Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, - And eaten of the tree concerning which
I charged thee saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof, Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life; Thorns, also, and thistles, it shall bring thee forth, Unbid, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, Till thou return unto the ground; for thou Out of the earth wast taken, know thy birth, For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.
So judged he man, both Judge and Saviour sent, And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, Removed far off. Then pitying how they stood Before him, naked to the air, that now Must suffer change, disdained not to begin Thenceforth the form of servant to assume; As when he washed his servants' feet; so now As Father of his family, he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, Or, as the snake, with youthful coat repaid, And thought not much to clothe his enemies. Nor he their outward only with the skins Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness Arraying, covered from his Father's sight. To Him, with swift ascent, he up returned, Into his blissful bosom reassumed,
In glory, as of old; to Him, appeased,
though all-knowing, what had passed with Man Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.
Meanwhile, ere thus was sinned and judged on earth,
Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death,
In counterview within the gates, that now Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed through,
Sin opening; who thus now to Death began : O son, why sit we hear, each other viewing Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives In other worlds, and happier seat provides For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be But that success attends him; if mishap, Ere this he had returned, with fury driven By his avengers; since no place like this Can fit his punishment, or their revenge. Methinks I feel new strength within me rise, Wings growing, and dominion given me large, Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on, Or sympathy, or some connatural force, Powerful at greatest distance to unite, With secret amity, things of like kind, By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade Inseparable, must with me along,
For Death from Sin no power can separate. But lest the difficulty of passing back Stay his return, perhaps, over this gulf Impassable, impervious, let us try
Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine Not unagreeable, to found a path
Over this main from Hell to that new World, Where Satan now prevails; a monument
Of merit high to all the infernal host, Easing their passage hence, for intercourse, Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead, Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn
By this new-felt attraction and instinct.
Whom thus the meagre shadow answered soon:
Go, whither fate, and inclination strong,
Lead thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err
The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw
Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste
The savor of death from all things there that live;
Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.
So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, Against the day of battle, to a field, Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured With scent of living carcases designed
For death the following day, in bloody fight;
So scented the grim feature, and upturned His nostril wide into the murky air,
Sagacious of his quarry from so far.
Then both, from out Hell gates, into the waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,
Flew diverse; and with power—their power was great— Hovering upon the waters, what they met,
Solid or slimy, as in raging sea
Tossed up and down, together crowded drove,
From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell:
As when two polar winds, blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian sea, together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil,
Death, with his mace petrific, cold and dry, As with a trident smote, and fixed as firm As Delos, floating once; the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move; And with asphaltic slime, broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on, Over the foaming Deep, high-arched, a bridge Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenseless world, Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad, Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell.
So, if great things to small may be compared, Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea, and, over Hellespont
Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,
And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves. Now had they brought the work by wondrous art Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock,
Over the vexed abyss, following the track Of Satan to the self-same place where he First lighted from his wing, and landed safe From out of Chaos, to the outside bare
Of this round world. With pins of adamant And chains they made all fast; too fast they made And durable! And now in little space
The confines met of empyrean Heaven And of this world; and, on the left hand Hell With long reach interposed; three several ways In sight, to each of these three places led. And now their way to earth they had descried, To Paradise first tending; when, behold! Satan, in likeness of an angel bright, Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose, Disguised he came; but those his children dear Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise. He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk Into the wood fast by; and changing shape To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act,
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought Vain covertures. But when he saw descend
The Son of God to judge them, terrified He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned
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