Our wonted ornaments now soil'd and stain'd, Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store, Will dazzle now this earthly, with their blaze In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscured; where highest woods, impenetrable Hide me, where I may never see them more! And girded on our loins, may cover round So counsell'd he, and both together went Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd; 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 pillar'd shade High over-arch'd, 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 They gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe; With feather'd cincture; naked else, and wild Cover'd, but not at rest or ease of mind, They sat them down to weep; nor only tears Rain'd at their eyes, but high winds worse within Began to rise; high passions, anger, hate, With me, as I besought thee, when that strange I know not whence possess'd thee; we had then 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 pass'd thy lips, Adam, severe? Imputest thou that to my default, or will Of wandering, as thou call'st it, which who knows But might as ill have happen'd, thou being by, Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake; To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied: Who might have lived, and joy'd immortal bliss, That lay in wait; beyond this, had been force; What seem'd in thee so perfect, that I thought No evil durst attempt thee; but I rue PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. THE ARGUMENT. MAN's transgression known; the guardian-angels forsake Paradise, and return up to heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the transgressors; who descends and gives sentence accordingly; then in pity clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new world, and the sin by man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in hell, but to follow Satan their sire up to the place of man: to make the way easier from hell to this world to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the track that Satan had made; then, preparing for earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to hell; their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandæmonium; in full assembly relates with boasting his success against man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed with himself also suddenly into serpents according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the forbidden tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death; God foretells the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but for the present commands his angels to make several alterations in the heavens and ele |