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"The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek "Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail."

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To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve: "What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe ! « Imputest thou that to my default, or will "Of wandering, as thou callst it, which who knows "But might as ill have happened, thou being by, "Or to thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there,

"Or here the attempt,1 thou couldst not have discerned

"Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake;

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"No ground of enmity between us known,

"Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm. "Was I to have never parted from thy side?

"As good have grown there still a lifeless rib.

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Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head,

"Command me absolutely not to go,

"Going into such danger, as thou saidst?

"Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay;

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Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. "Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, "Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me." To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied: "Is this the love, is this the recompense "Of mine to thee, ungrateful Eve! expressed

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"Immutable, when thou wert lost, not I;

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"Who might have lived, and joyed3 immortal bliss,

"Yet willingly chose rather death with thee?

"And am I now upbraided as the cause

"Of thy transgressing? not enough severe,

"It seems, in thy restraint. What could I more?

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"I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold "The danger and the lurking enemy

"That lay in wait; beyond this, had been force;
"And force upon free will hath here no place.
"But confidence then bore thee on, secure

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1 Or here the attempt,—had the temptation been offered here. 2 Facile,-pliant, flexible.

Joyed,-an obsolete use of the word for "enjoyed."

"Either to meet no danger, or to find

"Matter of glorious trial: and perhaps

"I also erred, in overmuch admiring

"What seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought "No evil durst attempt thee; but I rue

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"That error now, which is become my crime,

"And thou the accuser! Thus it shall befall "Him who, to worth in woman overtrusting,1

"Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook;

66 And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue,
"She first his weak indulgence will accuse."
Thus they in mutual accusation spent

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The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;
And of their vain contést appeared no end.

1 To worth in woman overtrusting,- Women is the reading of the old editions. Bentley suggests woman, on account of the singular pronouns in the following lines. But such transitions from the plural to the singular are to be met with in the best classical authors. N.

T

BOOK X.

THE ARGUMENT.

MAN's transgression known; the guardian Angels forsake Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the transgressors; who descends and gives sentence accordingly; then in pity clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new world, and the sin by Man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan their sire up to the place of Man: to make the way easier from Hell to this world to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the track that Satan had made; then, preparing for Earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to Hell; their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium; in full assembly relates with boasting his success against Man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed with himself also suddenly into serpents according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the forbidden tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death; God foretells the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but, for the present, commands his Angels to make several alterations in the heavens and elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails; rejects the condolement of Eve; she persists, and at length appeases him: then, to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways, which he approves not; but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made them, that her seed should be revenged on the serpent; and exhorts her with him to seek peace of the offended Deity by repentance and supplication.

MEANWHILE the heinous and despiteful act
Of Satan done in Paradise, and how
He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve,
Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,

Was known in Heaven; for what can scape the eye
Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart

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Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just,

Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind

Of Man, with strength entire, and free-will armed,
Complete to have discovered, and repulsed,

Whatever wiles1 of foe, or seeming friend.

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For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered,

The high injunction-not to taste that fruit,
Whoever tempted; which they not obeying
Incurred, (what could they less?) the penalty;
And, manifold in sin,3 deserved to fall.

Up into Heaven, from Paradise, in haste
The angelic guards ascended, mute, and sad
For Man; for of his state by this they knew,
Much wondering how the subtle fiend had stolen
Entrance unseen. Soon as the unwelcome news
From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased
All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare
That time celestial visages, yet, mixed

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With pity, violated not their bliss.

About the new arrived, in multitudes

The ethereal people ran, to hear and know

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How all befell: they towards the throne supreme,
Accountable, made haste, to make appear,
With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance,

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1 Whatever wiles,-" any wiles whatever," a Latin form of expression. 2 They, the antecedent is Man, in a collective sense (1. 9), embracing Adam and Eve. So in Gen. i. 26, "Let us make man in our image, and let them have dominion," &c.

3 Manifold in sin, -divines argue that in this one sin there was involved the violation of every precept of the law; at all events, its guilt was manifold, involving, as it did, unbelief, renouncing of the Divine authority, unthankfulness, discontent, ruining themselves and their offspring, &c.

4 By this, -i. e. by this time.

5 Dim sadness did not spare, &c.-How nobly does Milton here set forth the blessedness of a benevolent mind, and obviate the objection that might be made to ascribing sadness to celestial spirits!

And easily approved;1 when the Most High
Eternal Father, from his secret cloud
Amidst, in thunder uttered thus his voice:

"Assembled angels, and ye Powers returned
"From unsuccessful charge! be not dismayed,
"Nor troubled at these tidings from the Earth,
"Which your sincerest care could not prevent,
"Foretold so lately3 what would come to pass,
"When first the tempter crossed the gulf from Hell
"I told ye then he should prevail, and speed
"On his bad errand; man shall be seduced,
"And flattered out of all, believing lies*

"Against his Maker; no decree of mine

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Concurring, to necessitate his fall,

“Or touch with lightest moment of impúlse" "His free will, to her own inclining left

"In even scale. But fallen he is;

and now

"What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass

"On his transgression—death denounced that day?
"Which he presumes already vain and void,
"Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,

"By some immediate stroke; but soon shall find
"Forbearance no acquittance, ere day end.

"Justice shall not return, as bounty, scorned.

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"But whom send I to judge them? Whom but thee, 55 "Vicegerent Son? To thee I have transferred

"All judgment, whether in Heaven, or Earth, or Hell.

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Easy it may be seen that I intend

1 Approved, in the occasional sense of the Latin probo, to make a thing appear right by means of proof; to justify by proof.

2 From his secret cloud amidst,-from amidst the cloud.

3 Foretold so lately,-i. e. it having been foretold so lately what would come, &c., a construction like the ablative absolute in Latin. See prediction referred to in b. iii. 1. 86-96.

4 Believing lies, &c.-See Satan's speech, b. ix. 1. 679–732.

5 Lightest moment of impulse,-in the Latin sense of momentum, the weight which gives the cast to one of two scales even balanced. See b. vi. 1. 239.

• What rests?-Latin, quid restat? what remains?

To thee I have transferred all judgment,-See John v. 22, 27.

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