But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue To forked tongue; for now were all transformed Alike, to serpents all, as accessories
To this bold riot: dreadful was the din
And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss, Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed; Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo This annual humbling certain numbered days,
Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now To dash their pride, and joy for man seduced
With complicated monsters head and tail, Scorpion, and asp, and amphisbæna dire, Cerastes horned, Hydrus and Elops drear, And Dipsas (not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle Ophiusa,) but still greatest he the midst, Now dragon grown, larger than whom the sun Engendered in the Pythian vale on slime, Huge Python, and his power no less he seemed Above the rest still to retain; they all Hım followed, issuing forth to the open field, Where all yet left of that revolted rout, Heaven fallen, in station stood or just array, Sublime with expectation when to see In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief: They saw, but other sight instead! a crowd Of ugly serpents; horror on them fell, And horrid sympathy; for what they saw
However, some tradition they dispersed Among the heathen of their purchase got, And fabled how the serpent, whom they called Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.
Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death, Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.
"Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death! What thinkest thou of our empire now, though earned
With travel difficult, not better far
Than still at hell's dark threshold t' have sat watch,
Thev felt themselves now changing; down their Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved?"
Whom thus the sin-born monster answered soon: To me, who with eternal famine pine, Alike is hell, or Paradise, or Heaven; There best, where most with ravin I may meet;
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast," And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form, Catched by contagion, like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was the applause they Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems meant,
Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame,
Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There" stood
A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change, His will who reigns above, to aggravate Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve Used by the tempter; on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now risen, to work them further wo or shame; Yet, parched with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, Though to delude them sent, could not abstain; But on they rolled in heaps, and, up the trees Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks That curled Megara: greedily they plucked The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed; This more delusive, not the touch, but taste Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed, Hunger and thirst constraining; drugged as oft, With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws, With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell Into the same illusion, not as man
To stuff this maw, this vast unhidebound corpse.” To whom the incestuous mother thus replied. Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits and flowers
Feed first; on each beast next, and fish, and fowl; No homely morsels! and whatever thing
The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspared; Till I, in man residing, through the race, His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect, And season him thy last and sweetest prey."
This said, they both betook them several ways, Both to destroy, or unimmortal make All kinds, and for destruction to mature Sooner or later: which the Almighty seeing, From his transcendent seat the saints among, To those bright orders uttered thus his voice. "See with what heat these dogs of hell advance To waste and havoc yonder world, which I So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly of man Let in these wasteful furies, who impute Folly to me; so doth the prince of hell And his adherents, that with so much ease I suffer them to enter and possess A place so heavenly, and, conniving, seem To gratify my scornful enemies,
That laugh, as if, transported with some fit Of passion, I to them had quitted all,
Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I called, and drew them thither,
My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed On what was pure; till, crammed and gorged, nigh burst
With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, Both Sin, and Death, and yawning grave, at last, Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of hell For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.
Like change on sea and land; sideral blast,
Then Heaven and earth renewed shall be made Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot, pure
To sanctity, that shall receive no stain:
Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes." He ended and the Heavenly audience loud Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas, Through multitude that sung: "Just are thy ways, Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; Who can extenuate thee?" Next, to the Son, "Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom New Heaven and earth shall to the ages rise, Or down from Heaven descend." Such was their song;
While the Creator, calling forth by name His mighty angels, gave them several charge, As sorted best with present things. The sun Had first his precept so to move, so shine, As might affect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit winter, from the south to bring Solstitial summer's heat. To the blank moon Her office they prescribed; to th' other five Their planetary motions and aspects, In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite, Of noxious efficacy, and when to join In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed Their influence malignant when to shower, Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they set Their corners, when with bluster to confound Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll With terror through the dark aerial hall. Some say he bid his angels turn askance The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed Oblique the centric globe: some say the sun Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins, Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers, Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun, To recompense his distance, in their sight Had rounded still the horizon, and not known Or east or west; which had forbid the snow
Corrupt and pestilent: now from the north Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore, Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice, And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw, Boreas, and Cæcias, and Argestes loud, And Thrascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn With adverse blast upturns them from the south Notus, and Afer black with thunderous clouds From Serraliona; thwart of these, as fierce Forth rush the Levant and Ponent winds, Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise, Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first, Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational Death introduced, through fierce antipathy; Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving, Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe Of man, but fled him, or, with countenance grim Glared on him passing. These were from withous The growing miseries, which Adam saw Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade, To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within; And, in a troubled sea of passion tossed,. Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.
