I
 
 ' I ^ 
 

 
 >' '* * ; '\
 
 Published bv J Mawman and the olher Propr 
 1817
 
 IPAIR AID I 
 
 JOHN MIJLTON 
 
 Published by J.Mawman .and the othor ft-oprieto 
 1817
 
 

 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MILTON. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED, 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR; 
 
 AHD 
 
 A CRITICISM ON THE POEM, 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; J. NICHOLS AND 
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 1817. 
 
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 Printed by S. HAMILTON, Weybridge, Surrey. 
 
 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGO-E3
 
 STACK ANNEX 
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 2/7 
 
 JOHN MILTON. 
 
 FROM a family and town of his name in Oxfordshire, 
 our author derived his descent ; but he was born at 
 London in the year 1608. The publisher of his 
 works in prose (on whose veracity some part of this 
 narrative must entirely depend) dates his birth two 
 years earlier than this : but contradicting himself af- 
 terwards in his own computation, I reduce it to the 
 time that Monsieur Bayle hath assigned ; and for the 
 same reason which prevailed with him to assign it. 
 His father, John Milton, by profession a scrivener, 
 lived in a reputable manner on a competent estate, 
 entirely his own acquisition ; having been early dis- 
 inherited by his parents for renouncing the commu- 
 nion of the church of Rome, to which they were 
 zealously devoted. By his wife, Sarah Caston, he had 
 likewise one daughter, named Anna ; and another 
 son, Christopher, whom he trained to the practice of 
 
 a2 
 
 2123772
 
 iv THE LIFE OF 
 
 the common law ; who in the civil wars adhered to 
 the royal cause : and in the reign of King James II., 
 by too easy a compliance with the doctrines of the 
 court, both religious and civil, he attained to the 
 dignity of being made a Judge of the Common Pleas ; 
 of which he died divested not long after the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 But JOHN, the subject of the present essay, was 
 the favourite of his father's hopes ; who, to cultivate 
 the great genius which early displayed itself, was at 
 the expence of a domestic tutor ; whose care and ca- 
 pacity his pupil hath gratefully celebrated in an ex- 
 cellent Latin elegy. At his initiation 
 An.-Etat. 12. 
 
 he is said to have applied himself to let- 
 ters with such indefatigable industry, that he rarely 
 was prevailed with to quit his studies before mid- 
 night : which not only made him frequently subject 
 to severe pains in his head, but likewise occasioned 
 that weakness in his eyes, which terminated in a 
 total privation of sight. From a domestic education 
 he was removed to St. Paul's School, to complete his 
 acquaintance with the classics, under the care of Dr. 
 
 Gill : and after a short stay there, was 
 An. .& tat. 15. 
 
 transplanted to Christ College in Cam- 
 bridge, where he distinguished himself in all kinds
 
 JOHN MILTON. V 
 
 of academical exercises. Of this society he continued 
 a member till he commenced Master of Arts; and 
 then leaving the University, he returned to his father, 
 
 who had quitted the town, and lived at 
 
 An. JEtat. 23. 
 
 Horton m Buckinghamshire; where he 
 
 pursued his studies with unparalleled assiduity and 
 
 success. 
 
 After some years spent in this studious retirement, 
 his mother died ; and then he prevailed with his fa- 
 ther to gratify an inclination he had long entertained 
 
 of seeing foreign countries. Sir Henry 
 
 An. ^Etat. 30. 
 Wotton, at that time Provost of Eton 
 
 College, gave him a letter of advice for the direction 
 of his travels : but, by not observing an excellent 
 maxim * in it, he incurred great danger, by disputing 
 against the superstition of the Church of Rome, with- 
 in the verge of the Vatican. Having employed his 
 curiosity about f two years in France and Italy, on 
 the news of a civil war breaking out in England, h 
 returned; without taking a survey of Greece and 
 
 * I pensieri stretti, ed il viso sciolto. 
 
 f Et jam bis viridi surgebat culmus arista 
 
 Et totidem flavas numerabant horrea messes, 
 Nee dum aderat Thyrsis: pastorem scilicet ilium . 
 Dulcis amor Musse Thusca retinebat in urbe. 
 
 Epitaph, Dam.
 
 VI THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sicily, as at his setting out the scheme was projected. 
 At* Paris the Lord Viscount Scudamore, Ambassador 
 from King Charles I. at the Court of France, intro- 
 duced him to the acquaintance of Grotius, who at 
 that time was honoured with the same character there 
 by Christina Queen of Sweden. In Rome, Genoa, 
 Florence, and other cities of Italy, he contracted a 
 familiarity with those who were of highest reputa- 
 tion for wit and learning : several of whom gave 
 him very obliging testimonies of their friendship and 
 esteem, which are printed before his Latin poems. 
 The first of them was written by Manso Marquis of 
 Villa, a great patron of Tasso, by whom he is cele- 
 brated in his Poem on the Conquest of Jerusalem f. 
 It is highly probable that to his conversation with 
 this noble Neapolitan we owe the first design which 
 Milton conceived of writing an Epic Poem : and it 
 appears by some Latin verses addressed to the Mar- 
 quis with the title of Mansus, that he intended to 
 fix on King Arthur for his hero ; but Arthur was re- 
 served to another destiny ! 
 
 Returning from his travels he found England on 
 
 * Defensio Secunda. Pag. 96. fol. 
 f Fra. Cavalier' magnanimi, e cortesi, 
 Resplende il Manso. Lib. 20.
 
 JOHN MILTON. Vll 
 
 the point of being involved in blood and 
 
 An. JEtat. 32. 
 confusion. It seems wonderful that one 
 
 of so warm and daring a spirit as his certainly was, 
 should be restrained from the camp in those unnatural 
 commotions. I suppose we may impute it wholly to 
 the great deference he paid to paternal authority, that 
 he retired to lodgings provided for him in the city : 
 which being commodious for the reception of his 
 sister's sons, and some other young gentlemen, he 
 undertook their education j and is said to have formed 
 them on the same plan which he afterwards pub- 
 lished, in a short tractate inscribed to his friend Mr. 
 Hartlib. 
 
 In this philosophical course he continued without 
 
 a wife to the year 1 643 j when he mar- 
 
 An. -SEtat. 35. 
 ried Mary the daughter of Richard Powel 
 
 of Forest-hill, in Oxfordshire ; a gentleman of estate 
 and reputation in that county ; and of principles so 
 very opposite to his son-in-law, that the marriage 
 is more to be wondered at, than the separation which 
 ensued, in little more than a month after she had 
 cohabited with him in London. Her desertion pro- 
 voked him both to write several treatises concern- 
 ing the doctrine and discipline of divorce, and also 
 to make his addresses to a young lady of great wit
 
 Viii THE LIFE OF 
 
 and beauty: but before he had engaged her affections 
 to conclude the marriage treaty, in a visit at one of 
 his relations he found his wife prostrate before him, 
 imploring forgiveness and reconciliation. It is not 
 to be doubted but an interview of that nature, so 
 little expected, must wonderfully affect him : and per- 
 haps the impressions it made on his imagination con- 
 tributed much to the painting of that pathetic scene 
 in Paradise Lost *, in which Eve addresseth herself to 
 Adam for pardon and peace. At the intercession of his 
 friends who were present, after a short reluctance, he 
 generously sacrificed all his resentment to her tears. 
 
 Soon his heart relented 
 
 Tow'ards her, his life so late and sole delight, 
 Now at his feet submissive in distress. 
 
 And after this re-union, so far was he from retaining 
 an unkind memory of the provocations which he had 
 received from her ill conduct, that when the King's 
 cause was entirely oppressed, and her father, who had 
 been active in his loyalty, was exposed to sequestra- 
 tion, Milton received both him and his family to 
 protection and free entertainment in his own house, 
 till their affairs were accommodated by his interest in 
 the victorious party. 
 
 * Book X. ver. 909.
 
 JOHN MILTON. IX 
 
 For he was now grown famous by his 
 
 An.JEtat 41. 
 polemical writings of various kinds, and 
 
 held in great favour and esteem by those who had 
 power to dispose of all preferments in the state. It 
 is in vain to dissemble, and far be it from me to de- 
 fend, his engaging with a party combined in the de- 
 struction of our church and monarchy. Yet, leaving 
 the justification of a misguided sincerity to be de- 
 bated in the schools, may I presume to observe in his 
 favour, that his zeal, distempered and furious as it 
 was, does not appear to have been inspirited by self- 
 interested views ? For it is affirmed, that though he 
 lived always in a frugal retirement, and before his 
 death had disposed of his library (which we may sup- 
 pose to have been a valuable collection), he left no 
 more than fifteen hundred pounds behind him for 
 the support of his family : and whoever considers the 
 posts to which he was advanced, and the times in 
 which he enjoyed them, will, I believe, confess he 
 might have accumulated a much more plentiful for- 
 tune. In a dispassionate mind it will not require 
 any extraordinary measure of candour to conclude, 
 that though he abode in the heritage of oppressors, 
 and the spoils of his country lay at his feet, neither 
 his conscience nor his honour could stoop to gather 
 there.
 
 X THE LIFE OF 
 
 A commission to constitute him Ad- 
 An. .ffitat. 42. 
 
 jutant-General to fcir AVilliam Waller 
 
 was promised ; but soon superseded by Waller's be- 
 ing laid aside, when his masters thought it proper to 
 new-model their army. However, the keenness of 
 his pen had so effectually recommended him to Crom- 
 well's esteem, that when he took the reins of govern- 
 ment into his own hand, he advanced him to be La- 
 tin Secretary, both to himself and the Parliament: 
 the former of these preferments he enjoyed both 
 under Cromwell and his son j the other till King 
 Charles II. was restored. For some time he had an 
 apartment for his family in Whitehall; but his health 
 requiring a freer accession of air, he was obliged to 
 remove from thence to lodgings which opened into 
 St. James's Park. Not long after his settlement there, 
 his wife died in child-bed : and much about the time 
 of her death, a gutta serena, which had for several 
 years been gradually increasing, totally extinguished 
 his sight. In this melancholic condition he was easily 
 prevailed with to think of taking another wife, who 
 Avas Catharine the daughter of Captain Woodcock, 
 of Hackney : and she too, in less than a year after 
 their marriage, died in the same unfortunate manner 
 as the former had done ; and in his twenty-third 
 sonnet he does honour to her memory.
 
 JOHN' UIL.TO'N. XI 
 
 These private calamities were much 
 
 An. j*Etat. 52. 
 heightened by the different figure he was 
 
 likely to make in the new scene of affairs which 
 was going to be acted in the state : for all things now 
 conspiring to promote the King's restoration, he was 
 too conscious of his own activity during the usurpa- 
 tion, to expect any favour from the crown ; and 
 therefore he prudently absconded till the act of ob- 
 livion was published ; by which he was only ren- 
 dered incapable of bearing any office in the nation. 
 Many had a very just esteem of his admirable parts 
 and learning, who detested his principles ; by whose 
 intercession his pardon passed the seals. 
 
 Having thus gained a full protection from the 
 government, he appeared as much in public as he 
 formerly used to do; and employing his friend, Dr. 
 Paget, to make choice of a third consort, on his re- 
 commendation he married Elizabeth the daughter of 
 Mr. Minshul, a Cheshire gentleman, by whom he 
 had no issue. Three daughters by his first wife were 
 then living ; the two elder of whom are said to have 
 been very serviceable to him in his studies : for, 
 having been instructed to pronounce not only the mo- 
 dern, but also the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew lan- 
 guages, they read in their respective originals what-
 
 xii THE LIFE or 
 
 ever authors he wanted to consult ; though they un- 
 derstood none but their mother-tongue. This em- 
 ployment, however, was too unpleasant to be conti- 
 nued for any long process of time ; and therefore he 
 dismissed them to receive an education more agree- 
 able to their sex and temper. 
 
 We come now to take a survey of him in that 
 point of view, in which he will be looked on by all 
 succeeding ages with equal delight and admiration. 
 An interval of above twenty years had elapsed since 
 
 Ofi he wrote the Mask of Comus *, L' Al- 
 An. JEiai. . ?' 
 
 legro, II Penseroso, and Lycidas -\ ; all 
 
 in such an exquisite strain, that though he had left no 
 other monuments of his genius behind him, his name 
 had been immortal. But neither the infirmities of 
 age and constitution, nor the vicissitudes of fortune, 
 could depress the vigour of his mind, or divert it 
 from executing a design he had J long conceived of 
 writing an heroic poem. The Fall of Man was a sub- 
 ject which he had some years before fixed on for a 
 tragedy, which he intended to form by the models of 
 antiquity: and some, not without probability, say 
 the play opened with that speech in the fourth book 
 of Paradise Lost, ver. 32, which is addressed by Satan 
 \ Paradise Lost, B. uc. ver. 26.
 
 JOHN MILTON. xiii 
 
 to the sun. Were it material., I believe I could pro- 
 duce other passages, which more plainly appear to 
 have been originally intended for the scene. But, 
 whatever truth there may be in this report, it is cer- 
 tain that he did not begin to mould his subject in the 
 form it bears now, before he had concluded his con- 
 troversy with Salmasius and More, when he had 
 wholly lost the use of his eyes, and was forced to 
 employ in the office of an amanuensis any friend who 
 accidentally paid him a visit. Yet, under all these 
 discouragements and various interrup- 
 tions, in the year 1669* he published 
 his Paradise Lost, the noblest poem, next to those of 
 Homer and Virgil, that ever the wit of man pro- 
 duced in any age or nation. Need I mention any 
 other evidence of its inestimable worth, than that 
 the finest geniuses who have succeeded him have ever 
 esteemed it a merit .to relish and illustrate its beau- 
 ties ? Whilst the critic, who gazed with so much 
 wanton malice on the nakedness of Shakespear when 
 he slept, after having formally f declared war against 
 it, wanted courage to make his attack ; flushed 
 though he was with his conquests over Julius Caesar, 
 
 * Milton's contract with his bookseller, S. Simmons, for the 
 copy, bears date April 27, 1 667. 
 
 f The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered, p. 143.
 
 XIV THE LIFE OF 
 
 and the Moor : which insolence his muse, like the 
 other assassins of Caesar *, severely revenged on her- 
 self j and, not long after her triumph, became her 
 own executioner. Nor is it unworthy our observa- 
 tion, that though, perhaps, no one of our English 
 poets hath excited so many admirers to imitate his 
 manner, yet I think never any was known to aspire 
 to emulation : even the late ingenious Mr. Philips, 
 who, in the colours of style, came the nearest of all 
 the copiers to resemble the great original, made his 
 distant advances with a filial reverence ; and re- 
 strained his ambition within the same bounds which 
 Lucretius prescribed to his own imitation. 
 
 Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter amorem 
 Quod TE imitari aveo : quid enim contendat hirundo 
 Cycnis? 
 
 And now perhaps it may pass for fiction, what with 
 great veracity I affirm to be a fact, that Milton, after 
 having with much difficulty prevailed to have this di- 
 vine poem licensed for the press, could sell the copy 
 for no more than fifteen pounds : the payment of which 
 valuable consideration depended on the sale of three 
 numerous impressions. So unreasonably may personal 
 prejudice affect the most excellent performances ! 
 
 * Vide Edgar.
 
 JOHN MILTON. XV 
 
 About two years after *, together with 
 
 An. ^Etat. 63. 
 
 Samson Agonistes (a tragedy not un- 
 worthy the Grecian stage when Athens was in her 
 glory) he published Paradise Regained. But, oh ! 
 what a falling-off was there ! Of which I will say no 
 more, than that there is scarcely a more remarkable 
 instance of the frailty of human reason, than our 
 author gave in preferring this poem to Paradise Lost ; 
 nor a more instructive caution to the best writers, to 
 be very diffident in deciding the merit of their own 
 productions. 
 
