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"And I will bring thee where no shadow stays
"Thy coming,1 and thy soft embraces ;-he
"Whose image thou art: him thou shalt enjoy
"Inseparably thine; to him shalt bear

"Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called
"Mother of human race.' What could I do,
"But follow straight, invisibly thus led?
"Till I espied thee, fair indeed, and tall,

"Under a platane; yet, methought, less fair,
"Less winning soft, less amiably mild,

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"Than that smooth watery image. Back I turned: 480 "Thou following criedst aloud, Return, fair Eve!

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"Whom fliest thou? whom thou fliest, of him thou art,

"His flesh, his bone;3 to give thee being I lent

"Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart, "Substantial life; to have thee by my side "Henceforth an individual1 solace dear:

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"Part of my soul, I seek thee, and thee claim, "My other half!' With that thy gentle hand

"Seized mine: I yielded; and from that time see "How beauty is excelled by manly grace

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"And wisdom, which alone is truly fair."

So spake our general mother; and, with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreproved,
And meek surrender, half-embracing leaned
On our first father; half her swelling breast
Naked met his, under the flowing gold
Of her loose tresses hid: he, in delight
Both of her beauty and submissive charms,
Smiled with superior love, as Jupiter5

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1 Where no shadow stays thy coming,-" no shadow" must be read as a parenthesis, describing the person who stays, awaits her coming: no shadow like what she saw, but as living a reality as herself.

2 Under a platane;-the plane tree, highly valued in the East for its umbrageous foliage.

3 His flesh, his bone;-Genesis ii. 23.

4 Individual,-inseparable.

5 As Jupiter on Juno smiles, &c.-Jupiter, in the ancient mythology the Deity personifying the upper ether, as Juno did the nether air surrounding

On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds

That shed May flowers; and pressed her matron lip
With kisses pure. Aside the devil turned

For envy; yet with jealous leer malign

Eyed them askance, and to himself thus plained:1

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"Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two, 505 "Imparadised in one another's arms,

"(The happier Eden !) shall enjoy their fill
"Of bliss on bliss; while I to hell am thrust,
"Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
"Among our other torments not the least,
"Still unfulfilled, with pain of longing pines.
"Yet let me not forget what I have gained

"From their own mouths: all is not theirs, it seems:
"One fatal tree there stands, of Knowledge called,

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"Forbidden them to taste: knowledge forbidden !3 515 "Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord

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Envy them that? Can it be sin to know? "Can it be death? And do they only stand "By ignorance? Is that their happy state, "The proof of their obedience and their faith? "O fair foundation laid whereon to build "Their ruin! Hence I will excite their minds "With more desire to know, and to reject "Envious commands, invented with design "To keep them low, whom knowledge might exalt "Equal with gods: aspiring to be such, "They taste, and die! what likelier can ensue? "But first, with narrow search, I must walk round "This garden, and no corner leave unspied;

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this globe. Their marriage typified the revived productiveness of nature in spring.

1 Plained, an antiquated word for "complained."

2 Where neither joy nor love,-Here, as often, Milton leaves the reader to supply the verb " is."

3 Knowledge forbidden!-Satan insinuates that useful and necessary knowledge was forbidden; whereas the knowledge of evil by the commission of it was alone forbidden. This glaring perversion of fact suits well the character of the tempter.

"A chance but chance may lead where I may meet "Some wandering spirit of Heaven, by fountain side, "Or in thick shade retired, from him to draw "What farther would be learned. Live while ye may, "Yet happy pair! enjoy, till I return,

"Short pleasures; for long woes are to succeed." So saying, his proud step he scornful turned,

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But with sly circumspection, and began

Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale, his roam.

