And his adherents, that with fo much ease
I fuffer'd them to enter and possess
A place fo heav'nly, and conniving feem
To gratify my fcornful 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 fling
Of thy victorious arm, well pleasing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last 635
Through Chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and feal up his rav'nous jaws
Then heav'n and earth renew'd shall be made pure
To fanctify that fhall receive no ftain:
Till then the curfe 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 the song,
While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty Angels, gave them feveral charge, 650
As forted beft with present things. The fun
Had first his precept fo to move, fo fhine,
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 blank moon
Her office they prefcrib'd; to th' other five,
Their planetary motions and aspects,
In fextile, fquare, and trine, and oppofite
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In fynod unbenign; and taught the fix'd
Their influence malignant when to show'r;
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 thore, the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aereal hall.
Some fay he bid his Angels turn askaunce
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the fun's axle; they with labour push'd
Oblique the centric globe: fome say the fun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like distant breadth to Taurus with the fev❜n
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 feafons to each clime; elfe had the spring
Perpetual fmil'd on earth with vernant flow'rs,
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 still th' horizon, and not known
Or eaft or weft, which had forbid the fnow
From cold Eftotiland, and fouth as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tafted fruit
The fun, as from Thyeftean banquet, turn'd
His courfe intended; else how had the world
Inhabited, tho' finlefs, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
Thefe changes in the heav'ns, tho' flow, produc'd
Like change on fea and land, fideral blast,
Vapour, and mift, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and peftilent: now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed fhore,
Burfling their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice,
And fnow, and hail, and stormy guft and flaw,
Boreas, and Cæcias, and Argeftes loud,
And Thrafcias, rend the woods, and feas upturn; 700, With adverse blast upturns them from the fouth Notus and Afer black with thundrous clouds
From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce
Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds,
Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,
Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began
Outrage from lifelefs things: but Discord first,
Daughter of Sin among th' irrational
Death introduc'd, through fierce antipathy:
Beaft now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving, 711.
Devour'd each other; nor ftood much in awe
Of man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him paffing. These were from without
The growing miferies, which Adam faw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomieft fhades,
To forrow' abandon'd; but worse felt within,
And in a troubled fea of paffion tost,
Thus to difburden fought with fad complaint.
O miserable of happy! is this th' end
Of this new glorious world, and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of bleffed? hide me from the face
Of GOD, whom to behold was then my heighth
Of happiness! yet well, if here would end
The mifery; 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, Increafe 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 curfe
My head? Il fare our ancestor impure;
For this we may thank Adam: but his thanks
Shall be the execration; fo befides
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!.
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me Man? did I folicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurr'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 justice feems; yet to fay truth, too late
I thus contest; then should have been refus’d
Thofe terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou did't accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? And though GoD
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy fon
Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore did't thou beget me'? I fought it not:
Would'st 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 juftly' is at his will.
Be' it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,
That duft I am, and shall to duft return.
O welcome hour whenever! why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive?
Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathlefs pain? how gladly would Ï meet
Mortality my fentence, and be earth
Infenfibly? how glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap? there I should reft
And fleep fecure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ear; no fear of worfe
To me and to my offspring would torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
Pursues me ftill, left all I cannot die ;
Left that pure breath of life, the fp'rit of man,
Which God infpir'd, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,
Or in fome other difmal place, who knows
But I fhall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath
Of life that finn'd: what dies but what had life 790
And fin? the body properly had neither.
All of me then fhall die; let this appeafe
The doubt, fince human reach no further knows.
For though the LORD of all be infinite,
Is his wrath alfo? be it, Man is not fo,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise
Wrath without end on Man, whom death must end? Can he make deathlefs death? that were to make Strange contradiction, which to God himself Impoffible is held, as argument
Of weakness not of pow'r.
For anger's fake, finite to infinite
In punish'd man, to fatisfy his rigour
Satisfy'd never? that were to extend
His fentence beyond duft, and nature's law,
By which all caufes elfe according still
To the reception of their matter act,
Not to th' extent of their own sphere.
That death be not one ftroke, as I fuppos'd,
Bereaving fenfe, but endlefs mifery
From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and fo last
To perpetuity: Ay me, that fear
Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution defenceless head; both Death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both;
Nor I on my part fingle, in me all
Pofterity ftands curs'd: fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, fons; O were I able
To wafte in all myself, and leave ye none !
So difinherited, how would ye blifs
Me, now your curfe! Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,
If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,
But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd,'
Not to do only, but to will the fame
|