 And thus having attended him to the sixty-sixth 
 year of his age, as closely as such imperfect lights as 
 men of letters and retirement usually leave to guide 
 our inquiry, would allow, it now only remains to be 
 recorded, that in the year 1 674 the gout 
 put a period to his life at Bunhill, near 
 London ; from whence his body was conveyed to St. 
 Giles's church by Cripplegate, where it lies interred 
 in the chancel : but neither has, nor wants, a monu- 
 ment to perpetuate his memory f. 
 
 * They were licensed July 2, 1670, but not printed before the 
 year ensuing. 
 
 f Yet, to the honour of the commercial character, be it recorded, 
 that a Monument was at length erected to him in Cripplegate church 
 in 1793 by Mr. Whitbread, whose extensive brewery, unparalleled 
 in Europe, is situated in this parish; and whose large heart, expand-
 
 XVi THE LIFE OF 
 
 In his youth he is said to have been extremely 
 handsome : the colour of his hair was a light-brown j 
 the symmetry of his features exact ; enlivened with 
 an agreeable air, and a beautiful mixture of fair and 
 ruddy ; which occasioned the Marquis of Villa to 
 give his Epigram * the same turn of thought, which 
 Gregory, Archdeacon of Rome, had employed above 
 a thousand years before, in praising the amiable com- 
 plexions of some English youths, before their conver- 
 sion to Christianity. His stature (as we find it mea- 
 
 ing with the amplitude of his fortunes, continually prompts him to 
 acts of the noblest liberality. The inscription on the monument is 
 plain and simple, and therefore suitable to the dignity of Milton, 
 who has long ago erected a memorial of himself, more durable than 
 marble. A tablet is however very proper to mark the hallowed 
 spot where his mortal remains were deposited. The following is the 
 inscription under a fine bust. KNOX. 
 
 JOHN MILTON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF PARADISE LOST, 
 BORN DECEMBER 1608, 
 DIED NOVEMBER 1674. 
 
 HIS FATHER, JOHN MILTON, DIED 1646. 
 THET WERE BOTH INTERRED IN THIS CHURCH. 
 
 Serpent and Apple 
 on the Flaming Sword. 
 
 Erec:ed in 1733. J. Bacon, Sculpt. 
 
 * Ut mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, si pietas sic, 
 Non Anglus, verum hercle Angelus ipse fores.
 
 JOHN MILTON. Xvii 
 
 sured by himself * did not exceed the middle size ; 
 neither too lean,, nor corpulent : his limbs well pro- 
 portioned, nervous, and active ; serviceable in all re- 
 spects to his exercising the sword, in which he much 
 delighted ; and wanted neither skill nor courage to 
 resent an affront from men of the most athletic con- 
 stitutions. In his diet he was abstemious ; not deli- 
 cate in the choice of his dishes ; and strong liquors of 
 all kinds were his aversion. Being too sadly con- 
 vinced how much his health had suffered by night- 
 studies in his younger years, he used to go early 
 (seldom later than nine) to rest ; and rose commonly 
 before five in the morning. It is reported (and there 
 is a passage in one of his Latin Elegies to counte- 
 nance the tradition) that his fancy made the happiest 
 flights in the spring : but one of his nephews used to 
 deliver it as Milton's own observation, that his in- 
 vention was in its highest perfection from September 
 to the vernal equinox : however it was, the great in- 
 equalities to be found in his composures are incon- 
 testable proofs that in some seasons he was but one 
 of the people. When blindness restrained him from 
 other exercises, he had a machine to swing in, for 
 the preservation of his health and diverted himself 
 
 * Defensio Secunda, p. 87, fol. 
 b
 
 XVJU THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON. 
 
 in his chamber with playing on an organ. His de- 
 portment was erect, open, affable ; his conversation 
 easy, cheerful, instructive ; his wit on all occasions 
 at command, facetious, grave, or satirical, as the 
 subject required. His judgment, when disengaged 
 from religious and political speculations, was just and 
 penetrating ; his apprehension quick ; his memory 
 tenacious of what he read 5 his reading, only not so 
 extensive as his genius, for that was universal. And 
 having treasured up such immense stores of science, 
 perhaps the faculties of his soul grew more vigorous 
 after he was deprived of his sight : and his imagina- 
 tion (naturally sublime, and enlarged by reading 
 romances * of which he was much enamoured in his 
 youth), when it was wholly abstracted from material 
 objects, was more at liberty to make such amazing 
 excursions into the ideal world, when in composing 
 his divine work he was tempted to range 
 Beyond the visible diurnal sphere. 
 
 With so many accomplishments, not to have had 
 some faults and misfortunes, to be laid in the balance 
 with the fame and felicity of writing Paradise Lost, 
 would have been too great a portion for humanity. 
 
 ELIJAH FENTON. 
 
 * His Apology for Smectymnuus, p. 177, fol.
 
 CRITICISM 
 
 ON 
 
 PARADISE LOST, 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 
 
 " I AM now to examine Paradise Lost ; a poem 
 which, considered with respect to design, may claim 
 the first place, and with respect to performance, the 
 second, among the productions of the human mind. 
 By the general consent of critics, the first praise of 
 genius is due to the writer of an epic poem, as it 
 requires an assemblage of all the powers which are 
 singly sufficient for other compositions. Poetry is the 
 art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagi- 
 nation to the help of reason. Epic poetry undertakes 
 to teach the most important truths by the most pleas- 
 ing precepts, and therefore relates some great event 
 in the most affecting manner. History must supply 
 the writer with the rudiments of narration, which 
 he must improve and exalt by a nobler art, must ani- 
 
 b 2
 
 XX CRITICISM ON 
 
 mate by dramatic energy, and diversify by retrospec- 
 tion and anticipation j morality must teach him the 
 exact bounds, and different shades, of vice and vir- 
 tue j from policy, and the practice of life, he has 
 to learn the discriminations of character, and the ten- 
 dency of the passions, either single or combined 5 and 
 physiology must supply him with illustrations and 
 images. 
 
 To put these materials to poetical use is required 
 an imagination capable of painting nature and realiz- 
 ing fiction. Nor is he yet a poet, till he has attained 
 the whole extension of his language, distinguished all 
 the delicacies of phrase, and all the colours of words, 
 and learned to adjust their different sounds to all the 
 varieties of metrical modulation. 
 
 Bossu is of opinion, that the poet's first work is to 
 find a moral, which his fable is afterwards to illus- 
 trate and establish. This seems to have been the 
 process only of Milton ; the moral of other poems is 
 incidental and consequent ; in Milton's only it is es- 
 sential and intrinsic. His purpose was the most use- 
 ful and the most arduous ; to vindicate the ways of 
 God to man : to show the reasonableness of religion, 
 and the necessity of obedience to the divine law. 
 
 To convey this moral there must be a fable, a
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXI 
 
 narration artfully constructed, so as to excite curiosity, 
 and surprise expectation. In this part of his work 
 Milton must be confessed to have equalled every other 
 poet. He has involved in his account of the Fall of 
 Man the events which preceded, and those that were 
 to follow it : he has interwoven the whole system of 
 theology with such propriety, that every part appears 
 to be necessary; and scarcely any recital is wished 
 shorter for the sake of quickening the progress of the 
 main action. 
 
 The subject of an epic poem is naturally an event 
 of great importance. That of Milton is not the de- 
 struction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the 
 foundation of an empire. His subject is the fate of 
 worlds, the revolutions of heaven and of earth ; rebel- 
 lion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest 
 order of created beings ; the overthrow of their host, 
 and the punishment of their crime ; the creation of a 
 new race of reasonable creatures ; their original hap- 
 piness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, 
 and their restoration to hope and peace. 
 
 Great events can be hastened or retarded only by 
 persons of elevated dignity. Before the greatness 
 displayed in Milton's poem, all other greatness shrinks 
 away. The weakest of his agents are the highest and
 
 Xxii CRITICISM ON 
 
 noblest of human beings,, the original parents of man- 
 kind 5 with whose actions the elements consented ; 
 on whose rectitude, or deviation of will, depended 
 the state of terrestrial nature, and the condition of all 
 the future inhabitants of the globe. 
 
 Of the other agents in the poem, the chief are 
 such as it is irreverence to name on slight occasions. 
 The rest were lower powers ; 
 
 of which the least could wield 
 
 Those elements, and arm him with the force 
 Of all their regions; 
 
 powers, which only the controul of Omnipotence re- 
 strains from laying creation waste, and filling the vast 
 expanse of space with ruin and confusion. To display 
 the motives and actions of beings thus superior, so far 
 as human reason can examine them, or human imagi- 
 nation represent them, is the task which this mighty 
 poet has undertaken and performed. 
 
 In the examination of epic poems much speculation 
 is commonly employed upon the characters. The 
 characters in the Paradise Lost, which admit of ex- 
 amination, are those of angels and of man j of angels 
 good and evil ; of man in his innocent and sinful 
 state. 
 
 Among the angels, the virtue of Raphael is mild
 
 PARADISE LOST. XX111 
 
 and placid, of easy condescension and free communi- 
 cation j that of Michael is regal and lofty, and, as 
 may seem, attentive to the dignity of his own nature. 
 Abdiel and Gabriel appear occasionally, and act as 
 every incident requires ; the solitary fidelity of Abdiel 
 is very amiably painted. 
 
 Of the evil angels the characters are more diversi- 
 fied. To Satan, as Addison observes, such sentiments 
 are given as suit the most exalted and most depraved 
 being. Milton has been censured by Clarke * for the 
 impiety which sometimes breaks from Satan's mouth. 
 For there are thoughts, as he justly remarks, which 
 no observation of character can justify, because no 
 good man would willingly permit them to pass, how- 
 ever transiently, through his own mind. To make 
 Satan speak as a rebel, without any such expressions 
 as might taint the reader's imagination, was indeed 
 one of the great difficulties in Milton's undertaking j 
 and I cannot but think that he has extricated himself 
 with great happiness. There is in Satan's speeches 
 little that can give pain to a pious ear. The language 
 of rebellion cannot be the same with that of obe- 
 dience. The malignity of Satan foams in haughtiness 
 and obstinacy ; but his expressions are commonly ge- 
 
 * Author of the Essay on Study.
 
 XXIV CRITICISM ON 
 
 neral, and no otherwise offensive than as they are 
 wicked. 
 
 The other chiefs of the celestial rebellion are very 
 judiciously discriminated in the first and second books ; 
 and the ferocious character of Moloch appears, both 
 in the battle and council, with exact consistency. 
 
 To Adam and to Eve are given, during their in- 
 nocence, such sentiments as innocence can generate 
 and utter. There love is pure benevolence and mu- 
 tual veneration j their repasts are without luxury, and 
 their diligence without toil. Their addresses to their 
 Maker have little more than the voice of admiration 
 and gratitude. Fruition left them nothing to ask, 
 and innocence left them nothing to fear. 
 
 But with guilt enter distrust and discord, mutual 
 accusation, and stubborn self-defence 5 they regard 
 each other with alienated minds, and dread their 
 Creator as the avenger of their transgression. At last 
 they seek shelter in his mercy, soften to repentance, 
 and melt in supplication. Both before and after the 
 fall, the superiority of Adam is diligently sustained. 
 
 Of the probable and the marvellous, two parts of a 
 vulgar epic poem, which immerge the critic in deep 
 consideration, the Paradise Lost requires little to be 
 said. It contains the history of a miracle, of Creation
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXV 
 
 and Redemption; it displays the power and the mercy 
 of the Supreme Being ; the probable therefore is mar- 
 vellous, and the marvellous is probable. The sub- 
 stance of the narrative is truth- j and as truth allows 
 no choice, it is, like necessity, superior to rule. To 
 the accidental or adventitious parts, as to every thing 
 human, some slight exceptions may be made. But 
 the main fabric is immoveably supported. 
 
 It is justly remarked by Addison, that this poem 
 has, by the nature of its subject, the advantage above 
 all others, that it is universally and perpetually inte- 
 resting. All mankind will, through all ages, bear the 
 same relation to Adam and to Eve, and must partake 
 of that good and evil which extend to themselves. 
 
 Of the machinery, so called from so$ diro pr/^av^s, 
 by which is meant the occasional interposition of su- 
 pernatural power, another fertile topic of critical re- 
 marks, here is no room to speak, because every thing 
 is done under the immediate and visible direction of 
 Heaven 3 but the rule is so far observed, that no part 
 of the action could have been accomplished by any 
 other means. 
 
 Of episodes, I think there are only two, contained 
 in Raphael's relation of the war in heaven, and Mi- 
 chael's prophetic account of the changes to happen in
 
 XXVI CRITICISM ON 
 
 this world. Both are closely connected with the great 
 action ; one was necessary to Adam as a warning, the 
 other as a consolation. 
 
 To the completeness or integrity of the design 
 nothing can be objected j it has distinctly and clearly 
 what Aristotle requires, a beginning, a middle, and 
 an end. There is perhaps no poem, of the same 
 length, from which so little can be taken without 
 apparent mutilation. Here are no funeral games, 
 nor is there any long description of a shield. The 
 short digressions at the beginning of the third, se^ 
 venth, and ninth books, might doubtless be spared ; 
 but superfluities so beautiful, who would take away ? 
 or who does not wish that the author of the Iliad had 
 gratified succeeding ages with a little knowledge of 
 himself? Perhaps no passages are more frequently or 
 more attentively read than those extrinsic paragraphs j 
 and, since the end of poetry is pleasure, that cannot 
 be unpoetical with which all are pleased. 
 
 The questions, whether the action of the poem be 
 strictly one, whether the poem can be properly termed 
 heroic, and who is the hero, are raised by such rea- 
 ders as draw their principles of judgment rather from 
 books than from reason. Milton, though he entitled 
 Paradise Lost only a poem, yet calls it himself heroic
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXVU 
 
 song. Dryden, petulantly and indecently, denies the 
 heroism of Adam, because he was overcome j but 
 there is no reason why the hero should not be unfor- 
 tunate, except established practice, since success and 
 virtue do not go necessarily together. Cato is the 
 hero of Lucan ; but Lucan's authority will not be suf- 
 fered by Quintilian to decide. However, if success 
 be necessary, Adam's deceiver was at last crushed j 
 Adam was restored to his Maker's favour, and there- 
 fore may securely resume his human rank. 
 
 After the scheme and fabric of the poem, must be 
 considered its component parts, the sentiments, and 
 the dictior. 
 
 The sentiments, as expressive of manners, or ap- 
 propriated to characters, are, for the greater part, un- 
 exceptionably just. 
 
 Splendid passages, containing lessons of morality, 
 or precepts of prudence, occur seldom. Such is the 
 original formation of this poem, that as it admits no 
 human manners till the fall, it can give little assist- 
 ance to human conduct. Its end is to raise the 
 thoughts above sublunary cares or pleasures. Yet 
 the praise of that fortitude, with which Abdiel main- 
 tained his singularity of virtue against the scorn of 
 multitudes, may be accommodated to all times ; and
 
 XXV111 CRITICISM ON 
 
 Raphael's reproof of Adam's curiosity after the pla- 
 netary motions, with the answer returned by Adam, 
 may be confidently opposed to any rule of life which 
 any poet has delivered. 
 
 The thoughts which are occasionally called forth 
 in the progress, are such as could only be produced 
 by an imagination in the highest degree fervid and 
 active, to which materials were supplied by incessant 
 study and unlimited curiosity. The heat of Milton's 
 mind might be said to sublimate his learning, to throw 
 off into his work the spirit of science, unmingled with 
 its grosser parts. 
 