Meanwhile, in utmost longitude,1 where Heaven

With Earth and Ocean meets, the setting sun

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Slowly descended, and, with right aspéct

Against the eastern gate of Paradise
Levelled his evening rays: it was a rock
Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds,
Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent
Accessible from earth, one entrance high;
The rest was craggy cliff, that overhung
Still as it rose, impossible to climb.
Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel3 sat,
Chief of the angelic guards, awaiting night;
About him exercised heroic games

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The unarmed youth of Heaven; but nigh at hand

Celestial armoury, shields, helms, and spears,

Hung high, with diamond flaming, and with gold.
Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even
On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star

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In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired

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1 In utmost longitude,-as far as West is from East: the extent of the world in that direction being called its longitude or length, as the ancients knew more of it in that dimension, than from north to south, which was therefore called latitude.

2 With right aspect against the eastern gate, &c.-One would naturally expect the western gate to be mentioned in connection with the level rays of the setting sun. But it is before expressly said that there was but one gate, and that on the east side of Paradise, 1. 178.

3 Gabriel, an archangel who appeared to Daniel, and the Virgin Mary, Dan. viii. 9; Luke i. 26. The name signifies "God is my strength."

4 In autumn thwarts the night,--crosses the sky at night, as the meteors called shooting stars are observed to do, mostly in autumn.

Impress the air, and show the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Impetuous winds: he thus began in haste:

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"Gabriel! to thee thy course by lot hath given1

Charge and strict watch, that to this happy place "No evil thing approach, or enter in.

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"This day, at height of noon, came to my sphere
"A spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know
"More of the Almighty's works, and chiefly man,
"God's latest image;2 I described his way,"
"Bent all on speed, and marked his airy gait;
"But, in the mount that lies from Eden north,
"Where he first lighted, soon discerned his looks
"Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured :
"Mine eye pursued him still, but under shade
"Lost sight of him. One of the banished crew,
"I fear, hath ventured from the deep, to raise
"New troubles: him thy care must be to find."
To whom the winged warrior thus returned:
"Uriel! no wonder if thy perfect sight,

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"Amid the sun's bright circle where thou sitt'st, "See far and wide: in at this gate none pass

"The vigilance here placed, but such as come

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"Well known from Heaven; and since meridian hour

"No creature thence. If spirit of other sort,
"So minded, have o'erleaped these earthly bounds
"On purpose, hard thou know'st it to exclude

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Spiritual substance with corporeal bar.

"But if within the circuit of these walks

"In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom

"Thou tell'st, by morrow dawning I shall know." So promised he; and Uriel to his charge

1 Gabriel! to thee thy course by lot hath given,—alluding to the arrangements which allotted the duties of the temple service to the priests in several distinct courses, in succession. See 1 Chron. xxiv. and Luke i. 8, 9.

2 God's latest image,-Christ was the first: and before man were the angels. So in b. iii. 151, man is called God's youngest son.

3 I described his way,-closely observed, noted, marked.

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"But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends "With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun "On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers; "Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night, "With this her solemn bird; nor walk by Moon, "Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.1 "But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom? "This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes?" To whom our general ancestor replied: "Daughter of God and Man, accomplished Eve, "Those have their course to finish, round the Earth, By morrow evening; and from land to land

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"In order, though to nations yet unborn,

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Ministering light prepared, they set and rise; "Lest total Darkness should by night regain "Her old possession, and extinguish life

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"In Nature and all things; which these soft fires
"Not only enlighten, but, with kindly heat
"Of various influence, foment and warm,
"Temper or nourish; or in part shed down

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"Their stellar virtue on all kinds that grow

"On earth, made hereby apter to receive

"Perfection from the sun's more potent ray.

"These then, though unbeheld in deep of night, "Shine not in vain; nor think, though men were none, 675 "That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise: "Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth "Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep; "All these, with ceaseless praise, his works behold "Both day and night. How often from the steep 680 "Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard "Celestial voices, to the midnight air

1 There is no piece of descriptive poetry in our language more justly admired than this, both for the pleasing variety of images introduced, and their sweet repetition. The style is pastoral, but it as much excels the ordinary poetry of that class, as the scene is above an ordinary field or meadow. Addison.

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