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,
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?
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 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.
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.
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.
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:
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;
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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