Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce:
+All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
+In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
+When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,
+Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
+The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim
+Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds,
+The living, and forthwith the cited dead
+Of all past ages, to the general doom
+Shall hasten; such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
+Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
+Bad Men and Angels; they, arraigned, shall sink
+Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
+Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while
+The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
+New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
+And, after all their tribulations long,
+See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
+With joy and peace triumphing, and fair truth.
+Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,
+For regal scepter then no more shall need,
+God shall be all in all. But, all ye Gods,
+Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
+Adore the Son, and honour him as me.
+No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all
+The multitude of Angels, with a shout
+Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
+As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung
+With jubilee, and loud Hosannas filled
+The eternal regions: Lowly reverent
+Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
+With solemn adoration down they cast
+Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;
+Immortal amarant, a flower which once
+In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
+Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
+To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,
+And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,
+And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven
+Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;
+With these that never fade the Spirits elect
+Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams;
+Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
+Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
+Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.
+Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took,
+Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side
+Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
+Of charming symphony they introduce
+Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
+No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
+Melodious part, such concord is in Heaven.
+Thee, Father, first they sung Omnipotent,
+Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,
+Eternal King; the Author of all being,
+Fonntain of light, thyself invisible
+Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st
+Throned inaccessible, but when thou shadest
+The full blaze of thy beams, and, through a cloud
+Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine,
+Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
+Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim
+Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.
+Thee next they sang of all creation first,
+Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,
+In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud
+Made visible, the Almighty Father shines,
+Whom else no creature can behold; on thee
+Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides,
+Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests.
+He Heaven of Heavens and all the Powers therein
+By thee created; and by thee threw down
+The aspiring Dominations: Thou that day
+Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare,
+Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook
+Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks
+Thou drovest of warring Angels disarrayed.
+Back from pursuit thy Powers with loud acclaim
+Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father's might,
+To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,
+Not so on Man: Him through their malice fallen,
+Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom
+So strictly, but much more to pity incline:
+No sooner did thy dear and only Son
+Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man
+So strictly, but much more to pity inclined,
+He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife
+Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned,
+Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat
+Second to thee, offered himself to die
+For Man's offence. O unexampled love,
+Love no where to be found less than Divine!
+Hail, Son of God, Saviour of Men! Thy name
+Shall be the copious matter of my song
+Henceforth, and never shall my heart thy praise
+Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin.
+Thus they in Heaven, above the starry sphere,
+Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.
+Mean while upon the firm opacous globe
+Of this round world, whose first convex divides
+The luminous inferiour orbs, enclosed
+From Chaos, and the inroad of Darkness old,
+Satan alighted walks: A globe far off
+It seemed, now seems a boundless continent
+Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night
+Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms
+Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky;
+Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven,
+Though distant far, some small reflection gains
+Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud:
+Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field.
+As when a vultur on Imaus bred,
+Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
+Dislodging from a region scarce of prey
+To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids,
+On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs
+Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;
+But in his way lights on the barren plains
+Of Sericana, where Chineses drive
+With sails and wind their cany waggons light:
+So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend
+Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey;
+Alone, for other creature in this place,
+Living or lifeless, to be found was none;
+None yet, but store hereafter from the earth
+Up hither like aereal vapours flew
+Of all things transitory and vain, when sin
+With vanity had filled the works of men:
+Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
+Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,
+Or happiness in this or the other life;
+All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
+Of painful superstition and blind zeal,
+Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find
+Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;
+All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand,
+Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,
+Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,
+Till final dissolution, wander here;
+Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed;
+Those argent fields more likely habitants,
+Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold
+Betwixt the angelical and human kind.
+Hither of ill-joined sons and daughters born
+First from the ancient world those giants came
+With many a vain exploit, though then renowned:
+The builders next of Babel on the plain
+Of Sennaar, and still with vain design,
+New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build:
+Others came single; he, who, to be deemed
+A God, leaped fondly into Aetna flames,
+Empedocles; and he, who, to enjoy
+Plato's Elysium, leaped into the sea,
+Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
+Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars
+White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery.
+Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek
+In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heaven;
+And they, who to be sure of Paradise,
+Dying, put on the weeds of Dominick,
+Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;
+They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,
+And that crystalling sphere whose balance weighs
+The trepidation talked, and that first moved;
+And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket seems
+To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
+Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo
+A violent cross wind from either coast
+Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry
+Into the devious air: Then might ye see
+Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost
+And fluttered into rags; then reliques, beads,
+Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
+The sport of winds: All these, upwhirled aloft,
+Fly o'er the backside of the world far off
+Into a Limbo large and broad, since called
+The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown
+Long after; now unpeopled, and untrod.
+All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed,
+And long he wandered, till at last a gleam
+Of dawning light turned thither-ward in haste
+His travelled steps: far distant he descries
+Ascending by degrees magnificent
+Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high;
+At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared
+The work as of a kingly palace-gate,
+With frontispiece of diamond and gold
+Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems
+The portal shone, inimitable on earth
+By model, or by shading pencil, drawn.
+These stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
+Angels ascending and descending, bands
+Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
+To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz
+Dreaming by night under the open sky
+And waking cried, This is the gate of Heaven.
+Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
+There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes
+Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flowed
+Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
+Who after came from earth, failing arrived
+Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake
+Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
+The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
+The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
+His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:
+Direct against which opened from beneath,
+Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,
+A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide,
+Wider by far than that of after-times
+Over mount Sion, and, though that were large,
+Over the Promised Land to God so dear;
+By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
+On high behests his angels to and fro
+Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard
+From Paneas, the fount of Jordan's flood,
+To Beersaba, where the Holy Land
+Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;
+So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set
+To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
+Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,
+That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,
+Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
+Of all this world at once. As when a scout,
+Through dark?;nd desart ways with?oeril gone
+All?might,?;t?kast by break of cheerful dawn
+Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,
+Which to his eye discovers unaware
+The goodly prospect of some foreign land
+First seen, or some renowned metropolis
+With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
+Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:
+Such wonder seised, though after Heaven seen,
+The Spirit malign, but much more envy seised,
+At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
+Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood
+So high above the circling canopy
+Of night's extended shade,) from eastern point
+Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
+Andromeda far off Atlantick seas
+Beyond the horizon; then from pole to pole
+He views in breadth, and without longer pause
+Down right into the world's first region throws
+His flight precipitant, and winds with ease
+Through the pure marble air his oblique way
+Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
+Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds;
+Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles,
+Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old,
+Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
+Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there
+He staid not to inquire: Above them all
+The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven,
+Allured his eye; thither his course he bends
+Through the calm firmament, (but up or down,
+By center, or eccentrick, hard to tell,
+Or longitude,) where the great luminary
+Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,
+That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
+Dispenses light from far; they, as they move
+Their starry dance in numbers that compute
+Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
+Turn swift their various motions, or are turned
+By his magnetick beam, that gently warms
+The universe, and to each inward part
+With gentle penetration, though unseen,
+Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep;
+So wonderously was set his station bright.
+There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
+Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb
+Through his glazed optick tube yet never saw.
+The place he found beyond expression bright,
+Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone;
+Not all parts like, but all alike informed
+With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
+If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;
+If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,
+Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone
+In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides
+Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen,
+That stone, or like to that which here below
+Philosophers in vain so long have sought,
+In vain, though by their powerful art they bind
+Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
+In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
+Drained through a limbeck to his native form.
+What wonder then if fields and regions here
+Breathe forth Elixir pure, and rivers run
+Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch
+The arch-chemick sun, so far from us remote,
+Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,
+Here in the dark so many precious things
+Of colour glorious, and effect so rare?
+Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
+Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands;
+For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
+But all sun-shine, as when his beams at noon
+Culminate from the equator, as they now
+Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
+Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,
+No where so clear, sharpened his visual ray
+To objects distant far, whereby he soon
+Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,
+The same whom John saw also in the sun:
+His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;
+Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar
+Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
+Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings
+Lay waving round; on some great charge employed
+He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep.
+Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope
+To find who might direct his wandering flight
+To Paradise, the happy seat of Man,
+His journey's end and our beginning woe.
+But first he casts to change his proper shape,
+Which else might work him danger or delay:
+And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
+Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
+Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb
+Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned:
+Under a coronet his flowing hair
+In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore
+Of many a coloured plume, sprinkled with gold;
+His habit fit for speed succinct, and held
+Before his decent steps a silver wand.
+He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright,
+Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned,
+Admonished by his ear, and straight was known
+The Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the seven
+Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne,
+Stand ready at command, and are his eyes
+That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth
+Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,
+O'er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts.
+Uriel, for thou of those seven Spirits that stand
+In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright,
+The first art wont his great authentick will
+Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring,
+Where all his sons thy embassy attend;
+And here art likeliest by supreme decree
+Like honour to obtain, and as his eye
+To visit oft this new creation round;
+Unspeakable desire to see, and know
+All these his wonderous works, but chiefly Man,
+His chief delight and favour, him for whom
+All these his works so wonderous he ordained,
+Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim
+Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph, tell
+In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
+His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none,
+But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
+That I may find him, and with secret gaze
+Or open admiration him behold,
+On whom the great Creator hath bestowed
+Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured;
+That both in him and all things, as is meet,
+The universal Maker we may praise;
+Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
+To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,
+Created this new happy race of Men
+To serve him better: Wise are all his ways.
+So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
+For neither Man nor Angel can discern
+Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
+Invisible, except to God alone,
+By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth:
+And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
+At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
+Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
+Where no ill seems: Which now for once beguiled
+Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
+The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;
+Who to the fraudulent impostor foul,
+In his uprightness, answer thus returned.
+Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know
+The works of God, thereby to glorify
+The great Work-master, leads to no excess
+That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
+The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
+From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
+To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps,
+Contented with report, hear only in Heaven:
+For wonderful indeed are all his works,
+Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
+Had in remembrance always with delight;
+But what created mind can comprehend
+Their number, or the wisdom infinite
+That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep?
+I saw when at his word the formless mass,
+This world's material mould, came to a heap:
+Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
+Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;
+Till at his second bidding Darkness fled,
+Light shone, and order from disorder sprung:
+Swift to their several quarters hasted then
+The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire;
+And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
+Flew upward, spirited with various forms,
+That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars
+Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;
+Each had his place appointed, each his course;
+The rest in circuit walls this universe.
+Look downward on that globe, whose hither side
+With light from hence, though but reflected, shines;
+That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that light
+His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,
+Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon
+So call that opposite fair star) her aid
+Timely interposes, and her monthly round
+Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven,
+With borrowed light her countenance triform
+Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth,
+And in her pale dominion checks the night.
+That spot, to which I point, is Paradise,
+Adam's abode; those lofty shades, his bower.
+Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.
+Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low,
+As to superiour Spirits is wont in Heaven,
+Where honour due and reverence none neglects,
+Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath,
+Down from the ecliptick, sped with hoped success,
+Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel;
+Nor staid, till on Niphates' top he lights.
+
+
+
+Book IV
+
+
+O, for that warning voice, which he, who saw
+The Apocalypse, heard cry in Heaven aloud,
+Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,
+Came furious down to be revenged on men,
+Woe to the inhabitants on earth! that now,
+While time was, our first parents had been warned
+The coming of their secret foe, and 'scaped,
+Haply so 'scaped his mortal snare: For now
+Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,
+The tempter ere the accuser of mankind,
+To wreak on innocent frail Man his loss
+Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell:
+Yet, not rejoicing in his speed, though bold
+Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,
+Begins his dire attempt; which nigh the birth
+Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast,
+And like a devilish engine back recoils
+Upon himself; horrour and doubt distract
+His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
+The Hell within him; for within him Hell
+He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
+One step, no more than from himself, can fly
+By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair,
+That slumbered; wakes the bitter memory
+Of what he was, what is, and what must be
+Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.
+Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view
+Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;
+Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun,
+Which now sat high in his meridian tower:
+Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began.
+O thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned,
+Lookest from thy sole dominion like the God
+Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
+Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
+But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
+Of Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
+That bring to my remembrance from what state
+I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
+Till pride and worse ambition threw me down
+Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King:
+Ah, wherefore! he deserved no such return
+From me, whom he created what I was
+In that bright eminence, and with his good
+Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
+What could be less than to afford him praise,
+The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks,
+How due! yet all his good proved ill in me,
+And wrought but malice; lifted up so high
+I sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher
+Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
+The debt immense of endless gratitude,
+So burdensome still paying, still to owe,
+Forgetful what from him I still received,
+And understood not that a grateful mind
+By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
+Indebted and discharged; what burden then
+O, had his powerful destiny ordained
+Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood
+Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised
+Ambition! Yet why not some other Power
+As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
+Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great
+Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
+Or from without, to all temptations armed.
+Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
+Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
+But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
+Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,
+To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
+Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will
+Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
+Me miserable! which way shall I fly
+Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
+Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
+And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep
+Still threatening to devour me opens wide,
+To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
+O, then, at last relent: Is there no place
+Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
+None left but by submission; and that word
+Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
+Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced
+With other promises and other vaunts
+Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
+The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know
+How dearly I abide that boast so vain,
+Under what torments inwardly I groan,
+While they adore me on the throne of Hell.
+With diadem and scepter high advanced,
+The lower still I fall, only supreme
+In misery: Such joy ambition finds.
+But say I could repent, and could obtain,
+By act of grace, my former state; how soon
+Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
+What feigned submission swore? Ease would recant
+Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
+For never can true reconcilement grow,
+Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:
+Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
+And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
+Short intermission bought with double smart.
+This knows my Punisher; therefore as far
+From granting he, as I from begging, peace;
+All hope excluded thus, behold, in stead
+Mankind created, and for him this world.
+So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear;
+Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost;
+Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least
+Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,
+By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
+As Man ere long, and this new world, shall know.
+Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face
+Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair;
+Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed
+Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.
+For heavenly minds from such distempers foul
+Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware,
+Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm,
+Artificer of fraud; and was the first
+That practised falsehood under saintly show,
+Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge:
+Yet not enough had practised to deceive
+Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down
+ The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount
+ Saw him disfigured, more than could befall
+ Spirit of happy sort; his gestures fierce
+ He marked and mad demeanour, then alone,
+ As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen.
+ So on he fares, and to the border comes
+ Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
+ Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,
+ As with a rural mound, the champaign head
+ Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
+Access denied; and overhead upgrew
+ Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
+ Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
+ A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend,
+ Shade above shade, a woody theatre
+ Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
+ The verdurous wall of Paradise upsprung;
+
+ 00081429
+Which to our general sire gave prospect large
+Into his nether empire neighbouring round.
+And higher than that wall a circling row
+Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
+Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
+Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed:
+On which the sun more glad impressed his beams
+Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
+When God hath showered the earth; so lovely seemed
+That landskip: And of pure now purer air
+Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
+Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
+All sadness but despair: Now gentle gales,
+Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
+Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
+Those balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
+Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
+Mozambick, off at sea north-east winds blow
+Sabean odours from the spicy shore
+Of Araby the blest; with such delay
+Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league
+Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles:
+So entertained those odorous sweets the Fiend,
+Who came their bane; though with them better pleased
+Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume
+That drove him, though enamoured, from the spouse
+Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent
+From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound.
+Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill
+Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow;
+But further way found none, so thick entwined,
+As one continued brake, the undergrowth
+Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed
+All path of man or beast that passed that way.
+One gate there only was, and that looked east
+On the other side: which when the arch-felon saw,
+Due entrance he disdained; and, in contempt,
+At one flight bound high over-leaped all bound
+Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within
+Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,
+Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,
+Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve
+In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,
+Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold:
+Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash
+Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
+Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no assault,
+In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles:
+So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
+So since into his church lewd hirelings climb.
+Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
+The middle tree and highest there that grew,
+Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life
+Thereby regained, but sat devising death
+To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought
+Of that life-giving plant, but only used
+For prospect, what well used had been the pledge
+Of immortality. So little knows
+Any, but God alone, to value right
+The good before him, but perverts best things
+To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.
+Beneath him with new wonder now he views,
+To all delight of human sense exposed,
+In narrow room, Nature's whole wealth, yea more,
+A Heaven on Earth: For blissful Paradise
+Of God the garden was, by him in the east
+Of Eden planted; Eden stretched her line
+From Auran eastward to the royal towers
+Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
+Of 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,
+Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,
+With mazy errour under pendant 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: Thus was this place
+A happy rural seat of various view;
+Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,
+Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
+Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,
+If true, here only, and of delicious taste:
+Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
+Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,
+Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap
+Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
+Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose:
+Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
+Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
+Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
+Luxuriant; mean while murmuring waters fall
+Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,
+That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned
+Her crystal mirrour holds, unite their streams.
+The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
+Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
+The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
+Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
+Led on the eternal Spring. Not that fair field
+Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers,
+Herself a fairer flower by gloomy Dis
+Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain
+To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove
+Of Daphne by Orontes, and the inspired
+Castalian spring, might with this Paradise
+Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle
+Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
+Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove,
+Hid Amalthea, and her florid son
+Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye;
+Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard,
+Mount Amara, though this by some supposed
+True Paradise under the Ethiop line
+By Nilus' head, enclosed with shining rock,
+A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
+From this Assyrian garden, where the Fiend
+Saw, undelighted, all delight, all kind
+Of living creatures, new to sight, and strange
+Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall,
+Godlike erect, with native honour clad
+In naked majesty seemed lords of all:
+And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine
+The image of their glorious Maker shone,
+Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure,
+(Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,)
+Whence true authority in men; though both
+Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;
+For contemplation he and valour formed;
+For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
+He for God only, she for God in him:
+His fair large front and eye sublime declared
+Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks
+Round from his parted forelock manly hung
+Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
+She, as a veil, down to the slender waist
+Her unadorned golden tresses wore
+Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved
+As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
+Subjection, but required with gentle sway,
+And by her yielded, by him best received,
+Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
+And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.
+Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed;
+Then was not guilty shame, dishonest shame
+Of nature's works, honour dishonourable,
+Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind
+With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure,
+And banished from man's life his happiest life,
+Simplicity and spotless innocence!
+So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight
+Of God or Angel; for they thought no ill:
+So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair,
+That ever since in love's embraces met;
+Adam the goodliest man of men since born
+His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.
+Under a tuft of shade that on a green
+Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain side
+They sat them down; and, after no more toil
+Of their sweet gardening labour than sufficed
+To recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease
+More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite
+More grateful, to their supper-fruits they fell,
+Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs
+Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline
+On the soft downy bank damasked with flowers:
+The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind,
+Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream;
+Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles
+Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems
+Fair couple, linked in happy nuptial league,
+Alone as they. About them frisking played
+All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase
+In wood or wilderness, forest or den;
+Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw
+Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards,
+Gambolled before them; the unwieldy elephant,
+To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed
+His?kithetmroboscis; close the serpent sly,
+Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine
+His braided train, and of his fatal guile
+Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass
+Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat,
+Or bedward ruminating; for the sun,
+Declined, was hasting now with prone career
+To the ocean isles, and in the ascending scale
+Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose:
+When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood,
+Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad.
+O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold!
+Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
+Creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps,
+Not Spirits, yet to heavenly Spirits bright
+Little inferiour; whom my thoughts pursue
+With wonder, and could love, so lively shines
+In them divine resemblance, and such grace
+The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured.
+Ah! gentle pair, ye little think how nigh
+Your change approaches, when all these delights
+Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe;
+More woe, the more your taste is now of joy;
+Happy, but for so happy ill secured
+Long to continue, and this high seat your Heaven
+Ill fenced for Heaven to keep out such a foe
+As now is entered; yet no purposed foe
+To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
+Though I unpitied: League with you I seek,
+And mutual amity, so strait, so close,
+That I with you must dwell, or you with me
+Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not please,
+Like this fair Paradise, your sense; yet such
+Accept your Maker's work; he gave it me,
+Which I as freely give: Hell shall unfold,
+To entertain you two, her widest gates,
+And send forth all her kings; there will be room,
+Not like these narrow limits, to receive
+Your numerous offspring; if no better place,
+Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge
+On you who wrong me not for him who wronged.
+And should I at your harmless innocence
+Melt, as I do, yet publick reason just,
+Honour and empire with revenge enlarged,
+By conquering this new world, compels me now
+To do what else, though damned, I should abhor.
+So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
+The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.
+Then from his lofty stand on that high tree
+Down he alights among the sportful herd
+Of those four-footed kinds, himself now one,
+Now other, as their shape served best his end
+Nearer to view his prey, and, unespied,
+To mark what of their state he more might learn,
+By word or action marked. About them round
+A lion now he stalks with fiery glare;
+Then as a tiger, who by chance hath spied
+In some purlieu two gentle fawns at play,
+Straight couches close, then, rising, changes oft
+His couchant watch, as one who chose his ground,
+Whence rushing, he might surest seize them both,
+Griped in each paw: when, Adam first of men
+To first of women Eve thus moving speech,
+Turned him, all ear to hear new utterance flow.
+Sole partner, and sole part, of all these joys,
+Dearer thyself than all; needs must the Power
+That made us, and for us this ample world,
+Be infinitely good, and of his good
+As liberal and free as infinite;
+That raised us from the dust, and placed us here
+In all this happiness, who at his hand
+Have nothing merited, nor can perform
+Aught whereof he hath need; he who requires
+From us no other service than to keep
+This one, this easy charge, of all the trees
+In Paradise that bear delicious fruit
+So various, not to taste that only tree
+Of knowledge, planted by the tree of life;
+So near grows death to life, whate'er death is,
+Some dreadful thing no doubt; for well thou knowest
+God hath pronounced it death to taste that tree,
+The only sign of our obedience left,
+Among so many signs of power and rule
+Conferred upon us, and dominion given
+Over all other creatures that possess
+Earth, air, and sea. Then let us not think hard
+One easy prohibition, who enjoy
+Free leave so large to all things else, and choice
+Unlimited of manifold delights:
+But let us ever praise him, and extol
+His bounty, following our delightful task,
+To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers,
+Which were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet.
+To whom thus Eve replied. O thou for whom
+And from whom I was formed, flesh of thy flesh,
+And without whom am to no end, my guide
+And head! what thou hast said is just and right.
+For we to him indeed all praises owe,
+And daily thanks; I chiefly, who enjoy
+So far the happier lot, enjoying thee
+Pre-eminent by so much odds, while thou
+Like consort to thyself canst no where find.
+That day I oft remember, when from sleep
+I first awaked, and found myself reposed
+Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where
+And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.
+Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
+Of waters issued from a cave, and spread
+Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved
+Pure as the expanse of Heaven; I thither went
+With unexperienced thought, and laid me down
+On the green bank, to look into the clear
+Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky.
+As I bent down to look, just opposite
+A shape within the watery gleam appeared,
+Bending to look on me: I started back,
+It started back; but pleased I soon returned,
+Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
+Of sympathy and love: There I had fixed
+Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,
+Had not a voice thus warned me; 'What thou seest,
+'What there thou seest, fair Creature, is thyself;
+'With thee it came and goes: but follow me,
+'And I will bring thee where no shadow stays
+'Thy coming, and thy soft embraces, he
+'Whose image thou art; him thou shalt enjoy
+'Inseparably thine, to him shalt bear
+'Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called
+'Mother of human race.' What could I do,
+But follow straight, invisibly thus led?
+Till I espied thee, fair indeed and tall,
+Under a platane; yet methought less fair,
+Less winning soft, less amiably mild,
+Than that smooth watery image: Back I turned;
+Thou following cryedst aloud, 'Return, fair Eve;
+'Whom flyest thou? whom thou flyest, of him thou art,
+'His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent
+'Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart,
+'Substantial life, to have thee by my side
+'Henceforth an individual solace dear;
+'Part of my soul I seek thee, and thee claim
+'My other half:' With that thy gentle hand
+Seised mine: I yielded;and from that time see
+How beauty is excelled by manly grace,
+And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.
+So spake our general mother, and with eyes
+Of conjugal attraction unreproved,
+And meek surrender, half-embracing leaned
+On our first father; half her swelling breast
+Naked met his, under the flowing gold
+Of her loose tresses hid: he in delight
+Both of her beauty, and submissive charms,
+Smiled with superiour love, as Jupiter
+On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds
+That shed Mayflowers; and pressed her matron lip
+With kisses pure: Aside the Devil turned
+For envy; yet with jealous leer malign
+Eyed them askance, and to himself thus plained.
+Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two,
+Imparadised in one another's arms,
+The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill
+Of bliss on bliss; while I to Hell am thrust,
+Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
+Among our other torments not the least,
+Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines.
+Yet let me not forget what I have gained
+From their own mouths: All is not theirs, it seems;
+One fatal tree there stands, of knowledge called,
+Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidden
+Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord
+Envy them that? Can it be sin to know?
+Can it be death? And do they only stand
+By ignorance? Is that their happy state,
+The proof of their obedience and their faith?
+O fair foundation laid whereon to build
+Their ruin! hence I will excite their minds
+With more desire to know, and to reject
+Envious commands, invented with design
+To keep them low, whom knowledge might exalt
+Equal with Gods: aspiring to be such,
+They taste and die: What likelier can ensue
+But first with narrow search I must walk round
+This garden, and no corner leave unspied;
+A chance but chance may lead where I may meet
+Some wandering Spirit of Heaven by fountain side,
+Or in thick shade retired, from him to draw
+What further would be learned. Live while ye may,
+Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return,
+Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed!
+So saying, his proud step he scornful turned,
+But with sly circumspection, and began
+Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale, his roam
+Mean while in utmost longitude, where Heaven
+With earth and ocean meets, the setting sun
+Slowly descended, and with right aspect
+Against the eastern gate of Paradise
+Levelled his evening rays: It was a rock
+Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds,
+Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent
+Accessible from earth, one entrance high;
+The rest was craggy cliff, that overhung
+Still as it rose, impossible to climb.
+Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat,
+Chief of the angelick guards, awaiting night;
+About him exercised heroick games
+The unarmed youth of Heaven, but nigh at hand
+Celestial armoury, shields, helms, and spears,
+Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold.
+Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even
+On a sun-beam, swift as a shooting star
+In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired
+Impress the air, and shows the mariner
+From what point of his compass to beware
+Impetuous winds: He thus began in haste.
+Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given
+Charge and strict watch, that to this happy place
+No evil thing approach or enter in.
+This day at highth of noon came to my sphere
+A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know
+More of the Almighty's works, and chiefly Man,
+God's latest image: I described his way
+Bent all on speed, and marked his aery gait;
+But in the mount that lies from Eden north,
+Where he first lighted, soon discerned his looks
+Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured:
+Mine eye pursued him still, but under shade
+Lost sight of him: One of the banished crew,
+I fear, hath ventured from the deep, to raise
+New troubles; him thy care must be to find.
+To whom the winged warriour thus returned.
+Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect sight,
+Amid the sun's bright circle where thou sitst,
+See far and wide: In at this gate none pass
+The vigilance here placed, but such as come
+Well known from Heaven; and since meridian hour
+No creature thence: If Spirit of other sort,
+So minded, have o'er-leaped these earthly bounds
+On purpose, hard thou knowest it to exclude
+Spiritual substance with corporeal bar.
+But if within the circuit of these walks,
+In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom
+Thou tellest, by morrow dawning I shall know.
+So promised he; and Uriel to his charge
+Returned on that bright beam, whose point now raised
+Bore him slope downward to the sun now fallen
+Beneath the Azores; whether the prime orb,
+Incredible how swift, had thither rolled
+Diurnal, or this less volubil earth,
+By shorter flight to the east, had left him there
+Arraying with reflected purple and gold
+The clouds that on his western throne attend.
+Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray
+Had in her sober livery all things clad;
+Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
+They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
+Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;
+She all night long her amorous descant sung;
+Silence was pleased: Now glowed the firmament
+With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led
+The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
+Rising in clouded majesty, at length
+Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,
+And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.
+When Adam thus to Eve. Fair Consort, the hour
+Of night, and all things now retired to rest,
+Mind us of like repose; since God hath set
+Labour and rest, as day and night, to men
+Successive; and the timely dew of sleep,
+Now falling with soft slumbrous weight, inclines
+Our eye-lids: Other creatures all day long
+Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest;
+Man hath his daily work of body or mind
+Appointed, which declares his dignity,
+And the regard of Heaven on all his ways;
+While other animals unactive range,
+And of their doings God takes no account.
+To-morrow, ere fresh morning streak the east
+With first approach of light, we must be risen,
+And at our pleasant labour, to reform
+Yon flowery arbours, yonder alleys green,
+Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown,
+That mock our scant manuring, and require
+More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth:
+Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums,
+That lie bestrown, unsightly and unsmooth,
+Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease;
+Mean while, as Nature wills, night bids us rest.
+To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorned
+My Author and Disposer, what thou bidst
+Unargued I obey: So God ordains;
+God is thy law, thou mine: To know no more
+Is woman's happiest knowledge, and her praise.
+With thee conversing I forget all time;
+All seasons, and their change, all please alike.
+Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet,
+With charm of earliest birds: pleasant the sun,
+When first on this delightful land he spreads
+His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
+Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
+After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
+Of grateful Evening mild; then silent Night,
+With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
+And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train:
+But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends
+With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun
+On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,
+Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
+Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night,
+With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
+Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet.
+But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom
+This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes?
+To whom our general ancestor replied.
+Daughter of God and Man, accomplished Eve,
+These have their course to finish round the earth,
+By morrow evening, and from land to land
+In order, though to nations yet unborn,
+Ministring light prepared, they set and rise;
+Lest total Darkness should by night regain
+Her old possession, and extinguish life
+In Nature and all things; which these soft fires
+Not only enlighten, but with kindly heat
+Of various influence foment and warm,
+Temper or nourish, or in part shed down
+Their stellar virtue on all kinds that grow
+On earth, made hereby apter to receive
+Perfection from the sun's more potent ray.
+These then, though unbeheld in deep of night,
+Shine not in vain; nor think, though men were none,
+That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise:
+Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
+Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep:
+All these with ceaseless praise his works behold
+Both day and night: How often from the steep
+Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
+Celestial voices to the midnight air,
+Sole, or responsive each to others note,
+Singing their great Creator? oft in bands
+While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,
+With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds
+In full harmonick number joined, their songs
+Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to Heaven.
+Thus talking, hand in hand alone they passed
+On to their blissful bower: it was a place
+Chosen by the sovran Planter, when he framed
+All things to Man's delightful use; the roof
+Of thickest covert was inwoven shade
+Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew
+Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either side
+Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub,
+Fenced up the verdant wall; each beauteous flower,
+Iris all hues, roses, and jessamin,
+Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought
+Mosaick; underfoot the violet,
+Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay
+Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone
+Of costliest emblem: Other creature here,
+Bird, beast, insect, or worm, durst enter none,
+Such was their awe of Man. In shadier bower
+More sacred and sequestered, though but feigned,
+Pan or Sylvanus never slept, nor Nymph
+Nor Faunus haunted. Here, in close recess,
+With flowers, garlands, and sweet-smelling herbs,
+Espoused Eve decked first her nuptial bed;
+And heavenly quires the hymenaean sung,
+What day the genial Angel to our sire
+Brought her in naked beauty more adorned,
+More lovely, than Pandora, whom the Gods
+Endowed with all their gifts, and O! too like
+In sad event, when to the unwiser son
+Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she ensnared
+Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged
+On him who had stole Jove's authentick fire.
+Thus, at their shady lodge arrived, both stood,
+Both turned, and under open sky adored
+The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven,
+Which they beheld, the moon's resplendent globe,
+And starry pole: Thou also madest the night,
+Maker Omnipotent, and thou the day,
+Which we, in our appointed work employed,
+Have finished, happy in our mutual help
+And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss
+Ordained by thee; and this delicious place
+For us too large, where thy abundance wants
+Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground.
+But thou hast promised from us two a race
+To fill the earth, who shall with us extol
+Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake,
+And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep.
+This said unanimous, and other rites
+Observing none, but adoration pure
+Which God likes best, into their inmost bower
+Handed they went; and, eased the putting off
+These troublesome disguises which we wear,
+Straight side by side were laid; nor turned, I ween,
+Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites
+Mysterious of connubial love refused:
+Whatever hypocrites austerely talk
+Of purity, and place, and innocence,
+Defaming as impure what God declares
+Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.
+Our Maker bids encrease; who bids abstain
+But our Destroyer, foe to God and Man?
+Hail, wedded Love, mysterious law, true source
+Of human offspring, sole propriety
+In Paradise of all things common else!
+By thee adulterous Lust was driven from men
+Among the bestial herds to range; by thee
+Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure,
+Relations dear, and all the charities
+Of father, son, and brother, first were known.
+Far be it, that I should write thee sin or blame,
+Or think thee unbefitting holiest place,
+Perpetual fountain of domestick sweets,
+Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced,
+Present, or past, as saints and patriarchs used.
+Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights
+His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings,
+Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile
+Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared,
+Casual fruition; nor in court-amours,
+Mixed dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball,
+Or serenate, which the starved lover sings
+To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.
+These, lulled by nightingales, embracing slept,
+And on their naked limbs the flowery roof
+Showered roses, which the morn repaired. Sleep on,
+Blest pair; and O!yet happiest, if ye seek
+No happier state, and know to know no more.
