(Allow but this perhaps 'tis right,
If not, 'tis reas'nable.)

And fill'd the earth with nations great
Who happy were like him,

For ere he fell from that bless'd state
Not one could have known sin;
But would have fallen too, with him,
As those then unborn did;

What diff'rence, born or not, his sin
Involved all his seed.

For proof I bring, first, the short space
From man's revolt to Noah,
Too short to people ev'ry place
Lest they began before,

And that it was great reason 's found';
Even America,

Before by floods the earth was drown'd
On ancient Noah's day:
For here we find antique remains
Of forts and other things

Which plainly show it once contain❜d
Nations, not Indians:

Then from the east they must migrate
O'er Asia's northeast bound,

So to this soil across the strait
Which at northwest is found:
Think not they'd leave their native land
Ere it was peopled o'er,

And stray far off in wand'ring bands,
O'er cold and frozen shore,

To search a new and unknown place,
No better than their own,

'T were but a hard and fruitless chase

To find what they'd at home.
Some reckon time by epochs four:
One is to come, three past,
Creation first, the flood of Noah,
Christ, and the end at last ;
But why not one from creation,
A period long no doubt,.
Up to Adam's first transgression
And from Eden driv'n out.
Many like these, if but permitted,
As who's the bride of him
That wicked fratricide committed,
The sad effect of sin :

But turn to rivers broad and deep,
And say how long they've run,
Through marble hard, some many feet
Their channels down have worn,
Or Sicily's volcanic mounts,

Where earth o'er lava 's grown
Seven times, as say correct accounts,
How many more, unknown;
The last of these, in thickness least,.
Two thousand years have formed,
How many, then, to form the rest
Judge ye by reason sound.
But long or short, ah! sad for us,
He disobeyed the Lord,

Who wise created him from dust
And earth with creatures stor❜d.
But say what caused them to revolt
From God their maker high,
And taint with sin, by single fault
All their whole progeny ?

Th' infernal serpent; he find,
I
Whose guile with proud disguise
Deceived the mother of mankind,
By his deceit and lies;

What time by haughty pride he fell
With th' angels apostate,

And out of Heaven was cast to dwell
In the ever-buruing lake:
He with his rebel angels' aid

Strove for supremacy;
Impious war in Heaven made
Against God's monarchy;
Hi th' Almighty head-long hurl'd
From th' ethereal sky,
Down to perdition dark, the world,
Where pain doth never die.
Nine days and nights, to mortal men,
He, with his horrid train,
Lay vauquished in this doleful den,
Confounded, with dire pain:
Round he throws his baletul eyes
O'er scenes of black despair,
On all sides round the billows rise
In floods of flaming fire:
Regions of ill and endless wo,
Torture with endless pain;
Nor hope nor love can ever flow;
But wrath and vengeance reign.
There the companions of his fall,
O'erwhelmed with floods of flame,
He soon discerns, and to one calls,
Beelzebub by name.

"If thou beest he; but how defaced,
Who in the realms of light,
Clothed with transcendent brightness
Didst outshine myr'ads bright:
If thou beest he; but how forlorn,
Who joined me once in bliss,
In equal ruin now art joined,
Doomed to such pain as this:
Though he with thunder stronger proved,
Well we sustained his powers,
Or had they not mountains removed
Vict'ry might have been ours:
But for nought his rage can inflict
Do I repent or change,

This steady mind within me fixed
Shall ever be the same.

What though the field be lost, not all,
Th' unconquerable will,

Prone yet t' revenge our dreadful fall,
Remains unshaken still:

To bow and serve him whom we hate,
With bended knee, were low,
An ignominy, indeed, too great,
To much thus to our foe;
But better let us hope henceforth
To wage by force or guile
Eternal war with th' 'eav'nly hosts,
That they'll not reconcile.
Thus satan talking to his mate
With head above the wave,
His body prone upon the lake,
And eyes that sparkling blaze.

Seest thou," said he, "yon dreary plains,
Forlorn and wild and waste,
Where nought but desolation reigns?
There let us tend in haste,
And fly these waves, a fiery glare,
That so incessant broil,

There rest, if rest can harbor there
On such deserted soil,
There reassemble once again
Our powers afflicted deep,

Why should they on the flood remain

And not with us retreat;
There we 'll consult how most offend
Our great grand enemy,

Or our own loss how best amend

If possible to be,

What strength from hope we may gain there,
If none from this be found,
What resolution from despair;

No doubt that will abound.
So said, forthwith upright he rears
From off the stygian pool,
Then with expanded wings he stears
Away from floods that roll,
Aloft incumbent on the air

That felt unusual weight,

Till on the plain he lighted where
Him followed soon his mate.
"Is this the region, this the clime ?"
Said the last Arch-Angel:

"This the seat for us assigned
Instead of heavenly dale?