 He had considered creation in its whole extent, 
 and his descriptions are therefore learned. He had 
 accustomed his imagination to unrestrained indul- 
 gence, and his conceptions therefore were extensive. 
 The characteristic quality of his poem is sublimity. 
 He sometimes descends to the elegant, but his ele- 
 ment is the great. He can occasionally invest himself 
 with grace ; but his natural port is gigantic loftiness *. 
 He can please when pleasure is required j but it is 
 his peculiar power to astonish. 
 
 He seems to have been well acquainted with his 
 own genius, and to know what it was that Nature 
 * Algarotti terms it " gigantesca sublimata Miltoniana,"
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXIX 
 
 had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon 
 others ; the power of displaying the vast, illuminat- 
 ing the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the 
 gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful : he therefore 
 chose a subject on which too much could not be said, 
 on which he might tire his fancy, without the censure 
 of extravagance. 
 
 The appearances of nature, and the occurrences 
 of life, did not satiate his appetite of greatness. To 
 paint things as they are requires a minute attention, 
 and employs the memory rather than the fancy. Mil- 
 ton's delight was to sport in the wide regions of pos- 
 sibility} reality was a scene too narrow for his mind. 
 He sent his faculties out upon discovery, into worlds 
 where only imagination can travel, and delighted to 
 form new modes of existence, and furnish sentiment 
 and action to superior beings, to trace the counsels 
 of hell, or accompany the choirs of heaven. 
 
 But he could not be always in other worlds ; he 
 must sometimes revisit earth, and tell of things visible 
 and known. When he cannot raise wonder by the 
 sublimity of his mind, he gives delight by its fer- 
 tility. 
 
 Whatever be his subject, he never fails to fill the 
 imagination. But his images and descriptions of the
 
 XXX CRITICISM ON 
 
 scenes or operations of Nature do not seem to be al- 
 ways copied from original form, nor to have the fresh- 
 ness, raciness, and energy of immediate observation. 
 He saw Nature, as Dryden expresses it, " through the 
 spectacles of books ;" and on most occasions calls learn- 
 ing to his assistance. The garden of Eden brings to 
 his mind the vale of Enna, where Proserpine was ga- 
 thering flowers. Satan makes his way through fight- 
 ing elements, like Argo between the Cyanean rocks, 
 or Ulysses between the two Sicilian whirlpools, when 
 he shunned Charybdis on the larboard. The mytho- 
 logical allusions have been justly censured, as not be- 
 ing always used with notice of their vanity ; but they 
 contribute variety to the narration, and produce an 
 alternate exercise of the memory and the fancy. 
 
 His similes are less numerous, and more various, 
 than those of his predecessors. But he does not con- 
 fine himself within the limits of rigorous comparison : 
 his great excellence is amplitude, and he expands the 
 adventitious image beyond the dimensions which the 
 occasion required. Thus comparing the shield of Sa- 
 tan to the orb of the Moon, he crowds the imagination 
 with the discovery of the telescope, and all the won- 
 ders which the telescope discovers. 
 
 Of his moral sentiments it is hardly praise to af-
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXXI 
 
 firm that they excel those of all other poets ; for this 
 superiority he was indebted to his acquaintance with 
 the sacred writings. The ancient epic poets, wanting 
 the light of revelation, were very unskilful teachers of 
 virtue : their principal characters may be great, but 
 they are not amiable. The reader may rise from 
 their works with a greater degree of active or passive 
 fortitude, and sometimes of prudence ; but he will be 
 able to carry away few precepts of justice, and none 
 of mercy. 
 
 From the Italian writers it appears, that the ad- 
 vantages of even Christian knowledge may be possessed 
 in vain. Ariosto's pravity is generally known ; and 
 though the Deliverance of Jerusalem may be consi- 
 dered as a sacred subject, the poet has been very 
 sparing of moral instruction. 
 
 In Milton every line breathes sanctity of thought, 
 and purity of manners, except when the train of the 
 narration requires the introduction of the rebellious 
 spirits ; and even they are compelled to acknowledge 
 their subjection to God, in such a manner as excites 
 reverence, and confirms piety. 
 
 Of human beings there are but two; but those 
 two are the parents of mankind, venerable before 
 their fall for dignity and innocence, and amiable after
 
 XXxii CRITICISM ON 
 
 it for repentance and submission. In their first state 
 their affection is tender without weakness, and their 
 piety sublime without presumption. When they 
 have sinned, they show how discord begins in mutual 
 frailty, and how it ought to cease in mutual forbear- 
 ance ; how confidence of the divine favour is forfeited 
 by sin, and how hope of pardon may be obtained by 
 penitence and prayer. A state of innocence we can 
 only conceive, if indeed, in our present misery, it be 
 possible to conceive it ; but the sentiments and wor- 
 ship proper to a fallen and offending being, we have 
 all to learn, as we have all to practise. 
 
 The poet, whatever be done, is always great. 
 Our progenitors, in their first state, conversed with 
 angels ; even when folly and sin had degraded them, 
 they had not in their humiliation the port of mean 
 suitors ; and they rise again to reverential regard, 
 when we find that their prayers were heard. 
 
 As human passions did not enter the world before 
 the fall, there is in the Paradise Lost little opportu- 
 nity for the pathetic j but what little there is has not 
 been lost. That passion which is peculiar to rational 
 nature, the anguish arising from the consciousness of 
 transgression, and the horrors attending the sense of 
 the divine displeasure, are very justly described and
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXX1H 
 
 forcibly impressed. But the passions are moved only 
 on one occasion ; sublimity is the general and pre- 
 vailing quality in this poem ; sublimity variously mo- 
 dified, sometimes descriptive, sometimes argumenta- 
 tive. 
 
 The defects and faults of Paradise Lost, for faults 
 and defects every work of man must have, it is the 
 business of impartial criticism to discover. As, in 
 displaying the excellence of Milton, I have not made 
 long quotations, because' of selecting beauties there 
 had been no end, I shall in the same general manner 
 mention that which seems to deserve censure ; for 
 what Englishman can take delight in transcribing 
 passages, which, if they lessen the reputation of Mil- 
 ton, diminish in some degree the honour of our 
 country ? 
 
 The generality of my scheme does not admit the 
 frequent notice of verbal inaccuracies - } which Bent- 
 ley, perhaps better skilled in grammar than poetry, 
 has often found, though he sometimes made them, 
 and which he imputed to the obtrusions of a reviser, 
 whom the author's blindness obliged him to employ 
 a supposition rash and groundless, if he thought it 
 true; and vile and pernicious, if, as is said, he in 
 private allowed it to be false.
 
 XXKIV CRITICISM ON 
 
 The plan of Paradise Lost has this inconvenience, 
 that it comprises neither human actions nor human 
 manners. The man and woman who act and suffer, 
 are in a state which no other man or woman can ever 
 know. The reader finds no transaction in which he" 
 can be engaged; beholds no condition in which he 
 can by any effort of imagination place himself ; he 
 has, therefore, little natural curiosity or sympathy. 
 
 We all, indeed, feel the effects of Adam's dis- 
 obedience ; we all sin like Adam, and like him must 
 all bewail our offences -, we have restless and insidious 
 enemies in the fallen angels, and in the blessed spirit* 
 we have guardians and friends ; in the redemption of 
 mankind we hope to be included ; in the description 
 of heaven and hell we are surely interested, as we are 
 all to reside hereafter either in the regions of horror 
 or bliss. 
 
 But these truths are too important to be newj 
 they have been taught to our infancy; they have 
 mingled with our solitary thoughts and familiar con- 
 versation, and are habitually interwoven with the 
 whole texture of life. Being therefore not new, they 
 raise no unaccustomed emotion in the mind; what 
 we knew before, we cannot learn ; what is not unex- 
 pected, cannot surprise.
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXXV 
 
 Of the ideas suggested by these awful scenes, from 
 some we recede with reverence, except when stated 
 hours require their association ; and from others we 
 shrink with horror, or admit them only as salutary 
 inflictions, as counterpoises to our interests and pas- 
 sions. Such images rather obstruct the career of 
 fancy than incite it. 
 
 Pleasure and terror are indeed the genuine sources 
 of poetry ; but poetical pleasure must be such as hu- 
 man imagination can at least conceive, and poetical 
 terror such as human strength and fortitude may com- 
 bat. The good and evil of eternity are too ponder- 
 ous for the wings of wit j the mind sinks under them 
 in passive helplessness, content with calm belief and 
 humble adoration. 
 
 Known truths, however, may take a different ap- 
 pearance, and be conveyed to the mind by a new 
 train of intermediate images. This Milton has un- 
 dertaken, and performed with pregnancy and vigour 
 of mind peculiar to himself. Whoever considers the 
 few radical positions which the Scriptures afforded 
 him, will wonder by what energetic operation he 
 expanded them to such extent, and ramified them to 
 so much variety, restrained as he was by religious 
 reverence from licentiousness of fiction. 
 
 c 2
 
 XXXVI CRITICISM ON 
 
 Here is a full display of the united force of study 
 and genius; of a great accumulation of materials, 
 with judgment to digest, and fancy to combine them : 
 Milton was able to select from nature, or from story, 
 from an ancient fable, or from modern science, what- 
 ever could illustrate or adorn his thoughts. An ac- 
 cumulation of knowledge impregnated his mind, fer- 
 mented by study, and exalted by imagination. 
 
 It has been therefore said, without an indecent 
 hyperbole, by one of his encomiasts, that in reading 
 Paradise Lost we read a book of universal know- 
 ledge. 
 
 But original deficience cannot be supplied. The 
 want of human interest is always felt. Paradise Lost 
 is one of the books which the reader admires and 
 lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever 
 wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty 
 rather than a pleasure. We read Milton for instruc- 
 tion, retire harassed and overburdened, and look 
 elsewhere for recreation * ; we desert our master, and 
 seek for companions. 
 
 * The trifling taste of readers, who would prefer an insipid novel 
 to Paradise Lost, ought not to detract from the merit of Milton. 
 His merit requires a mind, pure, sublime, and enlightened, in some 
 degree, like his own, for its full perception. K.
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXXVli 
 
 Another inconvenience of Milton's design is, that 
 it requires the description of what cannot be de- 
 scribed, the agency of spirits. He saw that imma- 
 teriality supplied no images, and that he could not 
 show angels acting but by instruments of action j he 
 therefore invested them with form and matter. This, 
 being necessary, was therefore defensible; and he 
 should have secured the consistency of his system, by 
 keeping immateriality out of sight, and enticing his 
 reader to drop it from his thoughts. But he has un- 
 happily perplexed his poetry with his philosophy. 
 His infernal and celestial powers are sometimes pure 
 spirit, and sometimes animated body. When Satan 
 walks with his lance upon the burning marl, he has 
 a body ; when, in his passage between hell and the 
 new world, he is in danger of sinking in the vacuity, 
 and is supported by a gust of rising vapours, he has a 
 body ; when he animates the toad, he seems to be 
 mere spirit, that can penetrate matter at pleasure j 
 when he starts up in his own shape, he has at least 
 a determined form - } and when he is brought before 
 Gabriel, he has a spear and a shield, which he had 
 the power of hiding in the toad, though the arms of 
 the contending angels are evidently material. 
 The ?ulgar inhabitants of Pandsenaonium, being
 
 XXXVH1 CRITICISM ON 
 
 incorporeal spirits, are at large, though without num- 
 ber, in a limited space : yet in the battle, when they 
 were overwhelmed by mountains, their armour hurt 
 them, crushed in upon their substance, now grown 
 gross by sinning. This likewise happened to the 
 uncorrupted angels, who were overthrown the sooner 
 for their arms, for unarmed they might easily as 
 spirits have evaded by contraction or remove. Even 
 as spirits they are hardly spiritual 5 for contraction 
 and remove are images of matter j but if they could 
 have escaped without their armour, they might have 
 escaped from it, and left only the empty cover to be 
 battered. Uriel, when he rides on a sun-beam, is 
 material ; Satan is material when he is afraid of the 
 prowess of Adam. 
 
 The confusion of spirit and matter which pervades 
 the whole narration of the war of heaven fills it with 
 incongruity ; and the book, in which it is related, is, 
 I believe, the favourite of children, and gradually 
 neglected as knowledge is increased. 
 
 After the operation of immaterial agents, which 
 cannot be explained, may be considered that of al- 
 legorical persons, which have no real existence. To 
 exalt causes into agents, to invest abstract ideas with 
 form, and animate them with activity, has always
 
 PARADISE LOST. XXXIX 
 
 been the right of poetry. But such airy beings are, 
 for the most part, suffered only to do their natural 
 office, and retire. Thus Fame tells a tale, and Vic- 
 tory hovers over a general, or perches on a standard ; 
 but Fame and Victory can do no more. To give, them 
 any real employment, or ascribe to them any ma.- 
 terial agency, is to make them allegorical no longer, 
 but to shock the mind by ascribing effects to non- 
 entity. In the Prometheus of ./Eschylus, we see Vio- 
 lence and Strength, and in the Afcestis of Euripides, 
 we see Death brought upon the stage, all as active 
 persons of the drama ; but no precedents can justify 
 absurdity. 
 
 Milton's allegory of Sin and Death is undoubtedly 
 faulty. Sin is indeed the mother of Death, and may 
 be allowed to be the portress of hell ; but when they 
 stop the journey of Satan, a journey described as real, 
 and when Death offers him battle, the allegory is 
 broken. That Sin and Death should have shown the 
 way to hell, might have been allowed ; but they can- 
 not facilitate the passage by building a bridge, be- 
 cause the difficulty, of Satan's passage is described as 
 real and sensible, and the bridge ought to be only 
 figurative. The hell assigned to the rebellious spirits 
 is described as not less local than the residence of
 
 Xl CHITICISM ON 
 
 man. It is placed in some distant part of space, se- 
 parated from the regions of harmony and order by a 
 chaotic waste and an unoccupied vacuity ; but Sin 
 and Death worked up a mole of aggravated soil, ce- 
 mented with aphaltus ; a work too bulky for ideal 
 architects. 
 
 'This unskilful allegory appears to me one of the 
 greatest faults of the poem ; and to this there was no 
 temptation, but the author's opinion of its beauty. 
 
 To the conduct of the narrative some objection 
 may be made. Satan is with great expectation 
 brought before Gabriel in Paradise, and is suffered 
 to go away unmolested. The creation of man is re- 
 presented as the consequence of the vacuity left in 
 heaven by the expulsion of the rebels ; yet Satan 
 mentions it as a report rife in heaven before his de- 
 parture. 
 
 To find sentiments for the state of innocence, was 
 very difficult 5 and something of anticipation perhaps 
 is now and then discovered. Adam's discourse of 
 dreams seems not to be the speculation of a new- 
 created being. I know not whether his answer to 
 the angel's reproof for curiosity does not want some- 
 thing of propriety j it is the speech of a man ac- 
 quainted with many other men. Some philosophical
 
 PARADISE LOST. xi 
 
 notions, especially when the philosophy is false, might 
 have been better omitted. The angel, in a comparison, 
 speaks of timorous deer, before deer were yet timorous, 
 and before Adam could understand the comparison. 
 
 Dryden remarks, that Milton has some flats among 
 his elevations. This is only to say, that all the parts 
 are not equal. In every work, one part must be for 
 the sake of others ; a palace must have passages ; a 
 poem must have transitions. It is no more to be re- 
 quired that wit should always be blazing, than that 
 the sun should always stand at noon. In a great 
 work there is a vicissitude of luminous and opaque 
 parts, as there is in the world a succession of day and 
 night. Milton, when he has expatiated in the sky, 
 may be allowed sometimes to revisit earth j for what 
 other author ever soared so high, or sustained his 
 flight so long ? 
 
