I fuffer them to enter and poffefs
A place fo heav'nly, and conniving feem
To gratify my scornful enemies,
That laugh, as if, tranfported with fome fit
Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their mifrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither
My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which Man's polluting fin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst
With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one sling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last 635 Through Chaos hurl'd, obftru&t the mouth of Hell For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.
Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd fhall be made pure
To fan&tity that shall receive no ftain:
Till then the curse pronounc'd on both precedes. 640
He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud
Sung Halleluiah, as the found of feas,
Through multitude that fung: Juft are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Deftin'd restorer of mankind, by whom
New Heav'n and Earth fhall to the ages rife,
Or down from Heav'n defcend. Such was their fong, While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty Angels gave them several charge
As forted beft with present things. The fun
Had firft his precept fo 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 fouth to bring
Solftitial fummer's heat. To the blanc moon
Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five
Their planetary motions and aspects
In fextile, square, and trine, and oppofit
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fix'd
Their influence malignant when to shower,
Which of them rifing with the fun, or falling,
Should prove tempeftuous: To the winds they fet
Their corners, when with blufter to confound
Sea, air, and fhore, the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aereal hall.
Some fay he bid his angels turn afcanfe
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the fun's axle, they with labor push'd
Oblique the centric globe: Some say the fun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like diftant breadth to Taurus with the feven
Atlantic Sifters, 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; elfe had the spring
Perpetual finil'd on earth with vernant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted fhone, while the low fun
To recompenfe his distance, in their fight
Had rounded ftill th' horizon, and not known
Or east or weft, which had forbid the fnow
From cold Eftotiland, and fouth as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tafted fruit
The fun, as from Thyéstean banquet, turn'd
His courfe intended; elfe how had the world
Inhabited, though finlefs, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
These changes in the Heav'ns, though flow, produc'd
Like change on fea and land, fideral blast,
Vapor, and mift, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and peftilent : Now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed fhore,
Burfting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice
And fnow and hail and stormy gust and flaw,
Boreas and Cacias and Argeftes loud
And Thrafcias rend the woods and feas upturn;
With adverse blast upturns them from the fouth
Notus and Afer black with thundrous clouds
From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce
Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy:
Beast now with beaft 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, 710 And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each other; nor ftood much in awe
Of Man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him paffing. Thefe were from without
The growing miferies which Adam saw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To forrow' abandon'd, but worse felt within,
And in a troubled sea of passion toft,
Thus to disburden fought with fad complaint.
O miserable of happy! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me fo late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of blessed, hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my highth
Of happiness! yet well, if here would end
The misery; I deferv'd it, and would bear
My own defervings; but this will not ferve;
All that I eat or drink, or fhall beget,
Is propagated curfe. O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increase and multiply,
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply, but curfes on my head ?
Who of all ages to fucceed, 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; fo besides
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,
On me as on their natural center light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradife, dear bought with lafting woes!
F 3
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mold me Man, did I folicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? as my will
Concur'd not to my be'ing, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my duft,
Defirous to refign and render back
All I receiv'd, unable to perform
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I fought not. To the lofs of that,
Sufficient penalty, why haft thou added
The fenfe of endless woes? inexplicable
Thy juftice feems; yet to fay truth, too late
I thus conteft; then should have been refus'd
Thofe terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou didst accept them: wilt thou' enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy fon 760
Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didft thou beget me? I fought it not:
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee
That proud excufe? yet him not thy election,
But natural neceffity begot.
God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own
To ferve him; thy reward was of his grace,
Thy punishment then justly' is at his will.
Be' it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,
That duft I am, and fhall to duft return :
O welcome hour whenever! why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
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