+Now had night measured with her shadowy cone
+Half way up hill this vast sublunar vault,
+And from their ivory port the Cherubim,
+Forth issuing at the accustomed hour, stood armed
+To their night watches in warlike parade;
+When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake.
+Uzziel, half these draw off, and coast the south
+With strictest watch; these other wheel the north;
+Our circuit meets full west. As flame they part,
+Half wheeling to the shield, half to the spear.
+From these, two strong and subtle Spirits he called
+That near him stood, and gave them thus in charge.
+Ithuriel and Zephon, with winged speed
+Search through this garden, leave unsearched no nook;
+But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge,
+Now laid perhaps asleep, secure of harm.
+This evening from the sun's decline arrived,
+Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen
+Hitherward bent (who could have thought?) escaped
+The bars of Hell, on errand bad no doubt:
+Such, where ye find, seise fast, and hither bring.
+So saying, on he led his radiant files,
+Dazzling the moon; these to the bower direct
+In search of whom they sought: Him there they found
+Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,
+Assaying by his devilish art to reach
+The organs of her fancy, and with them forge
+Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams;
+Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint
+The animal spirits, that from pure blood arise
+Like gentle breaths from rivers pure, thence raise
+At least distempered, discontented thoughts,
+Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires,
+Blown up with high conceits ingendering pride.
+Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear
+Touched lightly; for no falshood can endure
+Touch of celestial temper, but returns
+Of force to its own likeness: Up he starts
+Discovered and surprised. As when a spark
+Lights on a heap of nitrous powder, laid
+Fit for the tun some magazine to store
+Against a rumoured war, the smutty grain,
+With sudden blaze diffused, inflames the air;
+So started up in his own shape the Fiend.
+Back stept those two fair Angels, half amazed
+So sudden to behold the grisly king;
+Yet thus, unmoved with fear, accost him soon.
+Which of those rebel Spirits adjudged to Hell
+Comest thou, escaped thy prison? and, transformed,
+Why sat'st thou like an enemy in wait,
+Here watching at the head of these that sleep?
+Know ye not then said Satan, filled with scorn,
+Know ye not me? ye knew me once no mate
+For you, there sitting where ye durst not soar:
+Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
+The lowest of your throng; or, if ye know,
+Why ask ye, and superfluous begin
+Your message, like to end as much in vain?
+To whom thus Zephon, answering scorn with scorn.
+Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the same,
+Or undiminished brightness to be known,
+As when thou stoodest in Heaven upright and pure;
+That glory then, when thou no more wast good,
+Departed from thee; and thou resemblest now
+Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foul.
+But come, for thou, be sure, shalt give account
+To him who sent us, whose charge is to keep
+This place inviolable, and these from harm.
+So spake the Cherub; and his grave rebuke,
+Severe in youthful beauty, added grace
+Invincible: Abashed the Devil stood,
+And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
+Virtue in her shape how lovely; saw, and pined
+His loss; but chiefly to find here observed
+His lustre visibly impaired; yet seemed
+Undaunted. If I must contend, said he,
+Best with the best, the sender, not the sent,
+Or all at once; more glory will be won,
+Or less be lost. Thy fear, said Zephon bold,
+Will save us trial what the least can do
+Single against thee wicked, and thence weak.
+The Fiend replied not, overcome with rage;
+But, like a proud steed reined, went haughty on,
+Champing his iron curb: To strive or fly
+He held it vain; awe from above had quelled
+His heart, not else dismayed. Now drew they nigh
+The western point, where those half-rounding guards
+Just met, and closing stood in squadron joined,
+A waiting next command. To whom their Chief,
+Gabriel, from the front thus called aloud.
+O friends! I hear the tread of nimble feet
+Hasting this way, and now by glimpse discern
+Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade;
+And with them comes a third of regal port,
+But faded splendour wan; who by his gait
+And fierce demeanour seems the Prince of Hell,
+Not likely to part hence without contest;
+Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours.
+He scarce had ended, when those two approached,
+And brief related whom they brought, where found,
+How busied, in what form and posture couched.
+To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake.
+Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescribed
+To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge
+Of others, who approve not to transgress
+By thy example, but have power and right
+To question thy bold entrance on this place;
+Employed, it seems, to violate sleep, and those
+Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss!
+To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow.
+Gabriel? thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise,
+And such I held thee; but this question asked
+Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain!
+Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell,
+Though thither doomed! Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt
+And boldly venture to whatever place
+Farthest from pain, where thou mightst hope to change
+Torment with ease, and soonest recompense
+Dole with delight, which in this place I sought;
+To thee no reason, who knowest only good,
+But evil hast not tried: and wilt object
+His will who bounds us! Let him surer bar
+His iron gates, if he intends our stay
+In that dark durance: Thus much what was asked.
+The rest is true, they found me where they say;
+But that implies not violence or harm.
+Thus he in scorn. The warlike Angel moved,
+Disdainfully half smiling, thus replied.
+O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise
+Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew,
+And now returns him from his prison 'scaped,
+Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise
+Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither
+Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed;
+So wise he judges it to fly from pain
+However, and to 'scape his punishment!
+So judge thou still, presumptuous! till the wrath,
+Which thou incurrest by flying, meet thy flight
+Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell,
+Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain
+Can equal anger infinite provoked.
+But wherefore thou alone? wherefore with thee
+Came not all hell broke loose? or thou than they
+Less hardy to endure? Courageous Chief!
+The first in flight from pain! hadst thou alleged
+To thy deserted host this cause of flight,
+Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.
+To which the Fiend thus answered, frowning stern.
+Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain,
+Insulting Angel! well thou knowest I stood
+Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid
+The blasting vollied thunder made all speed,
+And seconded thy else not dreaded spear.
+But still thy words at random, as before,
+Argue thy inexperience what behoves
+From hard assays and ill successes past
+A faithful leader, not to hazard all
+Through ways of danger by himself untried:
+I, therefore, I alone first undertook
+To wing the desolate abyss, and spy
+This new created world, whereof in Hell
+Fame is not silent, here in hope to find
+Better abode, and my afflicted Powers
+To settle here on earth, or in mid air;
+Though for possession put to try once more
+What thou and thy gay legions dare against;
+Whose easier business were to serve their Lord
+High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne,
+And practised distances to cringe, not fight,
+To whom the warriour Angel soon replied.
+To say and straight unsay, pretending first
+Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy,
+Argues no leader but a liear traced,
+Satan, and couldst thou faithful add? O name,
+O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!
+Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
+Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head.
+Was this your discipline and faith engaged,
+Your military obedience, to dissolve
+Allegiance to the acknowledged Power supreme?
+And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem
+Patron of liberty, who more than thou
+Once fawned, and cringed, and servily adored
+Heaven's awful Monarch? wherefore, but in hope
+To dispossess him, and thyself to reign?
+But mark what I arreed thee now, Avant;
+Fly neither whence thou fledst! If from this hour
+Within these hallowed limits thou appear,
+Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained,
+And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn
+The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred.
+So threatened he; but Satan to no threats
+Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied.
+Then when I am thy captive talk of chains,
+Proud limitary Cherub! but ere then
+Far heavier load thyself expect to feel
+From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King
+Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers,
+Us'd to the yoke, drawest his triumphant wheels
+In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved.
+While thus he spake, the angelick squadron bright
+Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns
+Their phalanx, and began to hem him round
+With ported spears, as thick as when a field
+Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends
+Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind
+Sways them; the careful plowman doubting stands,
+Left on the threshing floor his hopeless sheaves
+Prove chaff. On the other side, Satan, alarmed,
+Collecting all his might, dilated stood,
+Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved:
+His stature reached the sky, and on his crest
+Sat Horrour plumed; nor wanted in his grasp
+What seemed both spear and shield: Now dreadful deeds
+Might have ensued, nor only Paradise
+In this commotion, but the starry cope
+Of Heaven perhaps, or all the elements
+At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn
+With violence of this conflict, had not soon
+The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
+Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen
+Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign,
+Wherein all things created first he weighed,
+The pendulous round earth with balanced air
+In counterpoise, now ponders all events,
+Battles and realms: In these he put two weights,
+The sequel each of parting and of fight:
+The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam,
+Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend.
+Satan, I know thy strength, and thou knowest mine;
+Neither our own, but given: What folly then
+To boast what arms can do? since thine no more
+Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now
+To trample thee as mire: For proof look up,
+And read thy lot in yon celestial sign;
+Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak,
+If thou resist. The Fiend looked up, and knew
+His mounted scale aloft: Nor more;but fled
+Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.
+
+
+
+Book V
+
+
+Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
+Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,
+When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep
+Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred,
+And temperate vapours bland, which the only sound
+Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,
+Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song
+Of birds on every bough; so much the more
+His wonder was to find unwakened Eve
+With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek,
+As through unquiet rest: He, on his side
+Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love
+Hung over her enamoured, and beheld
+Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
+Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice
+Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
+Her hand soft touching, whispered thus. Awake,
+My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
+Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!
+Awake: The morning shines, and the fresh field
+Calls us; we lose the prime, to mark how spring
+Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove,
+What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed,
+How nature paints her colours, how the bee
+Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.
+Such whispering waked her, but with startled eye
+On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake.
+O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose,
+My glory, my perfection! glad I see
+Thy face, and morn returned; for I this night
+(Such night till this I never passed) have dreamed,
+If dreamed, not, as I oft am wont, of thee,
+Works of day past, or morrow's next design,
+But of offence and trouble, which my mind
+Knew never till this irksome night: Methought,
+Close at mine ear one called me forth to walk
+With gentle voice; I thought it thine: It said,
+'Why sleepest thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time,
+'The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
+'To the night-warbling bird, that now awake
+'Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song; now reigns
+'Full-orbed the moon, and with more pleasing light
+'Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain,
+'If none regard; Heaven wakes with all his eyes,
+'Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire?
+'In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
+'Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.'
+I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
+To find thee I directed then my walk;
+And on, methought, alone I passed through ways
+That brought me on a sudden to the tree
+Of interdicted knowledge: fair it seemed,
+Much fairer to my fancy than by day:
+And, as I wondering looked, beside it stood
+One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven
+By us oft seen; his dewy locks distilled
+Ambrosia; on that tree he also gazed;
+And 'O fair plant,' said he, 'with fruit surcharged,
+'Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet,
+'Nor God, nor Man? Is knowledge so despised?
+'Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste?
+'Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold
+'Longer thy offered good; why else set here?
+This said, he paused not, but with venturous arm
+He plucked, he tasted; me damp horrour chilled
+At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold:
+But he thus, overjoyed; 'O fruit divine,
+'Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt,
+'Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit
+'For Gods, yet able to make Gods of Men:
+'And why not Gods of Men; since good, the more
+'Communicated, more abundant grows,
+'The author not impaired, but honoured more?
+'Here, happy creature, fair angelick Eve!
+'Partake thou also; happy though thou art,
+'Happier thou mayest be, worthier canst not be:
+'Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods
+'Thyself a Goddess, not to earth confined,
+'But sometimes in the air, as we, sometimes
+'Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine, and see
+'What life the Gods live there, and such live thou!'
+So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,
+Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part
+Which he had plucked; the pleasant savoury smell
+So quickened appetite, that I, methought,
+Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds
+With him I flew, and underneath beheld
+The earth outstretched immense, a prospect wide
+And various: Wondering at my flight and change
+To this high exaltation; suddenly
+My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down,
+And fell asleep; but O, how glad I waked
+To find this but a dream! Thus Eve her night
+Related, and thus Adam answered sad.
+Best image of myself, and dearer half,
+The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep
+Affects me equally; nor can I like
+This uncouth dream, of evil sprung, I fear;
+Yet evil whence? in thee can harbour none,
+Created pure. But know that in the soul
+Are many lesser faculties, that serve
+Reason as chief; among these Fancy next
+Her office holds; of all external things
+Which the five watchful senses represent,
+She forms imaginations, aery shapes,
+Which Reason, joining or disjoining, frames
+All what we affirm or what deny, and call
+Our knowledge or opinion; then retires
+Into her private cell, when nature rests.
+Oft in her absence mimick Fancy wakes
+To imitate her; but, misjoining shapes,
+Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams;
+Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.
+Some such resemblances, methinks, I find
+Of our last evening's talk, in this thy dream,
+But with addition strange; yet be not sad.
+Evil into the mind of God or Man
+May come and go, so unreproved, and leave
+No spot or blame behind: Which gives me hope
+That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream,
+Waking thou never will consent to do.
+Be not disheartened then, nor cloud those looks,
+That wont to be more cheerful and serene,
+Than when fair morning first smiles on the world;
+And let us to our fresh employments rise
+Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers
+That open now their choisest bosomed smells,
+Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store.
+So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered;
+But silently a gentle tear let fall
+From either eye, and wiped them with her hair;
+Two other precious drops that ready stood,
+Each in their crystal sluice, he ere they fell
+Kissed, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse
+And pious awe, that feared to have offended.
+So all was cleared, and to the field they haste.
+But first, from under shady arborous roof
+Soon as they forth were come to open sight
+Of day-spring, and the sun, who, scarce up-risen,
+With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean-brim,
+Shot parallel to the earth his dewy ray,
+Discovering in wide landskip all the east
+Of Paradise and Eden's happy plains,
+Lowly they bowed adoring, and began
+Their orisons, each morning duly paid
+In various style; for neither various style
+Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise
+Their Maker, in fit strains pronounced, or sung
+Unmeditated; such prompt eloquence
+Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous verse,
+More tuneable than needed lute or harp
+To add more sweetness; and they thus began.
+These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
+Almighty! Thine this universal frame,
+Thus wonderous fair; Thyself how wonderous then!
+Unspeakable, who sitst above these heavens
+To us invisible, or dimly seen
+In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
+Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
+Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
+Angels; for ye behold him, and with songs
+And choral symphonies, day without night,
+Circle his throne rejoicing; ye in Heaven
+On Earth join all ye Creatures to extol
+Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.
+Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
+If better thou belong not to the dawn,
+Sure pledge of day, that crownest the smiling morn
+With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere,
+While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
+Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
+Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise
+In thy eternal course, both when thou climbest,
+And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fallest.
+Moon, that now meetest the orient sun, now flyest,
+With the fixed Stars, fixed in their orb that flies;
+And ye five other wandering Fires, that move
+In mystick dance not without song, resound
+His praise, who out of darkness called up light.
+Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth
+Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run
+Perpetual circle, multiform; and mix
+And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change
+Vary to our great Maker still new praise.
+Ye Mists and Exhalations, that now rise
+From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
+Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
+In honour to the world's great Author rise;
+Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky,
+Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
+Rising or falling still advance his praise.
+His praise, ye Winds, that from four quarters blow,
+Breathe soft or loud; and, wave your tops, ye Pines,
+With every plant, in sign of worship wave.
+Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow,
+Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
+Join voices, all ye living Souls: Ye Birds,
+That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend,
+Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.
+Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
+The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep;
+Witness if I be silent, morn or even,
+To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade,
+Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
+Hail, universal Lord, be bounteous still
+To give us only good; and if the night
+Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed,
+Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark!
+So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts
+Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted calm.
+On to their morning's rural work they haste,
+Among sweet dews and flowers; where any row
+Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far
+Their pampered boughs, and needed hands to check
+Fruitless embraces: or they led the vine
+To wed her elm; she, spoused, about him twines
+Her marriageable arms, and with him brings
+Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn
+His barren leaves. Them thus employed beheld
+With pity Heaven's high King, and to him called
+Raphael, the sociable Spirit, that deigned
+To travel with Tobias, and secured
+His marriage with the seventimes-wedded maid.
+Raphael, said he, thou hearest what stir on Earth
+Satan, from Hell 'scaped through the darksome gulf,
+Hath raised in Paradise; and how disturbed
+This night the human pair; how he designs
+In them at once to ruin all mankind.
+Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend
+Converse with Adam, in what bower or shade
+Thou findest him from the heat of noon retired,
+To respite his day-labour with repast,
+Or with repose; and such discourse bring on,
+As may advise him of his happy state,
+Happiness in his power left free to will,
+Left to his own free will, his will though free,
+Yet mutable; whence warn him to beware
+He swerve not, too secure: Tell him withal
+His danger, and from whom; what enemy,
+Late fallen himself from Heaven, is plotting now
+The fall of others from like state of bliss;
+By violence? no, for that shall be withstood;
+But by deceit and lies: This let him know,
+Lest, wilfully transgressing, he pretend
+Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned.
+So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfilled
+All justice: Nor delayed the winged Saint
+After his charge received; but from among
+Thousand celestial Ardours, where he stood
+Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light,
+Flew through the midst of Heaven; the angelick quires,
+On each hand parting, to his speed gave way
+Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate
+Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide
+On golden hinges turning, as by work
+Divine the sovran Architect had framed.
+From hence no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight,
+Star interposed, however small he sees,
+Not unconformed to other shining globes,
+Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned
+Above all hills. As when by night the glass
+Of Galileo, less assured, observes
+Imagined lands and regions in the moon:
+Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades
+Delos or Samos first appearing, kens
+A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight
+He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
+Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing
+Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
+Winnows the buxom air; till, within soar
+Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems
+A phoenix, gazed by all as that sole bird,
+When, to enshrine his reliques in the Sun's
+Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.
+At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise
+He lights, and to his proper shape returns
+A Seraph winged: Six wings he wore, to shade
+His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
+Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast
+With regal ornament; the middle pair
+Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
+Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
+And colours dipt in Heaven; the third his feet
+Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail,
+Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood,
+And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled
+The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands
+Of Angels under watch; and to his state,
+And to his message high, in honour rise;
+For on some message high they guessed him bound.
+Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come
+Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
+And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm;
+A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here
+Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
+Her virgin fancies pouring forth more sweet,
+Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.
+Him through the spicy forest onward come
+Adam discerned, as in the door he sat
+Of his cool bower, while now the mounted sun
+Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm
+Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs:
+And Eve within, due at her hour prepared
+For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please
+True appetite, and not disrelish thirst
+Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream,
+Berry or grape: To whom thus Adam called.
+Haste hither, Eve, and worth thy sight behold
+Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape
+Comes this way moving; seems another morn
+Risen on mid-noon; some great behest from Heaven
+To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe
+This day to be our guest. But go with speed,
+And, what thy stores contain, bring forth, and pour
+Abundance, fit to honour and receive
+Our heavenly stranger: Well we may afford
+Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
+From large bestowed, where Nature multiplies
+Her fertile growth, and by disburthening grows
+More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare.
+To whom thus Eve. Adam, earth's hallowed mould,
+Of God inspired! small store will serve, where store,
+All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;
+Save what by frugal storing firmness gains
+To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:
+But I will haste, and from each bough and brake,
+Each plant and juciest gourd, will pluck such choice
+To entertain our Angel-guest, as he
+Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth
+God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven.
+So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste
+She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent
+What choice to choose for delicacy best,
+What order, so contrived as not to mix
+Tastes, not well joined, inelegant, but bring
+Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change;
+Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk
+Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields
+In India East or West, or middle shore
+In Pontus or the Punick coast, or where
+Alcinous reigned, fruit of all kinds, in coat
+Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell,
+She gathers, tribute large, and on the board
+Heaps with unsparing hand; for drink the grape
+She crushes, inoffensive must, and meaths
+From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressed
+She tempers dulcet creams; nor these to hold
+Wants her fit vessels pure; then strows the ground
+With rose and odours from the shrub unfumed.
+Mean while our primitive great sire, to meet
+His God-like guest, walks forth, without more train
+Accompanied than with his own complete
+Perfections; in himself was all his state,
+More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits
+On princes, when their rich retinue long
+Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold,
+Dazzles the croud, and sets them all agape.
+Nearer his presence Adam, though not awed,
+Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,
+As to a superiour nature bowing low,
+Thus said. Native of Heaven, for other place
+None can than Heaven such glorious shape contain;
+Since, by descending from the thrones above,
+Those happy places thou hast deigned a while
+To want, and honour these, vouchsafe with us
+Two only, who yet by sovran gift possess
+This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower
+To rest; and what the garden choicest bears
+To sit and taste, till this meridian heat
+Be over, and the sun more cool decline.
+Whom thus the angelick Virtue answered mild.
+Adam, I therefore came; nor art thou such
+Created, or such place hast here to dwell,
+As may not oft invite, though Spirits of Heaven,
+To visit thee; lead on then where thy bower
+O'ershades; for these mid-hours, till evening rise,
+I have at will. So to the sylvan lodge
+They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled,
+With flowerets decked, and fragrant smells; but Eve,
+Undecked save with herself, more lovely fair
+Than Wood-Nymph, or the fairest Goddess feigned
+Of three that in mount Ida naked strove,
+Stood to entertain her guest from Heaven; no veil
+She needed, virtue-proof; no thought infirm
+Altered her cheek. On whom the Angel Hail
+Bestowed, the holy salutation used
+Long after to blest Mary, second Eve.
+Hail, Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful womb
+Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons,
+Than with these various fruits the trees of God
+Have heaped this table!--Raised of grassy turf
+Their table was, and mossy seats had round,
+And on her ample square from side to side
+All autumn piled, though spring and autumn here
+Danced hand in hand. A while discourse they hold;
+No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began
+Our author. Heavenly stranger, please to taste
+These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom
+All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends,
+To us for food and for delight hath caused
+The earth to yield; unsavoury food perhaps
+To spiritual natures; only this I know,
+That one celestial Father gives to all.
+To whom the Angel. Therefore what he gives
+(Whose praise be ever sung) to Man in part
+Spiritual, may of purest Spirits be found
+No ingrateful food: And food alike those pure
+Intelligential substances require,
+As doth your rational; and both contain
+Within them every lower faculty
+Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,
+Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate,
+And corporeal to incorporeal turn.
+For know, whatever was created, needs
+To be sustained and fed: Of elements
+The grosser feeds the purer, earth the sea,
+Earth and the sea feed air, the air those fires
+Ethereal, and as lowest first the moon;
+Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged
+Vapours not yet into her substance turned.
+Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale
+From her moist continent to higher orbs.
+The sun that light imparts to all, receives
+From all his alimental recompence
+In humid exhalations, and at even
+Sups with the ocean. Though in Heaven the trees
+Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines
+Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn
+We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground
+Covered with pearly grain: Yet God hath here
+Varied his bounty so with new delights,
+As may compare with Heaven; and to taste
+Think not I shall be nice. So down they sat,
+And to their viands fell; nor seemingly
+The Angel, nor in mist, the common gloss
+Of Theologians; but with keen dispatch
+Of real hunger, and concoctive heat
+To transubstantiate: What redounds, transpires
+Through Spirits with ease; nor wonder;if by fire
+Of sooty coal the empirick alchemist
+Can turn, or holds it possible to turn,
+Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold,
+As from the mine. Mean while at table Eve
+Ministered naked, and their flowing cups
+With pleasant liquours crowned: O innocence
+Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,
+Then had the sons of God excuse to have been
+Enamoured at that sight; but in those hearts
+Love unlibidinous reigned, nor jealousy
+Was understood, the injured lover's hell.
+Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed,
+Not burdened nature, sudden mind arose
+In Adam, not to let the occasion pass
+Given him by this great conference to know
+Of things above his world, and of their being
+Who dwell in Heaven, whose excellence he saw
+Transcend his own so far; whose radiant forms,
+Divine effulgence, whose high power, so far
+Exceeded human; and his wary speech
+Thus to the empyreal minister he framed.
+Inhabitant with God, now know I well
+Thy favour, in this honour done to Man;
+Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed
+To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste,
+Food not of Angels, yet accepted so,
+As that more willingly thou couldst not seem
+At Heaven's high feasts to have fed: yet what compare
+To whom the winged Hierarch replied.
+O Adam, One Almighty is, from whom
+All things proceed, and up to him return,
+If not depraved from good, created all
+Such to perfection, one first matter all,
+Endued with various forms, various degrees
+Of substance, and, in things that live, of life;
+But more refined, more spiritous, and pure,
+As nearer to him placed, or nearer tending
+Each in their several active spheres assigned,
+Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
+Proportioned to each kind. So from the root
+Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
+More aery, last the bright consummate flower
+Spirits odorous breathes: flowers and their fruit,
+Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed,
+To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
+To intellectual; give both life and sense,
+Fancy and understanding; whence the soul
+Reason receives, and reason is her being,
+Discursive, or intuitive; discourse
+Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours,
+Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
+Wonder not then, what God for you saw good
+If I refuse not, but convert, as you
+To proper substance. Time may come, when Men
+With Angels may participate, and find
+No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare;
+And from these corporal nutriments perhaps
+Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
+Improved by tract of time, and, winged, ascend
+Ethereal, as we; or may, at choice,
+Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell;
+If ye be found obedient, and retain
+Unalterably firm his love entire,
+Whose progeny you are. Mean while enjoy
+Your fill what happiness this happy state
+Can comprehend, incapable of more.
+To whom the patriarch of mankind replied.
+O favourable Spirit, propitious guest,
+Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
+Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set
+From center to circumference; whereon,
+In contemplation of created things,
+By steps we may ascend to God. But say,
+What meant that caution joined, If ye be found
+Obedient? Can we want obedience then
+To him, or possibly his love desert,
+Who formed us from the dust and placed us here
+Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
+Human desires can seek or apprehend?
+To whom the Angel. Son of Heaven and Earth,
+Attend! That thou art happy, owe to God;
+That thou continuest such, owe to thyself,
+That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.
+This was that caution given thee; be advised.
+God made thee perfect, not immutable;
+And good he made thee, but to persevere
+He left it in thy power; ordained thy will
+By nature free, not over-ruled by fate
+Inextricable, or strict necessity:
+Our voluntary service he requires,
+Not our necessitated; such with him
+Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how
+Can hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve
+Willing or no, who will but what they must
+By destiny, and can no other choose?
+Myself, and all the angelick host, that stand
+In sight of God, enthroned, our happy state
+Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;
+On other surety none: Freely we serve,
+Because we freely love, as in our will
+To love or not; in this we stand or fall:
+And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen,
+And so from Heaven to deepest Hell; O fall
+From what high state of bliss, into what woe!
+To whom our great progenitor. Thy words
+Attentive, and with more delighted ear,
+Divine instructer, I have heard, than when
+Cherubick songs by night from neighbouring hills
+Aereal musick send: Nor knew I not
+To be both will and deed created free;
+Yet that we never shall forget to love
+Our Maker, and obey him whose command
+Single is yet so just, my constant thoughts
+Assured me, and still assure: Though what thou tellest
+Hath passed in Heaven, some doubt within me move,
+But more desire to hear, if thou consent,
+The full relation, which must needs be strange,
+Worthy of sacred silence to be heard;
+And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun
+Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins
+His other half in the great zone of Heaven.
+Thus Adam made request; and Raphael,
+After short pause assenting, thus began.
+High matter thou enjoinest me, O prime of men,
+Sad task and hard: For how shall I relate
+To human sense the invisible exploits
+Of warring Spirits? how, without remorse,
+The ruin of so many glorious once
+And perfect while they stood? how last unfold
+The secrets of another world, perhaps
+Not lawful to reveal? yet for thy good
+This is dispensed; and what surmounts the reach
+Of human sense, I shall delineate so,
+By likening spiritual to corporal forms,
+As may express them best; though what if Earth
+Be but a shadow of Heaven, and things therein
+Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?
+As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild
+Reigned where these Heavens now roll, where Earth now rests
+Upon her center poised; when on a day
+(For time, though in eternity, applied
+To motion, measures all things durable
+By present, past, and future,) on such day
+As Heaven's great year brings forth, the empyreal host
+Of Angels by imperial summons called,
+Innumerable before the Almighty's throne
+Forthwith, from all the ends of Heaven, appeared
+Under their Hierarchs in orders bright:
+Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced,
+Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
+Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
+Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees;
+Or in their glittering tissues bear imblazed
+Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love
+Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs
+Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
+Orb within orb, the Father Infinite,
+By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son,
+Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top
+Brightness had made invisible, thus spake.
+Hear, all ye Angels, progeny of light,
+Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;
+Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand.
+This day I have begot whom I declare
+My only Son, and on this holy hill
+Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
+At my right hand; your head I him appoint;
+And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow
+All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord:
+Under his great vice-gerent reign abide
+United, as one individual soul,
+For ever happy: Him who disobeys,
+Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day,
+Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls
+Into utter darkness, deep ingulfed, his place
+Ordained without redemption, without end.
+So spake the Omnipotent, and with his words
+All seemed well pleased; all seemed, but were not all.
+That day, as other solemn days, they spent
+In song and dance about the sacred hill;
+Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
+Of planets, and of fixed, in all her wheels
+Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
+Eccentrick, intervolved, yet regular
+Then most, when most irregular they seem;
+And in their motions harmony divine
+So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear
+Listens delighted. Evening now approached,
+(For we have also our evening and our morn,
+We ours for change delectable, not need;)
+Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn
+Desirous; all in circles as they stood,
+Tables are set, and on a sudden piled
+With Angels food, and rubied nectar flows
+In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold,
+Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heaven.
+On flowers reposed, and with fresh flowerets crowned,
+They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
+Quaff immortality and joy, secure
+Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds
+Excess, before the all-bounteous King, who showered
+With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.
+Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled
+From that high mount of God, whence light and shade
+Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven had changed
+To grateful twilight, (for night comes not there
+In darker veil,) and roseat dews disposed
+All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest;
+Wide over all the plain, and wider far
+Than all this globous earth in plain outspread,
+(Such are the courts of God) the angelick throng,
+Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend
+By living streams among the trees of life,
+Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared,
+Celestial tabernacles, where they slept
+Fanned with cool winds; save those, who, in their course,
+Melodious hymns about the sovran throne
+Alternate all night long: but not so waked
+Satan; so call him now, his former name
+Is heard no more in Heaven; he of the first,
+If not the first Arch-Angel, great in power,
+In favour and pre-eminence, yet fraught
+With envy against the Son of God, that day
+Honoured by his great Father, and proclaimed
+Messiah King anointed, could not bear
+Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired.
+Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain,
+Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour
+Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved
+With all his legions to dislodge, and leave
+Unworshipt, unobeyed, the throne supreme,
+Contemptuous; and his next subordinate
+Awakening, thus to him in secret spake.
+Sleepest thou, Companion dear? What sleep can close
+Thy eye-lids? and rememberest what decree
+Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips
+Of Heaven's Almighty. Thou to me thy thoughts
+Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart;
+Both waking we were one; how then can now
+Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou seest imposed;
+New laws from him who reigns, new minds may raise
+In us who serve, new counsels to debate
+What doubtful may ensue: More in this place
+To utter is not safe. Assemble thou
+Of all those myriads which we lead the chief;
+Tell them, that by command, ere yet dim night
+Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste,
+And all who under me their banners wave,
+Homeward, with flying march, where we possess
+The quarters of the north; there to prepare
+Fit entertainment to receive our King,
+The great Messiah, and his new commands,
+Who speedily through all the hierarchies
+Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.
+So spake the false Arch-Angel, and infused
+Bad influence into the unwary breast
+Of his associate: He together calls,
+Or several one by one, the regent Powers,
+Under him Regent; tells, as he was taught,
+That the Most High commanding, now ere night,
+Now ere dim night had disincumbered Heaven,
+The great hierarchal standard was to move;
+Tells the suggested cause, and casts between
+Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound
+Or taint integrity: But all obeyed
+The wonted signal, and superiour voice
+Of their great Potentate; for great indeed
+His name, and high was his degree in Heaven;
+His countenance, as the morning-star that guides
+The starry flock, allured them, and with lies
+Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host.
+Mean while the Eternal eye, whose sight discerns
+Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount,
+And from within the golden lamps that burn
+Nightly before him, saw without their light
+Rebellion rising; saw in whom, how spread
+Among the sons of morn, what multitudes
+Were banded to oppose his high decree;
+And, smiling, to his only Son thus said.
+Son, thou in whom my glory I behold
+In full resplendence, Heir of all my might,
+Nearly it now concerns us to be sure
+Of our Omnipotence, and with what arms
+We mean to hold what anciently we claim
+Of deity or empire: Such a foe
+Is rising, who intends to erect his throne
+Equal to ours, throughout the spacious north;
+Nor so content, hath in his thought to try
+In battle, what our power is, or our right.
+Let us advise, and to this hazard draw
+With speed what force is left, and all employ
+In our defence; lest unawares we lose
+This our high place, our sanctuary, our hill.
+To whom the Son with calm aspect and clear,
+Lightning divine, ineffable, serene,
+Made answer. Mighty Father, thou thy foes
+Justly hast in derision, and, secure,
+Laughest at their vain designs and tumults vain,
+Matter to me of glory, whom their hate
+Illustrates, when they see all regal power
+Given me to quell their pride, and in event
+Know whether I be dextrous to subdue
+Thy rebels, or be found the worst in Heaven.
