U S.)ns, like one of us man is become
To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that defended fruit; but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;
Happier! had it sufficed him to have known
Good by itself, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents. and prays contrite,
My motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know, how variable and vain,
Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand
Reach also of the tree of life, and eat,

And live for ever, dream at least to live
For ever, to remove him I decree,

And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.
Michael, this my behest have thou in charge;
Take to thee from among the cherubim
Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the fiend,
Or in behalf of man, or to invade
Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:
Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
Without revenge drive out the sinful pair;
From hallowed ground the unholy; and denounce
To them, and to their progeny, from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urged,
For I behold them softened and with tears
Bewailing their excess, all terror hide.
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal
To Adam what shall come in future days,
As I shall thee enlighten; intermix
My covenant in the woman's seed renewed,
So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace
And, on the east side of the garden, place,
Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
Cherubic watch; and of a sword the flame
Wide-waving; all approach far off to fright,
And guard all passage to the tree of life;
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

[But that from us aught should ascend to Heaven
So prevalent as to concern the mind
Of God high-blest, or to incline his will,
Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer,
Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne
Even to the seat of God. For since I sought
By prayer the offended Deity to appease,
Knceled, and before him humbled all my heart,
Methought I saw him placable and mild,
Bending his car; persuasion in me grew
That I was heard with favour; peace returned
Home to my breast, and to my memory
His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe:
Which, then not minded in dismay, yet now
Assures me that the bitterness of death
Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee,
Eve rightly called, mother of all mankind,
Mother of all things living, since by thee
Man is to live, and all things live for man."

To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meck
"Ill worthy I such title should belong
To me transgressor, who, for thee ordained
A help, became thy snare; to me reproach
Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise:
But infinite in pardon was my Judge,
That I, who first brought death on all, am graced
The source of life; next unfavourable thou,
Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf'st
Far other name deserving. But the field
To labour calls us, now with sweat imposed,
Though after sleepless night; for see! the morn,
All unconcerned with our unrest, begins
Her rosy progress smiling; let us forth;
I never from thy side henceforth to stray.
Where'er our day's work lies, though now en
joined

Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
Here let us live, though in fallen state, content."
So spake, so wished much humbled Eve; but
fate

To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey,
With whose stolen fruit man once more to delude."
He ceased; and the archangelic power prepared
For swift descent; with him the cohort bright
Of watchful cherubim: four faces each
Had, like a double Janus; all their shape
Spangled with eyes, more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse,
Charmed with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermus, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile,
To resalute the world with sacred light,
Leucothea waked, and with fresh dews embalmed
The earth; when Adam and first matron Eve
Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above, new hope to spring
Out of despair; joy, but with fear yet linked;
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewed.Us, haply too secure, of our discharge

Subscribed not; Nature first gave signs, impressed
On bird, beast, air; air suddenly eclipsed
After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight
The bird of Jove, stooped from his acry tour,
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove;
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace,
Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind;
Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight.
Adam observed, and, with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve thus spake.

"Eve, easily may faith admit, that all

'T'he good which we enjoy from Heaven descends;

"O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh, Which Heaven, by these mute signs in nature shows

Forerunners of his purpose; or to warn

From penalty, because from death released

Some days; how long, and what till then our life,

Who knows? or more than this, that we are dust, | May'st cover: well may then thy Lord, appeased,
And thither must return, and be no more?
Why else this double object in our sight
Of fight pursued in the air, and o'er the ground,
One way the self-same hour? why in the east
Darkness ere day's mid course, and morning light
More orient in yon western cloud, that draws
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,
And slow descends, with something Heavenly
fraught?"

As fron his face I shall be hid, deprived
His blessed countenance: here I could frequent
With worship place by place where he vouch-

safed

Presence divine; and to my sons relate,
'On this mount he appeared; under this tree
Stood visible; among these pines his voice
I heard; here with him at this fountain talked:
So many grateful altars I would rear
Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone
Of lustre from the brook, in memory,
Or monument to ages; and thereon
Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers:
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or footstep trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet, recalled
To life prolonged and promised race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory; and far off his steps adore."

To whom thus Michael with regard benign.
"Adam, thou knowest Heaven his, and all the
earth;

Not this rock only; his omnipresence fills
Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives,
Fomented by his virtual power and warmed:
All the earth he gave thee to possess and rule,
No despicable gift; surmise not then

His presence to these narrow bounds confined
Of Paradise or Eden: this had been

Ascend, I follow thee, safe guide, the path Thou lead'st me; and to the hand of Heaven submit,

However chastening; to the evil turn
My obvious breast; arming to overcome
By suffering, and carn rest from labour won,
If so I may attain." So both ascend
In the visions of God: It was a hill,
Of Paradise the highest, from whose top
The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken,
Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect lay
Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round,
Whereon, for different cause, the tempter set
Our second Adam, in the wilderness,

