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