+So spake the Son; but Satan, with his Powers,
+Far was advanced on winged speed; an host
+Innumerable as the stars of night,
+Or stars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun
+Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
+Regions they passed, the mighty regencies
+Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones,
+In their triple degrees; regions to which
+All thy dominion, Adam, is no more
+Than what this garden is to all the earth,
+And all the sea, from one entire globose
+Stretched into longitude; which having passed,
+At length into the limits of the north
+They came; and Satan to his royal seat
+High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount
+Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers
+From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold;
+The palace of great Lucifer, (so call
+That structure in the dialect of men
+Interpreted,) which not long after, he
+Affecting all equality with God,
+In imitation of that mount whereon
+Messiah was declared in sight of Heaven,
+The Mountain of the Congregation called;
+For thither he assembled all his train,
+Pretending so commanded to consult
+About the great reception of their King,
+Thither to come, and with calumnious art
+Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears.
+Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;
+If these magnifick titles yet remain
+Not merely titular, since by decree
+Another now hath to himself engrossed
+All power, and us eclipsed under the name
+Of King anointed, for whom all this haste
+Of midnight-march, and hurried meeting here,
+This only to consult how we may best,
+With what may be devised of honours new,
+Receive him coming to receive from us
+Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile!
+Too much to one! but double how endured,
+To one, and to his image now proclaimed?
+But what if better counsels might erect
+Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke?
+Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend
+The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust
+To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves
+Natives and sons of Heaven possessed before
+By none; and if not equal all, yet free,
+Equally free; for orders and degrees
+Jar not with liberty, but well consist.
+Who can in reason then, or right, assume
+Monarchy over such as live by right
+His equals, if in power and splendour less,
+In freedom equal? or can introduce
+Law and edict on us, who without law
+Err not? much less for this to be our Lord,
+And look for adoration, to the abuse
+Of those imperial titles, which assert
+Our being ordained to govern, not to serve.
+Thus far his bold discourse without controul
+Had audience; when among the Seraphim
+Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored
+The Deity, and divine commands obeyed,
+Stood up, and in a flame of zeal severe
+The current of his fury thus opposed.
+O argument blasphemous, false, and proud!
+Words which no ear ever to hear in Heaven
+Expected, least of all from thee, Ingrate,
+In place thyself so high above thy peers.
+Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn
+The just decree of God, pronounced and sworn,
+That to his only Son, by right endued
+With regal scepter, every soul in Heaven
+Shall bend the knee, and in that honour due
+Confess him rightful King? unjust, thou sayest,
+Flatly unjust, to bind with laws the free,
+And equal over equals to let reign,
+One over all with unsucceeded power.
+Shalt thou give law to God? shalt thou dispute
+With him the points of liberty, who made
+Thee what thou art, and formed the Powers of Heaven
+Such as he pleased, and circumscribed their being?
+Yet, by experience taught, we know how good,
+And of our good and of our dignity
+How provident he is; how far from thought
+To make us less, bent rather to exalt
+Our happy state, under one head more near
+United. But to grant it thee unjust,
+That equal over equals monarch reign:
+Thyself, though great and glorious, dost thou count,
+Or all angelick nature joined in one,
+Equal to him begotten Son? by whom,
+As by his Word, the Mighty Father made
+All things, even thee; and all the Spirits of Heaven
+By him created in their bright degrees,
+Crowned them with glory, and to their glory named
+Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
+Essential Powers; nor by his reign obscured,
+But more illustrious made; since he the head
+One of our number thus reduced becomes;
+His laws our laws; all honour to him done
+Returns our own. Cease then this impious rage,
+And tempt not these; but hasten to appease
+The incensed Father, and the incensed Son,
+While pardon may be found in time besought.
+So spake the fervent Angel; but his zeal
+None seconded, as out of season judged,
+Or singular and rash: Whereat rejoiced
+The Apostate, and, more haughty, thus replied.
+That we were formed then sayest thou? and the work
+Of secondary hands, by task transferred
+From Father to his Son? strange point and new!
+Doctrine which we would know whence learned: who saw
+When this creation was? rememberest thou
+Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being?
+We know no time when we were not as now;
+Know none before us, self-begot, self-raised
+By our own quickening power, when fatal course
+Had circled his full orb, the birth mature
+Of this our native Heaven, ethereal sons.
+Our puissance is our own; our own right hand
+Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try
+Who is our equal: Then thou shalt behold
+Whether by supplication we intend
+Address, and to begirt the almighty throne
+Beseeching or besieging. This report,
+These tidings carry to the anointed King;
+And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.
+He said; and, as the sound of waters deep,
+Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause
+Through the infinite host; nor less for that
+The flaming Seraph fearless, though alone
+Encompassed round with foes, thus answered bold.
+O alienate from God, O Spirit accursed,
+Forsaken of all good! I see thy fall
+Determined, and thy hapless crew involved
+In this perfidious fraud, contagion spread
+Both of thy crime and punishment: Henceforth
+No more be troubled how to quit the yoke
+Of God's Messiah; those indulgent laws
+Will not be now vouchsafed; other decrees
+Against thee are gone forth without recall;
+That golden scepter, which thou didst reject,
+Is now an iron rod to bruise and break
+Thy disobedience. Well thou didst advise;
+Yet not for thy advice or threats I fly
+These wicked tents devoted, lest the wrath
+Impendent, raging into sudden flame,
+Distinguish not: For soon expect to feel
+His thunder on thy head, devouring fire.
+Then who created thee lamenting learn,
+When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know.
+So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found
+Among the faithless, faithful only he;
+Among innumerable false, unmoved,
+Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
+His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
+Nor number, nor example, with him wrought
+To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
+Though single. From amidst them forth he passed,
+Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustained
+Superiour, nor of violence feared aught;
+And, with retorted scorn, his back he turned
+On those proud towers to swift destruction doomed.
+
+
+
+Book VI
+
+
+All night the dreadless Angel, unpursued,
+Through Heaven's wide champain held his way; till Morn,
+Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand
+Unbarred the gates of light. There is a cave
+Within the mount of God, fast by his throne,
+Where light and darkness in perpetual round
+Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through Heaven
+Grateful vicissitude, like day and night;
+Light issues forth, and at the other door
+Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour
+To veil the Heaven, though darkness there might well
+Seem twilight here: And now went forth the Morn
+Such as in highest Heaven arrayed in gold
+Empyreal; from before her vanished Night,
+Shot through with orient beams; when all the plain
+Covered with thick embattled squadrons bright,
+Chariots, and flaming arms, and fiery steeds,
+Reflecting blaze on blaze, first met his view:
+War he perceived, war in procinct; and found
+Already known what he for news had thought
+To have reported: Gladly then he mixed
+Among those friendly Powers, who him received
+With joy and acclamations loud, that one,
+That of so many myriads fallen, yet one
+Returned not lost. On to the sacred hill
+They led him high applauded, and present
+Before the seat supreme; from whence a voice,
+From midst a golden cloud, thus mild was heard.
+Servant of God. Well done; well hast thou fought
+The better fight, who single hast maintained
+Against revolted multitudes the cause
+Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms;
+And for the testimony of truth hast borne
+Universal reproach, far worse to bear
+Than violence; for this was all thy care
+To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds
+Judged thee perverse: The easier conquest now
+Remains thee, aided by this host of friends,
+Back on thy foes more glorious to return,
+Than scorned thou didst depart; and to subdue
+By force, who reason for their law refuse,
+Right reason for their law, and for their King
+Messiah, who by right of merit reigns.
+Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince,
+And thou, in military prowess next,
+Gabriel, lead forth to battle these my sons
+Invincible; lead forth my armed Saints,
+By thousands and by millions, ranged for fight,
+Equal in number to that Godless crew
+Rebellious: Them with fire and hostile arms
+Fearless assault; and, to the brow of Heaven
+Pursuing, drive them out from God and bliss,
+Into their place of punishment, the gulf
+Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide
+His fiery Chaos to receive their fall.
+So spake the Sovran Voice, and clouds began
+To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll
+In dusky wreaths, reluctant flames, the sign
+Of wrath awaked; nor with less dread the loud
+Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow:
+At which command the Powers militant,
+That stood for Heaven, in mighty quadrate joined
+Of union irresistible, moved on
+In silence their bright legions, to the sound
+Of instrumental harmony, that breathed
+Heroick ardour to adventurous deeds
+Under their God-like leaders, in the cause
+Of God and his Messiah. On they move
+Indissolubly firm; nor obvious hill,
+Nor straitening vale, nor wood, nor stream, divides
+Their perfect ranks; for high above the ground
+Their march was, and the passive air upbore
+Their nimble tread; as when the total kind
+Of birds, in orderly array on wing,
+Came summoned over Eden to receive
+Their names of thee; so over many a tract
+Of Heaven they marched, and many a province wide,
+Tenfold the length of this terrene: At last,
+Far in the horizon to the north appeared
+From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched
+In battailous aspect, and nearer view
+Bristled with upright beams innumerable
+Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shields
+Various, with boastful argument portrayed,
+The banded Powers of Satan hasting on
+With furious expedition; for they weened
+That self-same day, by fight or by surprise,
+To win the mount of God, and on his throne
+To set the Envier of his state, the proud
+Aspirer; but their thoughts proved fond and vain
+In the mid way: Though strange to us it seemed
+At first, that Angel should with Angel war,
+And in fierce hosting meet, who wont to meet
+So oft in festivals of joy and love
+Unanimous, as sons of one great Sire,
+Hymning the Eternal Father: But the shout
+Of battle now began, and rushing sound
+Of onset ended soon each milder thought.
+High in the midst, exalted as a God,
+The Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat,
+Idol of majesty divine, enclosed
+With flaming Cherubim, and golden shields;
+Then lighted from his gorgeous throne, for now
+"twixt host and host but narrow space was left,
+A dreadful interval, and front to front
+Presented stood in terrible array
+Of hideous length: Before the cloudy van,
+On the rough edge of battle ere it joined,
+Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced,
+Came towering, armed in adamant and gold;
+Abdiel that sight endured not, where he stood
+Among the mightiest, bent on highest deeds,
+And thus his own undaunted heart explores.
+O Heaven! that such resemblance of the Highest
+Should yet remain, where faith and realty
+Remain not: Wherefore should not strength and might
+There fail where virtue fails, or weakest prove
+Where boldest, though to fight unconquerable?
+His puissance, trusting in the Almighty's aid,
+I mean to try, whose reason I have tried
+Unsound and false; nor is it aught but just,
+That he, who in debate of truth hath won,
+Should win in arms, in both disputes alike
+Victor; though brutish that contest and foul,
+When reason hath to deal with force, yet so
+Most reason is that reason overcome.
+So pondering, and from his armed peers
+Forth stepping opposite, half-way he met
+His daring foe, at this prevention more
+Incensed, and thus securely him defied.
+Proud, art thou met? thy hope was to have reached
+The highth of thy aspiring unopposed,
+The throne of God unguarded, and his side
+Abandoned, at the terrour of thy power
+Or potent tongue: Fool!not to think how vain
+Against the Omnipotent to rise in arms;
+Who out of smallest things could, without end,
+Have raised incessant armies to defeat
+Thy folly; or with solitary hand
+Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow,
+Unaided, could have finished thee, and whelmed
+Thy legions under darkness: But thou seest
+All are not of thy train; there be, who faith
+Prefer, and piety to God, though then
+To thee not visible, when I alone
+Seemed in thy world erroneous to dissent
+From all: My sect thou seest;now learn too late
+How few sometimes may know, when thousands err.
+Whom the grand foe, with scornful eye askance,
+Thus answered. Ill for thee, but in wished hour
+Of my revenge, first sought for, thou returnest
+From flight, seditious Angel! to receive
+Thy merited reward, the first assay
+Of this right hand provoked, since first that tongue,
+Inspired with contradiction, durst oppose
+A third part of the Gods, in synod met
+Their deities to assert; who, while they feel
+Vigour divine within them, can allow
+Omnipotence to none. But well thou comest
+Before thy fellows, ambitious to win
+From me some plume, that thy success may show
+Destruction to the rest: This pause between,
+(Unanswered lest thou boast) to let thee know,
+At first I thought that Liberty and Heaven
+To heavenly souls had been all one; but now
+I see that most through sloth had rather serve,
+Ministring Spirits, trained up in feast and song!
+Such hast thou armed, the minstrelsy of Heaven,
+Servility with freedom to contend,
+As both their deeds compared this day shall prove.
+To whom in brief thus Abdiel stern replied.
+Apostate! still thou errest, nor end wilt find
+Of erring, from the path of truth remote:
+Unjustly thou depravest it with the name
+Of servitude, to serve whom God ordains,
+Or Nature: God and Nature bid the same,
+When he who rules is worthiest, and excels
+Them whom he governs. This is servitude,
+To serve the unwise, or him who hath rebelled
+Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee,
+Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled;
+Yet lewdly darest our ministring upbraid.
+Reign thou in Hell, thy kingdom; let me serve
+In Heaven God ever blest, and his divine
+Behests obey, worthiest to be obeyed;
+Yet chains in Hell, not realms, expect: Mean while
+From me returned, as erst thou saidst, from flight,
+This greeting on thy impious crest receive.
+So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high,
+Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell
+On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight,
+Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield,
+Such ruin intercept: Ten paces huge
+He back recoiled; the tenth on bended knee
+His massy spear upstaid; as if on earth
+Winds under ground, or waters forcing way,
+Sidelong had pushed a mountain from his seat,
+Half sunk with all his pines. Amazement seised
+The rebel Thrones, but greater rage, to see
+Thus foiled their mightiest; ours joy filled, and shout,
+Presage of victory, and fierce desire
+Of battle: Whereat Michael bid sound
+The Arch-Angel trumpet; through the vast of Heaven
+It sounded, and the faithful armies rung
+Hosanna to the Highest: Nor stood at gaze
+The adverse legions, nor less hideous joined
+The horrid shock. Now storming fury rose,
+And clamour such as heard in Heaven till now
+Was never; arms on armour clashing brayed
+Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
+Of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise
+Of conflict; over head the dismal hiss
+Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew,
+And flying vaulted either host with fire.
+So under fiery cope together rushed
+Both battles main, with ruinous assault
+And inextinguishable rage. All Heaven
+Resounded; and had Earth been then, all Earth
+Had to her center shook. What wonder? when
+Millions of fierce encountering Angels fought
+On either side, the least of whom could wield
+These elements, and arm him with the force
+Of all their regions: How much more of power
+Army against army numberless to raise
+Dreadful combustion warring, and disturb,
+Though not destroy, their happy native seat;
+Had not the Eternal King Omnipotent,
+From his strong hold of Heaven, high over-ruled
+And limited their might; though numbered such
+As each divided legion might have seemed
+A numerous host; in strength each armed hand
+A legion; led in fight, yet leader seemed
+Each warriour single as in chief, expert
+When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway
+Of battle, open when, and when to close
+The ridges of grim war: No thought of flight,
+None of retreat, no unbecoming deed
+That argued fear; each on himself relied,
+As only in his arm the moment lay
+Of victory: Deeds of eternal fame
+Were done, but infinite; for wide was spread
+That war and various; sometimes on firm ground
+A standing fight, then, soaring on main wing,
+Tormented all the air; all air seemed then
+Conflicting fire. Long time in even scale
+The battle hung; till Satan, who that day
+Prodigious power had shown, and met in arms
+No equal, ranging through the dire attack
+Of fighting Seraphim confused, at length
+Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and felled
+Squadrons at once; with huge two-handed sway
+Brandished aloft, the horrid edge came down
+Wide-wasting; such destruction to withstand
+He hasted, and opposed the rocky orb
+Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield,
+A vast circumference. At his approach
+The great Arch-Angel from his warlike toil
+Surceased, and glad, as hoping here to end
+Intestine war in Heaven, the arch-foe subdued
+Or captive dragged in chains, with hostile frown
+And visage all inflamed first thus began.
+Author of evil, unknown till thy revolt,
+Unnamed in Heaven, now plenteous as thou seest
+These acts of hateful strife, hateful to all,
+Though heaviest by just measure on thyself,
+And thy adherents: How hast thou disturbed
+Heaven's blessed peace, and into nature brought
+Misery, uncreated till the crime
+Of thy rebellion! how hast thou instilled
+Thy malice into thousands, once upright
+And faithful, now proved false! But think not here
+To trouble holy rest; Heaven casts thee out
+From all her confines. Heaven, the seat of bliss,
+Brooks not the works of violence and war.
+Hence then, and evil go with thee along,
+Thy offspring, to the place of evil, Hell;
+Thou and thy wicked crew! there mingle broils,
+Ere this avenging sword begin thy doom,
+Or some more sudden vengeance, winged from God,
+Precipitate thee with augmented pain.
+So spake the Prince of Angels; to whom thus
+The Adversary. Nor think thou with wind
+Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds
+Thou canst not. Hast thou turned the least of these
+To flight, or if to fall, but that they rise
+Unvanquished, easier to transact with me
+That thou shouldst hope, imperious, and with threats
+To chase me hence? err not, that so shall end
+The strife which thou callest evil, but we style
+The strife of glory; which we mean to win,
+Or turn this Heaven itself into the Hell
+Thou fablest; here however to dwell free,
+If not to reign: Mean while thy utmost force,
+And join him named Almighty to thy aid,
+I fly not, but have sought thee far and nigh.
+They ended parle, and both addressed for fight
+Unspeakable; for who, though with the tongue
+Of Angels, can relate, or to what things
+Liken on earth conspicuous, that may lift
+Human imagination to such highth
+Of Godlike power? for likest Gods they seemed,
+Stood they or moved, in stature, motion, arms,
+Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven.
+Now waved their fiery swords, and in the air
+Made horrid circles; two broad suns their shields
+Blazed opposite, while Expectation stood
+In horrour: From each hand with speed retired,
+Where erst was thickest fight, the angelick throng,
+And left large field, unsafe within the wind
+Of such commotion; such as, to set forth
+Great things by small, if, nature's concord broke,
+Among the constellations war were sprung,
+Two planets, rushing from aspect malign
+Of fiercest opposition, in mid sky
+Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound.
+Together both with next to almighty arm
+Up-lifted imminent, one stroke they aimed
+That might determine, and not need repeat,
+As not of power at once; nor odds appeared
+In might or swift prevention: But the sword
+Of Michael from the armoury of God
+Was given him tempered so, that neither keen
+Nor solid might resist that edge: it met
+The sword of Satan, with steep force to smite
+Descending, and in half cut sheer; nor staid,
+But with swift wheel reverse, deep entering, shared
+All his right side: Then Satan first knew pain,
+And writhed him to and fro convolved; so sore
+The griding sword with discontinuous wound
+Passed through him: But the ethereal substance closed,
+Not long divisible; and from the gash
+A stream of necturous humour issuing flowed
+Sanguine, such as celestial Spirits may bleed,
+And all his armour stained, ere while so bright.
+Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
+By Angels many and strong, who interposed
+Defence, while others bore him on their shields
+Back to his chariot, where it stood retired
+From off the files of war: There they him laid
+Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame,
+To find himself not matchless, and his pride
+Humbled by such rebuke, so far beneath
+His confidence to equal God in power.
+Yet soon he healed; for Spirits that live throughout
+Vital in every part, not as frail man
+In entrails, heart of head, liver or reins,
+Cannot but by annihilating die;
+Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound
+Receive, no more than can the fluid air:
+All heart they live, all head, all eye, all ear,
+All intellect, all sense; and, as they please,
+They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size
+Assume, as?kikes them best, condense or rare.
+Mean while in other parts like deeds deserved
+Memorial, where the might of Gabriel fought,
+And with fierce ensigns pierced the deep array
+Of Moloch, furious king; who him defied,
+And at his chariot-wheels to drag him bound
+Threatened, nor from the Holy One of Heaven
+Refrained his tongue blasphemous; but anon
+Down cloven to the waist, with shattered arms
+And uncouth pain fled bellowing. On each wing
+Uriel, and Raphael, his vaunting foe,
+Though huge, and in a rock of diamond armed,
+Vanquished Adramelech, and Asmadai,
+Two potent Thrones, that to be less than Gods
+Disdained, but meaner thoughts learned in their flight,
+Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail.
+Nor stood unmindful Abdiel to annoy
+The atheist crew, but with redoubled blow
+Ariel, and Arioch, and the violence
+Of Ramiel scorched and blasted, overthrew.
+I might relate of thousands, and their names
+Eternize here on earth; but those elect
+Angels, contented with their fame in Heaven,
+Seek not the praise of men: The other sort,
+In might though wonderous and in acts of war,
+Nor of renown less eager, yet by doom
+Cancelled from Heaven and sacred memory,
+Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell.
+For strength from truth divided, and from just,
+Illaudable, nought merits but dispraise
+And ignominy; yet to glory aspires
+Vain-glorious, and through infamy seeks fame:
+Therefore eternal silence be their doom.
+And now, their mightiest quelled, the battle swerved,
+With many an inroad gored; deformed rout
+Entered, and foul disorder; all the ground
+With shivered armour strown, and on a heap
+Chariot and charioteer lay overturned,
+And fiery-foaming steeds; what stood, recoiled
+O'er-wearied, through the faint Satanick host
+Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surprised,
+Then first with fear surprised, and sense of pain,
+Fled ignominious, to such evil brought
+By sin of disobedience; till that hour
+Not liable to fear, or flight, or pain.
+Far otherwise the inviolable Saints,
+In cubick phalanx firm, advanced entire,
+Invulnerable, impenetrably armed;
+Such high advantages their innocence
+Gave them above their foes; not to have sinned,
+Not to have disobeyed; in fight they stood
+Unwearied, unobnoxious to be pained
+By wound, though from their place by violence moved,
+Now Night her course began, and, over Heaven
+Inducing darkness, grateful truce imposed,
+And silence on the odious din of war:
+Under her cloudy covert both retired,
+Victor and vanquished: On the foughten field
+Michael and his Angels prevalent
+Encamping, placed in guard their watches round,
+Cherubick waving fires: On the other part,
+Satan with his rebellious disappeared,
+Far in the dark dislodged; and, void of rest,
+His potentates to council called by night;
+And in the midst thus undismayed began.
+O now in danger tried, now known in arms
+Not to be overpowered, Companions dear,
+Found worthy not of liberty alone,
+Too mean pretence! but what we more affect,
+Honour, dominion, glory, and renown;
+Who have sustained one day in doubtful fight,
+(And if one day, why not eternal days?)
+What Heaven's Lord had powerfullest to send
+Against us from about his throne, and judged
+Sufficient to subdue us to his will,
+But proves not so: Then fallible, it seems,
+Of future we may deem him, though till now
+Omniscient thought. True is, less firmly armed,
+Some disadvantage we endured and pain,
+Till now not known, but, known, as soon contemned;
+Since now we find this our empyreal form
+Incapable of mortal injury,
+Imperishable, and, though pierced with wound,
+Soon closing, and by native vigour healed.
+Of evil then so small as easy think
+The remedy; perhaps more valid arms,
+Weapons more violent, when next we meet,
+May serve to better us, and worse our foes,
+Or equal what between us made the odds,
+In nature none: If other hidden cause
+Left them superiour, while we can preserve
+Unhurt our minds, and understanding sound,
+Due search and consultation will disclose.
+He sat; and in the assembly next upstood
+Nisroch, of Principalities the prime;
+As one he stood escaped from cruel fight,
+Sore toiled, his riven arms to havock hewn,
+And cloudy in aspect thus answering spake.
+Deliverer from new Lords, leader to free
+Enjoyment of our right as Gods; yet hard
+For Gods, and too unequal work we find,
+Against unequal arms to fight in pain,
+Against unpained, impassive; from which evil
+Ruin must needs ensue; for what avails
+Valour or strength, though matchless, quelled with pain
+Which all subdues, and makes remiss the hands
+Of mightiest? Sense of pleasure we may well
+Spare out of life perhaps, and not repine,
+But live content, which is the calmest life:
+But pain is perfect misery, the worst
+Of evils, and, excessive, overturns
+All patience. He, who therefore can invent
+With what more forcible we may offend
+Our yet unwounded enemies, or arm
+Ourselves with like defence, to me deserves
+No less than for deliverance what we owe.
+Whereto with look composed Satan replied.
+Not uninvented that, which thou aright
+Believest so main to our success, I bring.
+Which of us who beholds the bright surface
+Of this ethereous mould whereon we stand,
+This continent of spacious Heaven, adorned
+With plant, fruit, flower ambrosial, gems, and gold;
+Whose eye so superficially surveys
+These things, as not to mind from whence they grow
+Deep under ground, materials dark and crude,
+Of spiritous and fiery spume, till touched
+With Heaven's ray, and tempered, they shoot forth
+So beauteous, opening to the ambient light?
+These in their dark nativity the deep
+Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame;
+Which, into hollow engines, long and round,
+Thick rammed, at the other bore with touch of fire
+Dilated and infuriate, shall send forth
+From far, with thundering noise, among our foes
+Such implements of mischief, as shall dash
+To pieces, and o'erwhelm whatever stands
+Adverse, that they shall fear we have disarmed
+The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt.
+Nor long shall be our labour; yet ere dawn,
+Effect shall end our wish. Mean while revive;
+Abandon fear; to strength and counsel joined
+Think nothing hard, much less to be despaired.
+He ended, and his words their drooping cheer
+Enlightened, and their languished hope revived.
+The invention all admired, and each, how he
+To be the inventer missed; so easy it seemed
+Once found, which yet unfound most would have thought
+Impossible: Yet, haply, of thy race
+In future days, if malice should abound,
+Some one intent on mischief, or inspired
+With devilish machination, might devise
+Like instrument to plague the sons of men
+For sin, on war and mutual slaughter bent.
+Forthwith from council to the work they flew;
+None arguing stood; innumerable hands
+Were ready; in a moment up they turned
+Wide the celestial soil, and saw beneath
+The originals of nature in their crude
+Conception; sulphurous and nitrous foam
+They found, they mingled, and, with subtle art,
+Concocted and adusted they reduced
+To blackest grain, and into store conveyed:
+Part hidden veins digged up (nor hath this earth
+Entrails unlike) of mineral and stone,
+Whereof to found their engines and their balls
+Of missive ruin; part incentive reed
+Provide, pernicious with one touch to fire.
+So all ere day-spring, under conscious night,
+Secret they finished, and in order set,
+With silent circumspection, unespied.
+Now when fair morn orient in Heaven appeared,
+Up rose the victor-Angels, and to arms
+The matin trumpet sung: In arms they stood
+Of golden panoply, refulgent host,
+Soon banded; others from the dawning hills
+Look round, and scouts each coast light-armed scour,
+Each quarter to descry the distant foe,
+Where lodged, or whither fled, or if for fight,
+In motion or in halt: Him soon they met
+Under spread ensigns moving nigh, in slow
+But firm battalion; back with speediest sail
+Zophiel, of Cherubim the swiftest wing,
+Came flying, and in mid air aloud thus cried.
+Arm, Warriours, arm for fight; the foe at hand,
+Whom fled we thought, will save us long pursuit
+This day; fear not his flight;so thick a cloud
+He comes, and settled in his face I see
+Sad resolution, and secure: Let each
+His adamantine coat gird well, and each
+Fit well his helm, gripe fast his orbed shield,
+Borne even or high; for this day will pour down,
+If I conjecture aught, no drizzling shower,
+But rattling storm of arrows barbed with fire.
+So warned he them, aware themselves, and soon
+In order, quit of all impediment;
+Instant without disturb they took alarm,
+And onward moved embattled: When behold!
+Not distant far with heavy pace the foe
+Approaching gross and huge, in hollow cube
+Training his devilish enginery, impaled
+On every side with shadowing squadrons deep,
+To hide the fraud. At interview both stood
+A while; but suddenly at head appeared
+Satan, and thus was heard commanding loud.
+Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold;
+That all may see who hate us, how we seek
+Peace and composure, and with open breast
+Stand ready to receive them, if they like
+Our overture; and turn not back perverse:
+But that I doubt; however witness, Heaven!
+Heaven, witness thou anon! while we discharge
+Freely our part: ye, who appointed stand
+Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch
+What we propound, and loud that all may hear!
+So scoffing in ambiguous words, he scarce
+Had ended; when to right and left the front
+Divided, and to either flank retired:
+Which to our eyes discovered, new and strange,
+A triple mounted row of pillars laid
+On wheels (for like to pillars most they seemed,
+Or hollowed bodies made of oak or fir,
+With branches lopt, in wood or mountain felled,)
+Brass, iron, stony mould, had not their mouths
+With hideous orifice gaped on us wide,
+Portending hollow truce: At each behind
+A Seraph stood, and in his hand a reed
+Stood waving tipt with fire; while we, suspense,
+Collected stood within our thoughts amused,
+Not long; for sudden all at once their reeds
+Put forth, and to a narrow vent applied
+With nicest touch. Immediate in a flame,
+But soon obscured with smoke, all Heaven appeared,
+From those deep-throated engines belched, whose roar
+Embowelled with outrageous noise the air,
+And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul
+Their devilish glut, chained thunderbolts and hail
+Of iron globes; which, on the victor host
+Levelled, with such impetuous fury smote,
+That, whom they hit, none on their feet might stand,
+Though standing else as rocks, but down they fell
+By thousands, Angel on Arch-Angel rolled;
+The sooner for their arms; unarmed, they might
+Have easily, as Spirits, evaded swift
+By quick contraction or remove; but now
+Foul dissipation followed, and forced rout;
+Nor served it to relax their serried files.
+What should they do? if on they rushed, repulse
+Repeated, and indecent overthrow
+Doubled, would render them yet more despised,
+And to their foes a laughter; for in view
+Stood ranked of Seraphim another row,
+In posture to displode their second tire
+Of thunder: Back defeated to return
+They worse abhorred. Satan beheld their plight,
+And to his mates thus in derision called.
+O Friends! why come not on these victors proud
+Ere while they fierce were coming; and when we,
+To entertain them fair with open front
+And breast, (what could we more?) propounded terms
+Of composition, straight they changed their minds,
+Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,
+As they would dance; yet for a dance they seemed
+Somewhat extravagant and wild; perhaps
+For joy of offered peace: But I suppose,
+If our proposals once again were heard,
+We should compel them to a quick result.
+To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.
+Leader! the terms we sent were terms of weight,
+Of hard contents, and full of force urged home;
+Such as we might perceive amused them all,
+And stumbled many: Who receives them right,
+Had need from head to foot well understand;
+Not understood, this gift they have besides,
+They show us when our foes walk not upright.
+So they among themselves in pleasant vein
+Stood scoffing, hightened in their thoughts beyond
+All doubt of victory: Eternal Might
+To match with their inventions they presumed
+So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn,
+And all his host derided, while they stood
+A while in trouble: But they stood not long;
+Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms
+Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.
+Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power,
+Which God hath in his mighty Angels placed!)
+Their arms away they threw, and to the hills
+(For Earth hath this variety from Heaven
+Of pleasure situate in hill and dale,)
+Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew;
+From their foundations loosening to and fro,
+They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,
+Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops
+Up-lifting bore them in their hands: Amaze,
+Be sure, and terrour, seized the rebel host,
+When coming towards them so dread they saw
+The bottom of the mountains upward turned;
+Till on those cursed engines' triple-row
+They saw them whelmed, and all their confidence
+Under the weight of mountains buried deep;
+Themselves invaded next, and on their heads
+Main promontories flung, which in the air
+Came shadowing, and oppressed whole legions armed;
+Their armour helped their harm, crushed in and bruised
+Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain
+Implacable, and many a dolorous groan;
+Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind
+Out of such prison, though Spirits of purest light,
+Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.
+The rest, in imitation, to like arms
+Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore:
+So hills amid the air encountered hills,
+Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire;
+That under ground they fought in dismal shade;
+Infernal noise! war seemed a civil game
+To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped
+Upon confusion rose: And now all Heaven
+Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread;
+Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits
+Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure,
+Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
+This tumult, and permitted all, advised:
+That his great purpose he might so fulfil,
+To honour his anointed Son avenged
+Upon his enemies, and to declare
+All power on him transferred: Whence to his Son,
+The Assessour of his throne, he thus began.
+Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved,
+Son, in whose face invisible is beheld
+Visibly, what by Deity I am;
+And in whose hand what by decree I do,
+Second Omnipotence! two days are past,
+Two days, as we compute the days of Heaven,
+Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame
+These disobedient: Sore hath been their fight,
+As likeliest was, when two such foes met armed;
+For to themselves I left them; and thou knowest,
+Equal in their creation they were formed,
+Save what sin hath impaired; which yet hath wrought
+Insensibly, for I suspend their doom;
+Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last
+Endless, and no solution will be found:
+War wearied hath performed what war can do,
+And to disordered rage let loose the reins
+With mountains, as with weapons, armed; which makes
+Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the main.
+Two days are therefore past, the third is thine;
+For thee I have ordained it; and thus far
+Have suffered, that the glory may be thine
+Of ending this great war, since none but Thou
+Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace
+Immense I have transfused, that all may know
+In Heaven and Hell thy power above compare;
+And, this perverse commotion governed thus,
+To manifest thee worthiest to be Heir
+Of all things; to be Heir, and to be King
+By sacred unction, thy deserved right.