To show him all earth's kingdoms, and their glory.
His eye might there command wherever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,
And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne
To Paquin of Sinaan kings; and thence
To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul,
Down to the golden Chersonese; or where
The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since
In Hispahan; or where the Russian ksar
In Mosco; or the sultan in Bizance,
Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken
The empire of Negus to his utmost port
Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,

Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,

All generations, and had hither come
From all the ends of the earth, to celebrate
And reverence thee, their great progenitor.
But this pre-eminence thou hast lost, brought
down

To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:
Yet doubt not but in valley, and in plain,
God is, as here; and will found alike
Present; and of his presence many a sign
Still following thee, still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love, his face
Express, and of his steps the tract divine.
Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirmed
Ere thou from hence depart; know I am sent
To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee and to thy offspring; good with bad
Expect to hear; supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
True patience, and to temper joy with fear
And pious sorrow; equally innured
By moderation either state to bear,
Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead
Safest thy life, and best prepared endure
Thy mortal passage when it comes. Ascend
This hill; let Eve (for I have drenched her eyes)
Here sleep below while thou to foresight wak'st;
As once thou sleep'st, while she to life was
formed "

To whom thus Adam gratefully replied.

And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm
Of Congo, and Angola farthest south;
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount
The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez, and Sus,
Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen;

On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway
The world: in spirit perhaps he also saw
Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume,
And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat
Of Atabalipa; and yet unspoiled
Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons
Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the filin removed,
Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight
Had bred; then purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see;
And from the well of life three drops instilled.
So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,
That Adam now enforced to close his eyes,
Sunk down, and all his spirits became entranced;
But him the gentle angel by the hand

Soon raised, and his attention thus recalled.

"

Adam, now ope thine eyes: and first beheld The effects which thy original crime hath wrought In some to spring from thee; who never touched The excepted tree; nor with the snake conspired. Nor sinned thy sin; yet from that sin derive Corruption, to bring forth more violent deeds."

His eyes he opened, and beheld a field,
Part arable and tilth, whereon were sheaves
New reaped, the other part sheep-walks and folds;
I'th' midst an altar as the land-mark stood,
Rustic, of grassy sord; thither anon
A sweaty reaper from his tillage brought
First fruits, the green ear, and the yellow sheaf,
Unculled, as came to hand; a shepherd next,
Mote meek, came with the firstlings of his flock
Choicest and best; then, sacrificing, laid
The inwards and their fat, with incense strowed,
On the cleft wood, and all due rites performed.
His offering soon propitious fire from Heaven
Consumed with nimble glance, and grateful steam;
The other's not, for his was not sincere:
Whereat he inly raged, and, as they talked,
Smote him into the midriff with a stone
That beat out life; he fell; and, deadly pale,
Groaned out his soul with gushing flood effused.
Much at that sight was Adam in his heart
Dismayed, and thus in haste to th' angel cried.
"O teacher, some great mischief hath befallen:
To that meek man who well had sacrificed;
Is piety thus and pure devotion paid?”

To whom Michael thus, he also moved, replied.
"These two are brethren, Adam, and to come
Out of thy loins; th' unjust the just hath slain,
For envy that his brother's offering found
From Heaven acceptance; but the bloody fact
Will be avenged; and the other's faith approved,
Le no reward; though here thou see him die,
Relling in dust and gore." To which our sire:

Alas! both for the deed and for the cause!
But have I now seen Death? Is this the way
I must return to native dust? O sight

Of terror, foul and ugly to behold,

Herrid to think, how horrible to feel!”

And moonstruck madness, pining atrophy,
Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence,
Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint racking rheums
Dire was the tossing, deep the groans; Despair
Tended the sick busiest from couch to couch;
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delayed to strike, though oft invoked
With vows, as their chief good, and final hope
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept,
Though not of woman born; compassion quelled
His best of man, and gave him up to tears
A space, till firmer thoughts restrained excess;
And, scarce recovering words, his plaint renewed
"O miserable mankind, to what fall
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
Better end here unborn. Why is life given
To be thus wrested from us? rather, why
Obtruded on us thus? who, if we knew
What we receive, would either not accept
Life offered, or soon beg to lay it down;
Glad to be so dismissed in peace. Can thus
The image of God in man, created once
So goodly and erect, though faulty since,
To such unsightly sufferings be debased
Under inhuman pains? Why should not man
Retaining still divine similitude

In part, from such deformities be free,
And, for his Maker's image sake, exempt?"
"Their Maker's image," answered Michae,
"then

Forsook them, when themselves they vilified
To serve ungoverned appetite, and took
His image whom they served, a brutish vice,
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
Therefore so abject is their punishment.
Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own;

To whom thus Michael. "Death thou hast Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced;

seen

In his first shape on man; but many shapes
Of Death, and many are the ways that lead
To his grim cave, all dismal; yet to sense
More terrible at th' entrance than within.
Some, as thou sawest, by violent stroke shall die;
By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more
la meats and drinks, which on the earth shall
bring

Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew
Before thee shall appear; that thou mayest know
What misery the inabstinence of Eve
Shall bring on men." Immediately a place
Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark
A lazar house it secined; wherein were laid
Nual rs of all discased; all maladies
Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms
Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhis,
Inaine stone and ulcer, colic pangs,
Demomac phrenzy moping melancholy,

While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules
To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they
God's image did not reverence in themselves."

