The verd'rous wall of Paradife up fprung: Which to our general fire gave profpect large Into his nether empire neighb'ring round. And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodlieft trees loaden with faireft fruit, Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden huc, Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd:
On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams 150 Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow, When God hath fhow'r'd the earth; fo lovely feem'd That landskip: And of pure now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All fadness but defpair: now gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings difpenfe Native perfumes, and whifper 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 Sabean odors from the fpicy fhore
Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay
Well pleas'd they flack their courfe, and many a league Chear'd with the grateful fmell old Ocean fmiles: So entertain'd those odorous fweets the Fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd Than Afmodeus with the fifhy fume
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 favage hill
Satan had journey'd on, penfive and flow; But further way found none, fo thick intwin'd, As one continued 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 east
On th' other fide: which when th' arch-felon 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 fheer within Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, Whom hunger drives to feek new haunt for prey, Watching where thepherds pen their flocks at eve 185 In hurdled cotes amid the field fecure,
Leaps o'er the fence with eafe into the fold: Or as a thief bent to unhord the cafh Of some rich burgher, whofe fubftantial doors, Crofs-barr'd and bolted faft, 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,
Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life
Thereby regain'd, but fat devifing 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· 200
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.. 2. Beneath him with new wonder now he views. To all delight of human sense expos'd In narrow room Nature's whole wealth, yea more, A Heav'n on Earth: for blissful Paradife Of God the garden was, by him in th' eaft Of Eden planted; Eden stretch'd her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, Or where the fons of Eden long before Dwelt in Telaffar: in this pleasant soil His far more pleafant garden God ordain'd ; Out of the fertil ground he caus'd to grow All trees of nobleft kind for fight, fmell, tafte; And all amid them ftood the tree of life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death the tree of knowledge grew fast by, Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill. Southward through Eden went a river large, Nor chang'd his course, but through the fhaggy hill Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd, for God had thrown 225: That mountain as his garden mold 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 Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood, Which from his darkfome paffage now appears,
And now divided into four main streams,
Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account; 235 But rather to tell how, if Art could tell, How from that saphir fount the crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and fands of gold, With mazy error under pendent shades Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flow'rs, worthy' of Paradise, which not nice Art In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon Pour'd forth profuse on hill and dale and plain, Both where the morning fun first warmly fmote The open field, and where the unpierc'd fhade Inbrown'd the noontide bow'rs: Thus was this place A happy rural feat of various view
Groves whofe rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, Others whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind
Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,
If true, here only', and of delicious taste :
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap
Of fome irriguous valley fpread her store, Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rofe: Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves Of cool recefs, o'er which the mantling vine Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps Luxuriant; mean while murm'ring waters fall Down the flope hills, dispers'd, or in a lake, That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her cryftal mirror holds, unite their streams. The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs, Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune The trembling leaves, while univerfal Pan Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance Led on th' eternal fpring, Not that fair field Of Enna, where Proferpin gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flow'r by gloomy Dis
Was gather'd, which coft Ceres all that pain
To feek her through the world; nor that sweet grove Of Daphne by Orontes, and th' inspir'd Castalian spring, might with this Paradise Of Eden strive; nor that Nyfeian ile Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham, Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove, Hid Amalthea and her florid fon
Young Bacchus from his ftepdame Rhea's eye; Nor where Abaffin kings their issue guard, Mount Amara, though this by fome fuppos'd True Paradife under the Ethiop line
By Nilus head, inclos'd with fhining rock, A whole day's journey high, but wide remote. From this Affyrian garden, where the Fiend Saw undelighted all delight, all kind Of living creatures new to fight and strange. 'Two of far nobler fhape erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honor clad In naked majefty feem'd lords of all, And worthy feem'd; for in their looks divine, The image of their glorious Maker shone,
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