+Go then, Thou Mightiest, in thy Father's might;
+Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels
+That shake Heaven's basis, bring forth all my war,
+My bow and thunder, my almighty arms
+Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh;
+Pursue these sons of darkness, drive them out
+From all Heaven's bounds into the utter deep:
+There let them learn, as likes them, to despise
+God, and Messiah his anointed King.
+He said, and on his Son with rays direct
+Shone full; he all his Father full expressed
+Ineffably into his face received;
+And thus the Filial Godhead answering spake.
+O Father, O Supreme of heavenly Thrones,
+First, Highest, Holiest, Best; thou always seek'st
+To glorify thy Son, I always thee,
+As is most just: This I my glory account,
+My exaltation, and my whole delight,
+That thou, in me well pleased, declarest thy will
+Fulfilled, which to fulfil is all my bliss.
+Scepter and power, thy giving, I assume,
+And gladlier shall resign, when in the end
+Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee
+For ever; and in me all whom thou lovest:
+But whom thou hatest, I hate, and can put on
+Thy terrours, as I put thy mildness on,
+Image of thee in all things; and shall soon,
+Armed with thy might, rid Heaven of these rebelled;
+To their prepared ill mansion driven down,
+To chains of darkness, and the undying worm;
+That from thy just obedience could revolt,
+Whom to obey is happiness entire.
+Then shall thy Saints unmixed, and from the impure
+Far separate, circling thy holy mount,
+Unfeigned Halleluiahs to thee sing,
+Hymns of high praise, and I among them Chief.
+So said, he, o'er his scepter bowing, rose
+From the right hand of Glory where he sat;
+And the third sacred morn began to shine,
+Dawning through Heaven. Forth rushed with whirlwind sound
+The chariot of Paternal Deity,
+Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn,
+Itself instinct with Spirit, but convoyed
+By four Cherubick shapes; four faces each
+Had wonderous; as with stars, their bodies all
+And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the wheels
+Of beryl, and careering fires between;
+Over their heads a crystal firmament,
+Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure
+Amber, and colours of the showery arch.
+He, in celestial panoply all armed
+Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought,
+Ascended; at his right hand Victory
+Sat eagle-winged; beside him hung his bow
+And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored;
+And from about him fierce effusion rolled
+Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles dire:
+Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints,
+He onward came; far off his coming shone;
+And twenty thousand (I their number heard)
+Chariots of God, half on each hand, were seen;
+He on the wings of Cherub rode sublime
+On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned,
+Illustrious far and wide; but by his own
+First seen: Them unexpected joy surprised,
+When the great ensign of Messiah blazed
+Aloft by Angels borne, his sign in Heaven;
+Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced
+His army, circumfused on either wing,
+Under their Head imbodied all in one.
+Before him Power Divine his way prepared;
+At his command the uprooted hills retired
+Each to his place; they heard his voice, and went
+Obsequious; Heaven his wonted face renewed,
+And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled.
+This saw his hapless foes, but stood obdured,
+And to rebellious fight rallied their Powers,
+Insensate, hope conceiving from despair.
+In heavenly Spirits could such perverseness dwell?
+But to convince the proud what signs avail,
+Or wonders move the obdurate to relent?
+They, hardened more by what might most reclaim,
+Grieving to see his glory, at the sight
+Took envy; and, aspiring to his highth,
+Stood re-embattled fierce, by force or fraud
+Weening to prosper, and at length prevail
+Against God and Messiah, or to fall
+In universal ruin last; and now
+To final battle drew, disdaining flight,
+Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God
+To all his host on either hand thus spake.
+Stand still in bright array, ye Saints; here stand,
+Ye Angels armed; this day from battle rest:
+Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God
+Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause;
+And as ye have received, so have ye done,
+Invincibly: But of this cursed crew
+The punishment to other hand belongs;
+Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints:
+Number to this day's work is not ordained,
+Nor multitude; stand only, and behold
+God's indignation on these godless poured
+By me; not you, but me, they have despised,
+Yet envied; against me is all their rage,
+Because the Father, to whom in Heaven s'preme
+Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains,
+Hath honoured me, according to his will.
+Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned;
+That they may have their wish, to try with me
+In battle which the stronger proves; they all,
+Or I alone against them; since by strength
+They measure all, of other excellence
+Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
+Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe.
+So spake the Son, and into terrour changed
+His countenance too severe to be beheld,
+And full of wrath bent on his enemies.
+At once the Four spread out their starry wings
+With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs
+Of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound
+Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host.
+He on his impious foes right onward drove,
+Gloomy as night; under his burning wheels
+The stedfast empyrean shook throughout,
+All but the throne itself of God. Full soon
+Among them he arrived; in his right hand
+Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent
+Before him, such as in their souls infixed
+Plagues: They, astonished, all resistance lost,
+All courage; down their idle weapons dropt:
+O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode
+Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate,
+That wished the mountains now might be again
+Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire.
+Nor less on either side tempestuous fell
+His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged Four
+Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels
+Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;
+One Spirit in them ruled; and every eye
+Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
+Among the accursed, that withered all their strength,
+And of their wonted vigour left them drained,
+Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.
+Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked
+His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
+Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven:
+The overthrown he raised, and as a herd
+Of goats or timorous flock together thronged
+Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
+With terrours, and with furies, to the bounds
+And crystal wall of Heaven; which, opening wide,
+Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
+Into the wasteful deep: The monstrous sight
+Struck them with horrour backward, but far worse
+Urged them behind: Headlong themselves they threw
+Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath
+Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
+Hell heard the unsufferable noise, Hell saw
+Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled
+Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep
+Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.
+Nine days they fell: Confounded Chaos roared,
+And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
+Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout
+Incumbered him with ruin: Hell at last
+Yawning received them whole, and on them closed;
+Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
+Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
+Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired
+Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled.
+Sole victor, from the expulsion of his foes,
+Messiah his triumphal chariot turned:
+To meet him all his Saints, who silent stood
+Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,
+With jubilee advanced; and, as they went,
+Shaded with branching palm, each Order bright,
+Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King,
+Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
+Worthiest to reign: He, celebrated, rode
+Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the courts
+And temple of his Mighty Father throned
+On high; who into glory him received,
+Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss.
+Thus, measuring things in Heaven by things on Earth,
+At thy request, and that thou mayest beware
+By what is past, to thee I have revealed
+What might have else to human race been hid;
+The discord which befel, and war in Heaven
+Among the angelick Powers, and the deep fall
+Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled
+With Satan; he who envies now thy state,
+Who now is plotting how he may seduce
+Thee also from obedience, that, with him
+Bereaved of happiness, thou mayest partake
+His punishment, eternal misery;
+Which would be all his solace and revenge,
+As a despite done against the Most High,
+Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
+But listen not to his temptations, warn
+Thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard,
+By terrible example, the reward
+Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,
+Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.
+
+
+
+Book VII
+
+
+Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name
+If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
+Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
+Above the flight of Pegasean wing!
+The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou
+Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
+Of old Olympus dwellest; but, heavenly-born,
+Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
+Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
+Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
+In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased
+With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
+Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
+An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
+Thy tempering: with like safety guided down
+Return me to my native element:
+Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once
+Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,)
+Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,
+Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.
+Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound
+Within the visible diurnal sphere;
+Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
+More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
+To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
+On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;
+In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
+And solitude; yet not alone, while thou
+Visitest my slumbers nightly, or when morn
+Purples the east: still govern thou my song,
+Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
+But drive far off the barbarous dissonance
+Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race
+Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
+In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
+To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned
+Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
+Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
+For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream.
+Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphael,
+The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarned
+Adam, by dire example, to beware
+Apostasy, by what befel in Heaven
+To those apostates; lest the like befall
+In Paradise to Adam or his race,
+Charged not to touch the interdicted tree,
+If they transgress, and slight that sole command,
+So easily obeyed amid the choice
+Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
+Though wandering. He, with his consorted Eve,
+The story heard attentive, and was filled
+With admiration and deep muse, to hear
+Of things so high and strange; things, to their thought
+So unimaginable, as hate in Heaven,
+And war so near the peace of God in bliss,
+With such confusion: but the evil, soon
+Driven back, redounded as a flood on those
+From whom it sprung; impossible to mix
+With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed
+The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
+Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know
+What nearer might concern him, how this world
+Of Heaven and Earth conspicuous first began;
+When, and whereof created; for what cause;
+What within Eden, or without, was done
+Before his memory; as one whose drouth
+Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream,
+Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
+Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest.
+Great things, and full of wonder in our ears,
+Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed,
+Divine interpreter! by favour sent
+Down from the empyrean, to forewarn
+Us timely of what might else have been our loss,
+Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach;
+For which to the infinitely Good we owe
+Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
+Receive, with solemn purpose to observe
+Immutably his sovran will, the end
+Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed
+Gently, for our instruction, to impart
+Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned
+Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed,
+Deign to descend now lower, and relate
+What may no less perhaps avail us known,
+How first began this Heaven which we behold
+Distant so high, with moving fires adorned
+Innumerable; and this which yields or fills
+All space, the ambient air wide interfused
+Embracing round this floried Earth; what cause
+Moved the Creator, in his holy rest
+Through all eternity, so late to build
+In Chaos; and the work begun, how soon
+Absolved; if unforbid thou mayest unfold
+What we, not to explore the secrets ask
+Of his eternal empire, but the more
+To magnify his works, the more we know.
+And the great light of day yet wants to run
+Much of his race though steep; suspense in Heaven,
+Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,
+And longer will delay to hear thee tell
+His generation, and the rising birth
+Of Nature from the unapparent Deep:
+Or if the star of evening and the moon
+Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring,
+Silence; and Sleep, listening to thee, will watch;
+Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
+End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.
+Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
+And thus the Godlike Angel answered mild.
+This also thy request, with caution asked,
+Obtain; though to recount almighty works
+What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,
+Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?
+Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve
+To glorify the Maker, and infer
+Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
+Thy hearing; such commission from above
+I have received, to answer thy desire
+Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain
+To ask; nor let thine own inventions hope
+Things not revealed, which the invisible King,
+Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night;
+To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:
+Enough is left besides to search and know.
+But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
+Her temperance over appetite, to know
+In measure what the mind may well contain;
+Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
+Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
+Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven
+(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
+Of Angels, than that star the stars among,)
+Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
+Into his place, and the great Son returned
+Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent
+Eternal Father from his throne beheld
+Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.
+At least our envious Foe hath failed, who thought
+All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
+This inaccessible high strength, the seat
+Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,
+He trusted to have seised, and into fraud
+Drew many, whom their place knows here no more:
+Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,
+Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains
+Number sufficient to possess her realms
+Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
+With ministeries due, and solemn rites:
+But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm
+Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven,
+My damage fondly deemed, I can repair
+That detriment, if such it be to lose
+Self-lost; and in a moment will create
+Another world, out of one man a race
+Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
+Not here; till, by degrees of merit raised,
+They open to themselves at length the way
+Up hither, under long obedience tried;
+And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth,
+One kingdom, joy and union without end.
+Mean while inhabit lax, ye Powers of Heaven;
+And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
+This I perform; speak thou, and be it done!
+My overshadowing Spirit and Might with thee
+I send along; ride forth, and bid the Deep
+Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth;
+Boundless the Deep, because I Am who fill
+Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
+Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire,
+And put not forth my goodness, which is free
+To act or not, Necessity and Chance
+Approach not me, and what I will is Fate.
+So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake
+His Word, the Filial Godhead, gave effect.
+Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
+Than time or motion, but to human ears
+Cannot without process of speech be told,
+So told as earthly notion can receive.
+Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,
+When such was heard declared the Almighty's will;
+Glory they sung to the Most High, good will
+To future men, and in their dwellings peace;
+Glory to Him, whose just avenging ire
+Had driven out the ungodly from his sight
+And the habitations of the just; to Him
+Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained
+Good out of evil to create; instead
+Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring
+Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
+His good to worlds and ages infinite.
+So sang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son
+On his great expedition now appeared,
+Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crowned
+Of Majesty Divine; sapience and love
+Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
+About his chariot numberless were poured
+Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones,
+And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots winged
+From the armoury of God; where stand of old
+Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged
+Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand,
+Celestial equipage; and now came forth
+Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived,
+Attendant on their Lord: Heaven opened wide
+Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound
+On golden hinges moving, to let forth
+The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
+And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.
+On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore
+They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss
+Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
+Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
+And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
+Heaven's highth, and with the center mix the pole.
+Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace,
+Said then the Omnifick Word; your discord end!
+Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim
+Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
+Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
+For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train
+Followed in bright procession, to behold
+Creation, and the wonders of his might.
+Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
+He took the golden compasses, prepared
+In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
+This universe, and all created things:
+One foot he centered, and the other turned
+Round through the vast profundity obscure;
+And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
+This be thy just circumference, O World!
+Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth,
+Matter unformed and void: Darkness profound
+Covered the abyss: but on the watery calm
+His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
+And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
+Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purged
+The black tartareous cold infernal dregs,
+Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed
+Like things to like; the rest to several place
+Disparted, and between spun out the air;
+And Earth self-balanced on her center hung.
+Let there be light, said God; 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 was good;
+And light from darkness by the hemisphere
+Divided: light the Day, and darkness Night,
+He named. Thus was the first day even and morn:
+Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung
+By the celestial quires, when orient light
+Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
+Birth-day of Heaven and Earth; with joy and shout
+The hollow universal orb they filled,
+And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised
+God and his works; Creator him they sung,
+Both when first evening was, and when first morn.
+Again, God said, Let there be firmament
+Amid the waters, and let it divide
+The waters from the waters; and God made
+The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
+Transparent, elemental air, diffused
+In circuit to the uttermost convex
+Of this great round; partition firm and sure,
+The waters underneath from those above
+Dividing: for as earth, so he the world
+Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
+Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
+Of Chaos far removed; lest fierce extremes
+Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
+And Heaven he named the Firmament: So even
+And morning chorus sung the second day.
+The Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet
+Of waters, embryon immature involved,
+Appeared not: over all the face of Earth
+Main ocean flowed, not idle; but, with warm
+Prolifick humour softening all her globe,
+Fermented the great mother to conceive,
+Satiate with genial moisture; when God said,
+Be gathered now ye waters under Heaven
+Into one place, and let dry land appear.
+Immediately the mountains huge appear
+Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
+Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky:
+So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
+Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
+Capacious bed of waters: Thither they
+Hasted with glad precipitance, uprolled,
+As drops on dust conglobing from the dry:
+Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,
+For haste; such flight the great command impressed
+On the swift floods: As armies at the call
+Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
+Troop to their standard; so the watery throng,
+Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
+If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
+Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill;
+But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
+With serpent errour wandering, found their way,
+And on the washy oose deep channels wore;
+Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
+All but within those banks, where rivers now
+Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
+The dry land, Earth; and the great receptacle
+Of congregated waters, he called Seas:
+And saw that it was good; and said, Let the Earth
+Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed,
+And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,
+Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth.
+He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then
+Desart and bare, unsightly, unadorned,
+Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad
+Her universal face with pleasant green;
+Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered
+Opening their various colours, and made gay
+Her bosom, smelling sweet: and, these scarce blown,
+Forth flourished thick the clustering vine, forth crept
+The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed
+Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub,
+And bush with frizzled hair implicit: Last
+Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread
+Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed
+Their blossoms: With high woods the hills were crowned;
+With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side;
+With borders long the rivers: that Earth now
+Seemed like to Heaven, a seat where Gods might dwell,
+Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
+Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rained
+Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground
+None was; but from the Earth a dewy mist
+Went up, and watered all the ground, and each
+Plant of the field; which, ere it was in the Earth,
+God made, and every herb, before it grew
+On the green stem: God saw that it was good:
+So even and morn recorded the third day.
+Again the Almighty spake, Let there be lights
+High in the expanse of Heaven, to divide
+The day from night; and let them be for signs,
+For seasons, and for days, and circling years;
+And let them be for lights, as I ordain
+Their office in the firmament of Heaven,
+To give light on the Earth; and it was so.
+And God made two great lights, great for their use
+To Man, the greater to have rule by day,
+The less by night, altern; and made the stars,
+And set them in the firmament of Heaven
+To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day
+In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
+And light from darkness to divide. God saw,
+Surveying his great work, that it was good:
+For of celestial bodies first the sun
+A mighty sphere he framed, unlightsome first,
+Though of ethereal mould: then formed the moon
+Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
+And sowed with stars the Heaven, thick as a field:
+Of light by far the greater part he took,
+Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed
+In the sun's orb, made porous to receive
+And drink the liquid light; firm to retain
+Her gathered beams, great palace now of light.
+Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
+Repairing, in their golden urns draw light,
+And hence the morning-planet gilds her horns;
+By tincture or reflection they augment
+Their small peculiar, though from human sight
+So far remote, with diminution seen,
+First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
+Regent of day, and all the horizon round
+Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
+His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray
+Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced,
+Shedding sweet influence: Less bright the moon,
+But opposite in levelled west was set,
+His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light
+From him; for other light she needed none
+In that aspect, and still that distance keeps
+Till night; then in the east her turn she shines,
+Revolved on Heaven's great axle, and her reign
+With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,
+With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared
+Spangling the hemisphere: Then first adorned
+With their bright luminaries that set and rose,
+Glad evening and glad morn crowned the fourth day.
+And God said, Let the waters generate
+Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul:
+And let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings
+Displayed on the open firmament of Heaven.
+And God created the great whales, and each
+Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously
+The waters generated by their kinds;
+And every bird of wing after his kind;
+And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying.
+Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,
+And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill;
+And let the fowl be multiplied, on the Earth.
+Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay,
+With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
+Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales,
+Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft
+Bank the mid sea: part single, or with mate,
+Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves
+Of coral stray; or, sporting with quick glance,
+Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold;
+Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend
+Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food
+In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal
+And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk
+Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
+Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
+Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
+Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
+And seems a moving land; and at his gills
+Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea.
+Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
+Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that soon
+Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclosed
+Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge
+They summed their pens; and, soaring the air sublime,
+With clang despised the ground, under a cloud
+In prospect; there the eagle and the stork
+On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
+Part loosely wing the region, part more wise
+In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way,
+Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
+Their aery caravan, high over seas
+Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing
+Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane
+Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
+Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes:
+From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
+Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings
+Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale
+Ceased warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays:
+Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed
+Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck,
+Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
+Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
+The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower
+The mid aereal sky: Others on ground
+Walked firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds
+The silent hours, and the other whose gay train
+Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue
+Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus
+With fish replenished, and the air with fowl,
+Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day.
+The sixth, and of creation last, arose
+With evening harps and matin; when God said,
+Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind,
+Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the Earth,
+Each in their kind. The Earth obeyed, and straight
+Opening her fertile womb teemed at a birth
+Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
+Limbed and full grown: Out of the ground up rose,
+As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons
+In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
+Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked:
+The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
+Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
+Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
+The grassy clods now calved; now half appeared
+The tawny lion, pawing to get free
+His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,
+And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,
+The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
+Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
+In hillocks: The swift stag from under ground
+Bore up his branching head: Scarce from his mould
+Behemoth biggest born of earth upheaved
+His vastness: Fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,
+As plants: Ambiguous between sea and land
+The river-horse, and scaly crocodile.
+At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
+Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans
+For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
+In all the liveries decked of summer's pride
+With spots of gold and purple, azure and green:
+These, as a line, their long dimension drew,
+Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
+Minims of nature; some of serpent-kind,
+Wonderous in length and corpulence, involved
+Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
+The parsimonious emmet, provident
+Of future; in small room large heart enclosed;
+Pattern of just equality perhaps
+Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
+Of commonalty: Swarming next appeared
+The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
+Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
+With honey stored: The rest are numberless,
+And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names,
+Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
+The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,
+Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
+And hairy mane terrifick, though to thee
+Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
+Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and rolled
+Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand
+First wheeled their course: Earth in her rich attire
+Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,
+By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked,
+Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:
+There wanted yet the master-work, the end
+Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone
+And brute as other creatures, but endued
+With sanctity of reason, might erect
+His stature, and upright with front serene
+Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence
+Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
+But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
+Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
+Directed in devotion, to adore
+And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
+Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent
+Eternal Father (for where is not he
+Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake.
+Let us make now Man in our image, Man
+In our similitude, and let them rule
+Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,
+Beast of the field, and over all the Earth,
+And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.
+This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O Man,
+Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
+The breath of life; in his own image he
+Created thee, in the image of God
+Express; and thou becamest a living soul.
+Male he created thee; but thy consort
+Female, for race; then blessed mankind, and said,
+Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth;
+Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
+Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,
+And every living thing that moves on the Earth.
+Wherever thus created, for no place
+Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou knowest,
+He brought thee into this delicious grove,
+This garden, planted with the trees of God,
+Delectable both to behold and taste;
+And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
+Gave thee; all sorts are here that all the Earth yields,
+Variety without end; but of the tree,
+Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil,
+Thou mayest not; in the day thou eatest, thou diest;
+Death is the penalty imposed; beware,
+And govern well thy appetite; lest Sin
+Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.
+Here finished he, and all that he had made
+Viewed, and behold all was entirely good;
+So even and morn accomplished the sixth day:
+Yet not till the Creator from his work
+Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,
+Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode;
+Thence to behold this new created world,
+The addition of his empire, how it showed
+In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
+Answering his great idea. Up he rode
+Followed with acclamation, and the sound
+Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned
+Angelick harmonies: The earth, the air
+Resounded, (thou rememberest, for thou heardst,)
+The heavens and all the constellations rung,
+The planets in their station listening stood,
+While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.
+Open, ye everlasting gates! they sung,
+Open, ye Heavens! your living doors;let in
+The great Creator from his work returned
+Magnificent, his six days work, a World;
+Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
+To visit oft the dwellings of just men,
+Delighted; and with frequent intercourse
+Thither will send his winged messengers
+On errands of supernal grace. So sung
+The glorious train ascending: He through Heaven,
+That opened wide her blazing portals, led
+To God's eternal house direct the way;
+A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold
+And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
+Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
+Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest
+Powdered with stars. And now on Earth the seventh
+Evening arose in Eden, for the sun
+Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
+Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
+Of Heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne
+Of Godhead, fixed for ever firm and sure,
+The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down
+With his great Father; for he also went
+Invisible, yet staid, (such privilege
+Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordained,
+Author and End of all things; and, from work
+Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day,
+As resting on that day from all his work,
+But not in silence holy kept: the harp
+Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe,
+And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
+All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
+Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
+Choral or unison: of incense clouds,
+Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount.
+Creation and the six days acts they sung:
+Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite
+Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue
+Relate thee! Greater now in thy return
+Than from the giant Angels: Thee that day
+Thy thunders magnified; but to create
+Is greater than created to destroy.
+Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound
+Thy empire! Easily the proud attempt
+Of Spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,
+Thou hast repelled; while impiously they thought
+Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
+The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
+To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
+To manifest the more thy might: his evil
+Thou usest, and from thence createst more good.
+Witness this new-made world, another Heaven
+From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view
+On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
+Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
+Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
+Of destined habitation; but thou knowest
+Their seasons: among these the seat of Men,
+Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused,
+Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy Men,
+And sons of Men, whom God hath thus advanced!
+Created in his image, there to dwell
+And worship him; and in reward to rule
+Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
+And multiply a race of worshippers
+Holy and just: Thrice happy, if they know
+Their happiness, and persevere upright!
+So sung they, and the empyrean rung
+With halleluiahs: Thus was sabbath kept.
+And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked
+How first this world and face of things began,
+And what before thy memory was done
+From the beginning; that posterity,
+Informed by thee, might know: If else thou seekest
+Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.
+
+
+
+Book VIII
+
+
+The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear
+So charming left his voice, that he a while
+Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear;
+Then, as new waked, thus gratefully replied.
+What thanks sufficient, or what recompence
+Equal, have I to render thee, divine
+Historian, who thus largely hast allayed
+The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed
+This friendly condescension to relate
+Things, else by me unsearchable; now heard
+With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,
+With glory attributed to the high
+Creator! Something yet of doubt remains,
+Which only thy solution can resolve.
+When I behold this goodly frame, this world,
+Of Heaven and Earth consisting; and compute
+Their magnitudes; this Earth, a spot, a grain,
+An atom, with the firmament compared
+And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll
+Spaces incomprehensible, (for such
+Their distance argues, and their swift return
+Diurnal,) merely to officiate light
+Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot,
+One day and night; in all her vast survey
+Useless besides; reasoning I oft admire,
+How Nature wise and frugal could commit
+Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
+So many nobler bodies to create,
+Greater so manifold, to this one use,
+For aught appears, and on their orbs impose
+Such restless revolution day by day
+Repeated; while the sedentary Earth,
+That better might with far less compass move,
+Served by more noble than herself, attains
+Her end without least motion, and receives,
+As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
+Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
+Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.
+So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed
+Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve
+Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,
+With lowliness majestick from her seat,
+And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,
+Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers,
+To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,
+Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,
+And, touched by her fair tendance, gladlier grew.
+Yet went she not, as not with such discourse
+Delighted, or not capable her ear
+Of what was high: such pleasure she reserved,
+Adam relating, she sole auditress;
+Her husband the relater she preferred
+Before the Angel, and of him to ask
+Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix
+Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
+With conjugal caresses: from his lip
+Not words alone pleased her. O! when meet now
+Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?
+With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went,
+Not unattended; for on her, as Queen,
+A pomp of winning Graces waited still,
+And from about her shot darts of desire
+Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight.
+And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt proposed,
+Benevolent and facile thus replied.
+To ask or search, I blame thee not; for Heaven
+Is as the book of God before thee set,
+Wherein to read his wonderous works, and learn
+His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:
+This to attain, whether Heaven move or Earth,
+Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest
+From Man or Angel the great Architect
+Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge
+His secrets to be scanned by them who ought
+Rather admire; or, if they list to try
+Conjecture, he his fabrick of the Heavens
+Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
+His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
+Hereafter; when they come to model Heaven
+And calculate the stars, how they will wield
+The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive
+To save appearances; how gird the sphere
+With centrick and eccentrick scribbled o'er,
+Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb:
+Already by thy reasoning this I guess,
+Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest
+That bodies bright and greater should not serve
+The less not bright, nor Heaven such journeys 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, unactive 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 thinkest not slow,
+Who since the morning-hour set out from Heaven
+Where God resides, and ere mid-day 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. What if the sun
+Be center to the world; and other stars,
+By his attractive virtue and their own
+Incited, dance about him various rounds?
+Their wandering course now high, now low, then hid,
+Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,
+In six thou seest; and what if seventh to these
+The planet earth, so stedfast though she seem,
+Insensibly three different motions move?
+Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,
+Moved contrary with thwart obliquities;
+Or save the sun his labour, and that swift
+Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,
+Invisible else above all stars, the wheel
+Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,
+If earth, industrious of herself, fetch day
+Travelling east, and with her part averse
+From the sun's beam meet night, her other part
+Still luminous by his ray. What if that light,
+Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,
+To the terrestrial moon be as a star,
+Enlightening her by day, as she by night
+This earth? reciprocal, if land be there,
+Fields and inhabitants: Her spots thou seest
+As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce
+Fruits in her softened soil for some to eat
+Allotted there; and other suns perhaps,
+With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry,
+Communicating male and female light;
+Which two great sexes animate the world,
+Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.
+For such vast room in Nature unpossessed
+By living soul, desart and desolate,
+Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute
+Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far
+Down to this habitable, which returns
+Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.
+But whether thus these things, or whether not;
+But whether the sun, predominant in Heaven,
+Rise on the earth; or earth rise on the sun;
+He from the east his flaming road begin;
+Or she from west her silent course advance,
+With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps
+On her soft axle, while she paces even,
+And bears thee soft with the smooth hair along;
+Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid;
+Leave them to God above; him serve, and fear!
+Of other creatures, as him pleases best,
+Wherever placed, let him dispose; joy thou
+In what he gives to thee, this Paradise
+And thy fair Eve; Heaven is for thee too high
+To know what passes there; be lowly wise:
+Think only what concerns thee, and thy being;
+Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
+Live, in what state, condition, or degree;
+Contented that thus far hath been revealed
+Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.
+To whom thus Adam, cleared of doubt, replied.
+How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure
+Intelligence of Heaven, Angel serene!
+And, freed from intricacies, taught to live
+The easiest way; nor with perplexing thoughts
+To interrupt the sweet of life, from which
+God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,
+And not molest us; unless we ourselves
+Seek them with wandering thoughts, and notions vain.
+But apt the mind or fancy is to rove
+Unchecked, and of her roving is no end;
+Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn,
+That, not to know at large of things remote
+From use, obscure and subtle; but, to know
+That which before us lies in daily life,
+Is the prime wisdom: What is more, is fume,
+Or emptiness, or fond impertinence:
+And renders us, in things that most concern,
+Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek.
+Therefore from this high pitch let us descend
+A lower flight, and speak of things at hand
+Useful; whence, haply, mention may arise
+Of something not unseasonable to ask,
+By sufferance, and thy wonted favour, deigned.
+Thee I have heard relating what was done
+Ere my remembrance: now, hear me relate
+My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard;
+And day is not yet spent; till then thou seest
+How subtly to detain thee I devise;
+Inviting thee to hear while I relate;
+Fond! were it not in hope of thy reply:
+For, while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven;
+And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear
+Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst
+And hunger both, from labour, at the hour
+Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill,
+Though pleasant; but thy words, with grace divine
+Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety.
+To whom thus Raphael answered heavenly meek.
+Nor are thy lips ungraceful, Sire of men,
+Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee
+Abundantly his gifts hath also poured
+Inward and outward both, his image fair:
+Speaking, or mute, all comeliness and grace
+Attends thee; and each word, each motion, forms;
+Nor less think we in Heaven of thee on Earth
+Than of our fellow-servant, and inquire
+Gladly into the ways of God with Man:
+For God, we see, hath honoured thee, and set
+On Man his equal love: Say therefore on;
+For I that day was absent, as befel,
+Bound on a voyage uncouth and obscure,
+Far on excursion toward the gates of Hell;
+Squared in full legion (such command we had)
+To see that none thence issued forth a spy,
+Or enemy, while God was in his work;
+Lest he, incensed at such eruption bold,
+Destruction with creation might have mixed.
+Not that they durst without his leave attempt;
+But us he sends upon his high behests
+For state, as Sovran King; and to inure
+Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut,
+The dismal gates, and barricadoed strong;
+But long ere our approaching heard within
+Noise, other than the sound of dance or song,
+Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.
+Glad we returned up to the coasts of light
+Ere sabbath-evening: so we had in charge.
+But thy relation now; for I attend,
+Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine.
+So spake the Godlike Power, and thus our Sire.
+For Man to tell how human life began
+Is hard; for who himself beginning knew
+Desire with thee still longer to converse
+Induced me. As new waked from soundest sleep,
+Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid,
+In balmy sweat; which with his beams the sun
+Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed.
+Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned,
+And gazed a while the ample sky; till, raised
+By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung,
+As thitherward endeavouring, and upright
+Stood on my feet: about me round I saw
+Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
+And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these,
+Creatures that lived and moved, and walked, or flew;
+Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;
+With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.
+Myself I then perused, and limb by limb
+Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran
+With supple joints, as lively vigour led:
+But who I was, or where, or from what cause,
+Knew not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake;
+My tongue obeyed, and readily could name
+Whate'er I saw. Thou Sun, said I, fair light,
+And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay,
+Ye Hills, and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains,
+And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell,
+Tell, if ye saw, how I came thus, how here?--
+Not of myself;--by some great Maker then,
+In goodness and in power pre-eminent:
+Tell me, how may I know him, how adore,
+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 seised
+My droused sense, untroubled, though I thought
+I then was passing to my former state
+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,
+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
+Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemed. Each tree,
+Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to the eye
+Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite
+To pluck and eat; whereat I waked, and found
+Before mine eyes all real, as the dream
+Had lively shadowed: Here had new begun
+My wandering, had not he, who was my guide
+Up hither, from among the trees appeared,
+Presence Divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,
+In adoration at his feet I fell
+Submiss: He reared me, and 'Whom thou soughtest I am,'
+Said mildly, 'Author of all this thou seest
+'Above, or round about thee, or beneath.
+'This Paradise I give thee, count it thine
+'To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat:
+'Of every tree that in the garden grows
+'Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:
+'But of the tree whose operation brings
+'Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set
+'The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,
+'Amid the garden by the tree of life,
+'Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,
+'And shun the bitter consequence: for know,
+'The day thou eatest thereof, my sole command
+'Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die,
+'From that day mortal; and this happy state
+'Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world
+'Of woe and sorrow.' Sternly he pronounced
+The rigid interdiction, which resounds
+Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice
+Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect
+Returned, and gracious purpose thus renewed.
+'Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth
+'To thee and to thy race I give; as lords
+'Possess it, and all things that therein live,
+'Or live in sea, or air; beast, fish, and fowl.
+'In sign whereof, each bird and beast behold
+'After their kinds; I bring them to receive
+'From thee their names, and pay thee fealty
+'With low subjection; understand the same
+'Of fish within their watery residence,
+'Not hither summoned, since they cannot change
+'Their element, to draw the thinner air.'
