35

40

"Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god "Of this new world! at whose sight all the stars "Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call, 66 But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, "O Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams, "That bring to my remembrance from what state "I fell,-how glorious once above thy sphere, "Till pride, and, worse, ambition1 threw me down, “Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King! "Ah, wherefore! he deserved no such return "From me, whom he created what I was "In that bright eminence, and with his good 66 Upbraided none; nor was his service hard. "What could be less than to afford him praise, "The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks, "How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me, "And wrought but malice: lifted up so high,

45

"I sdained subjection, and thought one step higher 50 "Would set me highest, and in a moment quit "The debt immense of endless gratitude,"So burdensome; still paying, still to owe,

Forgetful what from him I still received;

"And understood not that a grateful mind
"By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
"Indebted and discharged: what burden then?
"O had his powerful destiny ordained
"Me some inferior angel, I had stood

"Then happy! no unbounded hope had raised
"Ambition. Yet why not? some other

power

"As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
"Drawn to his part; but other powers as great
"Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
"Or from without, to all temptations armed.

1 Till pride, and, worse, ambition,-Pride, an inordinate self-esteem. Ambition, a worse passion, urging him to aim at equal dominion with God. 2 Upbraided none. James i. 5.

3 Less,-less hard.

✦ Sdained, from the Italian sdegnare, to disdain, a form much used by Spencer.

"Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
"But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all!
"Be then his love accursed! since, love or hate,

"To me alike it deals eternal woe.

70

Nay, cursed be thou! since, against this, thy will

“Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

"Me miserable! which way shall I fly
“Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?

“ Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
"And in the lowest deep a lower deep
“Still threatening to devour me opens wide,
"To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
“ 0, then, at last relent: is there no place
"Left for repentance? none for pardon left?
“None left but by submission; and that word
“Disdain forbids me,1 and my dread of shame
"Among the Spirits beneath; whom I seduced
"With other promises, and other vaunts
"Than to submit; boasting I could subdue
"The Omnipotent. Ah me! they little know
"How dearly I abide that boast so vain;
“Under what torments inwardly I groan,
"While they adore me on the throne of Hell.
« With diadem and sceptre high advanced,
"The lower still I fall, only supreme
"In misery: such joy ambition finds.
"But say I could repent, and could obtain,

“By act of grace, my former state; how soon

75

80

55

90

"Would height recall high thoughts, how soon unsay 95
"What feigned submission swore! Ease would recant
"Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
"For never can true reconcilement grow
"Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep;
*Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
"And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

100

› That word disdain forbids me,--Disdain allows me not to use such a word, (submission.)

"Short intermission, bought with double smart.
"This knows my Punisher; therefore as far
"From granting he, as I from begging peace.
"All hope excluded thus; behold, instead
"Of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,

66 Mankind, created, and for him this world.
"So farewell, hope! and with hope, farewell, fear!

66

Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost: "Evil, be thou my good!1 by thee at least "Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,— 66 By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign ;— "As man ere long, and this new world, shall know."

Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face
Thrice changed with pale,2 ire, envy, and despair;
Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld:

For heavenly minds from such distempers foul
Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware,

105

110

115

Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm.
Artificer of fraud; and was the first

120

That practised falsehood under saintly show,
Deep malice to conceal, couched3 with revenge.

Yet not enough had practised to deceive

Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down 125 The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount

Saw him disfigured, more than could befall

Spirit of happy sort: his gestures fierce

1 Evil, be thou my good!-As he could not approach equality with God in goodness, he would at least satisfy himself by opposing his empire with evil. The conclusion of this speech, from 1. 105, is greatly admired for its high poetic beauty, owing to its emphatic repetitions; and for its appropriate conclusion in glorying over the anticipated ruin of mankind,—the first prey of the divided empire.

2 Thrice changed with pale,-Each passion, ire, envy, and despair, dimmed his face, and changed it into deadly paleness. Pale, the adjective used for noun, as in b. x. L. 1009.

3 Couched,-lying quiet, like a wild beast in its lair, inactive and unob

served.

4 Uriel once warned;--moved to suspect Satan's altered appearance and conduct, as described, b. iii. l. 742.

He marked, and mad demeanour, then alone,
As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen.
So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,

130

Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,

As with a rural mound, the champain2 head

Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and overhead up grew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,—

135

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,—
A sylvan scene; and, as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre

140

145

Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung;
Which to our general sire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighbouring round:
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit;
Blossoms and fruits at once, of golden hue,
Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed;
On which the sun more glad impressed his beams,
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath showered the earth; so lovely seemed
That landskip: and of pure now purer air3

150

Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

155

All sadness but despair: now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

A Fares,-proceeds, journeys

160

Champain-level. The profusion of beauties heaped together in this,

description of Paradise has been the admiration of critics.

3 Of pure, now purer air, &c.-Satan had passed through pure air already, but in the vicinity of Paradise it was purer still.

♦ Beyond the Cape of Hope, &c.--The Cape of Good Hope (originally called by its discoverers the "Cape of Tempests," but changed to "Good Hope,"

Mozambic, of at ses north-east winds biow
Sabear odours from the spicy shores

Araby the Biest; with suci Gelay

Wel pleased they stack ther course, and, many a league. Cheered with the grateful smel oic Geear smiles: 10 St entertained those odorous sweets the fiend

We came ther bane; though with them better pleased Thai Asmodeus with the fishy fume

That drove him, thougi, enamoured, from the spouse

Of Tobi's SOL, and with a vengeance sent

BOL.

From Media post u Egym there fast bound.

Now

the ascent of that steep savage hill

Satar hat journeyed or pensive and slow;

170

Bu further way found none;s thick entwined.
As one continuer brake the undergrowti
Of shrubs and tanging bushes nat perplexed

172

Al pair of mar or beast that passed that way.

One gate there only was, and that looked east

180

The entrance in discamer: and, in contempt.
At one shigm bound nigi overieaper al bounc
OnL & guest wal, and sheer witam
Ligines or his feet. As when a prowing wok,
Won huger drives i seek new naum: for prey,
Watching where shepherds per tuer frocks at eve
in urdied cores, amic tax freit secure,

18