"I yield it just," said Adam, "and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To death, and mix with our connatural dust?"
"There is," said Michael, "if thou well ob

serve

The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught,
In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from

thence

Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:

So may'st thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
Into thy mother's lap; or be with case
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature:
This is old age; but then thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty; which wil
change

To withered, weak, and gray; thy sensee 'nen

Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego,
To what thou hast; and, for the air of youth,
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of celd and dry
To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume
The balm of life." To whom our ancestor.

"Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong
Life much; bent rather how I may be quit
Fairest and easiest of this cumbrous charge;
Which I must keep till my appointed day
Of rendering up, and patiently attend

My dissolution." Michael replied.

"

Of love and youth not lost, songs, garlands, flowers,
And charming symphonies, attached the heart
Of Adam, soon inclined to admit delight,
The bent of nature; which he thus expressed.

"True opener of mine eyes, prime angel blest
Much better seems this vision, and more hope
Of peaceful days portends, than those two past;
Those were of hate and death, or pain much worse;
Here nature seems fulfilled in all her ends."

To whom thus Michael. "Judge not what is
best

By pleasure, though to nature seeming meet;

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou Created, as thou art, to nobler end,
liv'st

Liye well; how long or short, permit to Heaven:
And now prepare thee for another sight."

He looked, and saw a spacious plain, whereon
Were tents of various hue; by some, were herds
Of cattle grazing; others, whence the sound
Of instruments that made melodious chime
Was heard, of harp and organ; and, who moved
Their stops and chords, was seen; his volant touch,
Instinct through all proportions, low and high,
Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue.
In other part stood one who, at the forge
Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass
Had melted, (whether found where casual fire
Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale,
Down to the veins of earth; thence gliding hot
To some cave's mouth; or whether wash'd

stream

by

From under ground;) the liquid ore be drained
Into fit moulds prepared; from which he formed
First his own tools; then, what might clse be
wrought

Fusil or graven in metal. After these,
But on the hither side, a different sort

Holy and pure, conformity divine.

Those tents thou saw'st so pleasant, were the tents
Of wickedness, wherein shall dwell his race
Who slew his brother; studious they appear
Of arts that polish life, inventors rare;
Unmindful of their Maker, though his spirit
Taught them; but they his gifts acknowledged

none.

Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget,
For that fair female troop thou saw'st, that seemed
Of goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay,
Yet empty of all good wherein consists
Woman's domestic honour and chief praise;
Bred only and completed to the taste
Of lustful appetance, to sing, to dance,
To dress, and troll the tongue, and roll the eye:
To these that sober race of men, whose lives
Religious titled them the sons of God,
Shall yield up all their virtue, all their fame
Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles
Of these fair atheists; and now swim in joy,
Ere long to swim at large; and laugh, for which
The world ere long a world of tears must weep."
To whom thus Adam, of short joy bereft.

From the high neighbouring hills, which was their "O pity and shame, that they, who to live well

seat,

Down to the plain descended: by their guise
Just men they seemed, and all their study bent
To worship God aright, and know his works
Not hid; nor those things last which might pre-

scrve

Freedom and peace to men: they on the plain
Long had not walked, when from the tents, behold!
A bevy of fair women, richly gay
In gems and wanton dress; to the harp they sung
Soft amorous ditties, and in dance came on:
The men, though grave, eyed them, and let their

eyes

Rove without rein; till in the amorous net
Fast caught, they liked; and each his liking chose;
And now of love they treat, till the evening star,
Love's harbinger, appeared; then, ali in heat
They light the nuptial torch, and bid invoke
Hyen, then first to marriage rites invoked:
With feast and music all the tents resound.
Such happy interview, and fair event

Entered so fair, should turn aside to tread
Paths indirect, or in the mid way faint!
But still I see the tenor of man's wo
Holds on the same, from woman to begin."

"From man's effeminate slackness it begins,"
Said the angel," who should better hold his place
By wisdom, and superior gifts received.
But now prepare thee for another scene.

He looked, and saw wide territory spread
Before him, towns, and rural works between
Cities of men with lofty gates and towers,
Concourse in arms, fierce faces threatening war,
Giants of mighty bone, and bold emprise;
Part wield their arms, part curb the foaming steed
Single, or in array of battle ranged,
Both horse and foot, nor idly mustering stood;
One way a band select from forage drives
A herd of beeves, fair oxen and fair kine,
From a fat meadow ground; or fleecy flock,
Ewes and their bleating lambs, over the plain,
Their booty; scarce with life the shepherds -,