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585

The foul of man, or paffion in him move.
What high'er in her society thou find'it
Attractive, human, rational, love ftill;
In loving thou dost well, in paffion not,
Wherein true love consists not: love refines
The thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his feat 590
In reason, and is judicious; is the scale
By which to heav'nly love thou may'st ascend,
Not funk in carnal pleasure; for which cause
Among the beafts no mate for thee was found.

To whom thus half abash'd Adam reply'd.
Neither her outside form'd fo fair, nor ought
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,

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Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions mix'd with love..
And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd
Union of mind, or in us both one foul;
Harmony to behold in wedded pair
More grateful than harmonious found to th' ear.
Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose
What inward thence I feel; not therefore foil'd,
Who meet with various objects, from the sense
Variously representing; yet still free
Approve the best, and follow what I approve.
To love thou blam'st me not; for love thou fay'st
Leads up to heaven, is both the way and guide:
Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask;
Love not the heavenly spi'rits, and how their love 615
Express they, by looks only', or do they mix
Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?

610

To whom the angel, with a smile that glow'd Celestial rofy red, love's proper hue, Answer'd. Let it fuffice thee that thou know'lt 620

Us

Us happy', and without love no happiness.
Whatever pure thou in thy body' enjoy'st,
(And pure thou wert created), we enjoy
In eminence, and obstacle find none

Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclufive bars; 625 Eafier than air with air, if spi'rits embrace,

Total they mix, union of pure with pure
Defiring; nor restrain'd conveyance need,
As flesh to mix with flesh, or foul with foul.
But I can now no more; the parting fun
Beyond the earth's green cape and verdant ifles
Hesperian sets, my signal to depart.

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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 635
Thy judgment to do ought which else free-will

Would not admit; thine, and of all thy fons,
The weal or woe in thee is plac'd; beware.

I in thy perfevering shall rejoice,

And all the bless'd: stand fast; to stand or fall 640
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
Follow'd with benediction. Since to part,
Go heav'nly guest, ethereal messenger,
Sent from whose sov'reign goodness I adore.
Gentle to me and affable hath been
Thy condescension, and shall be honour'd 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.

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END of the EIGHTH BOOK.

ARGU

Satan having compaffed the earth, with meditated guile returns as a mift by night into Paradise, and enters into the serpent fleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labours ; which Eve proposes to divide in feveral places, each labouring apart : Adam confents not, alleging the danger, left that enemy, of whom they were forwarned, should attempt her, found alone : Eve, loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather defirous to make trial of her strength: Adam at lajt yields. The ferpent finds her alone; his fubtle approach, first gazing, then Speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, wondering to bear the ferpent Speak, asks how be attained to human speech and fuch understanding not till now; the ferpent answers, that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden be attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both: Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the tree of knowledge forbidden: the serpent now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments induces her at length to eat; she, pleased with the taste, deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or not; at last brings him of the fruit, relates what perfuaded her to eat thereof: Adam at first amazed but perceiving her lost, refolves through vehemence of love to perish with her; and extenuating the trespass, eats also of the fruit: the effects thereof in them both; they Seek to cover their nakedness; then fall to variance, and accufation of one another.

PARADISE

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK

IX.

O more of talk where God or angel guest
With man, as with his friend, familiar us'd

To fit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while

Venial discourse unblam'd: I now must change 5
Those notes to tragic; foul distruft, and breach

Difsloyal on the part of man, revolt
And disobedience; on the part of heaven
Now alienated, distance and distaste,

Anger and just rebuke, and judgment giv'n
That brought into this world a world of woe,
Sin, and her shadow Death, and Mifery
Death's harbinger: Sad task, yet argument
Not less, but more heroic than the wrath
Of stern Achilles on his foe pursu'd
Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd;
Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long
Perplex'd the Greek, and Cytherea's fon;
If answerable style I can obtain
Of my celestial patroness, who deigns
Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
And dictates to me slumb'ring, or inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse:

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Since first this subject for heroic song
Pleas'd me, long chusing, and beginning late;
Not sedulous by nature to indite
Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroic deem'd, chief mast'ry to dissest
With long and tedious havock fabled knights
In battles feign'd; the better fortitude
Of patience and heroic 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 feaft
Serv'd up in hall, with fewers and seneshals;

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4

The skill of artifice or office mean,
Nor that which justly gives heroic name
To perfon or to poem. Me of these
Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument
Remains, fufficient 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 fun was funk, 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 th' 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 return'd.
By night he fled, and at midnight return'd
From compaffing the earth, cautious of day,

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