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"Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart,
"Living or dying, from thee I will not hide
"What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen,
"Tending to some relief of our extremes,
"Or end-though sharp and sad, yet tolerable,
"As in our evils,1 and of easier choice.
"If care of our descent perplex us most,
"Which must be born to certain woe, devoured

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"By Death at last; (and miserable it is,

"To be to others cause of misery,

"Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring

"Into this cursed world a woful race,

"That after wretched life must be at last

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"Food for so foul a monster ;) in thy power

"It lies, yet ere conception, to prevent

"The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.

"Childless thou art; childless remain: so Death

"Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two

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"Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw. "But if thou judge it hard and difficult,

66 Conversing-looking-loving, to abstain

"From love's due rites-nuptial embraces sweet, "And with desire to languish without hope,

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"Before the present object languishing

"With like desire; which would be misery

"And torment less than none of what we dread;

66 Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free

"From what we fear for both, let us make short- 1000 "Let us seek Death; or, he not found, supply,

"With our own hands, his office on ourselves.

"Why stand we longer shivering under fears

"That show no end but death, and have the power,

"Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, "Destruction with destruction to destroy?"2

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1 As in our evils,-an elegant Latinism for "considering the extent of our evils."

2 Destruction with destruction to destroy,-to prevent the ruin of our unborn posterity by destroying ourselves at once.

66 Instead, shall double ours upon our heads. "No more be mentioned then of violence

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Against ourselves; and wilful barrenness, "That cuts us off from hope; and savours only "Rancour and pride, impatience and despite, "Reluctance against God and his just yoke "Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild "And gracious temper he both heard, and judged, "Without wrath or reviling: we expected "Immediate dissolution, which we thought

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"Was meant by death that day; when, lo! to thee 1050 "Pains only in child-bearing were foretold,

"And bringing forth; soon recompensed with joy, "Fruit of thy womb: on me the curse aslope

"Glanced on the ground; with labour I must earn

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My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse: 1055

My labour will sustain me. And, lest cold

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"Or heat should injure us, his timely care “Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands "Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged; "How much more, if we pray him, will his ear "Be open, and his heart to pity incline, “And teach us, farther by what means to shun "The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow? "Which now the sky, with various face, begins "To show us in this mountain; while the winds "Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks "Of these fair-spreading trees; which bids us seek "Some better shroud, some better warmth, to cherish "Our limbs benumbed; ere this diurnal star1

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"Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams 1070

66 Reflected may with matter sere2 foment;

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Or, by collision of two bodies, grind

"The air attrite to fire; as late the clouds

1 This diurnal star,-the star of day, the sun, as in Lycidas, L. 168.

"So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed."

2 Sere,-dry, or withered. Tine,-kindle; from Anglo-saxon tynan, to light a fire. The same root is preserved in our word tinder.

"Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their shock, “Tine the slant lightning; whose thwart flame driven

down

"Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine,

"And sends a comfortable heat from far,

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"Which might supply the sun.

Such fire to use,

"And what may else be remedy or cure

"To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought, 1080 "He will instruct us praying, and of grace "Beseeching him: so as we need not fear "To pass commodiously this life, sustained "By him with many comforts, till we end "In dust-our final rest and native home! "What better can we do, than, to the place "Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall "Before him reverent; and there confess

"Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears

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"Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air 1090

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Frequenting,1 sent from hearts contrite, in sign

"Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meck?

"Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn
"From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
"When angry most he seemed, and most severe,
"What else but favour, grace, and mercy shone?"

So spake our father penitent; nor Eve

Felt less remorse: they, forthwith to the place
Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell
Before him reverent; and both confessed

Humbly their faults, and pardon begged; with tears
Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek.

1 Frequenting,-filling the air with reiterated sighs.

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BOOK XI.

'THE ARGUMENT.

THE Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them; but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him; the Angel denounces their departure. Eve's lamentation. Adam pleads, but submits: the Angel leads him up to a high hill; sets before him in vision what shall happen till the flood.

THUS they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood,
Praying; for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient grace1 descending had removed
The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh

Regenerate grow instead; that sighs now breathed
Unutterable; which the Spirit of prayer

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Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier flight
Than loudest oratory: yet their port
Not of mean suitors; nor important less

Seemed their petition, than when the ancient pair
In fables old (less ancient yet than these),
Deucalion, and chaste Pyrrha,2 to restore
The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine

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Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers
Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds

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1 Prevenient grace,-grace anticipating, going before the act of prayer,

to prepare their hearts for it. The stony,-See Ezek. xi. 19. Sighs now

breathed unutterable,-See Rom. viii. 26.

2 Deucalion, and chaste Pyrrha,-Ovid describes Deucalion, and Pyrrha his wife (who had escaped from the flood that happened in his time, 1541 B. C., in a small vessel), as praying at the shrine of Themis, the goddess of justice, for the restoration of the lost human race. On throwing stones behind them, as directed, those thrown by Deucalion became men, and those by Pyrrha, women.

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