+As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold
+Approaching two and two; these cowering low
+With blandishment; each bird stooped on his wing.
+I named them, as they passed, and understood
+Their nature, with such knowledge God endued
+My sudden apprehension: But in these
+I found not what methought I wanted still;
+And to the heavenly Vision thus presumed.
+O, by what name, for thou above all these,
+Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher,
+Surpassest far my naming; how may I
+Adore thee, Author of this universe,
+And all this good to man? for whose well being
+So amply, and with hands so liberal,
+Thou hast provided all things: But with me
+I see not who partakes. In solitude
+What happiness, who can enjoy alone,
+Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?
+Thus I presumptuous; and the Vision bright,
+As with a smile more brightened, thus replied.
+What callest thou solitude? Is not the Earth
+With various living creatures, and the air
+Replenished, and all these at thy command
+To come and play before thee? Knowest thou not
+Their language and their ways? They also know,
+And reason not contemptibly: With these
+Find pastime, and bear rule; thy realm is large.
+So spake the Universal Lord, and seemed
+So ordering: I, with leave of speech implored,
+And humble deprecation, thus replied.
+Let not my words offend thee, Heavenly Power;
+My Maker, be propitious while I speak.
+Hast thou not made me here thy substitute,
+And these inferiour far beneath me set?
+Among unequals what society
+Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?
+Which must be mutual, in proportion due
+Given and received; but, in disparity
+The one intense, the other still remiss,
+Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove
+Tedious alike: Of fellowship I speak
+Such as I seek, fit to participate
+All rational delight: wherein the brute
+Cannot be human consort: They rejoice
+Each with their kind, lion with lioness;
+So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined:
+Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl
+So well converse, nor with the ox the ape;
+Worse then can man with beast, and least of all.
+Whereto the Almighty answered, not displeased.
+A nice and subtle happiness, I see,
+Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice
+Of thy associates, Adam! and wilt taste
+No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.
+What thinkest thou then of me, and this my state?
+Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed
+Of happiness, or not? who am alone
+From all eternity; for none I know
+Second to me or like, equal much less.
+How have I then with whom to hold converse,
+Save with the creatures which I made, and those
+To me inferiour, infinite descents
+Beneath what other creatures are to thee?
+He ceased; I lowly answered. To attain
+The highth and depth of thy eternal ways
+All human thoughts come short, Supreme of things!
+Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee
+Is no deficience found: Not so is Man,
+But in degree; the cause of his desire
+By conversation with his like to help
+Or solace his defects. No need that thou
+Shouldst propagate, already Infinite;
+And through all numbers absolute, though One:
+But Man by number is to manifest
+His single imperfection, and beget
+Like of his like, his image multiplied,
+In unity defective; which requires
+Collateral love, and dearest amity.
+Thou in thy secresy although alone,
+Best with thyself accompanied, seekest not
+Social communication; yet, so pleased,
+Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt
+Of union or communion, deified:
+I, by conversing, cannot these erect
+From prone; nor in their ways complacence find.
+Thus I emboldened spake, and freedom used
+Permissive, and acceptance found; which gained
+This answer from the gracious Voice Divine.
+Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased;
+And find thee knowing, not of beasts alone,
+Which thou hast rightly named, but of thyself;
+Expressing well the spirit within thee free,
+My image, not imparted to the brute;
+Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee
+Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike;
+And be so minded still: I, ere thou spakest,
+Knew it not good for Man to be alone;
+And no such company as then thou sawest
+Intended thee; for trial only brought,
+To see how thou couldest judge of fit and meet:
+What next I bring shall please thee, be assured,
+Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,
+Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.
+He ended, or I heard no more; for now
+My earthly by his heavenly overpowered,
+Which it had long stood under, strained to the highth
+In that celestial colloquy sublime,
+As with an object that excels the sense
+Dazzled and spent, sunk down; and sought repair
+Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, called
+By Nature as in aid, and closed mine eyes.
+Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell
+Of fancy, my internal sight; by which,
+Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw,
+Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape
+Still glorious before whom awake I stood:
+Who stooping opened my left side, and took
+From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,
+And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,
+But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed:
+The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands;
+Under his forming hands a creature grew,
+Man-like, but different sex; so lovely fair,
+That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now
+Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained
+And in her looks; which from that time infused
+Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,
+And into all things from her air inspired
+The spirit of love and amorous delight.
+She disappeared, and left me dark; I waked
+To find her, or for ever to deplore
+Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:
+When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
+Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned
+With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow
+To make her amiable: On she came,
+Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen,
+And guided by his voice; nor uninformed
+Of nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites:
+Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,
+In every gesture dignity and love.
+I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud.
+This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfilled
+Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,
+Giver of all things fair! but fairest this
+Of all thy gifts! nor enviest. I now see
+Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself
+Before me: Woman is her name;of Man
+Extracted: for this cause he shall forego
+Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;
+And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.
+She heard me thus; and though divinely brought,
+Yet innocence, and virgin modesty,
+Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
+That would be wooed, and not unsought be won,
+Not obvious, not obtrusive, but, retired,
+The more desirable; or, to say all,
+Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought,
+Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned:
+I followed her; she what was honour knew,
+And with obsequious majesty approved
+My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower
+I led her blushing like the morn: All Heaven,
+And happy constellations, on that hour
+Shed their selectest influence; the Earth
+Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;
+Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs
+Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings
+Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub,
+Disporting, till the amorous bird of night
+Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening-star
+On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp.
+Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought
+My story to the sum of earthly bliss,
+Which I enjoy; and must confess to find
+In all things else delight indeed, but such
+As, used or not, works in the mind no change,
+Nor vehement desire; these delicacies
+I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers,
+Walks, and the melody of birds: but here
+Far otherwise, transported I behold,
+Transported touch; here passion first I felt,
+Commotion strange! in all enjoyments else
+Superiour and unmoved; here only weak
+Against the charm of Beauty's powerful glance.
+Or Nature failed in me, and left some part
+Not proof enough such object to sustain;
+Or, from my side subducting, took perhaps
+More than enough; at least on her bestowed
+Too much of ornament, in outward show
+Elaborate, of inward less exact.
+For well I understand in the prime end
+Of Nature her the inferiour, in the mind
+And inward faculties, which most excel;
+In outward also her resembling less
+His image who made both, and less expressing
+The character of that dominion given
+O'er other creatures: Yet when I approach
+Her loveliness, so absolute she seems
+And in herself complete, so well to know
+Her own, that what she wills to do or say,
+Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best:
+All higher knowledge in her presence falls
+Degraded; Wisdom in discourse with her
+Loses discountenanced, and like Folly shows;
+Authority and Reason on her wait,
+As one intended first, not after made
+Occasionally; and, to consummate all,
+Greatness of mind and Nobleness their seat
+Build in her loveliest, and create an awe
+About her, as a guard angelick placed.
+To whom the Angel with contracted brow.
+Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part;
+Do thou but thine; and be not diffident
+Of Wisdom; she deserts thee not, if thou
+Dismiss not her, when most thou needest her nigh,
+By attributing overmuch to things
+Less excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.
+For, what admirest thou, what transports thee so,
+An outside? fair, no doubt, and worthy well
+Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love;
+Not thy subjection: Weigh with her thyself;
+Then value: Oft-times nothing profits more
+Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right
+Well managed; of that skill the more thou knowest,
+The more she will acknowledge thee her head,
+And to realities yield all her shows:
+Made so adorn for thy delight the more,
+So awful, that with honour 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 delight
+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 enjoyed 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 thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his seat
+In reason, and is judicious; is the scale
+By which to heavenly love thou mayest 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,
+Those thousand decencies, that daily flow
+From all her words and actions mixed with love
+And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned
+Union of mind, or in us both one soul;
+Harmony to behold in wedded pair
+More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.
+Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose
+What inward thence I feel, not therefore foiled,
+Who meet with various objects, from the sense
+Variously representing; yet, still free,
+Approve the best, and follow what I approve.
+To love, thou blamest me not; for Love, thou sayest,
+Leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide;
+Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask:
+Love not the heavenly Spirits, and how their love
+Express they? by looks only? or do they mix
+Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?
+To whom the Angel, with a smile that glowed
+Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue,
+Answered. Let it suffice thee that thou knowest
+Us happy, and without love no happiness.
+Whatever pure thou in the body enjoyest,
+(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy
+In eminence; and obstacle find none
+Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars;
+Easier than air with air, if Spirits embrace,
+Total they mix, union of pure with pure
+Desiring, nor restrained conveyance need,
+As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul.
+But I can now no more; the parting sun
+Beyond the Earth's green Cape and verdant Isles
+Hesperian sets, my signal to depart.
+Be strong, live happy, and love! But, first of all,
+Him, whom to love is to obey, and keep
+His great command; take heed lest passion sway
+Thy judgement to do aught, which else free will
+Would not admit: thine, and of all thy sons,
+The weal or woe in thee is placed; beware!
+I in thy persevering shall rejoice,
+And all the Blest: Stand fast;to stand or fall
+Free in thine own arbitrement it lies.
+Perfect within, no outward aid require;
+And all temptation to transgress repel.
+So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus
+Followed with benediction. Since to part,
+Go, heavenly guest, ethereal Messenger,
+Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore!
+Gentle to me and affable hath been
+Thy condescension, and shall be honoured ever
+With grateful memory: Thou to mankind
+Be good and friendly still, and oft return!
+So parted they; the Angel up to Heaven
+From the thick shade, and Adam to his bower.
+
+
+
+Book IX
+
+
+No more of talk where God or Angel guest
+With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd,
+To sit indulgent, and with him partake
+Rural repast; permitting him the while
+Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change
+Those notes to tragick; foul distrust, and breach
+Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt,
+And disobedience: on the part of Heaven
+Now alienated, distance and distaste,
+Anger and just rebuke, and judgement given,
+That brought into this world a world of woe,
+Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery
+Death's harbinger: Sad talk!yet argument
+Not less but more heroick than the wrath
+Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued
+Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage
+Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd;
+Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long
+Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son:
+
+ 00482129
+If answerable style I can obtain
+Of my celestial patroness, who deigns
+Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
+And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires
+Easy my unpremeditated verse:
+Since first this subject for heroick song
+Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late;
+Not sedulous by nature to indite
+Wars, hitherto the only argument
+Heroick deem'd chief mastery to dissect
+With long and tedious havock fabled knights
+In battles feign'd; the better fortitude
+Of patience and heroick martyrdom
+Unsung; or to describe races and games,
+Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields,
+Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds,
+Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights
+At joust and tournament; then marshall'd feast
+Serv'd up in hall with sewers and seneshals;
+The skill of artifice or office mean,
+Not that which justly gives heroick name
+To person, or to poem. Me, of these
+Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument
+Remains; sufficient of itself to raise
+That name, unless an age too late, or cold
+Climate, or years, damp my intended wing
+Depress'd; and much they may, if all be mine,
+Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear.
+The sun was sunk, and after him the star
+Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring
+Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter
+"twixt day and night, and now from end to end
+Night's hemisphere had veil'd the horizon round:
+When satan, who late fled before the threats
+Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd
+In meditated fraud and malice, bent
+On Man's destruction, maugre what might hap
+Of heavier on himself, fearless returned
+From compassing the earth; cautious of day,
+Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried
+His entrance, and foreworned the Cherubim
+That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven,
+The space of seven continued nights he rode
+With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line
+He circled; four times crossed the car of night
+From pole to pole, traversing each colure;
+On the eighth returned; and, on the coast averse
+From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth
+Found unsuspected way. There was a place,
+Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change,
+Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise,
+Into a gulf shot under ground, till part
+Rose up a fountain by the tree of life:
+In with the river sunk, and with it rose
+Satan, involved in rising mist; then sought
+Where to lie hid; sea he had searched, and land,
+From Eden over Pontus and the pool
+Maeotis, up beyond the river Ob;
+Downward as far antarctick; and in length,
+West from Orontes to the ocean barred
+At Darien ; thence to the land where flows
+Ganges and Indus: Thus the orb he roamed
+With narrow search; and with inspection deep
+Considered every creature, which of all
+Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found
+The Serpent subtlest beast of all the field.
+Him after long debate, irresolute
+Of thoughts revolved, his final sentence chose
+Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom
+To enter, and his dark suggestions hide
+From sharpest sight: for, in the wily snake
+Whatever sleights, none would suspicious mark,
+As from his wit and native subtlety
+Proceeding; which, in other beasts observed,
+Doubt might beget of diabolick power
+Active within, beyond the sense of brute.
+Thus he resolved, but first from inward grief
+His bursting passion into plaints thus poured.
+More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built
+With second thoughts, reforming what was old!
+O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred
+For what God, after better, worse would build?
+Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens
+That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
+Light above light, for thee alone, as seems,
+In thee concentring all their precious beams
+Of sacred influence! As God in Heaven
+Is center, yet extends to all; so thou,
+Centring, receivest from all those orbs: in thee,
+Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears
+Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
+Of creatures animate with gradual life
+Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up in Man.
+With what delight could I have walked thee round,
+If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange
+Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
+Now land, now sea and shores with forest crowned,
+Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these
+Find place or refuge; and the more I see
+Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
+Torment within me, as from the hateful siege
+Of contraries: all good to me becomes
+Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my state.
+But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven
+To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme;
+Nor hope to be myself less miserable
+By what I seek, but others to make such
+As I, though thereby worse to me redound:
+For only in destroying I find ease
+To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroyed,
+Or won to what may work his utter loss,
+For whom all this was made, all this will soon
+Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe;
+In woe then; that destruction wide may range:
+To me shall be the glory sole among
+The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred
+What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days
+Continued making; and who knows how long
+Before had been contriving? though perhaps
+Not longer than since I, in one night, freed
+From servitude inglorious well nigh half
+The angelick name, and thinner left the throng
+Of his adorers: He, to be avenged,
+And to repair his numbers thus impaired,
+Whether such virtue spent of old now failed
+More Angels to create, if they at least
+Are his created, or, to spite us more,
+Determined to advance into our room
+A creature formed of earth, and him endow,
+Exalted from so base original,
+With heavenly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed,
+He effected; Man he made, and for him built
+Magnificent this world, and earth his seat,
+Him lord pronounced; and, O indignity!
+Subjected to his service angel-wings,
+And flaming ministers to watch and tend
+Their earthly charge: Of these the vigilance
+I dread; and, to elude, thus wrapt in mist
+Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry
+In every bush and brake, where hap may find
+The serpent sleeping; in whose mazy folds
+To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.
+O foul descent! that I, who erst contended
+With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained
+Into a beast; and, mixed with bestial slime,
+This essence to incarnate and imbrute,
+That to the highth of Deity aspired!
+But what will not ambition and revenge
+Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low
+As high he soared; obnoxious, first or last,
+To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet,
+Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils:
+Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed,
+Since higher I fall short, on him who next
+Provokes my envy, this new favourite
+Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite,
+Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker raised
+From dust: Spite then with spite is best repaid.
+So saying, through each thicket dank or dry,
+Like a black mist low-creeping, he held on
+His midnight-search, where soonest he might find
+The serpent; him fast-sleeping soon he found
+In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled,
+His head the midst, well stored with subtile wiles:
+Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den,
+Nor nocent yet; but, on the grassy herb,
+Fearless unfeared he slept: in at his mouth
+The Devil entered; and his brutal sense,
+In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired
+With act intelligential; but his sleep
+Disturbed not, waiting close the approach of morn.
+Now, when as sacred light began to dawn
+In Eden on the humid flowers, that breathed
+Their morning incense, when all things, that breathe,
+From the Earth's great altar send up silent praise
+To the Creator, and his nostrils fill
+With grateful smell, forth came the human pair,
+And joined their vocal worship to the quire
+Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake
+The season prime for sweetest scents and airs:
+Then commune, how that day they best may ply
+Their growing work: for much their work out-grew
+The hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide,
+And Eve first to her husband thus began.
+Adam, well may we labour still to dress
+This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower,
+Our pleasant task enjoined; but, till more hands
+Aid us, the work under our labour grows,
+Luxurious by restraint; what we by day
+Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,
+One night or two with wanton growth derides
+Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise,
+Or bear what to my mind first thoughts present:
+Let us divide our labours; thou, where choice
+Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind
+The woodbine round this arbour, or direct
+The clasping ivy where to climb; while I,
+In yonder spring of roses intermixed
+With myrtle, find what to redress till noon:
+For, while so near each other thus all day
+Our task we choose, what wonder if so near
+Looks intervene and smiles, or object new
+Casual discourse draw on; which intermits
+Our day's work, brought to little, though begun
+Early, and the hour of supper comes unearned?
+To whom mild answer Adam thus returned.
+Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond
+Compare above all living creatures dear!
+Well hast thou motioned, well thy thoughts employed,
+How we might best fulfil the work which here
+God hath assigned us; nor of me shalt pass
+Unpraised: for nothing lovelier can be found
+In woman, than to study houshold good,
+And good works in her husband to promote.
+Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed
+Labour, as to debar us when we need
+Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,
+Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse
+Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow,
+To brute denied, and are of love the food;
+Love, not the lowest end of human life.
+For not to irksome toil, but to delight,
+He made us, and delight to reason joined.
+These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands
+Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide
+As we need walk, till younger hands ere long
+Assist us; But, if much converse perhaps
+Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield:
+For solitude sometimes is best society,
+And short retirement urges sweet return.
+But other doubt possesses me, lest harm
+Befall thee severed from me; for thou knowest
+What hath been warned us, what malicious foe
+Envying our happiness, and of his own
+Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame
+By sly assault; and somewhere nigh at hand
+Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find
+His wish and best advantage, us asunder;
+Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each
+To other speedy aid might lend at need:
+Whether his first design be to withdraw
+Our fealty from God, or to disturb
+Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss
+Enjoyed by us excites his envy more;
+Or this, or worse, leave not the faithful side
+That gave thee being, still shades thee, and protects.
+The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,
+Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,
+Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
+To whom the virgin majesty of Eve,
+As one who loves, and some unkindness meets,
+With sweet austere composure thus replied.
+Offspring of Heaven and Earth, and all Earth's Lord!
+That such an enemy we have, who seeks
+Our ruin, both by thee informed I learn,
+And from the parting Angel over-heard,
+As in a shady nook I stood behind,
+Just then returned at shut of evening flowers.
+But, that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt
+To God or thee, because we have a foe
+May tempt it, I expected not to hear.
+His violence thou fearest not, being such
+As we, not capable of death or pain,
+Can either not receive, or can repel.
+His fraud is then thy fear; which plain infers
+Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love
+Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced;
+Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy breast,
+Adam, mis-thought of her to thee so dear?
+To whom with healing words Adam replied.
+Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve!
+For such thou art; from sin and blame entire:
+Not diffident of thee do I dissuade
+Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid
+The attempt itself, intended by our foe.
+For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses
+The tempted with dishonour foul; supposed
+Not incorruptible of faith, not proof
+Against temptation: Thou thyself with scorn
+And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong,
+Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then,
+If such affront I labour to avert
+From thee alone, which on us both at once
+The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare;
+Or daring, first on me the assault shall light.
+Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn;
+Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce
+Angels; nor think superfluous other's aid.
+I, from the influence of thy looks, receive
+Access in every virtue; in thy sight
+More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were
+Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on,
+Shame to be overcome or over-reached,
+Would utmost vigour raise, and raised unite.
+Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel
+When I am present, and thy trial choose
+With me, best witness of thy virtue tried?
+So spake domestick Adam in his care
+And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought
+Less attributed to her faith sincere,
+Thus her reply with accent sweet renewed.
+If this be our condition, thus to dwell
+In narrow circuit straitened by a foe,
+Subtle or violent, we not endued
+Single with like defence, wherever met;
+How are we happy, still in fear of harm?
+But harm precedes not sin: only our foe,
+Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem
+Of our integrity: his foul esteem
+Sticks no dishonour on our front, but turns
+Foul on himself; then wherefore shunned or feared
+By us? who rather double honour gain
+From his surmise proved false; find peace within,
+Favour from Heaven, our witness, from the event.
+And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed
+Alone, without exteriour help sustained?
+Let us not then suspect our happy state
+Left so imperfect by the Maker wise,
+As not secure to single or combined.
+Frail is our happiness, if this be so,
+And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed.
+To whom thus Adam fervently replied.
+O Woman, best are all things as the will
+Of God ordained them: His creating hand
+Nothing imperfect or deficient left
+Of all that he created, much less Man,
+Or aught that might his happy state secure,
+Secure from outward force; within himself
+The danger lies, yet lies within his power:
+Against his will he can receive no harm.
+But God left free the will; for what obeys
+Reason, is free; and Reason he made right,
+But bid her well be ware, and still erect;
+Lest, by some fair-appearing good surprised,
+She dictate false; and mis-inform the will
+To do what God expressly hath forbid.
+Not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins,
+That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me.
+Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve;
+Since Reason not impossibly may meet
+Some specious object by the foe suborned,
+And fall into deception unaware,
+Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warned.
+Seek not temptation then, which to avoid
+Were better, and most likely if from me
+Thou sever not: Trial will come unsought.
+Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve
+First thy obedience; the other who can know,
+Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?
+But, if thou think, trial unsought may find
+Us both securer than thus warned thou seemest,
+Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;
+Go in thy native innocence, rely
+On what thou hast of virtue; summon all!
+For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine.
+So spake the patriarch of mankind; but Eve
+Persisted; yet submiss, though last, replied.
+With thy permission then, and thus forewarned
+Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words
+Touched only; that our trial, when least sought,
+May find us both perhaps far less prepared,
+The willinger I go, nor much expect
+A foe so proud will first the weaker seek;
+So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse.
+Thus saying, from her husband's hand her hand
+Soft she withdrew; and, like a Wood-Nymph light,
+Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's train,
+Betook her to the groves; but Delia's self
+In gait surpassed, and Goddess-like deport,
+Though not as she with bow and quiver armed,
+But with such gardening tools as Art yet rude,
+Guiltless of fire, had formed, or Angels brought.
+To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorned,
+Likest she seemed, Pomona when she fled
+Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime,
+Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove.
+Her long with ardent look his eye pursued
+Delighted, but desiring more her stay.
+Oft he to her his charge of quick return
+Repeated; she to him as oft engaged
+To be returned by noon amid the bower,
+And all things in best order to invite
+Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose.
+O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve,
+Of thy presumed return! event perverse!
+Thou never from that hour in Paradise
+Foundst either sweet repast, or sound repose;
+Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers and shades,
+Waited with hellish rancour imminent
+To intercept thy way, or send thee back
+Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss!
+For now, and since first break of dawn, the Fiend,
+Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come;
+And on his quest, where likeliest he might find
+The only two of mankind, but in them
+The whole included race, his purposed prey.
+In bower and field he sought, where any tuft
+Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,
+Their tendance, or plantation for delight;
+By fountain or by shady rivulet
+He sought them both, but wished his hap might find
+Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope
+Of what so seldom chanced; when to his wish,
+Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,
+Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,
+Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round
+About her glowed, oft stooping to support
+Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay
+Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,
+Hung drooping unsustained; them she upstays
+Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while
+Herself, though fairest unsupported flower,
+From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.
+Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed
+Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm;
+Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen,
+Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers
+Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve:
+Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned
+Or of revived Adonis, or renowned
+Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son;
+Or that, not mystick, where the sapient king
+Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
+Much he the place admired, the person more.
+As one who long in populous city pent,
+Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air,
+Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe
+Among the pleasant villages and farms
+Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight;
+The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
+Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound;
+If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass,
+What pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more;
+She most, and in her look sums all delight:
+Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
+This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve
+Thus early, thus alone: Her heavenly form
+Angelick, but more soft, and feminine,
+Her graceful innocence, her every air
+Of gesture, or least action, overawed
+His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved
+His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought:
+That space the Evil-one abstracted stood
+From his own evil, and for the time remained
+Stupidly good; of enmity disarmed,
+Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge:
+But the hot Hell that always in him burns,
+Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight,
+And tortures him now more, the more he sees
+Of pleasure, not for him ordained: then soon
+Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
+Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.
+Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what sweet
+Compulsion thus transported, to forget
+What hither brought us! hate, not love;nor hope
+Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste
+Of pleasure; but all pleasure to destroy,
+Save what is in destroying; other joy
+To me is lost. Then, let me not let pass
+Occasion which now smiles; behold alone
+The woman, opportune to all attempts,
+Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
+Whose higher intellectual more I shun,
+And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb
+Heroick built, though of terrestrial mould;
+Foe not informidable! exempt from wound,
+I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain
+Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven.
+She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods!
+Not terrible, though terrour be in love
+And beauty, not approached by stronger hate,
+Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned;
+The way which to her ruin now I tend.
+So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed
+In serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve
+Addressed his way: not with indented wave,
+Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear,
+Circular base of rising folds, that towered
+Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head
+Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
+With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
+Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
+Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape
+And lovely; never since of serpent-kind
+Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed,
+Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
+In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed
+Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen;
+He with Olympias; this with her who bore
+Scipio, the highth of Rome. With tract oblique
+At first, as one who sought access, but feared
+To interrupt, side-long he works his way.
+As when a ship, by skilful steersmen wrought
+Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
+Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail:
+So varied he, and of his tortuous train
+Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
+To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound
+Of rusling leaves, but minded not, as used
+To such disport before her through the field,
+From every beast; more duteous at her call,
+Than at Circean call the herd disguised.
+He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood,
+But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed
+His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck,
+Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod.
+His gentle dumb expression turned at length
+The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad
+Of her attention gained, with serpent-tongue
+Organick, or impulse of vocal air,
+His fraudulent temptation thus began.
+Wonder not, sovran Mistress, if perhaps
+Thou canst, who art sole wonder! much less arm
+Thy looks, the Heaven of mildness, with disdain,
+Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze
+Insatiate; I thus single;nor have feared
+Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired.
+Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
+Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
+By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore
+With ravishment beheld! there best beheld,
+Where universally admired; but here
+In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
+Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
+Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
+Who sees thee? and what is one? who should be seen
+A Goddess among Gods, adored and served
+By Angels numberless, thy daily train.
+So glozed the Tempter, and his proem tuned:
+Into the heart of Eve his words made way,
+Though at the voice much marvelling; at length,
+Not unamazed, she thus in answer spake.
+What may this mean? language of man pronounced
+By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed?
+The first, at least, of these I thought denied
+To beasts; whom God, on their creation-day,
+Created mute to all articulate sound:
+The latter I demur; for in their looks
+Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.
+Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
+I knew, but not with human voice endued;
+Redouble then this miracle, and say,
+How camest thou speakable of mute, and how
+To me so friendly grown above the rest
+Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight?
+Say, for such wonder claims attention due.
+To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied.
+Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve!
+Easy to me it is to tell thee all
+What thou commandest; and right thou shouldst be obeyed:
+I was at first as other beasts that graze
+The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low,
+As was my food; nor aught but food discerned
+Or sex, and apprehended nothing high:
+Till, on a day roving the field, I chanced
+A goodly tree far distant to behold
+Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixed,
+Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze;
+When from the boughs a savoury odour blown,
+Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense
+Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats
+Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even,
+Unsucked of lamb or kid, that tend their play.
+To satisfy the sharp desire I had
+Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved
+Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
+Powerful persuaders, quickened at the scent
+Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen.
+About the mossy trunk I wound me soon;
+For, high from ground, the branches would require
+Thy utmost reach or Adam's: Round the tree
+All other beasts that saw, with like desire
+Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.
+Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung
+Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill
+I spared not; for, such pleasure till that hour,
+At feed or fountain, never had I found.
+Sated at length, ere long I might perceive
+Strange alteration in me, to degree
+Of reason in my inward powers; and speech
+Wanted not long; though to this shape retained.
+Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
+I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind
+Considered all things visible in Heaven,
+Or Earth, or Middle; all things fair and good:
+But all that fair and good in thy divine
+Semblance, and in thy beauty's heavenly ray,
+United I beheld; no fair to thine
+Equivalent or second! which compelled
+Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come
+And gaze, and worship thee of right declared
+Sovran of creatures, universal Dame!
+So talked the spirited sly Snake; and Eve,
+Yet more amazed, unwary thus replied.
+Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt
+The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved:
+But say, where grows the tree? from hence how far?
+For many are the trees of God that grow
+In Paradise, and various, yet unknown
+To us; in such abundance lies our choice,
+As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched,
+Still hanging incorruptible, till men
+Grow up to their provision, and more hands
+Help to disburden Nature of her birth.
+To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad.
+Empress, the way is ready, and not long;
+Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
+Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past
+Of blowing myrrh and balm: if thou accept
+My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon
+Lead then, said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled
+In tangles, and made intricate seem straight,
+To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy
+Brightens his crest; as when a wandering fire,
+Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night
+Condenses, and the cold environs round,
+Kindled through agitation to a flame,
+Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends,
+Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
+Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his way
+To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool;
+There swallowed up and lost, from succour far.
+So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud
+Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree
+Of prohibition, root of all our woe;
+Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.
+Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither,
+Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess,
+The credit of whose virtue rest with thee;
+Wonderous indeed, if cause of such effects.
+But of this tree we may not taste nor touch;
+God so commanded, and left that command
+Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we live
+Law to ourselves; our reason is our law.
+To whom the Tempter guilefully replied.
+Indeed! hath God then said that of the fruit
+Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat,
+Yet Lords declared of all in earth or air$?
+To whom thus Eve, yet sinless. Of the fruit
+Of each tree in the garden we may eat;
+But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
+The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
+Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
+She scarce had said, though brief, when now more bold
+The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love
+To Man, and indignation at his wrong,
+New part puts on; and, as to passion moved,
+Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely and in act
+Raised, as of some great matter to begin.
+As when of old some orator renowned,
+In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence
+Flourished, since mute! to some great cause addressed,
+Stood in himself collected; while each part,
+Motion, each act, won audience ere the tongue;
+Sometimes in highth began, as no delay
+Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right:
+So standing, moving, or to highth up grown,
+The Tempter, all impassioned, thus began.
+O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant,
+Mother of science! now I feel thy power
+Within me clear; not only to discern
+Things in their causes, but to trace the ways
+Of highest agents, deemed however wise.
+Queen of this universe! do not believe
+Those rigid threats of death: ye shall not die:
+How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life
+To knowledge; by the threatener? look on me,
+Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live,
+And life more perfect have attained than Fate
+Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot.
+Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
+Is open? or will God incense his ire
+For such a petty trespass? and not praise
+Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
+Of death denounced, whatever thing death be,
+Deterred not from achieving what might lead
+To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
+Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
+Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
+God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
+Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed:
+Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
+Why then was this forbid? Why, but to awe;
+Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant,
+His worshippers? He knows that in the day
+Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,
+Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
+Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods,
+Knowing both good and evil, as they know.
+That ye shall be as Gods, since I as Man,
+Internal Man, is but proportion meet;
+I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods.
+So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off
+Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished,
+Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring.
+And what are Gods, that Man may not become
+As they, participating God-like food?
+The Gods are first, and that advantage use
+On our belief, that all from them proceeds:
+I question it; for this fair earth I see,
+Warmed by the sun, producing every kind;
+Them, nothing: if they all things, who enclosed
+Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
+That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains
+Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies
+The offence, that Man should thus attain to know?
+What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree
+Impart against his will, if all be his?
+Or is it envy? and can envy dwell
+In heavenly breasts? These, these, and many more
+Causes import your need of this fair fruit.
+Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste!
+He ended; and his words, replete with guile,
+Into her heart too easy entrance won:
+Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold
+Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound
+Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned
+With reason, to her seeming, and with truth:
+Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and waked
+An eager appetite, raised by the smell
+So savoury of that fruit, which with desire,
+Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,
+Solicited her longing eye; yet first
+Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused.
+Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits,
+Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired;
+Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay
+Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
+The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise:
+Thy praise he also, who forbids thy use,
+Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree
+Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;
+Forbids us then to taste! but his forbidding
+Commends thee more, while it infers the good
+By thee communicated, and our want:
+For good unknown sure is not had; or, had
+And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
+In plain then, what forbids he but to know,
+Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
+Such prohibitions bind not. But, if death
+Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
+Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
+Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die!
+How dies the Serpent? he hath eaten and lives,
+And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
+Irrational till then. For us alone
+Was death invented? or to us denied
+This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
+For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
+Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy
+The good befallen him, author unsuspect,
+Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
+What fear I then? rather, what know to fear
+Under this ignorance of good and evil,
+Of God or death, of law or penalty?
+Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
+Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
+Of virtue to make wise: What hinders then
+To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
+So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
+Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat!
+Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,
+Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe,
+That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
+The guilty Serpent; and well might;for Eve,
+Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else
+Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed,
+In fruit she never tasted, whether true
+Or fancied so, through expectation high
+Of knowledge; not was Godhead from her thought.
+Greedily she ingorged without restraint,
+And knew not eating death: Satiate at length,
+And hightened as with wine, jocund and boon,
+Thus to herself she pleasingly began.
