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Satan Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing upbraids Sun, himself Which now sat high in his meridian tower :

Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began :

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‘O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st 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,
O 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, 40
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 recompense, and pay him thanks,
How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice. Lifted up so high,
I sdained subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit 51
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?
Oh, had his powerful destiny ordained
Me some inferior Angel, I had stood

Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised 60

Ambition.

Yet why not? Some other Power but As great might have aspired, and me, though disdain

mean,

forbids submis

Drawn to his part. But other Powers as great sion
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.

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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 sceptre high advanced,
The lower still I fall, only supreme

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'Evil, In misery: such joy ambition finds! be thou But say I could repent, and could obtain, my Good' By act of grace, my former state; how soon Would highth recal 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 xor
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, instead
Of us, outcast, exiled, his new delight,
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.'

ΙΙΟ

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, So on Artificer of fraud; and was the first

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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 befal
Spirit of happy sort: his gestures fierce
He marked and mad demeanour, then alone,
As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen.

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he fares to Paradise

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 champain head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and overhead up-grew
Insuperable highth 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 up-sprung;
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, 151
When God hath showered the earth: so lovely
seemed

The That landskip. And of pure now purer air sweet Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires odours Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

of the

Garden 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 sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 160
Mozambic, 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

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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, 180
At one slight bound high overleaped all bound

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