"O miserable of happy! is this the end Of this new glorious world, and me so late The glory of that glory, who now become Accursed of blessed! hide me from the face Of God, whom to behold was then my height Of happiness! yet well, if here would end The misery; I deserved it, and would bear My own deservings; but this will not serve: All that I eat or drink, or shall beget, Is propagated curse. O voice, once heard Delightfully, Increase and multiply, Now death to hear! for what can I increase Or multiply, but curses on my head? Who of all ages to succeed, but, feeling The evil on him brought by me, will curse My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure, For this we may thank Adam! but his thanks Shall be the execration: so, besides Mine own that bide upon me, all from me Shall with a fierce reflux on me rebound, On me, as on their natural centre light Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me, or here place In this delicious garden? as my will Concurred not to my being, it were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust; Desirous to resign and render back All I received; unable to perform
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold The good I sought not. To the loss of that, Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added The sense of endless woes? inexplicable Thy justice seems; yet, to say truth, too late I thus contest; then should have been refused Those terms, whatever, when they were proposed: Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good, Then cavil the conditions? and, though God Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son Prove disobedient, and, reproved, retort, 'Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not.' Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee That proud excuse? yet him not thy election, But natural necessity, begot.
God made thee of choice his own, and of his own To serve him; thy reward was of his grace, Thy punishment then justly is at his will. Be it so, for I submit; his doom is fair, That dust I am, and shall to dust return: O welcome hour whenever! why delays His hand to execute what his decree Fixed on this day? who do I overlivet
Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened
To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet Mortality my sentence, and be earth Insensible! how glad would lay me down As in my mother's lap! there I should rest And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more Would thunder in my ears; no fear of worse To me and to my offspring would torment me With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt Pursues me still, lest all I can not die; Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man Which God inspired can not together perish With this corporeal clod; then in the grave, Or in some other dismal place, who knows But I shall die a living death? O thought Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life And sin? the body properly hath neither. All of me then shall die: let this appease The doubt, since human reach no further knows. For though the Lord of all be infinite, Is his wrath also? be it, man is not so, But mortal doomed. How can he exercise Wrath without end on man, whom death must end?
Can he make deathless death? that were to make Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impossible is held, as argument
Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out, For anger's sake, finite to infinite
In punished man, to satisfy his rigour, Satisfied never? that were to extend His sentence beyond dust and nature's law, By which all causes else, according still To the reception of their matter, act, Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say That death be not one stroke, as I supposed, Bereaving sense, but endless misery From this day onward, which I feel begun Both in me, and without me, and so last To perpetuity; ay me! that fear Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution On my defenceless head; both death and I Am found eternal, and incorporate both; Nor I on my part single; in me all Posterity stands cursed: fair patrimony That I must leave ye, sons! O were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! So disinherited, how would ye bless Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind, For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemned, If guiltless? But from me what can proceed, But all corrupt; both mind and will depraved, Not to do only, but to will the same With me? how can they then acquitted stand In sight of God? Him, after all disputes, Forced I absolve: all my evasions vain, And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction: first and last On me, me only, as the source and spring Of all corruption, all the blame lights due. So might the wrath! Fond wish! couldst thou support
That burden, heavier than the earth to bear; Than all the world much heavier, though divided With that bad woman? Thus, what thou de- sirest,
And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable Beyond all past example and future; To Satan only like both crime and doom. O conscience! into what abyss of fears And horrors hast thou driven me; out of which I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!" Thus Adam to himself lamented loud Through the still night, not now, as ere man fell Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air Accompanied; with damps and dreadful gloom; Which to his evil conscience represented All things with double terror: on the ground Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground, and oft Cursed his creation; death as oft accused Of tardy execution, since denounced The day of his offence. "Why comes not death," Said he, "with one thrice-acceptable stroke
To end me? shall truth fail to keep her word, Justice divine not hasten to be just? But Death comes not at call, Justice divine Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries. O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers With other echo late I taught your shades To answer, and resound far other song." Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld, Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed: But her with stern regard he thus repelled.