 Milton, being well versed in the Italian poets, 
 appears to have borrowed often from them ; and, as 
 every man catches something from his companions, 
 his desire of imitating Ariosto's levity has disgraced 
 his work with the Paradise of Fools ; a fiction not in 
 itself ill-imagined, but too ludicrous for its place. 
 
 His play on words, in which he delights too 
 often j his equivocations, which Bentley endeavours
 
 xlu carricisM ON 
 
 to defend by the example of the ancients ; his on- 
 necessary and ungraceful use of terms of art 5 it is 
 not necessary to mention, because they are easily re- 
 marked, and generally censured, and at last bear so 
 little proportion to the whole, that they scarcely de- 
 serve the attention of a critic. 
 
 Such are the faults of that wonderful perform- 
 ance, Paradise Lost ; which he who can put in ba- 
 lance with its beauties must be considered not as nice 
 but as dull, as less to be censured for want of can- 
 dour, than pitied for want of sensibility. 
 
 The highest praise of genius is original invention. 
 Milton cannot be said to have contrived the structure 
 of an epic poem, and therefore owes reverence to that 
 vigour and amplitude of mind to which all genera- 
 tions must be indebted for the art of poetical narra- 
 tion, for the texture of the fable, the variation of 
 incidents, the interposition of dialogue, and all the 
 stratagems that surprise and enchain attention. But, 
 of all the borrowers from Homer, Milton is perhaps 
 the least indebted. He was naturally a thinker for 
 himself, confident of his own abilities, and disdain- 
 ful of help or hinderance : he did not refuse admission 
 to the thoughts or images of his predecessors, but he 
 did not seek them. From his contemporaries he neither
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 courted nor received support j there is in his writings 
 nothing by which the pride of other authors might 
 be gratified, or favour gained; no exchange of praise, 
 nor solicitation of support. His great works were 
 performed under discountenance, and in blindness, 
 but difficulties vanished at his touch ; he was born 
 for whatever is arduous j and his work is not the 
 greatest of heroic poems, only because it is not the 
 first.
 
 MILTON'S 
 MORAL CHARACTER 
 
 NO LESS SUBLIME THAN HIS POETICAL. 
 (From MR. HAYLEY'S LIFE OP MILTON.) 
 
 " THERE is a striking resemblance between the poe- 
 tical and the moral character of Milton; they were 
 both the result of the finest dispositions for the at- 
 tainment of excellence that nature could bestow, and 
 of all the advantages that ardour and perseverance 
 in study and discipline could add, in a long course of 
 years, to the beneficent prodigality of nature ; even 
 in infancy he discovered a passion for glory; in 
 youth he was attached to temperance ; and arriving 
 at manhood, he formed the magnanimous design of 
 building a lofty name upon the most solid and secure 
 foundation : 
 
 1 He all his study bent 
 To worship God aright, and know his works 
 Not hid ; nor those things last, that might preserve 
 - Freedom and peace to men.'
 
 xlvi MILTON'S MORAL, CHARACTER. 
 
 In a noble consciousness of his powers and intentions, 
 he was not afraid to give, in his early life, a most 
 singular promise to his country, of producing such 
 future works as might redound to her glory * and 
 though such personal calamities fell upon him, as 
 might fairly have absolved him from that engage- 
 ment, yet never was any promise more magnificently 
 fulfilled. Seneca has considered a man of resolution, 
 struggling with adversity, as a spectacle worthy of 
 God; pur resolute countryman not only struggled 
 with adversity, but, under a peculiar load of compli- 
 cated calamities, he accomplished those works, that 
 are justly reckoned among the noblest offspring of 
 human genius. 
 
 * " In the private academies of Italy, whither I was favoured to 
 resort, perceiving that some trifles I had in memory, composed at 
 under twenty, or thereabout (for the manner is, that every one must 
 give some proof of his wit and reading there), met with acceptance 
 above what was looked for, and other things, which I had shifted, 
 in scarcity of books and conveniencies, to patch up amongst them, 
 were received with written encomiums, which the Italian is not for- 
 ward to bestow on men of this side the Alps : I began thus far to 
 assent both to them, and divers of my friends here at home, and 
 not less to an inward prompting, which now grew daily upon me, 
 that by labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion in 
 this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might per- 
 haps leave something so written to after times, as they should not 
 willing let it die." 
 
 From a letter tf Milton' s, Prose Works, Dr. Birch's Edit. 
 Vol. I. p. 62.
 
 MILTON'S MORAL CHARACTER. xlvii 
 
 In this point of view, with what pathetic gran- 
 deur is the poet invested ! 
 
 In contemplating the variety of his sufferings, and 
 his various mental achievements, we may declare, 
 without any extravagance of praise, that, although 
 sublimity is the predominant characteristic of Mil- 
 ton's poem, his own personal character is still more 
 sublime. 
 
 His majestic pre-eminence is nobly described in 
 the following verses of Akenside, a poet who bore 
 some affinity to Milton in the ardour of his mind, 
 whose sentiments are always noble, though not al- 
 ways accompanied by a graceful felicity of expression. 
 
 " Mark how the dread Pantheon stands, 
 
 Amid the domes of modern hands ; 
 
 Amid the toys of idle state, 
 
 How simply, how severely great : 
 
 Then turn, and while each western clime 
 
 Presents her tuneful sons to time, 
 So mark thou Milton's name ; 
 
 And add, Thus differs from the throng 
 
 The spirit which inform'd thy awful song, 
 Which bade thy potent voice protect thy country's fame." 
 
 The powers of Milton, indeed, are so irresistible, that 
 even those, whom the blindness of prejudice has ren- 
 dered his enemies, are constrained to regard him as 
 an object of admiration. In this article, posterity,
 
 MILTOXS MORAL CHARACTER. 
 
 to whom he made a very interesting appeal, has done 
 him ample justice ; still he is more admired than be- 
 loved : yet in granting him only admiration, we 
 ungenerously (withhold the richest half of that post- 
 humous reward, for which he laboured so fervently ; 
 we may be confident that he rather wished to excite 
 the affection, than the applause, of mankind j and 
 assuredly he has the noblest title to both, the title of 
 having exerted superlative genius and literary ambi- 
 tion under the constant influence of religious philan- 
 thropy. 
 
 In proportion as our country has advanced in 
 purity of taste, she has applauded the poet j and in 
 proportion as she advances in liberality of sentiment, 
 she will love the man."
 
 THE 
 
 FIRST BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 The first book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, Man's dis- 
 obedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was 
 placed: then touches the prime cause of his Fall, the Serpent, or 
 rather Satan in the Serpent ; who, revolting from God, and 
 drawing to his side many legions of Angels, was, by the command 
 of God, driven out of Heaven, with all his crew, into the great 
 deep. Which action passed over, the Poem hastens into the midst 
 of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now falling into Hell 
 described here, not in the centre (for Heaven and Earth may be 
 supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a 
 place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos : here Satan with 
 his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunder-struck and aston- 
 ished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up 
 him who next in order and dignity lay by him : they confer of 
 their miserable fall ; Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till 
 then in the same manner confounded. They rise ; their num- 
 bers ; array of battle; their chief leaders named, according to the 
 idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. 
 To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet 
 of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and 
 
 ' new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient pro- 
 phecy or report in Heaven ; for, that Angels were long before this 
 visible creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To 
 find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, 
 he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. 
 Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of 
 the deep: the infernal peers there sit in council.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 OF Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
 With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
 Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 
 Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 
 Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
 That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, 
 In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth 
 Rose out of Chaos : or if Sion hill 
 Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
 Fast by the oracle of God ; I thence 
 Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, 
 That with no middle flight intends to soar 
 Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 
 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime. 
 And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer 
 Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
 
 4 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 Instruct me, for thou know'st ; Thou from the first 
 Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread 
 Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, 
 And mad'st it pregnant : what in me is dark, 
 Illumine ; what is low, raise and support ; 
 That to the highth of this great argument 
 I may assert Eternal Providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to men. 
 
 Say first, for Heaven hides nothing from thy vi 
 Nor the deep tract of Hell ; say first, what cause 
 Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state, 
 Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off 
 From their Creator, and transgress his will 
 For one restraint, lords of the world besides? 
 Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? 
 The infernal Serpent ; he it was, whose guile, 
 Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 
 The mother of mankind, what time his pride 
 Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host 
 Of rebel Angels ; by whose aid, aspiring 
 To set himself in glory above his peers, 
 He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 
 If he opposed ; and, with ambitious aim 
 Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
 Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle proud, 
 With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
 Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
 With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
 To bottomless perdition j there to dwell 
 In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
 Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Nine times the space that measures day and night 
 
 To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 
 
 Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
 
 Confounded, though immortal : but his doom 
 
 Reserved him to more wrath j for now the thought 
 
 Both of lost happiness, and lasting pain, 
 
 Torments him : round he throws his baleful eyes a 
 
 That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, 
 
 Mixed with obdurate pride and stedfast hate : 
 
 At once, as far as Angels ken, he views 
 
 The dismal situation waste and wild : 
 
 A dungeon horrible on all sides round, 
 
 As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 
 
 No light) but rather darkness visible 
 
 Served only to discover sights of woe, 
 
 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
 
 And rest can never dwell) hope never comes 
 
 That comes to all; but torture without end 
 
 Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 
 
 With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed : 
 
 Such place Eternal Justice had prepared 
 
 For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 
 
 In utter darkness, and their portion set 
 
 As far removed from God and light of Heaven, 
 
 As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. 
 
 O, how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 
 
 There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 
 
 With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 
 
 He soon discerns ; and weltering by his side 
 
 One next himself in power, and next in crime, 
 
 Long after known in Palestine, and named
 
 6 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I, 
 
 Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy, 
 
 And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words 
 
 Breaking the horrid silence, thus began. 
 
 If thou beest he ; but O, how fallen ! how changed 
 From him, who, in the happy realms of light, 
 Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
 Myriads though bright ! If he whom mutual league, 
 United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
 And hazard in the glorious enterprize, 
 Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 
 In equal ruin ! Into what pit thou seest, 
 From what highth fallen ; so much the stronger proved 
 He with his thunder : and till then who knew 
 The force of those dire arms ? Yet not for those, 
 Nor -what the potent Victor in his rage 
 Can else inflict, do I repent or change, 
 Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, 
 And high disdain from sense of injured merit, 
 That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, 
 And to the fierce contention brought along 
 Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 
 That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 
 His utmost power with adverse power opposed 
 In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
 And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? 
 All is not lost 5 the unconquerable will, 
 And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
 And courage never to submit or yield, 
 And what is else not to be overcome ; 
 That glory never shall his wrath or might 
 Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 
 
 With suppliant knee, and deify his power, 
 
 Who from the terrour of this arm so late 
 
 Doubted his empire ; that were low indeed, 
 
 That were an ignominy, and shame beneath 
 
 This downfall ; since, by fate, the strength of Gods 
 
 And this empyreal substance cannot fail; 
 
 Since through experience of this great event 
 
 In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 
 
 We may with more successful hope resolve 
 
 To wage, by force or guile, eternal war, 
 
 Irreconcileable to our grand Foe, 
 
 Who now triumphs, and, in the excess of joy 
 
 Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of Heaven. 
 
 So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, 
 Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair : 
 And him thus answered soon his bold compeer. 
 
 O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers, 
 That led the embattled Seraphim to war 
 Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 
 Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual king, 
 And put to proof his high supremacy, 
 Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate; 
 Too well I see and rue the dire event, 
 That with sad overthrow, and foul defeat, 
 Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 
 In horrible destruction laid thus low, 
 As far as Gods and heavenly essences 
 Can perish : for the mind and spirit remains 
 Invincible, and vigour soon returns, 
 Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 
 Here swallowed up in endless misery.
 
 8 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 But what if he our Conquerour (whom I now 
 
 Of force believe Almighty, since no less 
 
 Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 
 
 Have left us this our spirit and strength entire 
 
 Strongly to suffer and support our pains, 
 
 That we may so suffice his vengeful ire, 
 
 Or do him mightier service as his thralls 
 
 By right of war, whate'er his business be, 
 
 Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, 
 
 Or do his errands in the gloomy deep; 
 
 What can it then avail, though yet we feel 
 
 Strength undiminished, or eternal being, 
 
 To undergo eternal punishment ? 
 
 Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied. 
 
 Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, 
 Doing or suffering : but of this be sure, 
 To do aught good never will be our task, 
 But ever to do ill our sole delight, 
 As being the contrary to his high will 
 Whom we resist. If then his providence 
 Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, 
 Our labour must be to pervert that end, 
 And out of good still to find means of evil j 
 Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps 
 Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 
 His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 
 But see ! the angry Victor hath recalled 
 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 
 Back to the gates of Heaven : the sulphurous hail, 
 Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid 
 Tke fiery surge, that from the precipice
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Of Heaven received us falling 5 and the thunder, 
 
 Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, 
 
 Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 
 
 To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. 
 
 Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn, 
 
 Or satiate fury, yield it from our Foe. 
 
 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 
 
 The seat of Desolation, void of light, 
 
 Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 
 
 Casts pale and dreadful ? Thither let us tend 
 
 From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; 
 
 There rest, if any rest can harbour there ; 
 
 And, re -assembling our afflicted Powers, 
 
 Consult how we may henceforth most offend 
 
 Our Enemy; our own loss how repair; 
 
 How overcome this dire calamity; 
 
 What reinforcement we may gain from hope ; 
 
 Jf*not, what resolution from despair. 
 
 Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate 
 With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes 
 That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides 
 Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 
 Lay floating many a rood; in bulk as huge 
 As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
 Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove ; 
 Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 
 By ancient Tarsus held; or that sea-beast 
 Leviathan, which God of all his works 
 Created hugest that swim the ocean stream : 
 Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam 
 The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff
 
 10 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 Deeming some island, oft, as sea-men tell, 
 
 With fixed anchor in his scaly rind 
 
 Moors by his side under the lee, while night 
 
 Invests the sea, and wished morn delays : 
 
 So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay, 
 
 Chained on the burning lake : nor ever thence 
 
 Had risen, or heaved his head ; but that the will 
 
 And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 
 
 Left him at large to his own dark designs ; 
 
 That with reiterated crimes he might 
 
 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
 
 Evil to others ; and, enraged, might see 
 
 How all his malice served but to bring forth 
 
 Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown 
 
 On Man by him seduced ; but on himself 
 
 Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance, poured. 
 
 Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
 
 His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames, 
 
 Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and, rolled 
 
 In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. 
 
 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 
 
 Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air 
 
 That felt unusual weight; till on dry land 
 
 He lights, if it were land that ever burned 
 
 With solid, as the lake with liquid fire : 
 
 And such appeared in hue, as when the force 
 
 Of subterranean wind transports a hill 
 
 Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 
 
 Of thundering JStna, whose combustible 
 
 And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire ] 
 
 Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 1 1 
 
 And leave a singed bottom all involved 
 With stench and smoke : such resting found the sole 
 Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate : 
 Both glorying to have 'scaped the Stygian flood 
 As Gods, and by their own recovered strength, 
 Not by the sufferance of supernal Power. 
 
 Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, 
 Said then the lost Arch- Angel, this the seat 
 That we must change for Heaven 3 this mournful gloom 
 For that celestial light ? Be it so ! since he, 
 Who now is Sovran, can dispose and bid 
 What shall be right : farthest from him is best, 
 Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 
 Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, 
 Where joy for ever dwells ! Hail, horrours ! hail, 
 Infernal world ! And thou, profoundest Hell, 
 Receive thy new possessour ! one who brings 
 A mind not to be changed by place or time : 
 The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. 
 What matter where, if I be still the same, 
 And what I should be ; all but less than he 
 Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least 
 We shall be free ; the Almighty hath not built. 
 Here for his envy, will not drive us hence : 
 Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice, 
 To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell : 
 Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven ! 
 But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 
 The associates and copartners of our loss, 
 Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool,
 
 12 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 And call them not to share with us their part 
 In this unhappy mansion j or once more 
 With rallied arms to try what may be yet 
 Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell ? 
 
 So Satan spake ; and him Beelzebub 
 Thus answered. Leader of those armies bright, 
 Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled ! 
 If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 
 Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft 
 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
 Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 
 Their surest signal, they will soon resume 
 New courage and revive; though now they lie 
 Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 
 As we ere while, astounded and amazed -, 
 No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth. 
 
 He scarce had ceased, when the superiour Fiend 
 Was moving toward the shore : his ponderous shield, 
 Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, 
 Behind him cast; the broad circumference 
 Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
 Through optick glass the Tuscan artist views 
 At evening from the top of Fesole, 
 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 
 Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe. 
 His spear, to equal which the tallest pine 
 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
 Of some great ammiral, were but a wand, 
 He walked with, to support uneasy steps 
 Over the burning marie, not like those steps 
 On Heaven's azure j and the torrid clime
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 13 
 
 Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire : 
 
 Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 
 
 Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 
 
 His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranced 
 
 Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
 
 In VallombrosE, where the Etrurian shades, 
 
 High over-arched, imbower; or scattered sedge 
 
 Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 
 
 Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew 
 
 Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 
 
 While with perfidious hatred they pursued 
 
 The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 
 
 From the safe shore their floating carcasses 
 
 And broken chariot wheels : so thick bestrown, 
 
 Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, 
 
 Under amazement of their hideous change. 
 
 He called so loud, that all the hollow deepi 
 
 Of Hell resounded ! Princes, Potentates, 
 
 Warriours, the flower of Heaven ! once yours, now lost, 
 
 If such astonishment as this can seise 
 
 Eternal Spirits ; or have ye chosen this place 
 
 After the toil of battle to repose 
 
 Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 
 
 To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven ? 
 
 Or in this abject posture have ye sworn 
 
 To adore the Conquerour ? who now beholds 
 
 Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood 
 
 With scattered arms and ensigns; till anon 
 
 His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern 
 
 The advantage, and, descending, tread us down 
 
 Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
 
 14 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf. 
 Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen ! 
 
 They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung 
 Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch 
 On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, 
 Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 
 In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; 
 Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed; 
 Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
 Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, 
 Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 
 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
 Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile : 
 So numberless were those bad Angels seen, 
 Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell 
 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; 
 Till, as a signal given, the up-lifted spear 
 Of their great Sultan waving to direct 
 Their course, in even balance down they light 
 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain ; 
 A multitude, like which the populous North 
 Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass 
 Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 
 Came like a deluge on the South, and spread 
 Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 
 Forthwith from every squadron, and each band, 
 The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 
 Their great Commander ; Godlike shapes, and forms 
 Excelling human; princely Dignities;
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 15 
 
 And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones j 
 
 Though of their names in heavenly records now 
 
 Be no memorial ; blotted out and rased 
 
 By their rebellion from the books of life. 
 
 Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 
 
 Got them new names ; till, wandering o'er the earth, 
 
 Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 
 
 By falsities and lies the greatest part 
 
 Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 
 
 God their Creator, and the invisible 
 
 Glory of him that made them to transform 
 
 Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 
 
 With gay religions full of pomp and gold, 
 
 And Devils to adore for Deities : 
 
 Then were they known to men by various names, 
 
 And various idols through the Heathen world. 
 
 Say, Muse, their names then known ; who first, who last, 
 
 Roused from the slumber, on that fiery couch, 
 
 At their great Emperour's call, as next in worth 
 
 Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 
 
 While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 
 
 The chief were those, who, from the pit of Hell 
 
 Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix 
 
 Their seats long after next the seat of God, 
 
 Their altars by his altar ; Gods adored 
 
 Among the nations round j and durst abide 
 
 Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
 
 Between the Cherubim ; yea, often placed 
 
 Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
 
 Abominations ; and with cursed things 
 
 His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned,
 
 16 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
 
 First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
 
 Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears ; 
 
 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
 
 Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire 
 
 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
 
 Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain, 
 
 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
 
 Of utmost Arnon ; nor content with such 
 
 Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart 
 
 Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
 
 His temple right against the temple of God, 
 
 On that opprobrious hill j and made his grove 
 
 The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
 
 And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. 
 
 Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, 
 
 From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild 
 
 Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 
 
 And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 
 
 The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines j 
 
 And Eleale to the Asphaltick pool. 
 
 Peor his other name, when he enticed 
 
 Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 
 
 To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 
 
 Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 
 
 Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 
 
 Of Moloch homicide ; lust hard by hate j 
 
 Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. 
 
 With these came they, who, from the bordering flood 
 
 Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 
 
 Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 17 
 
 Of Baalim and Ashtaroth ; those male, 
 
 These feminine : for Spirits, when they please, 
 
 Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 
 
 And uncompounded is their essence pure j 
 
 Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, 
 
 Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, 
 
 Like cumbrous flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, 
 
 Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 
 
 Can execute their aery purposes, 
 
 And works of love or enmity fulfil. 
 
 For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
 
 Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 
 
 His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
 
 To bestial Gods ; for which their heads as low 
 
 Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 
 
 Of despicable foes. With these in troop 
 
 Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 
 
 Astarte, queen of Heaven, with crescent horns j 
 
 To whose bright image nightly by the moon 
 
 Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 
 
 In Sion also not unsung, where stood 
 
 Her temple on the offensive mountain, built 
 
 By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large, 
 
 Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 
 
 To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, 
 
 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
 
 The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
 
 In amorous ditties all a summer's day; 
 
 While smooth Adonis from his native rock 
 
 Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
 
 Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love-tale
 
 18 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, 
 
 Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 
 
 Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 
 
 His eye sun-eyed the dark idolatries 
 
 Of alienated Judah. Next came one 
 
 Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 
 
 Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped off 
 
 In his own temple, on the grunsel edge, 
 
 Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers : 
 
 Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 
 
 And downward fish : yet had his temple high 
 
 Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 
 
 Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 
 
 And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 
 
 Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat 
 
 Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 
 
 Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 
 
 He also against the house of God was bold : 
 
 A leper once he lost, and gained a king ; 
 
 Ahaz, his sottish conquerour, whom he drew 
 
 God's altar to disparage, and displace, 
 
 For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 
 
 His odious offerings, and adore the Gods 
 
 Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 
 
 A crew, who, under names of old renown, 
 
 Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train, 
 
 With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 
 
 Fanatick Egypt, and her priests, to seek 
 
 Their wandering Gods disguised in brutish forms 
 
 Rather than human. Nor did Israel 'scape 
 
 The infection, when their borrowed gold composed
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 19 
 
 The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king 
 Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 
 Likening his Maker to the grazed ox , 
 Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed 
 From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke 
 Both her first-born and all her bleating Gods. 
 Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd 
 Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 
 Vice for itself: to him no temple stood 
 Or altar smoked ; yet who more oft than he 
 In temples and at altars, when the priest 
 Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 
 With lust and violence the house of God ? 
 In courts and palaces he also reigns, 
 And in luxurious cities, where the noise 
 Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers. 
 And injury, and outrage: and when night 
 Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 
 Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 
 Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night . 
 In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 
 Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 
 These were the prime in order and in might; 
 The rest were long to tell, though far renowned, 
 The Ionian Gods, of Javan's issue ; held 
 Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
 Their boasted parents : Titan, Heaven's first-born, 
 With his enormous brood, and birthright seised 
 By younger Saturn ; he from mightier Jove, 
 His own and Rhea's son, like measure found; 
 So Jove usurping reigned: these first in Crete 
 
 c2
 
 20 PARADISE LOST. BOOK J. 
 
 And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 
 Of cold Olympus, ruled the middle air, 
 Their highest Heaven ; or on the Delphian cliff, 
 Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 
 Of Dorick land ; or who with Saturn old 
 Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 
 And o'er the Celtick roamed the utmost isles. 
 
 All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
 Down-cast and damp; yet such wherein appeared 
 Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their Chief 
 Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 
 In loss itself; which on his countenance cast 
 Like doubtful hue : but he, his wonted pride 
 Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
 Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
 Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears. 
 Then straight commands, that at the warlike sound 
 Of trumpets loud and clarions be upreared 
 His mighty standard : that proud honour claimed 
 Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall ; 
 Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
 The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced, 
 Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
 With gems and golden lustre rich imblazed, 
 Seraphick arms and trophies ; all the while 
 Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 
 At which the universal host up-sent 
 A shout, that tore Hell's concave, and beyond 
 Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. 
 All in a moment through the gloom were seen 
 Ten thousand banners rise into the air
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 21 
 
 With orient colours waving : with them rose 
 A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 
 Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 
 Of depth immeasurable : anon they move 
 In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 
 Of flutes and soft recorders j such as raised 
 To highth of noblest temper heroes old 
 Arming to battle ; and instead of rage 
 Deliberate valour breathed, firm and unmoved 
 With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ; 
 Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage 
 With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase 
 Anguish, and doubt, and fear, and sorrow, and pain, 
 From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 
 Breathing united force, with fixed thought, 
 Moved on in silence to soft pipes, that charmed 
 Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil : and now 
 Advanced in view they stand ; a horrid front 
 Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 
 Of warriours old with ordered spear and shield ; 
 Awaiting what command their mighty Chief 
 Had to impose : he through the armed files 
 Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 
 The whole battalion views ; their order due; 
 Their visages and stature as of Gods ; 
 Their number last he sums. And now his heart 
 Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength 
 Glories : for never, since created man, 
 Met such imbodied force, as named with these 
 Could merit more than that small infantry 
 Warred on by cranes ; though all the giant brood
 
 22 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 Of Phlegra with the heroick race were joined 
 That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 
 Mixed with auxiliar Gods ; and what resounds 
 In fable or romance of Uther's son 
 Begirt with British and Armorick knights ; 
 And all who since, baptized or inndel,, 
 Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 
 Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond, 
 Or whom Biserta sent from Africk shore, 
 When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 
 By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 
 Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 
 Their dread Commander : he, above the rest 
 In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 
 Stood like a tower : his form had yet not lost 
 All her original brightness ; nor appeared 
 Less than Arch- Angel ruined, and the excess 
 Of glory obscured : as when the sun, new risen, 
 Looks through the horizontal misty air 
 "Shorn of his beams ; or from behind the moon, 
 In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 On half the nations, and with fear of change 
 Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 
 Above them all the Arch- Angel : but his face 
 Deep scars of thunder had intrenched ; and care 
 Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 
 Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 
 Waiting revenge : cruel his eye, but cast 
 Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 
 The fellows of his crime, the followers rather, 
 (Far other once beheld in bliss) condemned
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 23 
 
 For ever now to have their lot in pain ; 
 Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced 
 Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung 
 For his revolt; yet faithful how they stood, 
 Their glory withered : as when Heaven's fire 
 Hath scathed the forest oaks, or mountain pines, 
 With singed top their stately growth, though bare, 
 Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 
 To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 
 From wing to wing, and half enclose him round 
 With all his peers : attention held them mute. 
 Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, 
 Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth : at last 
 Words, interwove with sighs, found out their way. 
 
 O Myriads of immortal Spirits ! O Powers 
 Matchless, but with the Almighty ! and that strife 
 Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
 As this place testifies, and this dire change 
 Hateful to utter : but what power of mind, 
 Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
 Of knowledge past or present, could have feared, 
 How such united force of Gods, how such 
 As stood like these, could ever know repulse ? 
 For who can yet believe, though after loss, 
 That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
 Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend 
 Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat ? 
 For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, 
 If counsels different, or dangers shunned 
 By me, have lost our hopes. But he, who reigns 
 Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure
 
 24 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
 
 Consent or custom ; and his regal state 
 
 Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed, 
 
 Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. 
 
 Henceforth his might we know, and know our own ; 
 
 So as not either to provoke, or dread 
 
 New war, provoked : our better part remains 
 
 To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 
 
 What force effected not : that he no less 
 
 At length from us may find, who overcomes 
 
 By force, hath overcome but half his foe. 
 
 Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 
 
 There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long 
 
 Intended to create, and therein plant 
 
 A generation, whom his choice regard 
 
 Should favour equal to the sons of Heaven : 
 
 Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 
 
 Our first eruption ; thither or elsewhere : 
 
 For this infernal pit shall never hold 
 
 Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the abyss 
 
 Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 
 
 Full counsel must mature: peace is despaired; 
 
 For who can think submission ? War then, War, 
 
 Open or understood, must be resolved. 
 
 He spake : and, to confirm his words, out-flew 
 Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
 Of mighty Cherubim ; the sudden blaze 
 Far round illumined Hell : highly they raged 
 Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
 Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
 Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 25 
 
 There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 
 Belched fire and rolling smoke j the rest entire 
 Shone with a glossy scurf; undoubted sign 
 That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 
 The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
 A numerous brigad hastened : as when bands 
 Of pioneers, with spade and pickax armed, 
 Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, 
 Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them onj 
 Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell 
 From Heaven ; for e'en in Heaven his looks and thoughts 
 Were always downward bent, admiring more 
 The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 
 Than aught, divine or holy, else enjoyed 
 In vision beatifick : by him first 
 Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 
 Ransacked the center, and with impious hands 
 Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth 
 For treasures, better hid. Soon had his crew 
 Opened into the hill a spacious wound, 
 And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 
 That riches grow in Hell ; that soil may best 
 Deserve the precious bane. And here let those, 
 Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell 
 Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, 
 Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 
 And strength, and art, are easily out-done 
 By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour 
 What in an age they with incessant toil 
 And hands innumerable scarce perform. 
 Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,
 
 26 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 That underneath had veins of liquid fire 
 
 Sluced from the lake, a second multitude 
 
 With wonderous art founded the massy ore, 
 
 Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross : 
 
 A third as soon had formed within the ground 
 
 A various mould, and from the boiling cells 
 
 By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook ; 
 
 As in an organ, from one blast of wind, 
 
 To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 
 
 Anon, out of the earth., a fabrick huge 
 
 Rose like an exhalation, with the sound 
 
 Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, 
 
 Built like a temple, where pilasters round 
 
 Were set, and Dorick pillars overlaid 
 
 With golden architrave 5 nor did there want 
 
 Cornice or freeze, with bossy sculptures graven : 
 
 The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, 
 
 Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence 
 
 Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 
 
 Belus or Serapis, their Gods; or seat 
 
 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 
 
 In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 
 
 Stood fixed her stately highth : and straight the doors, 
 
 Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
 
 Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 
 
 And level pavement : from the arched roof 
 
 Pendant by subtle magick many a row 
 
 Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
 
 With Naphtha and Asphaltus, yielded light 
 
 As from a sky. The hasty multitude 
 
 Admiring entered; and the work some praise,
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 27 
 
 And some the architect : his hand was known 
 
 In Heaven by many a towered structure high, 
 
 Where sceptered Angels held their residence, 
 
 And sat as princes ; whom the supreme King 
 
 Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 
 
 Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. 
 
 Nor was his name unheard, or unadored, 
 
 In ancient Greece j and in Ausonian land 
 
 Men called him Mulciber ; and how he fell 
 
 From Heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 
 
 Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn 
 
 To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
 
 A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 
 
 Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, 
 
 On Lemnos the JE'gean isle : thus they relate, 
 
 Erring ; for he with this rebellious rout 
 
 Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 
 
 To have built in Heaven high towers ; nor did he 'scape 
 
 By all his engines, but was headlong sent 
 
 With his industrious crew to build in Hell. 
 
