With diadem, and fceptre, high advanc'd, The lower ftill I fall, only fupreme
In mifery; fuch joy ambition finds!
But say I could repent, and could obtain,
By act of grace, my former state; how foon
Would height recall high thoughts, how soon un-fay
What feign'd fubmission swore! ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void; (For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd so deep) Which would but lead me to a worse relapse, 100 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 reign: As man e'er-long, and this new world, shall know.
Thus while he spake, each paffion dimm'd his face, Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envy, and despair, 115 Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.
(For heav'nly minds from such distempers foul
Are ever clear.) Whereof he foon aware,
Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm, 120 Artificer of fraud! and was the first
That practis'd falfhood, under faintly few Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge. Yet not enough had practis'd, to deceive Uriel once warn'd; whofe eye purfu'd him down The way he went, and on th' Affyrian mount Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall Spirit of happy fort: his geftures fierce He mark'd, and mad demeanor, then alone, As he fuppos'd, all un-obferv'd, un-feen. So, on he fares; and to the border comes Of Eden, where delicious Paradife,
Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green, As with a rural mound, the champain head Of a steep wilderness; whofe hairy fides With thicket overgrown, grotesque, and wild, Accefs deny'd: and over head up-grew Infuperable height of loftieft shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A fylvan scene! and as the ranks afcend Shade above fhade, a woody theatre
Of statelieft view. Yet higher than their tops The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung: Which to our general fire gave profpect large Into his neather empire, neighb'ring round. And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit, Bloffoms, and fruits at once of golden hue, Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd:
On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams, Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow, When God hath show'r'd the earth; fo lovely feem'd That landscape! and of pure now purer air Meets his approach; and to the heart inspires Vernal delight, and joy, able to drive
All sadness, but despair: now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who fail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambic, off at fea north-east winds blow Sabæan odor, from the fpicy fhore
Of Araby the Bleft, with fuch delay Well-pleas'd they flack their course, and many a Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean fmiles : So entertain'd those odorous fweets the fiend, 166 Who came their bane; though with them better Than Afmodeus with the fishy fume [pleas'd That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Media poft to Egypt, there fast bound. Now to th' afcent of that steep savage hill Satan had journied on, penfive, and slow; But further way found none, fo thick entwin'd, As one continu'd brake, the undergrowth Of fhrubs, and tangling bushes, had perplex'd All path of man, or beast, that pass'd that way. One gate there only was, and that look'd eaft On th' other fide: which when th' arch-fellon faw,
Due entrance he difdain'd, and in contempt At one flight bound high over-leap'd all bound Of hill, or highest wall, and sheer within Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, Whom hunger drives to feek new haunt for prey, Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve In hurdl'd cotes, amid the field fecure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold: Or as a thief, bent to un-hoard the cash of fome rich burgher, whofe fubstantial doors, Cross-barr'd, and bolted fast, fear no affault, In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles: So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold; (So fince into his Church lewd hirelings climb.) Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, (The middle tree, and highest there that grew) 195 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 immortality. (So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts best things To worst abufe, or to their meanest use.) Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views, To all delight of human fenfe 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 th' eaft
Of Eden planted; Eden ftretch'd her line From Auran eastward to the royal tow'rs Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian Kings, Or where the fons of Eden long before Dwelt in Telaffar. In this pleasant foil His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd. Out of the fertile ground he caus'd to grow All trees of nobleft kind, for fight, smell, taste; And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, High eminent, blooming ambrofial fruit
Of vegetable gold: and next to life,
Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew faft by; Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill! Southward through Eden went a river large, Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown 225 That mountain as His garden mound, high rais'd Upon the rapid current, which through veins Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn, Rofe a fresh fountain, and with many a rill Water'd the garden; thence united fell 230 Down the steep glade, and met the neather flood, Which from his darksome paffage now appears : And now divided into four main streams, Runs diverfe, wandring many a famous realm And country, whereof here needs no account: 235 But rather to tell how, (if art could tell How) from that faphire fount the crifped brooks Rowling on orient pearl, and fands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades
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