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But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise

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,

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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

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Of weakness, not of pow'r. Will he draw out,
For anger's sake, finite to infinite

In punish'd Man, to satisfy his rigour,

Satisfy'd 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;

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Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But say

That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery

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From this day onward, which I feel begun

Both in me and without me, and so last

To perpetuity! Ah me that fear

Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution

On my defenceless head! Both Death and I

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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 ye bless

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Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,
If 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,

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And reasonings, tho' through mazes, lead me still 830 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:

805. Just is proposed instead of dust, in this line.

806. An incessant affectat of school learning may be re marked in every part of this passage.

816. Rom. vii. 20.

825. Rom. xiv. 4.

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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 fear'st, 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

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And horrors hast thou driven ine! 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
Accompany'd, with damps and dreadful gloom,
Which to his evil conscience represented
All things with double terror. On the ground
Outstretch'd 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 pray'rs or cries!

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O woods, O fountains, hillocs, dales, and bow'rs, 860 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 assay'd: But her with stern regard he thus repell'd:

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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 shew Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee Henceforth, lest that too heav'nly form, pretended To hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee I had persisted happy', had not thy pride And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe,

872. Pretended; in the Latin sense, held before.

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Rejected my forewarning, and disdain'd
Not to be trusted, longing to be seen

Though by the Devil himself, him overweening
To o'er-reach, but with the Serpent meeting
Fool'd 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 Heav'n
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

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Mankind? This mischief had not then befall'n,
And more that shall befall, innumerable
Disturbances on earth, through female snares,
And straight conjunction with this sex: for either
He never shall find out fit mate, but such

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As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain,
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse; or if she love, withheld
By parents; or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound
To a fell adversary', his hate or shame :
Which infinite calamity shall cause

To human life, and household-peace confound.
He added not, and from her turn'd. But Eve,

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Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing,

And tresses all disorder'd, at his feet

Fell humble, and embracing them, besought
His peace; and thus proceeded in her plaint:

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Forsake me not thus, Adam! Witness, Heav'n,
What love sincere, and rev'rence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant

I beg, and clasp thy knees. Bereave me not,

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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 join'd in injuries, one enmity

Against a foe by doom express assign'd us,

That cruel Serpent. On me exercise not
Thy hatred for this misery befall'n,
On me already lost, me than thyself

More miserable. Both have sinn'd; but thou
Against God only'; I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will return ̧
There with my cries importune Heav'n, 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 obtain'd from fault
Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought
Commiseration. Soon his heart relented
Tow'rds her, his life so late and sole delight,
Now at his feet submissive in distress,
Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,

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His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid;
As one disarm'd, his anger all he lost,

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And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon:
Unwary' and too desirous, as before,

So now of what thou know'st not, who desir❜st
The punishment all on thyself; alas,
Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain

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His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet least part,
And my displeasure bear'st so ill. If pray'rs
Could alter high decrees, I to that place

Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,
That on my head all might be visited;

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Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven,
To me committed, and by me exposed.

But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame

940. It is said that Milton had a personal feeling in writing this passage, and described his meeting and reconciliation with his wife who had been for some time separated from him.

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, reply'd:
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

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What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen, 975 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, devour'd

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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 pow'r
It lies, yet ere conception, to prevent
The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.

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Childless thou art, childless remain; so Death
Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two

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From what we fear for both let us make short; 1000 Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply

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