While they adore me on the throne of hell,
With diadem and scepter high advanc't
The lower ftill I fall, only fupream
In miferie; fuch joy ambition findes.
But fay I could repent and could obtain
By act of grace my former ftate; how foon
Would highth recal high thoughts, how foon unfay
What feign'd fubmiffion swore; eafe would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd fo deep :
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse,
And heavier fall: fo fhould I purchase dear
Short intermiffion bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace :
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead
Of us out-caft, exil'd, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this world.
So farewel hope, and with hope farewel fear,
Farewel remorfe: all good to me is loft ;
Evil be thou my good; by thee at leaft
Divided empire with heav'n's king I hold
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reigne;
As man ere long, and this new world fhall know.
Thus while he fpake, each paffion dimm'd his face
Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envie and despaire,
Which marr'd his borrow'd vifage, and betraid
Him counterfet, if any eye beheld.
For heav'nly minds from fuch diftempers foule
Are ever clear. Whereof he foon aware,
Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calme,
Artificer of fraud; and was the first
That practis'd falfhood under faintly shew,
Deep malice to conceale, couch't with revenge :
Yet not anough had practis'd to deceive
Uriel once warn'd; whose eye pursu'd him down
The way he went, and on th'Affyrian mount
Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall
Spirit of happie fort: his gestures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone,
As he fuppos'd, all unobferv'd, unseen.
So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
Now nearer, crowns with her inclosure green,
As with a rural mound the champain head
Of a steep wilderness, whofe hairie fides
With thicket overgrown, grotefque and wilde,
Accefs deni'd; and overhead up grew
Infuperable highth of loftieft fhade,
Cedar, and pine, and firr, and branching palm,
A fylvan scene, and as the ranks afcend
Shade above fhade, a woodie theatre
Of statliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall of Paradife up sprung:
Which to our general fire gave prospect large
Into his neather empire neighbouring round.
And higher then that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden hue
Appeer'd, with gay enammel'd colours mixt:
On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God had showr'd the earth; fo lovely seem'd
That lantskip: and of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but defpair: now gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmie spoiles. As when to them who faile
Beyound the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at fea north-east winds blow
Sabean odours from the fpicie shoare
Of Arabia the bleft, with fuch delay
Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a league
Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.
So entertain'd those odorous sweets the fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd
Than Afmodeus with the fifhie fume,
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance sent
From Media post to Aegypt, there fast bound.
Now to th'afcent of that steep favage hill
Satan had journied on, penfive and flow;
But further way found none, fo thick entwin'd,
As one continu'd brake, the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplext
All path of man or beast that past that way :
One gate there only was, and that look'd east
On th'other fide: which when th'arch-fellon faw
Due entrance he difdain'd, and in contempt,
At one flight bound high overleap'd all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within
Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,
Whom hunger drives to seek new haunts for prey,
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eeve
In hurdl'd cotes amid the field secure,
Leaps o're the fence with ease into the fould:
Or as a thief bent to unhoord the cash
Of fome rich burgher, whose substantial dores,
Crofs-barr'd and bolted faft, fear no affault,
In at the window climbes, or o're the tiles;
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fould:
So fince into his church lewd hirelings climbe.
Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,
Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life
Thereby regain'd, but fat devising death
To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd
For profpect, what well us'd had been the pledge
Of immortalitie. So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts best things
To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.
Beneath him with new wonder now he views
To all delight of human fense expos'd
In narrow room nature's whole wealth, yea more,
A heav'n on earth: for blifsful Paradife
Of God the garden was, by him in the east
Of Eden planted; Eden ftretch'd her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towrs
Of Great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
This knWell pleas'd they lack their courfe, and many a league
Cheard with the grateful fmell old Ocean fimiles.
Soad thole odorous fweets the fiend
he came their bane, though with them better pleas'd Than Alimodees with the fishie fume,
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's on, and with a vengeance fent
From Media port to Aegypt, there faft bound.
Now to th'afcent of that steep favage hill
By thee Satan had journied on, penfive and flow;
But further way found none, fo thick entwin'd,
Thus As one continu'd brake, the undergrowth
Thrice cofrebs and tangling bufhes had perplext
path of man or bealt that past that way:
Him cou One ate there only was, and that look'd eaft
On her fide: which when th'arch-fellon faw
Dance be difdain'd, and in contempt,
aight bound high overleap'd all bound
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