 Mean while the winged heralds, by command 
 Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
 And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim 
 A solemn council, forthwith to be held 
 At Pandemonium j the high capital 
 Of Satan and his peers : their summons called 
 From every band and squared regiment 
 By place or choice the worthiest ; they anon, 
 With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came, 
 Attended : all access was thronged ; the gates 
 And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
 
 28 PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. 
 
 (Though like a covered field, where champions bold 
 
 Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldau's chair 
 
 Defied the best of Panim chivalry 
 
 To mortal combat, or career with lance,) 
 
 Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air 
 
 Brushed with the hiss of rusling wings. As bees 
 
 In spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides, 
 
 Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 
 
 In clusters : they among fresh dews and flowers 
 
 Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank. 
 
 The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 
 
 New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer 
 
 Their state affairs. So thick the aery croud 
 
 Swarmed and were straitened ; till, the signal given, 
 
 Behold a wonder ! They but now who seemed 
 
 In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 
 
 Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 
 
 Throng numberless, like that Pygmean race 
 
 Beyond the Indian mount ; or faery elves, 
 
 Whose midnight revels, by a forest side 
 
 Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 
 
 Or dreams he sees, while over-head the moon 
 
 Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 
 
 Wheels her pale course j they, on their mirth and dance 
 
 Intent, with jocund musick charm his ear; 
 
 At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 
 
 Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms 
 
 Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 
 
 Though without number still, aniidst the hall 
 
 Of that infernal court. But far within, 
 
 And in their own dimensions, like themselves,
 
 BOOK I. PARADISE LOST. 29 
 
 The great Seraphick Lords and Cherubim 
 In close recess and secret conclave sat ; 
 A thousand Demi-gods on golden seats, 
 Frequent and full. After short silence then, 
 And summons read, the great consult began. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST BOOK.
 
 ,\ 
 THE 
 
 SECOND BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be 
 to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: some advise it, 
 others dissuade: a third proposal is preferred, mentioned before 
 by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in 
 Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature 
 equal or not much inferiour to themselves, about this time to be 
 created: their doubt, who shall be sent on this difficult search; 
 Satan their chief undertakes alone the voyage, is honoured and 
 applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several 
 ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations lead 
 them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his 
 journey to Hell gates; finds them shut, and who sat there t 
 guard them ; by whom at length they are opened, and discover 
 to him the great gulf between Hell and.Heaven ; with what dif- 
 ficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that 
 place, to the sight of this new world which he sought.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 HIGH on a throne of royal state, which far 
 
 Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
 
 Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
 
 Showers on her kings barbarick pearl and gold, 
 
 Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 
 
 To that bad eminence : and, from despair 
 
 Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 
 
 Beyond thus high ; insatiate to pursue 
 
 Vain war with Heaven ; and, by success untaught, 
 
 His proud imaginations thus displayed. 
 
 Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven ! 
 For since no deep within her gulf can hold 
 Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen, 
 I give not Heaven for lost. From this descent 
 Celestial virtues rising, will appear 
 More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
 And trust themselves to fear no second fate.
 
 34 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven, 
 Did first create your Leader; next, free choice, 
 With what besides, in counsel or in fight, 
 Hath been achieved of merit ; yet this loss, 
 Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
 Established in a safe unenvied throne, 
 Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
 In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 
 Envy from each inferiour ; but who here 
 Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
 Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim, 
 Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
 Of endless pain ? AMiere there is then no good 
 For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
 From faction ; for none sure will claim in Hell 
 Precedence ; none, whose portion is so small 
 Of present pain, that with ambitious mind 
 Will covet more. With this advantage then 
 To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, 
 More than can be in Heaven, we now return 
 To claim our just inheritance of old, 
 Surer to prosper than prosperity 
 Could have assured us ; and, by what best way, 
 Whether of open war, or covert guile, 
 We now debate : who can advise, may speak. 
 
 He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptered king, 
 Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit 
 That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair : 
 His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
 Equal in strength ; and rather than be less
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 35 
 
 Cared not to be at all ; with that care lost 
 Went all his fear : of God, or Hell, or worse, 
 He recked not ; and these words thereafter spake. 
 
 My sentence is for open war : of wiles, 
 More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
 Contrive who need, or when they need, not now. 
 For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest, 
 Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait 
 The signal to ascend, sit lingering here 
 Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling place 
 Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, 
 The prison of his tyranny who reigns 
 By our delay ? No ! let us rather choose, 
 Armed with Hell flames and fury, all at once, 
 O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 
 Turning our tortures into horrid arms 
 Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise 
 Of his almighty engine he shall hear 
 Infernal thunder ; and, for lightning, see 
 Black fire and horrour shot with equal rage 
 Among his Angels ; and his throne itself 
 Mixed with Tartarean sulphur, and strange fire, 
 His own invented torments. But perhaps 
 The way seems difficult and steep to scale 
 With upright wing against a higher foe. 
 Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench 
 Of that forgetful lake benumm not still, 
 That in our proper motion we ascend 
 Up to our native seat : descent and fall 
 To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, 
 When the fierce Foe hung on our broken rear
 
 36 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 
 
 With what compulsion and laborious flight 
 
 We sunk thus low? The ascent is easy thenj 
 
 The event is feared ; should we again provoke 
 
 Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 
 
 To our destruction ; if there be in Hell 
 
 Fear to be worse destroyed : what can be worse 
 
 Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned 
 
 In this abhorred deep to utter woe; 
 
 Where pain of unextinguishable fire 
 
 Must exercise us without hope of end, 
 
 The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 
 
 Inexorably, and the torturing hour, 
 
 Calls us to penance ? More destroyed than thus, 
 
 We should be quite abolished, and expire. 
 
 What fear we then ? what doubt we to incense 
 
 His utmost ire? which, to the highth enraged, 
 
 Will either quite consume us, and reduce 
 
 To nothing this essential; happier far 
 
 Than miserable to have eternal being : 
 
 Or if our substance be indeed divine, 
 
 And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 
 
 On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 
 
 Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, 
 
 And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 
 
 Though inaccessible, his fatal throne: 
 
 Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. 
 
 He ended frowning, and his look denounced 
 Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
 To less than Gods. On the other side up- rose 
 Belial, in act more graceful and humane :
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 37 
 
 A fairer person lost not Heaven ; he seemed 
 For dignity composed, and high exploit : 
 But all was false and hollow; though his tongue 
 Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
 The better reason, to perplex and dash 
 Maturest counsels : for his thoughts were low ; 
 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
 Timorous and slothful : yet he pleased the ear, 
 And with persuasive accent thus began. 
 
 I should be much for open war, O Peers, 
 As not behind in hate; if what was urged 
 Main reason to persuade immediate war, 
 Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
 Ominous conjecture on the whole success j 
 When he, who most excels in fact of arms, 
 In what he counsels, and in what excels, 
 Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 
 And utter dissolution, as the scope 
 Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
 First, what revenge ? The towers of Heaven are filled 
 With armed watch, that render all access 
 Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep 
 Encamp their legions; or, with obscure wing, 
 Scout far and wide into the realm of night, 
 Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way 
 By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise 
 With blackest insurrection, to confound 
 Heaven's purest light; yet our great Enemy, 
 All incorruptible, would on his throne ' 
 
 Sit unpolluted , and the ethereal mould, 
 Incapable of stain, would soon expel '
 
 38 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 
 
 Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 
 
 Is flat despair : we must exasperate 
 
 The Almighty Victor to spend all his rage, 
 
 And that must end us ; that must be our cure, 
 
 To be no more. Sad cure ! for who would lose, 
 
 Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 
 
 Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 
 
 To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 
 
 In the wide womb of uncreated night, 
 
 Devoid of sense and motion ? And who knows, 
 
 Let this be good, whether our angry Foe 
 
 Can give it, or will ever ? how he can, 
 
 Is doubtful ; that he never will, is sure. 
 
 Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 
 
 Belike through impotence, or unaware, 
 
 To give his enemies their wish, and end 
 
 Them in his anger, whom his anger saves 
 
 To punish endless ? Wherefore cease we then ? 
 
 Say they who counsel war ; we are decreed, 
 
 Reserved, and destined to eternal woe ; 
 
 Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, 
 
 What can we suffer worse ? Is this then worst, 
 
 Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ? 
 
 What ! when we fled amain, pursued, and struck 
 
 With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 
 
 The deep to shelter us ? This Hell then seemed 
 
 A refuge from those wounds : or when we lay 
 
 Chained on the burning lake ? That sure was worse. 
 
 What if the breath, that kindled those grim fires, 
 
 Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage,
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 39 
 
 And plunge us in the flames } or, from above, 
 
 Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
 
 His red right hand to plague us ? What if all 
 
 Her stores were opened, and this firmament 
 
 Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 
 
 Impendent horrours, threatening hideous fall 
 
 One day upon our heads ; while we perhaps, 
 
 Designing or exhorting glorious war, 
 
 Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurled 
 
 Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 
 
 Of wracking whirlwinds ; or for ever sunk 
 
 Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains j 
 
 There to converse with everlasting groans, 
 
 Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 
 
 Ages of hopeless end ? This would be worse. 
 
 War therefore, open or concealed, alike 
 
 My voice dissuades ; for what can force or guile 
 
 With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 
 
 Views all things at one view ? He from Heaven's highth 
 
 All these our motions vain sees, and derides ; 
 
 Not more almighty to resist our might 
 
 Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 
 
 Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven 
 
 Thus trampled, thus expelled to suffer here 
 
 Chains and these torments ? Better these than worse, 
 
 By my advice ; since fate inevitable 
 
 Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, 
 
 The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 
 
 Our strength is equal, nor the law unjust 
 
 That so ordains : this was at first resolved, 
 
 If we were wise, against so great a Foe -,
 
 40 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II, 
 
 Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 
 
 I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold 
 
 And venturous, if that fail them, shrink and fear 
 
 What yet they know must follow, to endure 
 
 Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain, 
 
 The sentence of their Conquerour : this is now 
 
 Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, 
 
 Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit 
 
 His anger ; and perhaps, thus far removed, 
 
 Not mind us not offending, satisfied 
 
 With what is punished j whence these raging fires 
 
 Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 
 
 Our purer essence then will overcome 
 
 Their noxious vapour ; or, inured, not feel ; 
 
 Or changed at length, and to the place conformed 
 
 In temper and in nature, will receive 
 
 Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain ; 
 
 This horrour will grow mild, this darkness light ; 
 
 Besides what hope the never-ending flight 
 
 Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 
 
 Worth waiting; since our present lot appears 
 
 For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, 
 
 If we procure not to ourselves more woe. 
 
 Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
 Counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, 
 Not peace : and after him thus Mammon spake. 
 
 Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven 
 We war, if war be best, or to regain 
 Our own right lost : Him to unthrone we then 
 May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
 To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife :
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 4] 
 
 The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
 
 The latter : for what place can be for us 
 
 AVithin Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord supreme 
 
 We overpower? Suppose he should relent, 
 
 And publish grace to all, on promise made 
 
 Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we 
 
 Stand in his presence humble, and receive 
 
 Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 
 
 With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing 
 
 Forced Halleluiahs ; while he lordly sits 
 
 Our envied Sovran, and his altar breathes 
 
 Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers, 
 
 Our servile offerings ? This must be our task 
 
 In Heaven, this our delight; how wearisome 
 
 Eternity so spent, in worship paid 
 
 To whom we hate ! Let us not then pursue 
 
 By force impossible, by leave obtained 
 
 Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state 
 
 Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 
 
 Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 
 
 Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 
 
 Free, and to none accountable, preferring 
 
 Hard liberty before the easy yoke 
 
 Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 
 
 Then most conspicuous, when great things of small, 
 
 Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, 
 
 We can create j and in what place so e'er 
 
 Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain, 
 
 Through labour and endurance. This deep world 
 
 Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst 
 
 Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire
 
 42 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 
 
 And with the majesty of darkness round 
 
 Covers his throne ; from whence deep thunders roar 
 
 Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell ? 
 
 As he our darkness, cannot we his light 
 
 Imitate when we please ? This desert soil 
 
 Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold ; 
 
 Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise 
 
 Magnificence ; and what can Heaven show more ? 
 
 Our torments also may in length of time 
 
 Become our elements ; these piercing fires 
 
 As soft as now severe, our temper changed 
 
 Into their temper ; which must needs remove 
 
 The sensible of pain. All things invite 
 
 To peaceful counsels, and the settled state 
 
 Of order, how in safety best we may 
 
 Compose our present evils, with regard 
 
 Of what we are, and where ; dismissing quite 
 
 All thoughts of war : ye have what I advise. 
 
 He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
 The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain 
 The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
 Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
 Sea-faring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance, 
 Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 
 After the tempest : such applause was heard 
 As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased, 
 Advising peace : for such another field 
 They dreaded worse than Hell : so much the fear 
 Of thnnder and the sword of Michael 
 Wrought still within them j and no less desire
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 43 
 
 To found this nether empire, which might rise 
 
 By policy, and long process of time, 
 
 In emulation opposite to Heaven. 
 
 Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
 
 Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 
 
 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
 
 A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven 
 
 Deliberation sat, and publick care ; 
 
 And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 
 
 Majestick, though in ruin : sage he stood 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 
 The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 
 
 Drew audience and attention still as night 
 
 Or summer's noon-tide air, while thus he spake. 
 
 Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven, 
 Ethereal Virtues ! or these titles now 
 Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 
 Princes of Hell ? for so the popular vote 
 Inclines, here to continue, and build up here 
 A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, 
 And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed 
 This place our dungeon ; not our safe retreat 
 Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 
 From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 
 Banded against his throne, but to remain 
 In strictest bondage, though thus far removed 
 Under the inevitable curb, reserved 
 His captive multitude : for he, be sure, 
 In highth or depth, still first and last will reign 
 Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 
 By our revolt; but over Hell extend
 
 44 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 His empire, and with iron scepter ride 
 
 Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven. 
 
 What sit we then projecting peace and war ? 
 
 War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 
 
 Irreparable j terms of peace yet none 
 
 Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 
 
 To us enslaved, but custody severe, 
 
 And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 
 
 Inflicted ? and what peace can we return, 
 
 But to our power hostility and hate, 
 
 Untamed reluctance, and revenge though slow, 
 
 Yet ever plotting how the conquerour least 
 
 May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 
 
 In doing what we most in suffering feel ? 
 
 Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 
 
 With dangerous expedition to invade 
 
 Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 
 
 Or ambush from the deep. What if we find 
 
 Some easier enterprise ? There is a place, 
 
 (If ancient and prophetick fame in Heaven 
 
 Err not,) another world, the happy seat 
 
 Of some new race called Man, about this time 
 
 To be created like to us, though less 
 
 In power and excellence, but favoured more 
 
 Of Him who rules above ; so was his will 
 
 Pronounced among the Gods, and by an oath, 
 
 That shook Heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. 
 
 Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 
 
 What creatures there inhabit, of what mould, 
 
 Or substance, how endued, and what their power, 
 
 And where their weakness, how attempted best,
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 45 
 
 By force or subtlety. Though Heaven be shut, 
 
 And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure 
 
 In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 
 
 The utmost border of his kingdom, left 
 
 To their defence who hold it : here perhaps 
 
 Some advantageous act may be achieved 
 
 By sudden onset ; either with Hell fire 
 
 To waste his whole creation, or possess 
 
 All as our own, and drive, as we were driven, 
 
 The puny habitants ; or, if not drive, 
 
 Seduce them to our party, that their God 
 
 May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 
 
 Abolish his own works. This would surpass 
 
 Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 
 
 In our confusion, and our joy upraise 
 
 In his disturbance ; when his darling sons, 
 
 Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 
 
 Their frail original, and faded bliss, 
 
 Faded so soon. Advise, if this be worth 
 
 Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 
 
 Hatching vain empires. Thus Beelzebub 
 
 Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 
 
 By Satan, and in part proposed : for whence, 
 
 But from the author of all ill, could spring 
 
 So deep a malice, to confound the race 
 
 Of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell 
 
 To mingle and involve, done all to spite 
 
 The great Creator? But their spite still serves 
 
 His glory to augment. The bold design 
 
 Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy
 
 46 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Sparkled in all their eyes ; with full assent 
 They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews. 
 Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 
 Synod of Gods ! and, like to what ye are, 
 Great things resolved, which, from the lowest deep, 
 Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 
 Nearer our ancient seat; perhaps in view 
 Of those bright confines, whence, with neighbouring 
 
 arms 
 
 And opportune excursion, we may chance 
 Re-enter Heaven ; or else in some mild zone 
 Dwell, not unvisited of Heaven's fair light, 
 Secure; and at the brightening orient beam 
 Purge off this gloom : the soft delicious air, 
 To heal the scar of these corrosive fires, 
 Shall breathe her balm. But first whom shall we send 
 In search of this new world? whom shall we find 
 Sufficient? who shall tempt with wandering feet 
 The dark unbottomed infinite abyss, 
 And through the palpable obscure find out 
 His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight 
 Upborne with undefatigable wings 
 Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 
 The happy isle ? What strength, what art, can then 
 Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 
 Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
 Of Angels watching round ? Here he had need 
 All circumspection ; and we now no less 
 Choice in our suffrage ; for, on whom we send, 
 The weight of all, and our last hope, relies.
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 47 
 
 This said, he sat; and expectation held 
 His look suspense, awaiting who appeared 
 To second, or oppose, or undertake 
 The perilous attempt : but all sat mute, 
 Pondering the danger with deep thoughts ; and each 
 In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
 Astonished : none among the choice and prime 
 Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found 
 So hardy, as to proffer or accept, 
 Alone, the dreadful voyage j till at last 
 Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
 Above his fellows, with monarchal pride, 
 Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake. 
 
 O Progeny of Heaven, empyreal Thrones ! 
 With reason hath deep silence and demur 
 Seised us, though undismayed : long is the way 
 And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light ; 
 Our prison strong ; this huge convex of fire, 
 Outrageous to devour, immures us round 
 Ninefold ; and gates of burning adamant, 
 Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 
 These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
 Of unessential Night receives him next 
 Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being 
 Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
 If thence he 'scape into whatever world, 
 Or unknown region, what remains him less 
 Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape ? 
 But 1 should ill become this throne, O Peers, 
 And this imperial sovranty, adorned 
 With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed
 
 48 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 And judged of publick moment, in the shape 
 
 Of difficulty, or danger, could deter 
 
 Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 
 
 These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 
 
 Refusing to accept as great a share 
 
 Of hazard as of honour, due alike 
 
 To him who reigns, and so much to him due 
 
 Of hazard more, as he above the rest 
 
 High honoured sits ? Go, therefore, mighty Powers, 
 
 Terrour of Heaven, though fallen ! intend at home, 
 
 While here shall be our home, what best may ease 
 
 The present misery, and render Hell 
 
 More tolerable ; if there be cure or charm 
 
 To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 
 
 Of this ill mansion : intermit no watch 
 
 Against a wakeful Foe, while I abroad 
 
 Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 
 
 Deliverance for us all : this enterprise 
 
 None shall partake with me. Thus saying rose 
 
 The Monarch, and prevented all reply ; 
 
 Prudent, lest, from his resolution raised, 
 
 Others among the chief might offer now 
 
 (Certain to be refused) what erst they feared; 
 
 And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
 
 His rivals ; winning cheap the high repute, 
 
 Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
 
 Dreaded not more the adventure, than his voice 
 
 Forbidding 5 and at once with him they rose: 
 
 Their rising all at once, was as the sound 
 
 Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
 
 With awful reverence prone j and as a God
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 49 
 
 Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven : 
 
 Nor failed they to express how much they praised, 
 
 That for the general safety he despised 
 
 His own : for neither do the Spirits damned 
 
 Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast 
 
 Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 
 
 Or close ambition, varnished o'er with zeal. 
 
 Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
 
 Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief: 
 
 As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds 
 
 Ascending, while the north-wind sleeps, o'erspread 
 
 Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 
 
 Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow, or shower j 
 
 If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet 
 
 Extend his evening-beam, the fields revive, 
 
 The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
 
 Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 
 
 O shame to men ! Devil with Devil damned 
 
 Firm concord holds 5 men only disagree 
 
 Of creatures rational, though under hope 
 
 Of heavenly grace : and, God proclaiming peace, 
 
 Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife, 
 
 Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, 
 
 Wasting the earth, each other to destroy : 
 
 As if (which might induce us to accord) 
 
 Man had not hellish foes enow besides, 
 
 That, day and night, for his destruction wait. 
 
 The Stygian council thus dissolved j and forth 
 In order came the grand infernal Peers : 
 Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed 
 Alone the Antagonist of Heaven, nor less
 
 50 PARADISE LOST; BOOK II. 
 
 Than Hell's dread Emperour, with pomp supreme, 
 
 And God-like imitated state : him round 
 
 A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed 
 
 With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. 
 
 Then of their session ended they bid cry 
 
 With trumpets regal sound the great result : 
 
 Towards the four winds four speedy Cherubim 
 
 Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy, 
 
 By herald's voice explained ; the hollow abyss 
 
 Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell 
 
 With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 
 
 Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 
 
 By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers 
 
 Disband ; and, wandering, each his several way 
 
 Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 
 
 Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 
 
 Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 
 
 The irksome hours, till his great Chief return. 
 
 Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 
 
 Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, 
 
 As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields 
 
 Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 
 
 With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form. 
 
 As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 
 
 Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 
 
 To battle in the clouds, before each van 
 
 Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears 
 
 Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 
 
 From either end of Heaven the welkin burns. 
 
 Others, with vast Typhoean rage more fell, 
 
 Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 51 
 
 In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar. 
 
 As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned 
 
 With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 
 
 Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 
 
 And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw 
 
 Into the Euboick sea. Others more mild, 
 
 Retreated in a silent valley, sing 
 
 With notes angelical to many a harp 
 
 Their own heroick deeds and hapless fall 
 
 By doom of battle ; and complain that fate 
 
 Free virtue should enthrall to force or chance. 
 
 Their song was partial j but the harmony 
 
 (What could it less when Spirits immortal sing ?) 
 
 Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment 
 
 The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet, 
 
 (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,) 
 
 Others apart sat on a hill retired, 
 
 In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 
 
 Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate ; 
 
 Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute ; 
 
 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 
 
 Of good and evil much they argued then. 
 
 Of happiness and final misery, 
 
 Passion and apathy, and glory and shame ; 
 
 Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy! 
 
 Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm 
 
 Pain for a while or anguish, and excite 
 
 Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 
 
 With stubborn patience, as with triple steel. 
 
 Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 
 
 On bold adventure to discover wide 
 
 2
 
 52 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 
 
 Might yield them easier habitation, bend 
 
 Four ways their flying march, along the banks 
 
 Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge 
 
 Into the burning lake their baleful streams ; 
 
 Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; 
 
 Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep} 
 
 Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 
 
 Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon, 
 
 Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 
 
 Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 
 
 Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
 
 Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks, 
 
 Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 
 
 Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 
 
 Beyond this flood a frozen continent 
 
 Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
 
 Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 
 
 Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 
 
 Of ancient pile ; or else deep snow and ice, 
 
 A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog 
 
 Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, 
 
 Where armies whole have sunk : the parching air 
 
 Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 
 
 Thither by harpy-footed furies haled, 
 
 At certain revolutions, all the damned 
 
 Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 
 
 Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
 
 From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice 
 
 Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine 
 
 Iinmoveable, infixed, and frozen round,
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 53 
 
 Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. 
 
 They ferry over this Lethean sound 
 
 Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 
 
 And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 
 
 The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 
 
 In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, 
 
 All in one moment, and so near the brink 5 
 
 But Fate withstands, and to oppose the attempt 
 
 Medusa with Gorgonian terrour guards 
 
 The ford, and of itself the water flies 
 
 All taste of living wight, as once it fled 
 
 The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 
 
 In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands 
 
 With shuddering horrour pale, and eyes aghast, 
 
 Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
 
 No rest: through many a dark and dreary vale 
 
 They passed, and many a region dolorous, 
 
 O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 
 
 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of 
 
 death, 
 
 A universe of death ; which God by curse 
 Created evil, for evil only good, 
 Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, 
 Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 
 Abominable, inutterable, and worse 
 Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived, 
 Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire. 
 
 Mean while, the Adversary of God and Man, 
 Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 
 Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell 
 Explores his solitary flight : sometimes
 
 54 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left j 
 
 Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
 
 Up to the fiery concave towering high. 
 
 As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
 
 Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
 
 Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 
 
 Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
 
 Their spicy drugs ; they, on the trading flood, 
 
 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 
 
 Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 
 
 Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear 
 
 Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 
 
 And thrice three-fold the gates ; three folds were brass, 
 
 Three iron, three of adamantine rock 
 
 Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, 
 
 Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
 
 On either side a formidable shape ; 
 
 The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair ; 
 
 But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
 
 Voluminous and vast; a serpent armed 
 
 With mortal sting : about her middle round 
 
 A cry of Hell-hounds never ceasing barked 
 
 With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
 
 A hideous peal ; yet, when they list, would creep, 
 
 If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, 
 
 And kennel there ; yet there still barked and howled, 
 
 Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these 
 
 Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 
 
 Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore : 
 
 Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called 
 
 In secret, riding through the air she comes,
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 55 
 
 Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 
 With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon 
 Eclipses at their charms. The other shape, 
 If shape it might be called that shape had none 
 Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ; 
 Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 
 For each seemed either ; black it stood as Night, 
 Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, 
 And shook a dreadful dart ; what seemed his head 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 
 Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 
 The monster moving onward came as fast 
 With horrid strides ; Hell trembled as he strode. 
 The undaunted Fiend what this might be admired, 
 Admired, not feared ; God and his Son except, 
 Created thing nought valued he, nor shunned ; 
 And with disdainful look thus first began. 
 
 Whence and what art thou, execrable shape ! 
 That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 
 Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
 To yonder gates ? through them I mean to pass, 
 That be assured, without leave asked of thee : 
 Retire, or taste thy folly j and learn by proof, 
 Hell-born ! not to contend with Spirits of Heaven. 
 
 To whom the Goblin full of wrath replied. 
 Art thou that Traitor- Angel, art thou He, 
 Who first broke peace in Heaven, and faith, till then 
 Unbroken ; and in proud rebellious arms 
 Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons 
 Conjured against the Highest} for which both thou
 
 56 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
 
 To waste eternal days in woe and pain ? 
 
 And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, 
 
 Hell-doomed ! and breath'st defiance here and score, 
 
 Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 
 
 Thy king and lord ? Back to thy punishment, 
 
 False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings, 
 
 Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
 
 Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 
 
 Strange horrour seise thee, and pangs unfelt before. 
 
 So spake the grisly Terrour, and in shape, 
 So speaking and so threatening, grew ten-fold 
 More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
 Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
 Unterrified, and like a comet burned, 
 That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
 In the arctick sky, and from his horrid hair 
 Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
 Levelled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
 No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
 Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, 
 With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 
 Over the Caspian, then stand front to front, 
 Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
 To join their dark encounter in mid air : 
 So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell 
 Grew darker at their frown ; so matched they stood ; 
 For never but once more was either like 
 To meet so great a Foe : and now great deeds 
 Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 57 
 
 Had not the snaky Sorceress that sat 
 Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, 
 Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 
 O Father ! what intends thy hand, she cried, 
 Against thy only Son? What fury, O Son ! 
 Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
 Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom; 
 For him who sits above and laughs the while 
 At thee ordained his drudge, to execute 
 Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids ; 
 His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both. 
 She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest 
 Forbore ; then these to her Satan returned. 
 
 So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
 Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, 
 Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
 What it intends ; till first I know of thee, 
 What thing though art, thus double-formed ; and why, 
 In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st 
 Me Father, and that phantasm call'st my Son: 
 I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
 Sight more detestable than him and thee. 
 
 To whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied. 
 Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem 
 Now in thine eye so foul ? once deemed so fair 
 In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
 Of all the Seraphim with thee combined 
 In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, 
 All on a sudden miserable pain 
 Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
 In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
 
 58 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Threw forth ; till, on the left side opening wide, 
 Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
 Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, 
 Out of thy head I sprung : amazement seised 
 All the host of Heaven ; back they recoiled afraid 
 At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 
 Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, 
 I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
 The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft 
 Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing 
 Becam'st enamoured, and such joy thou took'st 
 With me in secret, that my womb conceived 
 A growing burden. Mean while war arose, 
 And fields were fought in Heaven ; wherein remained 
 (For what could else ?) to our Almighty Foe 
 Clear victory ; to our part loss and rout, 
 Through all the empyrean : down they fell 
 Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down 
 Into this deep ; and in the general fall 
 I also ; at which time, this powerful key 
 Into my hand was given, with charge to keep 
 These gates for ever shut, which none can pass 
 Without my opening. Pensive here I sat 
 Alone j but long I sat not, till my womb, 
 Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, 
 Prodigious motion felt, and rueful throes. 
 At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, 
 Thine own begotten, breaking violent way 
 Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain 
 Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 
 Transformed : but he my inbred enemy
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 59 
 
 Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart 
 Made to destroy ! I fled, and cried out Death ! 
 Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 
 From all her caves, and back resounded Death! 
 I fled ; but he pursued, (though more, it seems, 
 Inflamed with lust than rage,) and, swifter far, 
 Me overtook his mother all dismayed ; 
 And, in embraces forcible and foul 
 Ingendering with me, of that rape begot 
 These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 
 Surround me, as thou saw'st ; hourly conceived 
 And hourly born, with sorrow infinite 
 To me ; for, when they list, into the womb 
 That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw 
 My bowels, their repast ; then bursting forth 
 Afresh with conscious terrours vex me round, 
 That rest or intermission none I find. 
 Before mine eyes in opposition sits 
 Grim Death, my son and foe; who sets them on, 
 And me his parent would full soon devour 
 For want of other prey, but that he knows 
 His end with mine involved; and knows that I 
 Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane, 
 Whenever that shall be ; so Fate pronounced. 
 But thou, O Father ! I forewarn thee, shun 
 His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope 
 To be invulnerable in those bright arms, 
 Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint, 
 Save he who reigns above, none can resist. 
 
 She finished; and the subtle Fiend his lore 
 Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth,
 
 60 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Dear Daughter ! since thou claim'st me for thy sire, 
 
 And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge 
 
 Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys 
 
 Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change 
 
 Befallen us, unforeseen, unthought of ; know, 
 
 I come no enemy, but to set free 
 
 From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
 
 Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host 
 
 Of Spirits, that, in our just pretences armed, 
 
 Fell with us from on high : from them I go 
 
 This uncouth errand sole ; and one for all 
 
 Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
 
 The unfounded deep, and through the void immense 
 
 To search with wandering quest a place foretold 
 
 Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now 
 
 Created vast and round, a place of bliss 
 
 In the pourlieus of Heaven, and therein placed 
 
 A race of upstart creatures, to supply 
 
 Perhaps our vacant room ; though more removed, 
 
 Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 
 
 Might hap to move new broils. Be this or aught 
 
 Than this more secret now designed, I haste 
 
 To know ; and, this once known, shall soon return, 
 
 And bring ye to the place where Thou and Death 
 
 Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 
 
 Wing silently the buxom air, imbalmed 
 
 With odours ; there ye shall be fed and filled 
 
 Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey. 
 