"Out of my sight, thou serpent! that name best Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape, Like his, and colour serpentine, may show Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form, pretended To hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee I had persisted happy; had not thy pride, And wandering vanity, when least was safe, Rejected my forewarning, and disdained Not to be trusted; longing to be seen, Though by the devil himself; him overweening To overreach; but with the serpent meeting, Fooled and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee, To trust thee from my side, imagined wise, Constant, mature, proof against all assaults, And understood not all was but a show Rather than solid virtue; all but a rib Crooked, by nature, bent, as now appears, More to the part sinister, from me drawn; Well if thrown out, as supernumerary To my just number found. O! why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven With spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men, as angels, without feminine, Or find some other way to generate Mankind? This mischief had not then befallen, And more that shall befall; innumerable Disturbances on earth through female snares, And straight conjunction with this sex: for either He never shall find out fit mate, but such As some misfortune brings him, or mistake; Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained By a far worse; or, if she love, withheld By parents; or his happiest choice too late Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound To a fell adversary, his hate or shame: Which infinite calumny shall cause To human life, and household peace confound."
He added not, and from her turned; but Eve,
"Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven What love sincere, and reverence in my heart I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, Unhappily deceived! thy suppliant
I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not, Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, Thy counsel in this uttermost distress, My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee, Whither shall I betake me, where subsist? While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, Between us two let there be peace, both joining, As joined in injuries, one enmity
Against a foe by doom express assigned us, That cruel serpent: on me exercise not Thy hatred for this misery befallen: On me already lost, me than thyself More miserable; both have sinned; but thou Against God only, I against God and thee; And to the place of judgment will return, There with my cries importune Heaven, that all The sentence, from thy head removed, may light On me, sole cause to thee of all this wo, Me, me only, just object of his ire!"
She ended weeping; and her lowly plight, Immoveable, till peace obtained from fault Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought Commiseration soon his heart relented Towards her, his life so late and sole delight, Now at his feet submissive in distress; Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking, His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid: As one disarmed, his anger all he lost, And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon. 'Unwary, and too desirous, as before,
So now of what thou know'st not, who desir'st The punishment all on thyself; alas! Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet least part,
And my displeasure bear'st so ill. If prayer Could altar high decrees, I to that place Would speed before thee, and be louder heard, That on my head all might be visited; Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven, To me committed, and by me exposed. But rise; let us no more contend, nor blame, Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive In offices of love, how me may lighten Each other's burden, in our share of wo; Since this day's death denounced, if ought I see, Will prove no sudden, but a slow paced evil, A long day's dying, to augment our pain, And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived." To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied.
Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flow-" Adam, by sad experiment I know ing,
And tresses all disordered, at his feet,
Fell humble; and, embracing them, besought His peace and thus proceeded in her plaint.
How little weight my words with thee can find, Found so erroneous; thence, by just event, Found so unfortunate; nevertheless, Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place
Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain 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, and of easier choice. If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain wo, devoured 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 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 Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw. But if thou judge it hard and difficult, Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain From love's due rites, nuptial embraces sweet; And with desire to languish without hope, Before the present object languishing With like desire; which would be misery And torment less than none of what we dread; Then both ourselves and seed at once to free From what we fear for both, let us make short, 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 ?"
She ended here, or vehement despair Broke off the rest; so much of death her thoughts Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale. But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed, To better hopes his more attentive mind Labouring had raised, and thus to Eve replied. "Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems To argue in thee something more sublime And excellent, than what thy mind contemns: But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes That excellence thought in thee, and implies. Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret For loss of life and pleasure overloved. Or if thou covet death, as utmost end Of misery, so thinking to evade
The penalty pronounced; doubt not but God Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so To be forestalled; much more I fear lest death, So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain We are by doom to pay; rather such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live: then let us seek Some safer resolution, which methinks I have in view, calling to mind with heed
Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise The serpent's head; piteous amends! unless Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe, Satan, who, in the serpent, hath contrived Against us this deceit: to crush his head Would be revenge indeed! which will be lost By death brought on ourselves, or childless days Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe Shall 'scape his punishment ordained, and we Instead shall double ours upon our heads. No more be mentioned then of violence 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 Was meant by death that day; when lo, to thee 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 My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse; My labour will sustain me; and, lest cold 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 further by what means to shun Th' 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 star Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams Reflected may with matter sere foment; Or, by collision of two bodies grind
The air attrite to fire: as late the clouds 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, 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, 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
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