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Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore

The race of mankind drown'd, before the shrine
Of Themis stood devout. To heav'n their prayers
Flew up, nor miss'd the way, by envious winds 15
Blown vagabond or frustrate in they pass'd
Dimensionless through heav'nly doors; then clad
With incense, where the golden altar fum'd,
By their great Intercessor, came in sight
Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son 20
Presenting, thus to intercede began.

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See, Father, what first fruits on earth are sprung From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs And prayers, which, in this golden censer mix'd With incense, I thy priest before thee bring; Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed Sown with contrition in his heart, than those Which his own hand manuring all the trees Of paradise could have produc'd, ere fall'n From innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear 30 To supplication, hear his sighs though mute; Unskilful with what words to pray, let me Interpret for him, me his advocate

And propitiation; all his works on me
Good or not good ingraft, my merit those

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Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.
Accept me, and in me from these receive
The smell of peace toward mankind, let him live

15 envious] Ov. Met. x. 642.

Detulit aura preces ad me non invida blandas.

Before thee reconcil'd, at least his days.
Number'd, though sad, till death, his doom (which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse),
To better life shall yield him, where with me
All my redeem'd may dwell in joy and bliss:
Made one with me as I with thee am one.

To whom the Father, without cloud, serene.

All thy request for man, accepted Son,
Obtain, all thy request was my decree:
But longer in that paradise to dwell
The law I gave to nature him forbids:
Those pure immortal elements, that know
No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul,
Eject him tainted now, and purge him off
As a distemper, gross to air as gross,
And mortal food, as may dispose him best
For dissolution wrought by sin, that first
Distemper'd all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I at first with two fair gifts
Created him endow'd, with happiness
And immortality: that fondly lost,
This other serv'd but to eternize woe,
Till I provided death; so death becomes
His final remedy, and after life

Try'd in sharp tribulation, and refin'd

By faith and faithful works, to second life,
Wak'd in the renovation of the just,

Resigns him up with heaven and earth renew'd.

But let us call to synod all the blest

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Thro' heaven's wide bounds; from them I will not

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My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,
As how with peccant angels late they saw;
And in their state, tho' firm, stood more confirm'd.
He ended, and the Son gave signal high
To the bright minister that watch'd; he blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps
When God descended, and perhaps once more
To sound at general doom. Th' angelic blast
Fill'd all the regions: from their blissful bow'rs
Of amarantin shade, fountain or spring,
By the waters of life, where'er they sat
In fellowships of joy, the sons of light
Hasted, resorting to the summons high,
And took their seats; till from his throne supreme
Th' Almighty thus pronounc'd his sov'reign will.
O Sons, like one of us man is become
To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that defended fruit; but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;
Happier, had it suffic'd him to have known
Good by it self, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,
My motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know how variable and vain,
Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand
Reach also of the Tree of Life, and eat,
And live for ever, dream at least to live
For ever, to remove him I decree,
And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.

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Michael, this my behest have thou in charge,
Take to thee from among the cherubim
Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the fiend,
Or in behalf of man, or to invade
Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:
Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
Without remorse drive out the sinful pair,
From hallow'd ground th' unholy, and denounce
To them and to their progeny from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urg'd,

For I behold them soften'd and with tears
Bewailing their excess, all terror hide.
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal
To Adam what shall come in future days,
As I shall thee enlighten; intermix
My cov❜nant in the woman's seed renew'd;

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So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace:

And on the east side of the garden place,

Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,

105 drive out] See Adamus Exsul of Grotius, p. 72. 'Vos ergo, Cherubi Colites! mihi quos ego

Legi ministros, ite! et horto pellite

Par istud hominum! Sacra deliciis loca

Miseri relinquant! alia telluris sola

Glebasque quærant, et parentem exerceant!

111 excess] Eve's intemperance. Spens. ii. 12. Bentl. MS. 118 And on the east] See Adamus Exsul of Grotius, p. 72. 'Vos state in aditu nemoris, ortivam ad plagam,

Et impedite flammeo versatilis

Mucrone teli, ne quis infigat pedem!'

Cherubic watch, and of a sword the flame
Wide waving, all approach far off to fright,
And guard all passage to the Tree of Life:
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

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To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey,
With whose stol'n fruit man once more to delude.
He ceas'd; and th' archangelic pow'r prepar'd
For swift descent, with him the cohort bright
Of watchful cherubim; four faces each
Had, like a double Janus; all their shape
Spangled with eyes more numerous than those 130
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowze,
Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile,
To resalute the world with sacred light

Leucothea wak'd, and with fresh dews imbalm'd
The earth, when Adam and first matron Eve
Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above, new hope to spring
Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet link'd;
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd. 140
Eve, easily may faith admit, that all

The good which we enjoy from heaven descends;
But that from us aught should ascend to heaven
So prevalent as to concern the mind
Of God high-bless'd, or to incline his will,
Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer,
Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne

181 Of]'Of fabled Argus, wakeful not to drowze.'

Bentl. MS.

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