+O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees
+In Paradise! of operation blest
+To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed.
+And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
+Created; but henceforth my early care,
+Not without song, each morning, and due praise,
+Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
+Of thy full branches offered free to all;
+Till, dieted by thee, I grow mature
+In knowledge, as the Gods, who all things know;
+Though others envy what they cannot give:
+For, had the gift been theirs, it had not here
+Thus grown. Experience, next, to thee I owe,
+Best guide; not following thee, I had remained
+In ignorance; thou openest wisdom's way,
+And givest access, though secret she retire.
+And I perhaps am secret: Heaven is high,
+High, and remote to see from thence distinct
+Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps
+May have diverted from continual watch
+Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
+About him. But to Adam in what sort
+Shall I appear? shall I to him make known
+As yet my change, and give him to partake
+Full happiness with me, or rather not,
+But keeps the odds of knowledge in my power
+Without copartner? so to add what wants
+In female sex, the more to draw his love,
+And render me more equal; and perhaps,
+A thing not undesirable, sometime
+Superiour; for, inferiour, who is free
+This may be well: But what if God have seen,
+And death ensue? then I shall be no more!
+And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
+Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;
+A death to think! Confirmed then I resolve,
+Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
+So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
+I could endure, without him live no life.
+So saying, from the tree her step she turned;
+But first low reverence done, as to the Power
+That dwelt within, whose presence had infused
+Into the plant sciential sap, derived
+From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while,
+Waiting desirous her return, had wove
+Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn
+Her tresses, and her rural labours crown;
+As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen.
+Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
+Solace in her return, so long delayed:
+Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
+Misgave him; he the faltering measure felt;
+And forth to meet her went, the way she took
+That morn when first they parted: by the tree
+Of knowledge he must pass; there he her met,
+Scarce from the tree returning; in her hand
+A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smiled,
+New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused.
+To him she hasted; in her face excuse
+Came prologue, and apology too prompt;
+Which, with bland words at will, she thus addressed.
+Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay?
+Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived
+Thy presence; agony of love till now
+Not felt, nor shall be twice; for never more
+Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought,
+The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange
+Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear:
+This tree is not, as we are told, a tree
+Of danger tasted, nor to evil unknown
+Opening the way, but of divine effect
+To open eyes, and make them Gods who taste;
+And hath been tasted such: The serpent wise,
+Or not restrained as we, or not obeying,
+Hath eaten of the fruit; and is become,
+Not dead, as we are threatened, but thenceforth
+Endued with human voice and human sense,
+Reasoning to admiration; and with me
+Persuasively hath so prevailed, that I
+Have also tasted, and have also found
+The effects to correspond; opener mine eyes,
+Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart,
+And growing up to Godhead; which for thee
+Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise.
+For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss;
+Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon.
+Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot
+May join us, equal joy, as equal love;
+Lest, thou not tasting, different degree
+Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce
+Deity for thee, when Fate will not permit.
+Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told;
+But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed.
+On the other side Adam, soon as he heard
+The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed,
+Astonied stood and blank, while horrour chill
+Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed;
+From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve
+Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:
+Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
+First to himself he inward silence broke.
+O fairest of Creation, last and best
+Of all God's works, Creature in whom excelled
+Whatever can to sight or thought be formed,
+Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!
+How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost,
+Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote!
+Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress
+The strict forbiddance, how to violate
+The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud
+Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,
+And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee
+Certain my resolution is to die:
+How can I live without thee! how forego
+Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
+To live again in these wild woods forlorn!
+Should God create another Eve, and I
+Another rib afford, yet loss of thee
+Would never from my heart: no, no!I feel
+The link of Nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
+Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
+Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.
+So having said, as one from sad dismay
+Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbed
+Submitting to what seemed remediless,
+Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned.
+Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve,
+And peril great provoked, who thus hast dared,
+Had it been only coveting to eye
+That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence,
+Much more to taste it under ban to touch.
+But past who can recall, or done undo?
+Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so
+Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact
+Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit,
+Profaned first by the serpent, by him first
+Made common, and unhallowed, ere our taste;
+Nor yet on him found deadly; yet he lives;
+Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as Man,
+Higher degree of life; inducement strong
+To us, as likely tasting to attain
+Proportional ascent; which cannot be
+But to be Gods, or Angels, demi-Gods.
+Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,
+Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy
+Us his prime creatures, dignified so high,
+Set over all his works; which in our fall,
+For us created, needs with us must fail,
+Dependant made; so God shall uncreate,
+Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour lose;
+Not well conceived of God, who, though his power
+Creation could repeat, yet would be loth
+Us to abolish, lest the Adversary
+Triumph, and say; "Fickle their state whom God
+"Most favours; who can please him long? Me first
+"He ruined, now Mankind; whom will he next?"
+Matter of scorn, not to be given the Foe.
+However I with thee have fixed my lot,
+Certain to undergo like doom: If death
+Consort with thee, death is to me as life;
+So forcible within my heart I feel
+The bond of Nature draw me to my own;
+My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;
+Our state cannot be severed; we are one,
+One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.
+So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied.
+O glorious trial of exceeding love,
+Illustrious evidence, example high!
+Engaging me to emulate; but, short
+Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,
+Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung,
+And gladly of our union hear thee speak,
+One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof
+This day affords, declaring thee resolved,
+Rather than death, or aught than death more dread,
+Shall separate us, linked in love so dear,
+To undergo with me one guilt, one crime,
+If any be, of tasting this fair fruit;
+Whose virtue for of good still good proceeds,
+Direct, or by occasion, hath presented
+This happy trial of thy love, which else
+So eminently never had been known?
+Were it I thought death menaced would ensue
+This my attempt, I would sustain alone
+The worst, and not persuade thee, rather die
+Deserted, than oblige thee with a fact
+Pernicious to thy peace; chiefly assured
+Remarkably so late of thy so true,
+So faithful, love unequalled: but I feel
+Far otherwise the event; not death, but life
+Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys,
+Taste so divine, that what of sweet before
+Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.
+On my experience, Adam, freely taste,
+And fear of death deliver to the winds.
+So saying, she embraced him, and for joy
+Tenderly wept; much won, that he his love
+Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur
+Divine displeasure for her sake, or death.
+In recompence for such compliance bad
+Such recompence best merits from the bough
+She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
+With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat,
+Against his better knowledge; not deceived,
+But fondly overcome with female charm.
+Earth trembled from her entrails, as again
+In pangs; and Nature gave a second groan;
+Sky loured; and, muttering thunder, some sad drops
+Wept at completing of the mortal sin
+Original: while Adam took no thought,
+Eating his fill; nor Eve to iterate
+Her former trespass feared, the more to sooth
+Him with her loved society; that now,
+As with new wine intoxicated both,
+They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel
+Divinity within them breeding wings,
+Wherewith to scorn the earth: But that false fruit
+Far other operation first displayed,
+Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve
+Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him
+As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn:
+Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move.
+Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste,
+And elegant, of sapience no small part;
+Since to each meaning savour we apply,
+And palate call judicious; I the praise
+Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purveyed.
+Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained
+From this delightful fruit, nor known till now
+True relish, tasting; if such pleasure be
+In things to us forbidden, it might be wished,
+For this one tree had been forbidden ten.
+But come, so well refreshed, now let us play,
+As meet is, after such delicious fare;
+For never did thy beauty, since the day
+I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorned
+With all perfections, so inflame my sense
+With ardour to enjoy thee, fairer now
+Than ever; bounty of this virtuous tree!
+So said he, and forbore not glance or toy
+Of amorous intent; well understood
+Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire.
+Her hand he seised; and to a shady bank,
+Thick over-head with verdant roof imbowered,
+He led her nothing loth; flowers were the couch,
+Pansies, and violets, and asphodel,
+And hyacinth; Earth's freshest softest lap.
+There they their fill of love and love's disport
+Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal,
+The solace of their sin; till dewy sleep
+Oppressed them, wearied with their amorous play,
+Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit,
+That with exhilarating vapour bland
+About their spirits had played, and inmost powers
+Made err, was now exhaled; and grosser sleep,
+Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams
+Incumbered, now had left them; up they rose
+As from unrest; and, each the other viewing,
+Soon found their eyes how opened, and their minds
+How darkened; innocence, that as a veil
+Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone;
+Just confidence, and native righteousness,
+And honour, from about them, naked left
+To guilty Shame; he covered, but his robe
+Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong,
+Herculean Samson, from the harlot-lap
+Of Philistean Dalilah, and waked
+Shorn of his strength. They destitute and bare
+Of all their virtue: Silent, and in face
+Confounded, long they sat, as strucken mute:
+Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed,
+At length gave utterance to these words constrained.
+O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear
+To that false worm, of whomsoever taught
+To counterfeit Man's voice; true in our fall,
+False in our promised rising; since our eyes
+Opened we find indeed, and find we know
+Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got;
+Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know;
+Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void,
+Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
+Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained,
+And in our faces evident the signs
+Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store;
+Even shame, the last of evils; of the first
+Be sure then.--How shall I behold the face
+Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy
+And rapture so oft beheld? Those heavenly shapes
+Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze
+Insufferably bright. O! might I here
+In solitude live savage; in some glade
+Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable
+To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad
+And brown as evening: Cover me, ye Pines!
+Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs
+Hide me, where I may never see them more!--
+But let us now, as in bad plight, devise
+What best may for the present serve to hide
+The parts of each from other, that seem most
+To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen;
+Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sewed,
+And girded on our loins, may cover round
+Those middle parts; that this new comer, Shame,
+There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.
+So counselled he, and both together went
+Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose
+The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renowned,
+But such as at this day, to Indians known,
+In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms
+Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
+The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
+About the mother tree, a pillared shade
+High over-arched, and echoing walks between:
+There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
+Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
+At loop-holes cut through thickest shade: Those leaves
+They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe;
+And, with what skill they had, together sewed,
+To gird their waist; vain covering, if to hide
+Their guilt and dreaded shame! O, how unlike
+To that first naked glory! Such of late
+Columbus found the American, so girt
+With feathered cincture; naked else, and wild
+Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
+Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part
+Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind,
+They sat them down to weep; nor only tears
+Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within
+Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate,
+Mistrust, suspicion, discord; and shook sore
+Their inward state of mind, calm region once
+And full of peace, now tost and turbulent:
+For Understanding ruled not, and the Will
+Heard not her lore; both in subjection now
+To sensual Appetite, who from beneath
+Usurping over sovran Reason claimed
+Superiour sway: From thus distempered breast,
+Adam, estranged in look and altered style,
+Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed.
+Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and staid
+With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
+Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,
+I know not whence possessed thee; we had then
+Remained still happy; not, as now, despoiled
+Of all our good; shamed, naked, miserable!
+Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve
+The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek
+Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.
+To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve.
+What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe!
+Imputest thou that to my default, or will
+Of wandering, as thou callest it, which who knows
+But might as ill have happened thou being by,
+Or to thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there,
+Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned
+Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake;
+No ground of enmity between us known,
+Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm.
+Was I to have never parted from thy side?
+As good have grown there still a lifeless rib.
+Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head,
+Command me absolutely not to go,
+Going into such danger, as thou saidst?
+Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay;
+Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss.
+Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent,
+Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me.
+To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied.
+Is this the love, is this the recompence
+Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve! expressed
+Immutable, when thou wert lost, not I;
+Who might have lived, and joyed immortal bliss,
+Yet willingly chose rather death with thee?
+And am I now upbraided as the cause
+Of thy transgressing? Not enough severe,
+It seems, in thy restraint: What could I more
+I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold
+The danger, and the lurking enemy
+That lay in wait; beyond this, had been force;
+And force upon free will hath here no place.
+But confidence then bore thee on; secure
+Either to meet no danger, or to find
+Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps
+I also erred, in overmuch admiring
+What seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought
+No evil durst attempt thee; but I rue
+The errour now, which is become my crime,
+And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall
+Him, who, to worth in women overtrusting,
+Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook;
+And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue,
+She first his weak indulgence will accuse.
+Thus they in mutual accusation spent
+The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;
+And of their vain contest appeared no end.
+
+
+
+Book X
+
+
+Mean while the heinous and despiteful act
+Of Satan, done in Paradise; and how
+He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve,
+Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,
+Was known in Heaven; for what can 'scape the eye
+Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart
+Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just,
+Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind
+Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed,
+Complete to have discovered and repulsed
+Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend.
+For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered,
+The high injunction, not to taste that fruit,
+Whoever tempted; which they not obeying,
+(Incurred what could they less?) the penalty;
+And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall.
+Up into Heaven from Paradise in haste
+The angelick guards ascended, mute, and sad,
+For Man; for of his state by this they knew,
+Much wondering how the subtle Fiend had stolen
+Entrance unseen. Soon as the unwelcome news
+From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased
+All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare
+That time celestial visages, yet, mixed
+With pity, violated not their bliss.
+About the new-arrived, in multitudes
+The ethereal people ran, to hear and know
+How all befel: They towards the throne supreme,
+Accountable, made haste, to make appear,
+With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance
+And easily approved; when the Most High
+Eternal Father, from his secret cloud,
+Amidst in thunder uttered thus his voice.
+Assembled Angels, and ye Powers returned
+From unsuccessful charge; be not dismayed,
+Nor troubled at these tidings from the earth,
+Which your sincerest care could not prevent;
+Foretold so lately what would come to pass,
+When first this tempter crossed the gulf from Hell.
+I told ye then he should prevail, and speed
+On his bad errand; Man should be seduced,
+And flattered out of all, believing lies
+Against his Maker; no decree of mine
+Concurring to necessitate his fall,
+Or touch with lightest moment of impulse
+His free will, to her own inclining left
+In even scale. But fallen he is; and now
+What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass
+On his transgression,--death denounced that day?
+Which he presumes already vain and void,
+Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,
+By some immediate stroke; but soon shall find
+Forbearance no acquittance, ere day end.
+Justice shall not return as bounty scorned.
+But whom send I to judge them? whom but thee,
+Vicegerent Son? To thee I have transferred
+All judgement, whether in Heaven, or Earth, or Hell.
+Easy it may be seen that I intend
+Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee
+Man's friend, his Mediator, his designed
+Both ransom and Redeemer voluntary,
+And destined Man himself to judge Man fallen.
+So spake the Father; and, unfolding bright
+Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son
+Blazed forth unclouded Deity: He full
+Resplendent all his Father manifest
+Expressed, and thus divinely answered mild.
+Father Eternal, thine is to decree;
+Mine, both in Heaven and Earth, to do thy will
+Supreme; that thou in me, thy Son beloved,
+Mayest ever rest well pleased. I go to judge
+On earth these thy transgressours; but thou knowest,
+Whoever judged, the worst on me must light,
+When time shall be; for so I undertook
+Before thee; and, not repenting, this obtain
+Of right, that I may mitigate their doom
+On me derived; yet I shall temper so
+Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most
+Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.
+Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none
+Are to behold the judgement, but the judged,
+Those two; the third best absent is condemned,
+Convict by flight, and rebel to all law:
+Conviction to the serpent none belongs.
+Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose
+Of high collateral glory: Him Thrones, and Powers,
+Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant,
+Accompanied to Heaven-gate; from whence
+Eden, and all the coast, in prospect lay.
+Down he descended straight; the speed of Gods
+Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes winged.
+Now was the sun in western cadence low
+From noon, and gentle airs, due at their hour,
+To fan the earth now waked, and usher in
+The evening cool; when he, from wrath more cool,
+Came the mild Judge, and Intercessour both,
+To sentence Man: The voice of God they heard
+Now walking in the garden, by soft winds
+Brought to their ears, while day declined; they heard,
+And from his presence hid themselves among
+The thickest trees, both man and wife; till God,
+Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud.
+Where art thou, Adam, wont with joy to meet
+My coming seen far off? I miss thee here,
+Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude,
+Where obvious duty ere while appeared unsought:
+Or come I less conspicuous, or what change
+Absents thee, or what chance detains?--Come forth!
+He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first
+To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed;
+Love was not in their looks, either to God,
+Or to each other; but apparent guilt,
+And shame, and perturbation, and despair,
+Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile.
+Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief.
+I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice
+Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom
+The gracious Judge without revile replied.
+My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not feared,
+But still rejoiced; how is it now become
+So dreadful to thee? That thou art naked, who
+Hath told thee? Hast thou eaten of the tree,
+Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?
+To whom thus Adam sore beset replied.
+O Heaven! in evil strait this day I stand
+Before my Judge; either to undergo
+Myself the total crime, or to accuse
+My other self, the partner of my life;
+Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,
+I should conceal, and not expose to blame
+By my complaint: but strict necessity
+Subdues me, and calamitous constraint;
+Lest on my head both sin and punishment,
+However insupportable, be all
+Devolved; though should I hold my peace, yet thou
+Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.--
+This Woman, whom thou madest to be my help,
+And gavest me as thy perfect gift, so good,
+So fit, so acceptable, so divine,
+That from her hand I could suspect no ill,
+And what she did, whatever in itself,
+Her doing seemed to justify the deed;
+She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
+To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied.
+Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey
+Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,
+Superiour, or but equal, that to her
+Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
+Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
+And for thee, whose perfection far excelled
+Hers in all real dignity? Adorned
+She was indeed, and lovely, to attract
+Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts
+Were such, as under government well seemed;
+Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part
+And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.
+So having said, he thus to Eve in few.
+Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?
+To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed,
+Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge
+Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied.
+The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.
+Which when the Lord God heard, without delay
+To judgement he proceeded on the accused
+Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer
+The guilt on him, who made him instrument
+Of mischief, and polluted from the end
+Of his creation; justly then accursed,
+As vitiated in nature: More to know
+Concerned not Man, (since he no further knew)
+Nor altered his offence; yet God at last
+To Satan first in sin his doom applied,
+Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:
+And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.
+Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed
+Above all cattle, each beast of the field;
+Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,
+And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.
+Between thee and the woman I will put
+Enmity, and between thine and her seed;
+Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.
+So spake this oracle, then verified
+When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve,
+Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven,
+Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave
+Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed
+In open show; and, with ascension bright,
+Captivity led captive through the air,
+The realm itself of Satan, long usurped;
+Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;
+Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise;
+And to the Woman thus his sentence turned.
+Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply
+By thy conception; children thou shalt bring
+In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will
+Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.
+On Adam last thus judgement he pronounced.
+Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,
+And eaten of the tree, concerning which
+I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof:
+Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow
+Shalt eat thereof, all the days of thy life;
+Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth
+Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
+In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
+Till thou return unto the ground; for thou
+Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,
+For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.
+So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent;
+And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day,
+Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood
+Before him naked to the air, that now
+Must suffer change, disdained not to begin
+Thenceforth the form of servant to assume;
+As when he washed his servants feet; so now,
+As father of his family, he clad
+Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain,
+Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid;
+And thought not much to clothe his enemies;
+Nor he their outward only with the skins
+Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more.
+Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness,
+Arraying, covered from his Father's sight.
+To him with swift ascent he up returned,
+Into his blissful bosom reassumed
+In glory, as of old; to him appeased
+All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man
+Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.
+Mean while, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,
+Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death,
+In counterview within the gates, that now
+Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame
+Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed through,
+Sin opening; who thus now to Death began.
+O Son, why sit we here each other viewing
+Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives
+In other worlds, and happier seat provides
+For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be
+But that success attends him; if mishap,
+Ere this he had returned, with fury driven
+By his avengers; since no place like this
+Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
+Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
+Wings growing, and dominion given me large
+Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
+Or sympathy, or some connatural force,
+Powerful at greatest distance to unite,
+With secret amity, things of like kind,
+By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade
+Inseparable, must with me along;
+For Death from Sin no power can separate.
+But, lest the difficulty of passing back
+Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
+Impassable, impervious; let us try
+Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine
+Not unagreeable, to found a path
+Over this main from Hell to that new world,
+Where Satan now prevails; a monument
+Of merit high to all the infernal host,
+Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,
+Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.
+Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn
+By this new-felt attraction and instinct.
+Whom thus the meager Shadow answered soon.
+Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong,
+Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err
+The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw
+Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste
+The savour of death from all things there that live:
+Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest
+Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.
+So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell
+Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock
+Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
+Against the day of battle, to a field,
+Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured
+With scent of living carcasses designed
+For death, the following day, in bloody fight:
+So scented the grim Feature, and upturned
+His nostril wide into the murky air;
+Sagacious of his quarry from so far.
+Then both from out Hell-gates, into the waste
+Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,
+Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great)
+Hovering upon the waters, what they met
+Solid or slimy, as in raging sea
+Tost up and down, together crouded drove,
+From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell;
+As when two polar winds, blowing adverse
+Upon the Cronian sea, together drive
+Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way
+Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich
+Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil
+Death with his mace petrifick, cold and dry,
+As with a trident, smote; and fixed as firm
+As Delos, floating once; the rest his look
+Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;
+And with Asphaltick slime, broad as the gate,
+Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach
+They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on
+Over the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge
+Of length prodigious, joining to the wall
+Immoveable of this now fenceless world,
+Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,
+Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell.
+So, if great things to small may be compared,
+Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
+From Susa, his Memnonian palace high,
+Came to the sea: and, over Hellespont
+Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,
+And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.
+Now had they brought the work by wonderous art
+Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock,
+Over the vexed abyss, following the track
+Of Satan to the self-same place where he
+First lighted from his wing, and landed safe
+From out of Chaos, to the outside bare
+Of this round world: With pins of adamant
+And chains they made all fast, too fast they made
+And durable! And now in little space
+The confines met of empyrean Heaven,
+And of this World; and, on the left hand, Hell
+With long reach interposed; three several ways
+In sight, to each of these three places led.
+And now their way to Earth they had descried,
+To Paradise first tending; when, behold!
+Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright,
+Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering
+His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:
+Disguised he came; but those his children dear
+Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.
+He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk
+Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape,
+To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act
+By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded
+Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought
+Vain covertures; but when he saw descend
+The Son of God to judge them, terrified
+He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun
+The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath
+Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned
+By night, and listening where the hapless pair
+Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,
+Thence gathered his own doom; which understood
+Not instant, but of future time, with joy
+And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned;
+And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot
+Of this new wonderous pontifice, unhoped
+Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear.
+Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight
+Of that stupendious bridge his joy encreased.
+Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair
+Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.
+O Parent, these are thy magnifick deeds,
+Thy trophies! which thou viewest as not thine own;
+Thou art their author, and prime architect:
+For I no sooner in my heart divined,
+My heart, which by a secret harmony
+Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet,
+That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks
+Now also evidence, but straight I felt,
+Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt,
+That I must after thee, with this thy son;
+Such fatal consequence unites us three!
+Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds,
+Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure
+Detain from following thy illustrious track.
+Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined
+Within Hell-gates till now; thou us impowered
+To fortify thus far, and overlay,
+With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss.
+Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won
+What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gained
+With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged
+Our foil in Heaven; here thou shalt monarch reign,
+There didst not; there let him still victor sway,
+As battle hath adjudged; from this new world
+Retiring, by his own doom alienated;
+And henceforth monarchy with thee divide
+Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds,
+His quadrature, from thy orbicular world;
+Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.
+Whom thus the Prince of darkness answered glad.
+Fair Daughter, and thou Son and Grandchild both;
+High proof ye now have given to be the race
+Of Satan (for I glory in the name,
+Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty King,)
+Amply have merited of me, of all
+The infernal empire, that so near Heaven's door
+Triumphal with triumphal act have met,
+Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm,
+Hell and this world, one realm, one continent
+Of easy thorough-fare. Therefore, while I
+Descend through darkness, on your road with ease,
+To my associate Powers, them to acquaint
+With these successes, and with them rejoice;
+You two this way, among these numerous orbs,
+All yours, right down to Paradise descend;
+There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth
+Dominion exercise and in the air,
+Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared;
+Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.
+My substitutes I send ye, and create
+Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might
+Issuing from me: on your joint vigour now
+My hold of this new kingdom all depends,
+Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit.
+If your joint power prevail, the affairs of Hell
+No detriment need fear; go, and be strong!
+So saying he dismissed them; they with speed
+Their course through thickest constellations held,
+Spreading their bane; the blasted stars looked wan,
+And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse
+Then suffered. The other way Satan went down
+The causey to Hell-gate: On either side
+Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,
+And with rebounding surge the bars assailed,
+That scorned his indignation: Through the gate,
+Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed,
+And all about found desolate; for those,
+Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,
+Flown to the upper world; the rest were all
+Far to the inland retired, about the walls
+Of Pandemonium; city and proud seat
+Of Lucifer, so by allusion called
+Of that bright star to Satan paragoned;
+There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand
+In council sat, solicitous what chance
+Might intercept their emperour sent; so he
+Departing gave command, and they observed.
+As when the Tartar from his Russian foe,
+By Astracan, over the snowy plains,
+Retires; or Bactrin Sophi, from the horns
+Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
+The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
+To Tauris or Casbeen: So these, the late
+Heaven-banished host, left desart utmost Hell
+Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch
+Round their metropolis; and now expecting
+Each hour their great adventurer, from the search
+Of foreign worlds: He through the midst unmarked,
+In show plebeian Angel militant
+Of lowest order, passed; and from the door
+Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
+Ascended his high throne; which, under state
+Of richest texture spread, at the upper end
+Was placed in regal lustre. Down a while
+He sat, and round about him saw unseen:
+At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head
+And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter; clad
+With what permissive glory since his fall
+Was left him, or false glitter: All amazed
+At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng
+Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld,
+Their mighty Chief returned: loud was the acclaim:
+Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers,
+Raised from their dark Divan, and with like joy
+Congratulant approached him; who with hand
+Silence, and with these words attention, won.
+Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;
+For in possession such, not only of right,
+I call ye, and declare ye now; returned
+Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth
+Triumphant out of this infernal pit
+Abominable, accursed, the house of woe,
+And dungeon of our tyrant: Now possess,
+As Lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven
+Little inferiour, by my adventure hard
+With peril great achieved. Long were to tell
+What I have done; what suffered;with what pain
+Voyaged th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep
+Of horrible confusion; over which
+By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved,
+To expedite your glorious march; but I
+Toiled out my uncouth passage, forced to ride
+The untractable abyss, plunged in the womb
+Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild;
+That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed
+My journey strange, with clamorous uproar
+Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found
+The new created world, which fame in Heaven
+Long had foretold, a fabrick wonderful
+Of absolute perfection! therein Man
+Placed in a Paradise, by our exile
+Made happy: Him by fraud I have seduced
+From his Creator; and, the more to encrease
+Your wonder, with an apple; he, thereat
+Offended, worth your laughter! hath given up
+Both his beloved Man, and all his world,
+To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,
+Without our hazard, labour, or alarm;
+To range in, and to dwell, and over Man
+To rule, as over all he should have ruled.
+True is, me also he hath judged, or rather
+Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape
+Man I deceived: that which to me belongs,
+Is enmity which he will put between
+Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
+His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:
+A world who would not purchase with a bruise,
+Or much more grievous pain?--Ye have the account
+Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,
+But up, and enter now into full bliss?
+So having said, a while he stood, expecting
+Their universal shout, and high applause,
+To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears
+On all sides, from innumerable tongues,
+A dismal universal hiss, the sound
+Of publick scorn; he wondered, but not long
+Had leisure, wondering at himself now more,
+His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare;
+His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining
+Each other, till supplanted down he fell
+A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,
+Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power
+Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,
+According to his doom: he would have spoke,
+But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue
+To forked tongue; for now were all transformed
+Alike, to serpents all, as accessories
+To his bold riot: Dreadful was the din
+Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now
+With complicated monsters head and tail,
+Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbaena dire,
+Cerastes horned, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
+And Dipsas; (not so thick swarmed once the soil
+Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle
+Ophiusa,) but still greatest he the midst,
+Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the sun
+Ingendered in the Pythian vale or slime,
+Huge Python, and his power no less he seemed
+Above the rest still to retain; they all
+Him followed, issuing forth to the open field,
+Where all yet left of that revolted rout,
+Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array;
+Sublime with expectation when to see
+In triumph issuing forth their glorious Chief;
+They saw, but other sight instead! a croud
+Of ugly serpents; horrour on them fell,
+And horrid sympathy; for, what they saw,
+They felt themselves, now changing; down their arms,
+Down fell both spear and shield; down they as fast;
+And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form
+Catched, by contagion; like in punishment,
+As in their crime. Thus was the applause they meant,
+Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
+Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood
+A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,
+His will who reigns above, to aggravate
+Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that
+Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve
+Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange
+Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining
+For one forbidden tree a multitude
+Now risen, to work them further woe or shame;
+Yet, parched with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
+Though to delude them sent, could not abstain;
+But on they rolled in heaps, and, up the trees
+Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks
+That curled Megaera: greedily they plucked
+The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew
+Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;
+This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
+Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay
+Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
+Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste
+With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,
+Hunger and thirst constraining; drugged as oft,
+With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws,
+With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell
+Into the same illusion, not as Man
+Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were they plagued
+And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,
+Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed;
+Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo,
+This annual humbling certain numbered days,
+To dash their pride, and joy, for Man seduced.
+However, some tradition they dispersed
+Among the Heathen, of their purchase got,
+And fabled how the Serpent, whom they called
+Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide--
+Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
+Of high Olympus; thence by Saturn driven
+And Ops, ere yet Dictaean Jove was born.
+Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair
+Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power before,
+Once actual; now in body, and to dwell
+Habitual habitant; behind her Death,
+Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
+On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.
+Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death!
+What thinkest thou of our empire now, though earned
+With travel difficult, not better far
+Than still at Hell's dark threshold to have sat watch,
+Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved?
+Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon.
+To me, who with eternal famine pine,
+Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven;
+There best, where most with ravine I may meet;
+Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems
+To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corps.
+To whom the incestuous mother thus replied.
+Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers,
+Feed first; on each beast next, and fish, and fowl;
+No homely morsels! and, whatever thing
+The sithe of Time mows down, devour unspared;
+Till I, in Man residing, through the race,
+His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect;
+And season him thy last and sweetest prey.
+This said, they both betook them several ways,
+Both to destroy, or unimmortal make
+All kinds, and for destruction to mature
+Sooner or later; which the Almighty seeing,
+From his transcendent seat the Saints among,
+To those bright Orders uttered thus his voice.
+See, with what heat these dogs of Hell advance
+To waste and havock yonder world, which I
+So fair and good created; and had still
+Kept in that state, had not the folly of Man
+Let in these wasteful furies, who impute
+Folly to me; so doth the Prince of Hell
+And his adherents, that with so much ease
+I suffer them to enter and possess
+A place so heavenly; and, conniving, seem
+To gratify my scornful enemies,
+That laugh, as if, transported with some fit
+Of passion, I to them had quitted all,
+At random yielded up to their misrule;
+And know not that I called, and drew them thither,
+My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
+Which Man's polluting sin with taint hath shed
+On what was pure; til, crammed and gorged, nigh burst
+With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling
+Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son,
+Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave, at last,
+Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell
+For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.
+Then Heaven and Earth renewed shall be made pure
+To sanctity, that shall receive no stain:
+Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes.
+He ended, and the heavenly audience loud
+Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas,
+Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways,
+Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
+Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
+Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom
+New Heaven and Earth shall to the ages rise,
+Or down from Heaven descend.--Such was their song;
+While the Creator, calling forth by name
+His mighty Angels, gave them several charge,
+As sorted best with present things. The sun
+Had first his precept so to move, so shine,
+As might affect the earth with cold and heat
+Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call
+Decrepit winter; from the south to bring
+Solstitial summer's heat. To the blanc moon
+Her office they prescribed; to the other five
+Their planetary motions, and aspects,
+In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite,
+Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
+In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed
+Their influence malignant when to shower,
+Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,
+Should prove tempestuous: To the winds they set
+Their corners, when with bluster to confound
+Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll
+With terrour through the dark aereal hall.
+Some say, he bid his Angels turn ascanse
+The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more,
+From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed
+Oblique the centrick globe: Some say, the sun
+Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road
+Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven
+Atlantick Sisters, and the Spartan Twins,
+Up to the Tropick Crab: thence down amain
+By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales,
+As deep as Capricorn; to bring in change
+Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring
+Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers,
+Equal in days and nights, except to those
+Beyond the polar circles; to them day
+Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun,
+To recompense his distance, in their sight
+Had rounded still the horizon, and not known
+Or east or west; which had forbid the snow
+From cold Estotiland, and south as far
+Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
+The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turned
+His course intended; else, how had the world
+Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,
+Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
+These changes in the Heavens, though slow, produced
+Like change on sea and land; sideral blast,
+Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,
+Corrupt and pestilent: Now from the north
+Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,
+Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice,
+And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw,
+Boreas, and Caecias, and Argestes loud,
+And Thrascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn;
+With adverse blast upturns them from the south
+Notus, and Afer black with thunderous clouds
+From Serraliona; thwart of these, as fierce,
+Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds,
+Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,
+Sirocco and Libecchio. Thus began
+Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,
+Daughter of Sin, among the irrational
+Death introduced, through fierce antipathy:
+Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
+And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
+Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe
+Of Man, but fled him; or, with countenance grim,
+Glared on him passing. These were from without
+The growing miseries, which Adam saw
+Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
+To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within;
+And, in a troubled sea of passion tost,
+Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.
