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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]