+O miserable of happy! Is this the end
+Of this new glorious world, and me so late
+The glory of that glory, who now become
+Accursed, of blessed? hide me from the face
+Of God, whom to behold was then my highth
+Of happiness!--Yet well, if here would end
+The misery; I deserved it, and would bear
+My own deservings; but this will not serve:
+All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,
+Is propagated curse. O voice, once heard
+Delightfully, Encrease and multiply;
+Now death to hear! for what can I encrease,
+Or multiply, but curses on my head?
+Who of all ages to succeed, but, feeling
+The evil on him brought by me, will curse
+My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,
+For this we may thank Adam! but his thanks
+Shall be the execration: so, besides
+Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
+Shall with a fierce reflux on me rebound;
+On me, as on their natural center, light
+Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
+Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
+Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
+To mould me Man? did I solicit thee
+From darkness to promote me, or here place
+In this delicious garden? As my will
+Concurred not to my being, it were but right
+And equal to reduce me to my dust;
+Desirous to resign and render back
+All I received; unable to perform
+Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
+The good I sought not. To the loss of that,
+Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added
+The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable
+Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out
+To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet
+Mortality my sentence, and be earth
+Insensible! How glad would lay me down
+As in my mother's lap! There I should rest,
+And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more
+Would thunder in my ears; no fear of worse
+To me, and to my offspring, would torment me
+With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
+Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;
+Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man
+Which God inspired, cannot together perish
+With this corporeal clod; then, in the grave,
+Or in some other dismal place, who knows
+But I shall die a living death? O thought
+Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath
+Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life
+And sin? The body properly had neither,
+All of me then shall die: let this appease
+The doubt, since human reach no further knows.
+For though the Lord of all be infinite,
+Is his wrath also? Be it, Man is not so,
+But mortal doomed. How can he exercise
+Wrath without end on Man, whom death must end?
+Can he make deathless death? That were to make
+Strange contradiction, which to God himself
+Impossible is held; as argument
+Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,
+For anger's sake, finite to infinite,
+In punished Man, to satisfy his rigour,
+Satisfied never? That were to extend
+His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law;
+By which all causes else, according still
+To the reception of their matter, act;
+Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say
+That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
+Bereaving sense, but endless misery
+From this day onward; which I feel begun
+Both in me, and without me; and so last
+To perpetuity;--Ay me!that fear
+Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
+On my defenceless head; both Death and I
+Am found eternal, and incorporate both;
+Nor I on my part single; in me all
+Posterity stands cursed: Fair patrimony
+That I must leave ye, Sons! O, were I able
+To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!
+So disinherited, how would you bless
+Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind,
+For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemned,
+It guiltless? But from me what can proceed,
+But all corrupt; both mind and will depraved
+Not to do only, but to will the same
+With me? How can they then acquitted stand
+In sight of God? Him, after all disputes,
+Forced I absolve: all my evasions vain,
+And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still
+But to my own conviction: first and last
+On me, me only, as the source and spring
+Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;
+So might the wrath! Fond wish!couldst thou support
+That burden, heavier than the earth to bear;
+Than all the world much heavier, though divided
+With that bad Woman? Thus, what thou desirest,
+And what thou fearest, alike destroys all hope
+Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable
+Beyond all past example and future;
+To Satan only like both crime and doom.
+O Conscience! into what abyss of fears
+And horrours hast thou driven me; out of which
+I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!
+Thus Adam to himself lamented loud,
+Through the still night; not now, as ere Man fell,
+Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air
+Accompanied; with damps, and dreadful gloom;
+Which to his evil conscience represented
+All things with double terrour: On the ground
+Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground; and oft
+Cursed his creation; Death as oft accused
+Of tardy execution, since denounced
+The day of his offence. Why comes not Death,
+Said he, with one thrice-acceptable stroke
+To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word,
+Justice Divine not hasten to be just?
+But Death comes not at call; Justice Divine
+Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries,
+O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers!
+With other echo late I taught your shades
+To answer, and resound far other song.--
+Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld,
+Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh,
+Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed:
+But her with stern regard he thus repelled.
+Out of my sight, thou Serpent! That name best
+Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false
+And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,
+Like his, and colour serpentine, may show
+Thy inward fraud; to warn all creatures from thee
+Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form, pretended
+To hellish falshood, snare them! But for thee
+I had persisted happy; had not thy pride
+And wandering vanity, when least was safe,
+Rejected my forewarning, and disdained
+Not to be trusted; longing to be seen,
+Though by the Devil himself; him overweening
+To over-reach; but, with the serpent meeting,
+Fooled and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee
+To trust thee from my side; imagined wise,
+Constant, mature, proof against all assaults;
+And understood not all was but a show,
+Rather than solid virtue; all but a rib
+Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,
+More to the part sinister, from me drawn;
+Well if thrown out, as supernumerary
+To my just number found. O! why did God,
+Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven
+With Spirits masculine, create at last
+This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+With Men, as Angels, without feminine;
+Or find some other way to generate
+Mankind? This mischief had not been befallen,
+And more that shall befall; innumerable
+Disturbances on earth through female snares,
+And strait conjunction with this sex: for either
+He never shall find out fit mate, but such
+As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;
+Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
+Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained
+By a far worse; or, if she love, withheld
+By parents; or his happiest choice too late
+Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound
+To a fell adversary, his hate or shame:
+Which infinite calamity shall cause
+To human life, and houshold peace confound.
+He added not, and from her turned; but Eve,
+Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing
+And tresses all disordered, at his feet
+Fell humble; and, embracing them, besought
+His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.
+Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven
+What love sincere, and reverence in my heart
+I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
+Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant
+I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,
+Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
+Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress,
+My only strength and stay: Forlorn of thee,
+Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?
+While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,
+Between us two let there be peace; both joining,
+As joined in injuries, one enmity
+Against a foe by doom express assigned us,
+That cruel Serpent: On me exercise not
+Thy hatred for this misery befallen;
+On me already lost, me than thyself
+More miserable! Both have sinned;but thou
+Against God only; I against God and thee;
+And to the place of judgement will return,
+There with my cries importune Heaven; that all
+The sentence, from thy head removed, may light
+On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe;
+Me, me only, just object of his ire!
+She ended weeping; and her lowly plight,
+Immoveable, till peace obtained from fault
+Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought
+Commiseration: Soon his heart relented
+Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,
+Now at his feet submissive in distress;
+Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,
+His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid:
+As one disarmed, his anger all he lost,
+And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon.
+Unwary, and too desirous, as before,
+So now of what thou knowest not, who desirest
+The punishment all on thyself; alas!
+Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain
+His full wrath, whose thou feelest as yet least part,
+And my displeasure bearest so ill. If prayers
+Could alter high decrees, I to that place
+Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,
+That on my head all might be visited;
+Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven,
+To me committed, and by me exposed.
+But rise;--let us no more contend, nor blame
+Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive
+In offices of love, how we may lighten
+Each other's burden, in our share of woe;
+Since this day's death denounced, if aught I see,
+Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil;
+A long day's dying, to augment our pain;
+And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.
+To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied.
+Adam, by sad experiment I know
+How little weight my words with thee can find,
+Found so erroneous; thence by just event
+Found so unfortunate: Nevertheless,
+Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place
+Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain
+Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart
+Living or dying, from thee I will not hide
+What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen,
+Tending to some relief of our extremes,
+Or end; though sharp and sad, yet tolerable,
+As in our evils, and of easier choice.
+If care of our descent perplex us most,
+Which must be born to certain woe, devoured
+By Death at last; and miserable it is
+To be to others cause of misery,
+Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring
+Into this cursed world a woeful race,
+That after wretched life must be at last
+Food for so foul a monster; in thy power
+It lies, yet ere conception to prevent
+The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.
+Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death
+Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two
+Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw.
+But if thou judge it hard and difficult,
+Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain
+From love's due rights, nuptial embraces sweet;
+And with desire to languish without hope,
+Before the present object languishing
+With like desire; which would be misery
+And torment less than none of what we dread;
+Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free
+From what we fear for both, let us make short, --
+Let us seek Death; -- or, he not found, supply
+With our own hands his office on ourselves:
+Why stand we longer shivering under fears,
+That show no end but death, and have the power,
+Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,
+Destruction with destruction to destroy? --
+She ended here, or vehement despair
+Broke off the rest: so much of death her thoughts
+Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.
+But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed,
+To better hopes his more attentive mind
+Labouring had raised; and thus to Eve replied.
+Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems
+To argue in thee something more sublime
+And excellent, than what thy mind contemns;
+But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes
+That excellence thought in thee; and implies,
+Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret
+For loss of life and pleasure overloved.
+Or if thou covet death, as utmost end
+Of misery, so thinking to evade
+The penalty pronounced; doubt not but God
+Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so
+To be forestalled; much more I fear lest death,
+So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain
+We are by doom to pay; rather, such acts
+Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
+To make death in us live: Then let us seek
+Some safer resolution, which methinks
+I have in view, calling to mind with heed
+Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise
+The Serpent's head; piteous amends! unless
+Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe,
+Satan; who, in the serpent, hath contrived
+Against us this deceit: To crush his head
+Would be revenge indeed! which will be lost
+By death brought on ourselves, or childless days
+Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe
+Shal 'scape his punishment ordained, and we
+Instead shall double ours upon our heads.
+No more be mentioned then of violence
+Against ourselves; and wilful barrenness,
+That cuts us off from hope; and savours only
+Rancour and pride, impatience and despite,
+Reluctance against God and his just yoke
+Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild
+And gracious temper he both heard, and judged,
+Without wrath or reviling; we expected
+Immediate dissolution, which we thought
+Was meant by death that day; when lo!to thee
+Pains only in child-bearing were foretold,
+And bringing forth; soon recompensed with joy,
+Fruit of thy womb: On me the curse aslope
+Glanced on the ground; with labour I must earn
+My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;
+My labour will sustain me; and, lest cold
+Or heat should injure us, his timely care
+Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands
+Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged;
+How much more, if we pray him, will his ear
+Be open, and his heart to pity incline,
+And teach us further by what means to shun
+The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow!
+Which now the sky, with various face, begins
+To show us in this mountain; while the winds
+Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks
+Of these fair spreading trees; which bids us seek
+Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish
+Our limbs benummed, ere this diurnal star
+Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams
+Reflected may with matter sere foment;
+Or, by collision of two bodies, grind
+The air attrite to fire; as late the clouds
+Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their shock,
+Tine the slant lightning; whose thwart flame, driven down
+Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine;
+And sends a comfortable heat from far,
+Which might supply the sun: Such fire to use,
+And what may else be remedy or cure
+To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
+He will instruct us praying, and of grace
+Beseeching him; so as we need not fear
+To pass commodiously this life, sustained
+By him with many comforts, till we end
+In dust, our final rest and native home.
+What better can we do, than, to the place
+Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall
+Before him reverent; and there confess
+Humbly our faults, and pardon beg; with tears
+Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
+Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
+Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek
+
+
+
+Book XI
+
+
+Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn
+From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
+When angry most he seemed and most severe,
+What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone?
+So spake our father penitent; nor Eve
+Felt less remorse: they, forthwith to the place
+Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell
+Before him reverent; and both confessed
+Humbly their faults, and pardon begged; with tears
+Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air
+Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
+Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek.
+Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood
+Praying; for from the mercy-seat above
+Prevenient grace descending had removed
+The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
+Regenerate grow instead; that sighs now breathed
+Unutterable; which the Spirit of prayer
+Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier flight
+Than loudest oratory: Yet their port
+Not of mean suitors; nor important less
+Seemed their petition, than when the ancient pair
+In fables old, less ancient yet than these,
+Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore
+The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine
+Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers
+Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds
+Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they passed
+Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then clad
+With incense, where the golden altar fumed,
+By their great intercessour, came in sight
+Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son
+Presenting, thus to intercede began.
+See$ Father, what first-fruits on earth are sprung
+From thy implanted grace in Man; these sighs
+And prayers, which in this golden censer mixed
+With incense, I thy priest before thee bring;
+Fruits of more pleasing savour, from thy seed
+Sown with contrition in his heart, than those
+Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees
+Of Paradise could have produced, ere fallen
+From innocence. Now therefore, bend thine ear
+To supplication; hear his sighs, though mute;
+Unskilful with what words to pray, let me
+Interpret for him; me, his advocate
+And propitiation; all his works on me,
+Good, or not good, ingraft; my merit those
+Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.
+Accept me; and, in me, from these receive
+The smell of peace toward mankind: let him live
+Before thee reconciled, at least his days
+Numbered, though sad; till death, his doom, (which I
+To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,)
+To better life shall yield him: where with me
+All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss;
+Made one with me, as I with thee am one.
+To whom the Father, without cloud, serene.
+All thy request for Man, accepted Son,
+Obtain; all thy request was my decree:
+But, longer in that Paradise to dwell,
+The law I gave to Nature him forbids:
+Those pure immortal elements, that know,
+No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul,
+Eject him, tainted now; and purge him off,
+As a distemper, gross, to air as gross,
+And mortal food; as may dispose him best
+For dissolution wrought by sin, that first
+Distempered all things, and of incorrupt
+Corrupted. I, at first, with two fair gifts
+Created him endowed; with happiness,
+And immortality: that fondly lost,
+This other served but to eternize woe;
+Till I provided death: so death becomes
+His final remedy; and, after life,
+Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined
+By faith and faithful works, to second life,
+Waked in the renovation of the just,
+Resigns him up with Heaven and Earth renewed.
+But let us call to synod all the Blest,
+Through Heaven's wide bounds: from them I will not hide
+My judgements; how with mankind I proceed,
+As how with peccant Angels late they saw,
+And in their state, though firm, stood more confirmed.
+He ended, and the Son gave signal high
+To the bright minister that watched; he blew
+His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps
+When God descended, and perhaps once more
+To sound at general doom. The angelick blast
+Filled all the regions: from their blisful bowers
+Of amarantine shade, fountain or spring,
+By the waters of life, where'er they sat
+In fellowships of joy, the sons of light
+Hasted, resorting to the summons high;
+And took their seats; till from his throne supreme
+The Almighty thus pronounced his sovran will.
+O Sons, like one of us Man is become
+To know both good and evil, since his taste
+Of that defended fruit; but let him boast
+His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;
+Happier! had it sufficed him to have known
+Good by itself, and evil not at all.
+He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,
+My motions in him; longer than they move,
+His heart I know, how variable and vain,
+Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand
+Reach also of the tree of life, and eat,
+And live for ever, dream at least to live
+For ever, to remove him I decree,
+And send him from the garden forth to till
+The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.
+Michael, this my behest have thou in charge;
+Take to thee from among the Cherubim
+Thy choice of flaming warriours, lest the Fiend,
+Or in behalf of Man, or to invade
+Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:
+Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
+Without remorse drive out the sinful pair;
+From hallowed ground the unholy; and denounce
+To them, and to their progeny, from thence
+Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint
+At the sad sentence rigorously urged,
+(For I behold them softened, and with tears
+Bewailing their excess,) all terrour hide.
+If patiently thy bidding they obey,
+Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal
+To Adam what shall come in future days,
+As I shall thee enlighten; intermix
+My covenant in the Woman's seed renewed;
+So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace:
+And on the east side of the garden place,
+Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
+Cherubick watch; and of a sword the flame
+Wide-waving; all approach far off to fright,
+And guard all passage to the tree of life:
+Lest Paradise a receptacle prove
+To Spirits foul, and all my trees their prey;
+With whose stolen fruit Man once more to delude.
+He ceased; and the arch-angelick Power prepared
+For swift descent; with him the cohort bright
+Of watchful Cherubim: four faces each
+Had, like a double Janus; all their shape
+Spangled with eyes more numerous than those
+Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drouse,
+Charmed with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed
+Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Mean while,
+To re-salute the world with sacred light,
+Leucothea waked; and with fresh dews imbalmed
+The earth; when Adam and first matron Eve
+Had ended now their orisons, and found
+Strength added from above; new hope to spring
+Out of despair; joy, but with fear yet linked;
+Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewed.
+Eve, easily my faith admit, that all
+The good which we enjoy from Heaven descends;
+But, that from us aught should ascend to Heaven
+So prevalent as to concern the mind
+Of God high-blest, or to incline his will,
+Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer
+Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne
+Even to the seat of God. For since I sought
+By prayer the offended Deity to appease;
+Kneeled, and before him humbled all my heart;
+Methought I saw him placable and mild,
+Bending his ear; persuasion in me grew
+That I was heard with favour; peace returned
+Home to my breast, and to my memory
+His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe;
+Which, then not minded in dismay, yet now
+Assures me that the bitterness of death
+Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee,
+Eve rightly called, mother of all mankind,
+Mother of all things living, since by thee
+Man is to live; and all things live for Man.
+To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek.
+Ill-worthy I such title should belong
+To me transgressour; who, for thee ordained
+A help, became thy snare; to me reproach
+Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise:
+But infinite in pardon was my Judge,
+That I, who first brought death on all, am graced
+The source of life; next favourable thou,
+Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf'st,
+Far other name deserving. But the field
+To labour calls us, now with sweat imposed,
+Though after sleepless night; for see!the morn,
+All unconcerned with our unrest, begins
+Her rosy progress smiling: let us forth;
+I never from thy side henceforth to stray,
+Where'er our day's work lies, though now enjoined
+Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell,
+What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
+Here let us live, though in fallen state, content.
+So spake, so wished much humbled Eve; but Fate
+Subscribed not: Nature first gave signs, impressed
+On bird, beast, air; air suddenly eclipsed,
+After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight
+The bird of Jove, stooped from his aery tour,
+Two birds of gayest plume before him drove;
+Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
+First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace,
+Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind;
+Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight.
+Adam observed, and with his eye the chase
+Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve thus spake.
+O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh,
+Which Heaven, by these mute signs in Nature, shows
+Forerunners of his purpose; or to warn
+Us, haply too secure, of our discharge
+From penalty, because from death released
+Some days: how long, and what till then our life,
+Who knows? or more than this, that we are dust,
+And thither must return, and be no more?
+Why else this double object in our sight
+Of flight pursued in the air, and o'er the ground,
+One way the self-same hour? why in the east
+Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning-light
+More orient in yon western cloud, that draws
+O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,
+And slow descends with something heavenly fraught?
+He erred not; for by this the heavenly bands
+Down from a sky of jasper lighted now
+In Paradise, and on a hill made halt;
+A glorious apparition, had not doubt
+And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam's eye.
+Not that more glorious, when the Angels met
+Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw
+The field pavilioned with his guardians bright;
+Nor that, which on the flaming mount appeared
+In Dothan, covered with a camp of fire,
+Against the Syrian king, who to surprise
+One man, assassin-like, had levied war,
+War unproclaimed. The princely Hierarch
+In their bright stand there left his Powers, to seise
+Possession of the garden; he alone,
+To find where Adam sheltered, took his way,
+Not unperceived of Adam; who to Eve,
+While the great visitant approached, thus spake.
+Eve$ now expect great tidings, which perhaps
+Of us will soon determine, or impose
+New laws to be observed; for I descry,
+From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill,
+One of the heavenly host; and, by his gait,
+None of the meanest; some great Potentate
+Or of the Thrones above; such majesty
+Invests him coming! yet not terrible,
+That I should fear; nor sociably mild,
+As Raphael, that I should much confide;
+But solemn and sublime; whom not to offend,
+With reverence I must meet, and thou retire.
+He ended: and the Arch-Angel soon drew nigh,
+Not in his shape celestial, but as man
+Clad to meet man; over his lucid arms
+A military vest of purple flowed,
+Livelier than Meliboean, or the grain
+Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old
+In time of truce; Iris had dipt the woof;
+His starry helm unbuckled showed him prime
+In manhood where youth ended; by his side,
+As in a glistering zodiack, hung the sword,
+Satan's dire dread; and in his hand the spear.
+Adam bowed low; he, kingly, from his state
+Inclined not, but his coming thus declared.
+Adam, Heaven's high behest no preface needs:
+Sufficient that thy prayers are heard; and Death,
+Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress,
+Defeated of his seisure many days
+Given thee of grace; wherein thou mayest repent,
+And one bad act with many deeds well done
+Mayest cover: Well may then thy Lord, appeased,
+Redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim;
+But longer in this Paradise to dwell
+Permits not: to remove thee I am come,
+And send thee from the garden forth to till
+The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil.
+He added not; for Adam at the news
+Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood,
+That all his senses bound; Eve, who unseen
+Yet all had heard, with audible lament
+Discovered soon the place of her retire.
+O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death!
+Must I thus leave thee$ Paradise? thus leave
+Thee, native soil! these happy walks and shades,
+Fit haunt of Gods? where I had hope to spend,
+Quiet though sad, the respite of that day
+That must be mortal to us both. O flowers,
+That never will in other climate grow,
+My early visitation, and my last
+ ;t even, which I bred up with tender hand
+From the first opening bud, and gave ye names!
+Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank
+Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
+Thee lastly, nuptial bower! by me adorned
+With what to sight or smell was sweet! from thee
+How shall I part, and whither wander down
+Into a lower world; to this obscure
+And wild? how shall we breathe in other air
+Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?
+Whom thus the Angel interrupted mild.
+Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign
+What justly thou hast lost, nor set thy heart,
+Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine:
+Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
+Thy husband; whom to follow thou art bound;
+Where he abides, think there thy native soil.
+Adam, by this from the cold sudden damp
+Recovering, and his scattered spirits returned,
+To Michael thus his humble words addressed.
+Celestial, whether among the Thrones, or named
+Of them the highest; for such of shape may seem
+Prince above princes! gently hast thou told
+Thy message, which might else in telling wound,
+And in performing end us; what besides
+Of sorrow, and dejection, and despair,
+Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring,
+Departure from this happy place, our sweet
+Recess, and only consolation left
+Familiar to our eyes! all places else
+Inhospitable appear, and desolate;
+Nor knowing us, nor known: And, if by prayer
+Incessant I could hope to change the will
+Of Him who all things can, I would not cease
+To weary him with my assiduous cries:
+But prayer against his absolute decree
+No more avails than breath against the wind,
+Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth:
+Therefore to his great bidding I submit.
+This most afflicts me, that, departing hence,
+As from his face I shall be hid, deprived
+His blessed countenance: Here I could frequent
+With worship place by place where he vouchsafed
+Presence Divine; and to my sons relate,
+'On this mount he appeared; under this tree
+'Stood visible; among these pines his voice
+'I heard; here with him at this fountain talked:
+So many grateful altars I would rear
+Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone
+Of lustre from the brook, in memory,
+Or monument to ages; and theron
+Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers:
+In yonder nether world where shall I seek
+His bright appearances, or foot-step trace?
+For though I fled him angry, yet recalled
+To life prolonged and promised race, I now
+Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
+Of glory; and far off his steps adore.
+To whom thus Michael with regard benign.
+Adam, thou knowest Heaven his, and all the Earth;
+Not this rock only; his Omnipresence fills
+Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives,
+Fomented by his virtual power and warmed:
+All the earth he gave thee to possess and rule,
+No despicable gift; surmise not then
+His presence to these narrow bounds confined
+Of Paradise, or Eden: this had been
+Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread
+All generations; and had hither come
+From all the ends of the earth, to celebrate
+And reverence thee, their great progenitor.
+But this pre-eminence thou hast lost, brought down
+To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:
+Yet doubt not but in valley, and in plain,
+God is, as here; and will be found alike
+Present; and of his presence many a sign
+Still following thee, still compassing thee round
+With goodness and paternal love, his face
+Express, and of his steps the track divine.
+Which that thou mayest believe, and be confirmed
+Ere thou from hence depart; know, I am sent
+To show thee what shall come in future days
+To thee, and to thy offspring: good with bad
+Expect to hear; supernal grace contending
+With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
+True patience, and to temper joy with fear
+And pious sorrow; equally inured
+By moderation either state to bear,
+Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead
+Safest thy life, and best prepared endure
+Thy mortal passage when it comes.--Ascend
+This hill; let Eve (for I have drenched her eyes)
+Here sleep below; while thou to foresight wakest;
+As once thou sleptst, while she to life was formed.
+To whom thus Adam gratefully replied.
+Ascend, I follow thee, safe Guide, the path
+Thou leadest me; and to the hand of Heaven submit,
+However chastening; to the evil turn
+My obvious breast; arming to overcome
+By suffering, and earn rest from labour won,
+If so I may attain. -- So both ascend
+In the visions of God. It was a hill,
+Of Paradise the highest; from whose top
+The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken,
+Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect lay.
+Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round,
+Whereon, for different cause, the Tempter set
+Our second Adam, in the wilderness;
+To show him all Earth's kingdoms, and their glory.
+His eye might there command wherever stood
+City of old or modern fame, the seat
+Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
+Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,
+And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne,
+To Paquin of Sinaean kings; and thence
+To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul,
+Down to the golden Chersonese; or where
+The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since
+In Hispahan; or where the Russian Ksar
+In Mosco; or the Sultan in Bizance,
+Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken
+The empire of Negus to his utmost port
+Ercoco, and the less maritim kings
+Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,
+And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm
+Of Congo, and Angola farthest south;
+Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount
+The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez and Sus,
+Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen;
+On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway
+The world: in spirit perhaps he also saw
+Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume,
+And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat
+Of Atabalipa; and yet unspoiled
+Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons
+Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights
+Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
+Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight
+Had bred; then purged with euphrasy and rue
+The visual nerve, for he had much to see;
+And from the well of life three drops instilled.
+So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
+Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,
+That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes,
+Sunk down, and all his spirits became entranced;
+But him the gentle Angel by the hand
+Soon raised, and his attention thus recalled.
+Adam, now ope thine eyes; and first behold
+The effects, which thy original crime hath wrought
+In some to spring from thee; who never touched
+The excepted tree; nor with the snake conspired;
+Nor sinned thy sin; yet from that sin derive
+Corruption, to bring forth more violent deeds.
+His eyes he opened, and beheld a field,
+Part arable and tilth, whereon were sheaves
+New reaped; the other part sheep-walks and folds;
+I' the midst an altar as the land-mark stood,
+Rustick, of grassy sord; thither anon
+A sweaty reaper from his tillage brought
+First fruits, the green ear, and the yellow sheaf,
+Unculled, as came to hand; a shepherd next,
+More meek, came with the firstlings of his flock,
+Choicest and best; then, sacrificing, laid
+The inwards and their fat, with incense strowed,
+On the cleft wood, and all due rights performed:
+His offering soon propitious fire from Heaven
+Consumed with nimble glance, and grateful steam;
+The other's not, for his was not sincere;
+Whereat he inly raged, and, as they talked,
+Smote him into the midriff with a stone
+That beat out life; he fell;and, deadly pale,
+Groaned out his soul with gushing blood effused.
+Much at that sight was Adam in his heart
+Dismayed, and thus in haste to the Angel cried.
+O Teacher, some great mischief hath befallen
+To that meek man, who well had sacrificed;
+Is piety thus and pure devotion paid?
+To whom Michael thus, he also moved, replied.
+These two are brethren, Adam, and to come
+Out of thy loins; the unjust the just hath slain,
+For envy that his brother's offering found
+From Heaven acceptance; but the bloody fact
+Will be avenged; and the other's faith, approved,
+Lose no reward; though here thou see him die,
+Rolling in dust and gore. To which our sire.
+Alas! both for the deed, and for the cause!
+But have I now seen Death? Is this the way
+I must return to native dust? O sight
+Of terrour, foul and ugly to behold,
+Horrid to think, how horrible to feel!
+To whom thus Michael. Death thou hast seen
+In his first shape on Man; but many shapes
+Of Death, and many are the ways that lead
+To his grim cave, all dismal; yet to sense
+More terrible at the entrance, than within.
+Some, as thou sawest, by violent stroke shall die;
+By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more
+In meats and drinks, which on the earth shall bring
+Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew
+Before thee shall appear; that thou mayest know
+What misery the inabstinence of Eve
+Shall bring on Men. Immediately a place
+Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark;
+A lazar-house it seemed; wherein were laid
+Numbers of all diseased; all maladies
+Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms
+Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,
+Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
+Intestine stone and ulcer, colick-pangs,
+Demoniack phrenzy, moaping melancholy,
+And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy,
+Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence,
+Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums.
+Dire was the tossing, deep the groans; Despair
+Tended the sick busiest from couch to couch;
+And over them triumphant Death his dart
+Shook, but delayed to strike, though oft invoked
+With vows, as their chief good, and final hope.
+Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
+Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept,
+Though not of woman born; compassion quelled
+His best of man, and gave him up to tears
+A space, till firmer thoughts restrained excess;
+And, scarce recovering words, his plaint renewed.
+O miserable mankind, to what fall
+Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
+Better end here unborn. Why is life given
+To be thus wrested from us? rather, why
+Obtruded on us thus? who, if we knew
+What we receive, would either no accept
+Life offered, or soon beg to lay it down;
+Glad to be so dismissed in peace. Can thus
+The image of God in Man, created once
+So goodly and erect, though faulty since,
+To such unsightly sufferings be debased
+Under inhuman pains? Why should not Man,
+Retaining still divine similitude
+In part, from such deformities be free,
+And, for his Maker's image sake, exempt?
+Their Maker's image, answered Michael, then
+Forsook them, when themselves they vilified
+To serve ungoverned Appetite; and took
+His image whom they served, a brutish vice,
+Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
+Therefore so abject is their punishment,
+Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own;
+Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced;
+While they pervert pure Nature's healthful rules
+To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they
+God's image did not reverence in themselves.
+I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
+But is there yet no other way, besides
+These painful passages, how we may come
+To death, and mix with our connatural dust?
+There is, said Michael, if thou well observe
+The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught,
+In what thou eatest and drinkest; seeking from thence
+Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
+Till many years over thy head return:
+So mayest thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
+Into thy mother's lap; or be with ease
+Gathered, nor harshly plucked; for death mature:
+This is Old Age; but then, thou must outlive
+Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty; which will change
+To withered, weak, and gray; thy senses then,
+Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego,
+To what thou hast; and, for the air of youth,
+Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
+A melancholy damp of cold and dry
+To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume
+The balm of life. To whom our ancestor.
+Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong
+Life much; bent rather, how I may be quit,
+Fairest and easiest, of this cumbrous charge;
+Which I must keep till my appointed day
+Of rendering up, and patiently attend
+My dissolution. Michael replied.
+Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest
+Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven:
+And now prepare thee for another sight.
+He looked, and saw a spacious plain, whereon
+Were tents of various hue; by some, were herds
+Of cattle grazing; others, whence the sound
+Of instruments, that made melodious chime,
+Was heard, of harp and organ; and, who moved
+Their stops and chords, was seen; his volant touch,
+Instinct through all proportions, low and high,
+Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue.
+In other part stood one who, at the forge
+Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass
+Had melted, (whether found where casual fire
+Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale,
+Down to the veins of earth; thence gliding hot
+To some cave's mouth; or whether washed by stream
+From underground;) the liquid ore he drained
+Into fit moulds prepared; from which he formed
+First his own tools; then, what might else be wrought
+Fusil or graven in metal. After these,
+But on the hither side, a different sort
+From the high neighbouring hills, which was their seat,
+Down to the plain descended; by their guise
+Just men they seemed, and all their study bent
+To worship God aright, and know his works
+Not hid; nor those things last, which might preserve
+Freedom and peace to Men; they on the plain
+Long had not walked, when from the tents, behold!
+A bevy of fair women, richly gay
+In gems and wanton dress; to the harp they sung
+Soft amorous ditties, and in dance came on:
+The men, though grave, eyed them; and let their eyes
+Rove without rein; till, in the amorous net
+Fast caught, they liked; and each his liking chose;
+And now of love they treat, till the evening-star,
+Love's harbinger, appeared; then, all in heat
+They light the nuptial torch, and bid invoke
+Hymen, then first to marriage rites invoked:
+With feast and musick all the tents resound.
+Such happy interview, and fair event
+Of love and youth not lost, songs, garlands, flowers,
+And charming symphonies, attached the heart
+Of Adam, soon inclined to admit delight,
+The bent of nature; which he thus expressed.
+True opener of mine eyes, prime Angel blest;
+Much better seems this vision, and more hope
+Of peaceful days portends, than those two past;
+Those were of hate and death, or pain much worse;
+Here Nature seems fulfilled in all her ends.
+To whom thus Michael. Judge not what is best
+By pleasure, though to nature seeming meet;
+Created, as thou art, to nobler end
+Holy and pure, conformity divine.
+Those tents thou sawest so pleasant, were the tents
+Of wickedness, wherein shall dwell his race
+Who slew his brother; studious they appear
+Of arts that polish life, inventers rare;
+Unmindful of their Maker, though his Spirit
+Taught them; but they his gifts acknowledged none.
+Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget;
+For that fair female troop thou sawest, that seemed
+Of Goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay,
+Yet empty of all good wherein consists
+Woman's domestick honour and chief praise;
+Bred only and completed to the taste
+Of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance,
+To dress, and troll the tongue, and roll the eye:
+To these that sober race of men, whose lives
+Religious titled them the sons of God,
+Shall yield up all their virtue, all their fame
+Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles
+Of these fair atheists; and now swim in joy,
+Erelong to swim at large; and laugh, for which
+The world erelong a world of tears must weep.
+To whom thus Adam, of short joy bereft.
+O pity and shame, that they, who to live well
+Entered so fair, should turn aside to tread
+Paths indirect, or in the mid way faint!
+But still I see the tenour of Man's woe
+Holds on the same, from Woman to begin.
+From Man's effeminate slackness it begins,
+Said the Angel, who should better hold his place
+By wisdom, and superiour gifts received.
+But now prepare thee for another scene.
+He looked, and saw wide territory spread
+Before him, towns, and rural works between;
+Cities of men with lofty gates and towers,
+Concourse in arms, fierce faces threatening war,
+Giants of mighty bone and bold emprise;
+Part wield their arms, part curb the foaming steed,
+Single or in array of battle ranged
+Both horse and foot, nor idly mustering stood;
+One way a band select from forage drives
+A herd of beeves, fair oxen and fair kine,
+From a fat meadow ground; or fleecy flock,
+Ewes and their bleating lambs over the plain,
+Their booty; scarce with life the shepherds fly,
+But call in aid, which makes a bloody fray;
+With cruel tournament the squadrons join;
+Where cattle pastured late, now scattered lies
+With carcasses and arms the ensanguined field,
+Deserted: Others to a city strong
+Lay siege, encamped; by battery, scale, and mine,
+Assaulting; others from the wall defend
+With dart and javelin, stones, and sulphurous fire;
+On each hand slaughter, and gigantick deeds.
+In other part the sceptered heralds call
+To council, in the city-gates; anon
+Gray-headed men and grave, with warriours mixed,
+Assemble, and harangues are heard; but soon,
+In factious opposition; till at last,
+Of middle age one rising, eminent
+In wise deport, spake much of right and wrong,
+Of justice, or religion, truth, and peace,
+And judgement from above: him old and young
+Exploded, and had seized with violent hands,
+Had not a cloud descending snatched him thence
+Unseen amid the throng: so violence
+Proceeded, and oppression, and sword-law,
+Through all the plain, and refuge none was found.
+Adam was all in tears, and to his guide
+Lamenting turned full sad; O!what are these,
+Death's ministers, not men? who thus deal death
+Inhumanly to men, and multiply
+Ten thousandfold the sin of him who slew
+His brother: for of whom such massacre
+Make they, but of their brethren; men of men
+But who was that just man, whom had not Heaven
+Rescued, had in his righteousness been lost?
+To whom thus Michael. These are the product
+Of those ill-mated marriages thou sawest;
+Where good with bad were matched, who of themselves
+Abhor to join; and, by imprudence mixed,
+Produce prodigious births of body or mind.
+Such were these giants, men of high renown;
+For in those days might only shall be admired,
+And valour and heroick virtue called;
+To overcome in battle, and subdue
+Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite
+Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch
+Of human glory; and for glory done
+Of triumph, to be styled great conquerours
+Patrons of mankind, Gods, and sons of Gods;
+Destroyers rightlier called, and plagues of men.
+Thus fame shall be achieved, renown on earth;
+And what most merits fame, in silence hid.
+But he, the seventh from thee, whom thou beheldst
+The only righteous in a world preverse,
+And therefore hated, therefore so beset
+With foes, for daring single to be just,
+And utter odious truth, that God would come
+To judge them with his Saints; him the Most High
+Rapt in a balmy cloud with winged steeds
+Did, as thou sawest, receive, to walk with God
+High in salvation and the climes of bliss,
+Exempt from death; to show thee what reward
+Awaits the good; the rest what punishment;
+Which now direct thine eyes and soon behold.
+He looked, and saw the face of things quite changed;
+The brazen throat of war had ceased to roar;
+All now was turned to jollity and game,
+To luxury and riot, feast and dance;
+Marrying or prostituting, as befel,
+Rape or adultery, where passing fair
+Allured them; thence from cups to civil broils.
+At length a reverend sire among them came,
+And of their doings great dislike declared,
+And testified against their ways; he oft
+Frequented their assemblies, whereso met,
+Triumphs or festivals; and to them preached
+Conversion and repentance, as to souls
+In prison, under judgements imminent:
+But all in vain: which when he saw, he ceased
+Contending, and removed his tents far off;
+Then, from the mountain hewing timber tall,
+Began to build a vessel of huge bulk;
+Measured by cubit, length, and breadth, and highth;
+Smeared round with pitch; and in the side a door
+Contrived; and of provisions laid in large,
+For man and beast: when lo, a wonder strange!
+Of every beast, and bird, and insect small,
+Came sevens, and pairs; and entered in as taught
+Their order: last the sire and his three sons,
+With their four wives; and God made fast the door.
+Mean while the south-wind rose, and, with black wings
+Wide-hovering, all the clouds together drove
+From under Heaven; the hills to their supply
+Vapour, and exhalation dusk and moist,
+Sent up amain; and now the thickened sky
+Like a dark cieling stood; down rushed the rain
+Impetuous; and continued, till the earth
+No more was seen: the floating vessel swum
+Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow
+Rode tilting o'er the waves; all dwellings else
+Flood overwhelmed, and them with all their pomp
+Deep under water rolled; sea covered sea,
+Sea without shore; and in their palaces,
+Where luxury late reigned, sea-monsters whelped
+And stabled; of mankind, so numerous late,
+All left, in one small bottom swum imbarked.
+How didst thou grieve then, Adam, to behold
+The end of all thy offspring, end so sad,
+Depopulation! Thee another flood,
+Of tears and sorrow a flood, thee also drowned,
+And sunk thee as thy sons; till, gently reared
+By the Angel, on thy feet thou stoodest at last,
+Though comfortless; as when a father mourns
+His children, all in view destroyed at once;
+And scarce to the Angel utter'dst thus thy plaint.
+O visions ill foreseen! Better had I
+Lived ignorant of future! so had borne
+My part of evil only, each day's lot
+Enough to bear; those now, that were dispensed
+The burden of many ages, on me light
+At once, by my foreknowledge gaining birth
+Abortive, to torment me ere their being,
+With thought that they must be. Let no man seek
+Henceforth to be foretold, what shall befall
+Him or his children; evil he may be sure,
+Which neither his foreknowing can prevent;
+And he the future evil shall no less
+In apprehension than in substance feel,
+Grievous to bear: but that care now is past,
+Man is not whom to warn: those few escaped
+Famine and anguish will at last consume,
+Wandering that watery desart: I had hope,
+When violence was ceased, and war on earth,
+All would have then gone well; peace would have crowned
+With length of happy days the race of Man;
+But I was far deceived; for now I see
+Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste.
+How comes it thus? unfold, celestial Guide,
+And whether here the race of Man will end.
+To whom thus Michael. Those, whom last thou sawest
+In triumph and luxurious wealth, are they
+First seen in acts of prowess eminent
+And great exploits, but of true virtue void;
+Who, having spilt much blood, and done much wast
+Subduing nations, and achieved thereby
+Fame in the world, high titles, and rich prey;
+Shall change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth,
+Surfeit, and lust; till wantonness and pride
+Raise out of friendship hostile deeds in peace.
+The conquered also, and enslaved by war,
+Shall, with their freedom lost, all virtue lose
+And fear of God; from whom their piety feigned
+In sharp contest of battle found no aid
+Against invaders; therefore, cooled in zeal,
+Thenceforth shall practice how to live secure,
+Worldly or dissolute, on what their lords
+Shall leave them to enjoy; for the earth shall bear
+More than enough, that temperance may be tried:
+So all shall turn degenerate, all depraved;
+Justice and temperance, truth and faith, forgot;
+One man except, the only son of light
+In a dark age, against example good,
+Against allurement, custom, and a world
+Offended: fearless of reproach and scorn,
+The grand-child, with twelve sons encreased, departs
+From Canaan, to a land hereafter called
+Egypt, divided by the river Nile;
+See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
+Into the sea: To sojourn in that land
+He comes, invited by a younger son
+In time of dearth; a son, whose worthy deeds
+Raise him to be the second in that realm
+Of Pharaoh: There he dies, and leaves his race
+Growing into a nation, and now grown
+Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks
+To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
+Or violence, he of their wicked ways
+Shall them admonish; and before them set
+The paths of righteousness, how much more safe
+And full of peace; denouncing wrath to come
+On their impenitence; and shall return
+Of them derided, but of God observed
+The one just man alive; by his command
+Shall build a wonderous ark, as thou beheldst,
+To save himself, and houshold, from amidst
+A world devote to universal wrack.
+No sooner he, with them of man and beast
+Select for life, shall in the ark be lodged,
+And sheltered round; but all the cataracts
+Of Heaven set open on the Earth shall pour
+Rain, day and night; all fountains of the deep,
+Broke up, shall heave the ocean to usurp
+Beyond all bounds; till inundation rise
+Above the highest hills: Then shall this mount
+Of Paradise by might of waves be moved
+Out of his place, pushed by the horned flood,
+With all his verdure spoiled, and trees adrift,
+Down the great river to the opening gulf,
+And there take root an island salt and bare,
+The haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mews' clang:
+To teach thee that God attributes to place
+No sanctity, if none be thither brought
+By men who there frequent, or therein dwell.
+And now, what further shall ensue, behold.
+He looked, and saw the ark hull on the flood,
+Which now abated; for the clouds were fled,
+Driven by a keen north-wind, that, blowing dry,
+Wrinkled the face of deluge, as decayed;
+And the clear sun on his wide watery glass
+Gazed hot, and of the fresh wave largely drew,
+As after thirst; which made their flowing shrink
+From standing lake to tripping ebb, that stole
+With soft foot towards the deep; who now had stopt
+His sluces, as the Heaven his windows shut.
+The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground,
+Fast on the top of some high mountain fixed.
+And now the tops of hills, as rocks, appear;
+With clamour thence the rapid currents drive,
+Towards the retreating sea, their furious tide.
+Forthwith from out the ark a raven flies,
+And after him, the surer messenger,
+A dove sent forth once and again to spy
+Green tree or ground, whereon his foot may light:
+The second time returning, in his bill
+An olive-leaf he brings, pacifick sign:
+Anon dry ground appears, and from his ark
+The ancient sire descends, with all his train;
+Then with uplifted hands, and eyes devout,
+Grateful to Heaven, over his head beholds
+A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow
+Conspicuous with three lifted colours gay,
+Betokening peace from God, and covenant new.
+Whereat the heart of Adam, erst so sad,
+Greatly rejoiced; and thus his joy broke forth.
+O thou, who future things canst represent
+As present, heavenly Instructer! I revive
+At this last sight; assured that Man shall live,
+With all the creatures, and their seed preserve.
+Far less I now lament for one whole world
+Of wicked sons destroyed, than I rejoice
+For one man found so perfect, and so just,
+That God vouchsafes to raise another world
+From him, and all his anger to forget.
+But say, what mean those coloured streaks in Heaven
+Distended, as the brow of God appeased?
+Or serve they, as a flowery verge, to bind
+The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud,
+Lest it again dissolve, and shower the earth?
+To whom the Arch-Angel. Dextrously thou aimest;
+So willingly doth God remit his ire,
+Though late repenting him of Man depraved;
+Grieved at his heart, when looking down he saw
+The whole earth filled with violence, and all flesh
+Corrupting each their way; yet, those removed,
+Such grace shall one just man find in his sight,
+That he relents, not to blot out mankind;
+And makes a covenant never to destroy
+The earth again by flood; nor let the sea
+Surpass his bounds; nor rain to drown the world,
+With man therein or beast; but, when he brings
+Over the earth a cloud, will therein set
+His triple-coloured bow, whereon to look,
+And call to mind his covenant: Day and night,
+Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost,
+Shall hold their course; till fire purge all things new,
+Both Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell.
+
+
+
+Book XII
+
+
+As one who in his journey bates at noon,
+Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused
+Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,
+If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;
+Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes.
+Thus thou hast seen one world begin, and end;
+And Man, as from a second stock, proceed.
+Much thou hast yet to see; but I perceive
+Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine
+Must needs impair and weary human sense:
+Henceforth what is to come I will relate;
+Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.
+This second source of Men, while yet but few,
+And while the dread of judgement past remains
+Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,
+With some regard to what is just and right
+Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace;
+Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
+Corn, wine, and oil; and, from the herd or flock,
+Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,
+With large wine-offerings poured, and sacred feast,
+Shall spend their days in joy unblamed; and dwell
+Long time in peace, by families and tribes,
+Under paternal rule: till one shall rise
+Of proud ambitious heart; who, not content
+With fair equality, fraternal state,
+Will arrogate dominion undeserved
+Over his brethren, and quite dispossess
+Concord and law of nature from the earth;
+Hunting (and men not beasts shall be his game)
+With war, and hostile snare, such as refuse
+Subjection to his empire tyrannous:
+A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled
+Before the Lord; as in despite of Heaven,
+Or from Heaven, claiming second sovranty;
+And from rebellion shall derive his name,
+Though of rebellion others he accuse.
+He with a crew, whom like ambition joins
+With him or under him to tyrannize,
+Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find
+The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge
+Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell:
+Of brick, and of that stuff, they cast to build
+A city and tower, whose top may reach to Heaven;
+And get themselves a name; lest, far dispersed
+In foreign lands, their memory be lost;
+Regardless whether good or evil fame.
+But God, who oft descends to visit men
+Unseen, and through their habitations walks
+To mark their doings, them beholding soon,
+Comes down to see their city, ere the tower
+Obstruct Heaven-towers, and in derision sets
+Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase
+Quite out their native language; and, instead,
+To sow a jangling noise of words unknown:
+Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud,
+Among the builders; each to other calls
+Not understood; till hoarse, and all in rage,
+As mocked they storm: great laughter was in Heaven,
+And looking down, to see the hubbub strange,
+And hear the din: Thus was the building left
+Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named.
+Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeased.
+O execrable son! so to aspire
+Above his brethren; to himself assuming
+Authority usurped, from God not given:
+He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
+Dominion absolute; that right we hold
+By his donation; but man over men
+He made not lord; such title to himself
+Reserving, human left from human free.
+But this usurper his encroachment proud
+Stays not on Man; to God his tower intends
+Siege and defiance: Wretched man!what food
+Will he convey up thither, to sustain
+Himself and his rash army; where thin air
+Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross,
+And famish him of breath, if not of bread?
+To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorrest
+That son, who on the quiet state of men
+Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue
+Rational liberty; yet know withal,
+Since thy original lapse, true liberty
+Is lost, which always with right reason dwells
+Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being:
+Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed,
+Immediately inordinate desires,
+And upstart passions, catch the government
+From reason; and to servitude reduce
+Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits
+Within himself unworthy powers to reign
+Over free reason, God, in judgement just,
+Subjects him from without to violent lords;
+Who oft as undeservedly enthrall
+His outward freedom: Tyranny must be;
+Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
+Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
+From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
+But justice, and some fatal curse annexed,
+Deprives them of their outward liberty;
+Their inward lost: Witness the irreverent son
+Of him who built the ark; who, for the shame
+Done to his father, heard this heavy curse,
+Servant of servants, on his vicious race.
+Thus will this latter, as the former world,
+Still tend from bad to worse; till God at last,
+Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
+His presence from among them, and avert
+His holy eyes; resolving from thenceforth
+To leave them to their own polluted ways;
+And one peculiar nation to select
+From all the rest, of whom to be invoked,
+A nation from one faithful man to spring:
+Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,
+Bred up in idol-worship: O, that men
+(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,
+While yet the patriarch lived, who 'scaped the flood,
+As to forsake the living God, and fall
+To worship their own work in wood and stone
+For Gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes
+To call by vision, from his father's house,
+His kindred, and false Gods, into a land
+Which he will show him; and from him will raise
+A mighty nation; and upon him shower
+His benediction so, that in his seed
+All nations shall be blest: he straight obeys;
+Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:
+I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith
+He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native soil,
+Ur of Chaldaea, passing now the ford
+To Haran; after him a cumbrous train
+Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude;
+Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth
+With God, who called him, in a land unknown.
+Canaan he now attains; I see his tents
+Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain
+Of Moreh; there by promise he receives
+Gift to his progeny of all that land,
+From Hameth northward to the Desart south;
+(Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed;)
+From Hermon east to the great western Sea;
+Mount Hermon, yonder sea; each place behold
+In prospect, as I point them; on the shore
+Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted stream,
+Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons
+Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
+This ponder, that all nations of the earth
+Shall in his seed be blessed: By that seed
+Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise
+The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
+Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest,
+Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
+A son, and of his son a grand-child, leaves;
+Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown:
+The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs
+From Canaan to a land hereafter called
+Egypt, divided by the river Nile
+See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
+Into the sea. To sojourn in that land
+He comes, invited by a younger son
+In time of dearth, a son whose worthy deeds
+Raise him to be the second in that realm
+Of Pharaoh. There he dies, and leaves his race
+Growing into a nation, and now grown
+Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks
+To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
+Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves
+Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:
+Till by two brethren (these two brethren call
+Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim
+His people from enthralment, they return,
+With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
+But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies
+To know their God, or message to regard,
+Must be compelled by signs and judgements dire;
+To blood unshed the rivers must be turned;
+Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill
+With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land;
+His cattle must of rot and murren die;
+Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,
+And all his people; thunder mixed with hail,
+Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptians sky,
+And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls;
+What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
+A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
+Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
+Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,
+Palpable darkness, and blot out three days;
+Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born
+Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds
+The river-dragon tamed at length submits
+To let his sojourners depart, and oft
+Humbles his stubborn heart; but still, as ice
+More hardened after thaw; till, in his rage
+Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea
+Swallows him with his host; but them lets pass,
+As on dry land, between two crystal walls;
+Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand
+Divided, till his rescued gain their shore:
+Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend,
+Though present in his Angel; who shall go
+Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire;
+By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire;
+To guide them in their journey, and remove
+Behind them, while the obdurate king pursues:
+All night he will pursue; but his approach
+Darkness defends between till morning watch;
+Then through the fiery pillar, and the cloud,
+God looking forth will trouble all his host,
+And craze their chariot-wheels: when by command
+Moses once more his potent rod extends
+Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;
+On their embattled ranks the waves return,
+And overwhelm their war: The race elect
+Safe toward Canaan from the shore advance
+Through the wild Desart, not the readiest way;
+Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed,
+War terrify them inexpert, and fear
+Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather
+Inglorious life with servitude; for life
+To noble and ignoble is more sweet
+Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on.
+This also shall they gain by their delay
+In the wide wilderness; there they shall found
+Their government, and their great senate choose
+Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained:
+God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
+Shall tremble, he descending, will himself
+In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound,
+Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain
+To civil justice; part, religious rites
+Of sacrifice; informing them, by types
+And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise
+The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve
+Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
+To mortal ear is dreadful: They beseech
+That Moses might report to them his will,
+And terrour cease; he grants what they besought,
+Instructed that to God is no access
+Without Mediator, whose high office now
+Moses in figure bears; to introduce
+One greater, of whose day he shall foretel,
+And all the Prophets in their age the times
+Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites
+Established, such delight hath God in Men
+Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes
+Among them to set up his tabernacle;
+The Holy One with mortal Men to dwell:
+By his prescript a sanctuary is framed
+Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein
+An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
+The records of his covenant; over these
+A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings
+Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn
+Seven lamps as in a zodiack representing
+The heavenly fires; over the tent a cloud
+Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night;
+Save when they journey, and at length they come,
+Conducted by his Angel, to the land
+Promised to Abraham and his seed:--The rest
+Were long to tell; how many battles fought
+How many kings destroyed; and kingdoms won;
+Or how the sun shall in mid Heaven stand still
+A day entire, and night's due course adjourn,
+Man's voice commanding, 'Sun, in Gibeon stand,
+'And thou moon in the vale of Aialon,
+'Till Israel overcome! so call the third
+From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him
+His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.
+Here Adam interposed. O sent from Heaven,
+Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things
+Thou hast revealed; those chiefly, which concern
+Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find
+Mine eyes true-opening, and my heart much eased;
+Erewhile perplexed with thoughts, what would become
+Of me and all mankind: But now I see
+His day, in whom all nations shall be blest;
+Favour unmerited by me, who sought
+Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means.
+This yet I apprehend not, why to those
+Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth
+So many and so various laws are given;
+So many laws argue so many sins
+Among them; how can God with such reside?
+To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that sin
+Will reign among them, as of thee begot;
+And therefore was law given them, to evince
+Their natural pravity, by stirring up
+Sin against law to fight: that when they see
+Law can discover sin, but not remove,
+Save by those shadowy expiations weak,
+The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude
+Some blood more precious must be paid for Man;
+Just for unjust; that, in such righteousness
+To them by faith imputed, they may find
+Justification towards God, and peace
+Of conscience; which the law by ceremonies
+Cannot appease; nor Man the mortal part
+Perform; and, not performing, cannot live.
+So law appears imperfect; and but given
+With purpose to resign them, in full time,
+Up to a better covenant; disciplined
+From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit;
+From imposition of strict laws to free
+Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear
+To filial; works of law to works of faith.
+And therefore shall not Moses, though of God
+Highly beloved, being but the minister
+Of law, his people into Canaan lead;
+But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call,
+His name and office bearing, who shall quell
+The adversary-Serpent, and bring back
+Through the world's wilderness long-wandered Man
+Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.
+Mean while they, in their earthly Canaan placed,
+Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins
+National interrupt their publick peace,
+Provoking God to raise them enemies;
+From whom as oft he saves them penitent
+By Judges first, then under Kings; of whom
+The second, both for piety renowned
+And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive
+Irrevocable, that his regal throne
+For ever shall endure; the like shall sing
+All Prophecy, that of the royal stock
+Of David (so I name this king) shall rise
+A Son, the Woman's seed to thee foretold,
+Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust
+All nations; and to kings foretold, of kings
+The last; for of his reign shall be no end.
+But first, a long succession must ensue;
+And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed,
+The clouded ark of God, till then in tents
+Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine.
+Such follow him, as shall be registered
+Part good, part bad; of bad the longer scroll;
+Whose foul idolatries, and other faults
+Heaped to the popular sum, will so incense
+God, as to leave them, and expose their land,
+Their city, his temple, and his holy ark,
+With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey
+To that proud city, whose high walls thou sawest
+Left in confusion; Babylon thence called.
+There in captivity he lets them dwell
+The space of seventy years; then brings them back,
+Remembering mercy, and his covenant sworn
+To David, stablished as the days of Heaven.
+Returned from Babylon by leave of kings
+Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God
+They first re-edify; and for a while
+In mean estate live moderate; till, grown
+In wealth and multitude, factious they grow;
+But first among the priests dissention springs,
+Men who attend the altar, and should most
+Endeavour peace: their strife pollution brings
+Upon the temple itself: at last they seise
+The scepter, and regard not David's sons;
+Then lose it to a stranger, that the true
+Anointed King Messiah might be born
+Barred of his right; yet at his birth a star,
+Unseen before in Heaven, proclaims him come;
+And guides the eastern sages, who inquire
+His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold:
+His place of birth a solemn Angel tells
+To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night;
+They gladly thither haste, and by a quire
+Of squadroned Angels hear his carol sung.
+A virgin is his mother, but his sire
+The power of the Most High: He shall ascend
+The throne hereditary, and bound his reign
+With Earth's wide bounds, his glory with the Heavens.
+He ceased, discerning Adam with such joy
+Surcharged, as had like grief been dewed in tears,
+Without the vent of words; which these he breathed.
+O prophet of glad tidings, finisher
+Of utmost hope! now clear I understand
+What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain;
+Why our great Expectation should be called
+The seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail,
+High in the love of Heaven; yet from my loins
+Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son
+Of God Most High: so God with Man unites!
+Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise
+Expect with mortal pain: Say where and when
+Their fight, what stroke shall bruise the victor's heel.
+To whom thus Michael. Dream not of their fight,
+As of a duel, or the local wounds
+Of head or heel: Not therefore joins the Son
+Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil
+Thy enemy; nor so is overcome
+Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier bruise,
+Disabled, not to give thee thy death's wound:
+Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure,
+Not by destroying Satan, but his works
+In thee, and in thy seed: Nor can this be,
+But by fulfilling that which thou didst want,
+Obedience to the law of God, imposed
+On penalty of death, and suffering death;
+The penalty to thy transgression due,
+And due to theirs which out of thine will grow:
+So only can high Justice rest appaid.
+The law of God exact he shall fulfil
+Both by obedience and by love, though love
+Alone fulfil the law; thy punishment
+He shall endure, by coming in the flesh
+To a reproachful life, and cursed death;
+Proclaiming life to all who shall believe
+In his redemption; and that his obedience,
+Imputed, becomes theirs by faith; his merits
+To save them, not their own, though legal, works.
+For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed,
+Seised on by force, judged, and to death condemned
+A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross
+By his own nation; slain for bringing life:
+But to the cross he nails thy enemies,
+The law that is against thee, and the sins
+Of all mankind, with him there crucified,
+Never to hurt them more who rightly trust
+In this his satisfaction; so he dies,
+But soon revives; Death over him no power
+Shall long usurp; ere the third dawning light
+Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise
+Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light,
+Thy ransom paid, which Man from death redeems,
+His death for Man, as many as offered life
+Neglect not, and the benefit embrace
+By faith not void of works: This God-like act
+Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldest have died,
+In sin for ever lost from life; this act
+Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength,
+Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms;
+And fix far deeper in his head their stings
+Than temporal death shall bruise the victor's heel,
+Or theirs whom he redeems; a death, like sleep,
+A gentle wafting to immortal life.
+Nor after resurrection shall he stay
+Longer on earth, than certain times to appear
+To his disciples, men who in his life
+Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge
+To teach all nations what of him they learned
+And his salvation; them who shall believe
+Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign
+Of washing them from guilt of sin to life
+Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall,
+For death, like that which the Redeemer died.
+All nations they shall teach; for, from that day,
+Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins
+Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons
+Of Abraham's faith wherever through the world;
+So in his seed all nations shall be blest.
+Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall ascend
+With victory, triumphing through the air
+Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise
+The Serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains
+Through all his realm, and there confounded leave;
+Then enter into glory, and resume
+His seat at God's right hand, exalted high
+Above all names in Heaven; and thence shall come,
+When this world's dissolution shall be ripe,
+With glory and power to judge both quick and dead;
+To judge the unfaithful dead, but to reward
+His faithful, and receive them into bliss,
+Whether in Heaven or Earth; for then the Earth
+Shall all be Paradise, far happier place
+Than this of Eden, and far happier days.
+So spake the Arch-Angel Michael; then paused,
+As at the world's great period; and our sire,
+Replete with joy and wonder, thus replied.
+O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense!
+That all this good of evil shall produce,
+And evil turn to good; more wonderful
+Than that which by creation first brought forth
+Light out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand,
+Whether I should repent me now of sin
+By me done, and occasioned; or rejoice
+Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring;
+To God more glory, more good-will to Men
+From God, and over wrath grace shall abound.
+But say, if our Deliverer up to Heaven
+Must re-ascend, what will betide the few
+His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd,
+The enemies of truth? Who then shall guide
+His people, who defend? Will they not deal
+Worse with his followers than with him they dealt?
+Be sure they will, said the Angel; but from Heaven
+He to his own a Comforter will send,
+The promise of the Father, who shall dwell
+His Spirit within them; and the law of faith,
+Working through love, upon their hearts shall write,
+To guide them in all truth; and also arm
+With spiritual armour, able to resist
+Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts;
+What man can do against them, not afraid,
+Though to the death; against such cruelties
+With inward consolations recompensed,
+And oft supported so as shall amaze
+Their proudest persecutors: For the Spirit,
+Poured first on his Apostles, whom he sends
+To evangelize the nations, then on all
+Baptized, shall them with wonderous gifts endue
+To speak all tongues, and do all miracles,
+As did their Lord before them. Thus they win
+Great numbers of each nation to receive
+With joy the tidings brought from Heaven: At length
+Their ministry performed, and race well run,
+Their doctrine and their story written left,
+They die; but in their room, as they forewarn,
+Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves,
+Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven
+To their own vile advantages shall turn
+Of lucre and ambition; and the truth
+With superstitions and traditions taint,
+Left only in those written records pure,
+Though not but by the Spirit understood.
+Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names,
+Places, and titles, and with these to join
+Secular power; though feigning still to act
+By spiritual, to themselves appropriating
+The Spirit of God, promised alike and given
+To all believers; and, from that pretence,
+Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force
+On every conscience; laws which none shall find
+Left them inrolled, or what the Spirit within
+Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then
+But force the Spirit of Grace itself, and bind
+His consort Liberty? what, but unbuild
+His living temples, built by faith to stand,
+Their own faith, not another's? for, on earth,
+Who against faith and conscience can be heard
+Infallible? yet many will presume:
+Whence heavy persecution shall arise
+On all, who in the worship persevere
+Of spirit and truth; the rest, far greater part,
+Will deem in outward rites and specious forms
+Religion satisfied; Truth shall retire
+Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith
+Rarely be found: So shall the world go on,
+To good malignant, to bad men benign;
+Under her own weight groaning; till the day
+Appear of respiration to the just,
+And vengeance to the wicked, at return
+Of him so lately promised to thy aid,
+The Woman's Seed; obscurely then foretold,
+Now ampler known thy Saviour and thy Lord;
+Last, in the clouds, from Heaven to be revealed
+In glory of the Father, to dissolve
+Satan with his perverted world; then raise
+From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined,
+New Heavens, new Earth, ages of endless date,
+Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love;
+To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss.
+He ended; and thus Adam last replied.
+How soon hath thy prediction, Seer blest,
+Measured this transient world, the race of time,
+Till time stand fixed! Beyond is all abyss,
+Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.
+Greatly-instructed I shall hence depart;
+Greatly in peace of thought; and have my fill
+Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain;
+Beyond which was my folly to aspire.
+Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
+And love with fear the only God; to walk
+As in his presence; ever to observe
+His providence; and on him sole depend,
+Merciful over all his works, with good
+Still overcoming evil, and by small
+Accomplishing great things, by things deemed weak
+Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
+By simply meek: that suffering for truth's sake
+Is fortitude to highest victory,
+And, to the faithful, death the gate of life;
+Taught this by his example, whom I now
+Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.
+To whom thus also the Angel last replied.
+This having learned, thou hast attained the sum
+Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars
+Thou knewest by name, and all the ethereal powers,
+All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,
+Or works of God in Heaven, air, earth, or sea,
+And all the riches of this world enjoyedst,
+And all the rule, one empire; only add
+Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith,
+Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
+By name to come called charity, the soul
+Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loth
+To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
+A Paradise within thee, happier far.--
+Let us descend now therefore from this top
+Of speculation; for the hour precise
+Exacts our parting hence; and see!the guards,
+By me encamped on yonder hill, expect
+Their motion; at whose front a flaming sword,
+In signal of remove, waves fiercely round:
+We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve;
+Her also I with gentle dreams have calmed
+Portending good, and all her spirits composed
+To meek submission: thou, at season fit,
+Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard;
+Chiefly what may concern her faith to know,
+The great deliverance by her seed to come
+(For by the Woman's seed) on all mankind:
+That ye may live, which will be many days,
+Both in one faith unanimous, though sad,
+With cause, for evils past; yet much more cheered
+With meditation on the happy end.
+He ended, and they both descend the hill;
+Descended, Adam to the bower, where Eve
+Lay sleeping, ran before; but found her waked;
+And thus with words not sad she him received.
+Whence thou returnest, and whither wentest, I know;
+For God is also in sleep; and dreams advise,
+Which he hath sent propitious, some great good
+Presaging, since with sorrow and heart's distress
+Wearied I fell asleep: But now lead on;
+In me is no delay; with thee to go,
+Is to stay here; without thee here to stay,
+Is to go hence unwilling; thou to me
+Art all things under $Heaven, all places thou,
+Who for my wilful crime art banished hence.
+This further consolation yet secure
+I carry hence; though all by me is lost,
+Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed,
+By me the Promised Seed shall all restore.
+So spake our mother Eve; and Adam heard
+Well pleased, but answered not: For now, too nigh
+The Arch-Angel stood; and, from the other hill
+To their fixed station, all in bright array
+The Cherubim descended; on the ground
+Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist
+Risen from a river o'er the marish glides,
+And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel
+Homeward returning. High in front advanced,
+The brandished sword of God before them blazed,
+Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
+And vapour as the Libyan air adust,
+Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
+In either hand the hastening Angel caught
+Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
+Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
+To the subjected plain; then disappeared.
+They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
+Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
+Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
+With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms:
+Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
+The world was all before them, where to choose
+Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
+They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
+Through Eden took their solitary way.
+
+[The End]
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