 He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased, and 
 
 Death 
 Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. Gl 
 
 His famine should be filled j and blest his maw 
 Destined to that good hour : no less rejoiced 
 His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire. 
 
 The key of this infernal pit by due, 
 And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, 
 1 keep ; by him forbidden to unlock 
 These adamantine gates ; against all force 
 Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
 Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 
 But what owe I to his commands above 
 Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
 Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, 
 To sit in hateful office here confined, 
 Inhabitant of Heaven, and heavenly-born, 
 Here in perpetual agony and pain, 
 With terrours and with clamours compassed round 
 Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed ? 
 Thou art my father, thou my author, thou 
 My being gav'st me ; whom should I obey 
 But thee ? whom follow ? thou wilt bring me soon 
 To that new world of light and bliss, among 
 The Gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 
 At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 
 Thy daughter and thy darling, without end. 
 
 Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, 
 Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
 And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
 Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew, 
 Which but herself, not all the Stygian Powers 
 Cmild once have moved ; then in the key-hole turns 
 The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
 
 62 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
 
 Unfastens : on a sudden open fly 
 
 With impetuous recoil and jarring sound 
 
 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
 
 Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
 
 Of Erebus. She opened, but to shut 
 
 Excelled her power ; the gates wide open stood, 
 
 That with extended wings a bannered host, 
 
 Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 
 
 With horse and chariots ranked in loose array ; 
 
 So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth 
 
 Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 
 
 Before their eyes in sudden view appear 
 
 The secrets of the hoary deep ; a dark 
 
 Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
 
 Without dimension j where length, breadth, and 
 
 highth, 
 
 And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night 
 And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 
 Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
 Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
 For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, 
 Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
 Their embryon atoms ; they around the flag 
 Of each his faction, in their several clans, 
 Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or slow, 
 Swarm populous, un-numbered as the sands 
 Of Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil, 
 Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 
 Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, 
 He rules a moment : Chaos umpire sits,
 
 BOOK II; PARADISE LOST. 63 
 
 And by decision more embroils the fray, 
 
 By which he reigns : next him high arbiter 
 
 Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss, 
 
 The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, 
 
 Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 
 
 But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 
 
 Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 
 
 Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 
 
 His dark materials to create more worlds ; 
 
 Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend 
 
 Stood on the brink of Hell, and looked a while, 
 
 Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith 
 
 He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 
 
 With noises loud and ruinous, (to compare 
 
 Great things with small,) than when Bellona storms, 
 
 With all her battering engines bent to rase 
 
 Some capital city ; or le"ss than if this frame 
 
 Of Heaven were falling, and these elements 
 
 In mutiny had from her axle torn 
 
 The stedfast earth. At last his sail- broad vans 
 
 He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 
 
 Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league, 
 
 As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 
 
 Audacious ; but, that seat soon failing, meets 
 
 A vast vacuity : all unawares 
 
 Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops 
 
 Ten thousand fathom deep ; and to this hour 
 
 Down had been falling, had not by ill chance 
 
 The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 
 
 Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 
 
 As many miles aloft : that fury staid,
 
 64 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, 
 
 Nor good dry land : nigh foundered on he fares, 
 
 Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 
 
 Half flyingj behoves him now both oar and sail. 
 
 As when a gryphon, through the wilderness 
 
 With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, 
 
 Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 
 
 Had from his wakeful custody purloined 
 
 The guarded gold : so eagerly the Fiend 
 
 O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
 
 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies : 
 
 At length a universal hubbub wild 
 
 Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused, 
 
 Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 
 
 With loudest vehemence : thither he plies, 
 
 Undaunted to meet there whatever Power 
 
 Or Spirit of the nethermost abyss 
 
 Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 
 
 Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 
 
 Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 
 
 Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
 
 Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned 
 
 Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, 
 
 The consort of his reign; and by them stood 
 
 Orcns and Ades, and the dreaded name 
 
 Of Demogorgon ; Rumour next and Chance, 
 
 And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, 
 
 And Discord with a thousand various mouths. 
 
 To whom Satan turning boldly, thus : Ye Powers 
 And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 65 
 
 Chaos and ancient Night ! I come no spy, 
 With purpose to explore or to disturb 
 The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 
 Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
 Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 
 Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek 
 What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
 Confine with Heaven ; or if some other place, 
 From your dominion won, the ethereal King 
 Possesses lately, thither to arrive 
 I travel this profound ; direct my course j 
 Directed, no mean recompence it brings 
 To your behoof, if I that region lost, 
 All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
 To her original darkness, and your sway, 
 (Which is my present journey) and once more 
 Erect the standard there of ancient Night : 
 Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! 
 Thus Satan ; and him thus the Anarch old, 
 With faltering speech and visage incomposed, 
 Answered. I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 
 That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
 Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 
 I saw and heard; for such a numerous host 
 Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, 
 With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 
 Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates 
 Poured out by millions her victorious bands 
 Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
 Keep residence ; if all I can will serve 
 That little which is left so to defend, 
 
 F
 
 66 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. 
 
 Encroached on still through your intestine broils 
 Weakening the scepter of old Night : first Hell, 
 Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath , 
 Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world, 
 Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain 
 To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell : 
 If that way be your walk, you have not far; 
 So much the nearer danger ; go, and speed ! 
 Havock, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain. 
 
 He ceased ; and Satan staid not to reply, 
 But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
 With fresh alacrity, and force renewed, 
 Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
 Into the wild expanse ; and, through the shock 
 Of fighting elements, on all sides round 
 Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 
 And more endangered, than when Argo passed 
 Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks : 
 Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
 Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered. 
 So he with difficulty and labour hard 
 Moved on ; with difficulty and labour he ; 
 But, he once past, soon after, when man fell, 
 Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain 
 Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, 
 Paved after him a broad and beaten way 
 Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf 
 Tamely endured a bridge of wonderous length, 
 From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb 
 Of this frail world j by which the Spirits perverse 
 With easy intercourse pass to and fro
 
 BOOK II. PARADISE LOST. 67 
 
 To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
 God, and good Angels, guard by special grace. 
 But now at last the sacred influence 
 Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 
 Shoots far into the bosom of dim night 
 A glimmering dawn : here Nature first begins 
 Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire 
 As from her outmost works a broken foe 
 With tumult less, and with less hostile din ; 
 That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 
 Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light ; 
 And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 
 Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; 
 Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 
 Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 
 Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide 
 In circuit, undetermined square or round, 
 With opal towers and battlements adorned 
 Of living sapphire, once his native seat; 
 And fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 
 This pendant world, in bigness as a star 
 Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 
 Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, 
 Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies. 
 
 END OF THE SECOND BOOK. 
 
 r 2
 
 THE 
 
 THIRD BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 God, sitting on his throne, sees Satan flying towards this world, 
 then newly created ; shows him to the Son, who sat at his right 
 hand ; foretels the success of Satan in perverting mankind ; 
 clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having 
 created Man free, and able enough to have withstood his tempt- 
 er; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard 
 he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. 
 The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifes- 
 tation of his gracious purpose towards Man : but God again 
 declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without 
 the satisfaction of divine justice ; Man hath offended the ma- 
 jesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and, therefore, with all 
 his progeny, devoted to death, must die, unless some one can 
 be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his 
 punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom 
 for Man : the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pro- 
 nounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth ; 
 commands all the Angels to adore him : they obey, and, hymn- 
 ing to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the 
 Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this 
 world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, 
 since called the Limbo of Vanity : what persons and things fly 
 up thither ; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described as- 
 cending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow 
 about it : his passage thence to the orb of the sun ; he finds 
 there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first changes himsdif 
 into the shape of a meaner Angel ; and, pretending a zealous 
 dewre to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had 
 placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is 
 directed : alights first on mount Niphates.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK HI, 
 
 HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born, 
 Or of the Eternal coeternal beam 
 May I express thee unblamed ? since God is light, 
 And never but in unapproached light 
 Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, 
 Bright effluence of bright essence increate. 
 Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream, 
 Whose fountain who shall tell ? Before the sun, 
 Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice 
 Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest 
 The rising world of waters dark and deep, 
 Won from the void and formless infinite. 
 Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, 
 Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained 
 In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight 
 Through utter and through middle darkness borne, 
 With other notes than to the Orph6an lyre, 
 I sung of Chaos and eternal Night ;
 
 72 PARADISE LOST. BOOK 
 
 Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down 
 The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, 
 Though hard and rare : thee I revisit safe, 
 And feel thy sovran vital lamp ; but thou 
 Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain 
 To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ; 
 So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs, 
 Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more 
 Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt 
 Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, 
 Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief 
 Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, 
 That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow. 
 Nightly I visit : nor sometimes forget 
 Those other two equalled with me in fate, 
 So were I equalled with them in renown, 
 Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonides, 
 And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old : 
 Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move 
 Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird 
 Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid 
 Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year 
 Seasons return; but not to me returns 
 Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 
 Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
 Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; 
 But cloud instead, and ever-during dark 
 Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men 
 Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
 Presented with a universal blank 
 Of nature's works to ine expunged and rased,
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 73 
 
 And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. 
 
 So much the rather thou, celestial Light, 
 
 Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 
 
 Irradiate ; there plant eyes, all mist from thence 
 
 Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell 
 
 Of things invisible to mortal sight. 
 
 Now had the Almighty Father from above, 
 From the pure empyrean where he sits 
 High throned above all highth, bent down his eye 
 His own works and their works at once to view : 
 About him all the Sanctities of Heaven 
 Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received 
 Beatitude past utterance ; on his right 
 The radiant image of his glory sat, 
 His only Son ; on'earth he first beheld 
 Our two first parents, yet the only two 
 Of mankind in the happy garden placed, 
 Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, 
 Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love, 
 In blissful solitude ; he then surveyed 
 Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there 
 Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night 
 In the dun air sublime, and ready now 
 To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet, 
 On the bare outside of this world, that seemed 
 Firm land imbosomed, without firmament, 
 Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. 
 Him God beholding from his prospect high, 
 Wherein past, present, future, he beholds, 
 Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake. 
 Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage
 
 74 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 Transports our Adversary? whom no bounds 
 
 Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains 
 
 Heaped on him there, nor yet the main abyss 
 
 Wide interrupt, can hold ; so bent he seems 
 
 On desperate revenge, that shall redound 
 
 Upon his own rebellious head. And now, 
 
 Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way 
 
 Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light, 
 
 Directly towards the new created world, 
 
 And man there placed, with purpose to assay 
 
 If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, 
 
 By some false guile pervert ; and shall pervert , 
 
 For man will hearken to his glozing lies, 
 
 And easily transgress the sole command, 
 
 Sole pledge of his obedience : so will fall 
 
 He and his faithless progeny : whose fault ? 
 
 Whose but his own ? Ingrate, he had of me 
 
 All he could have 5 I made him just and right, 
 
 Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. 
 
 Such I created all the ethereal Powers 
 
 And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who failed ; 
 
 Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. 
 
 Not free, what proof could they have given sincere 
 
 Of true allegiance, constant faith or love, 
 
 Where only what they needs must do appeared, 
 
 Not what they would ? what praise could they receive ? 
 
 What pleasure I from such obedience paid, 
 
 When will and reason (reason also is choice) 
 
 Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled, 
 
 Made passive both, had served necessity, 
 
 Ts T ot me? They therefore, as to right belonged,
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 75 
 
 So were created, nor can justly accuse 
 
 Their Maker, or their making, or their fate, 
 
 As if predestination over-ruled 
 
 Their will disposed by absolute decree 
 
 Or high foreknowledge ; they themselves decreed 
 
 Their own revolt, not I ; if I foreknew, 
 
 Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault, 
 
 Which had no less proved certain unforeknown. 
 
 So without least impulse or shadow of fate, 
 
 Or aught by me immutably foreseen, 
 
 They trespass, authors to themselves in all 
 
 Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so 
 
 I formed them free : and free they must remain, 
 
 Till they enthrall themselves ; I else must change 
 
 Their nature, and revoke the high decree 
 
 Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained 
 
 Their freedom ; they themselves ordained their fall. 
 
 The first sort by their own suggestion fell, 
 
 Self-tempted, self-depraved: Man falls, deceived 
 
 By the other first : Man therefore shall find grace, 
 
 The other none : in mercy and justice both, 
 
 Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel; 
 
 But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine. 
 
 Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance filled 
 All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits elect 
 Sense of new joy ineffable diffused. 
 Beyond compare the Son of God was seen 
 Most glorious 3 in him all his Father shone 
 Substantially expressed ; and in his face 
 Divine compassion visibly appeared,
 
 76 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 Love without end, and without measure grace, 
 Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake. 
 
 O Father, gracious was that word which closed 
 Thy sovran sentence, that Man should find grace ; 
 For which both Heaven and earth shall high extol 
 Thy praises, with the innumerable sound 
 Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne 
 Encompassed shall resound thee ever blest. 
 For should Man finally be lost, should Man, 
 Thy creature late so loved, thy youngest son, 
 Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though joined 
 With his own folly ? That be from thee far, 
 That far be from thee, Father, who art judge 
 Of all things made, and judgest only right. 
 Or shall the Adversary thus obtain 
 His end, and frustrate thine ? shall he fulfil 
 His malice, and thy goodness bring to nought, 
 Or proud return, though to his heavier doom, 
 Yet with revenge accomplished, and to Hell 
 Draw after him the whole race of mankind, 
 By him corrupted ? or wilt thou thyself 
 Abolish thy creation, and unmake 
 For him, what for thy glory thou hast made ? 
 So should thy goodness and thy greatness both 
 Be questioned and blasphemed without defence. 
 
 To whom the great Creator thus replied. 
 O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight, 
 Son of my bosom, Son who art alone 
 My word, my wisdom, and effectual might, 
 All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 77 
 
 As iny eternal purpose hath decreed ; 
 
 Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will; 
 
 Yet not of will in him, but grace in me 
 
 Freely vouchsafed ; once more I will renew 
 
 His lapsed powers, though forfeit, and enthralled 
 
 By sin to foul exorbitant desires; 
 
 Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand 
 
 On even ground against his mortal foe; 
 
 By me upheld, that he may know how frail 
 
 His fallen condition is, and to me owe 
 
 All his deliverance, and to none but me. 
 
 Some I have chosen of peculiar grace, 
 
 Elect above the rest; so is my will: 
 
 The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warned 
 
 Their sinful state, and to appease betimes 
 
 The incensed Deity, while offered grace 
 
 Invites ; for I will clear their senses dark, 
 
 What may suffice, and soften stony hearts 
 
 To pray, repent, and bring obedience due. 
 
 To prayer, repentance, and obedience due, 
 
 Though but endeavoured with sincere intent, 
 
 Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut. 
 
 And I will place within them as a guide, 
 
 My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear, 
 
 Light after light, well used, they shall attain, 
 
 And to the end, persisting, safe arrive. 
 
 This my long sufferance, and my day of grace, 
 
 They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste ; 
 
 But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more, 
 
 That they may stumble on, and deeper fall; 
 
 And none but such from mercy I exclude.
 
 78 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IH. 
 
 But yet all is not done ; Man disobeying, 
 
 Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins 
 
 Against the high supremacy of Heaven, 
 
 Affecting God-head, and, so losing all, 
 
 To expiate his treason hath nought left, 
 
 But to destruction sacred and devote, 
 
 He, with his whole posterity, must die, 
 
 Die he or justice must; unless for him 
 
 Some other able, and as willing, pay 
 
 The rigid satisfaction, death for death. 
 
 Say, heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love ? 
 
 Which of you will be mortal, to redeem 
 
 Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save? 
 
 Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear? 
 
 He asked, but all the heavenly quire stood mute, 
 And silence was in Heaven : on Man's behalf 
 Patron or intercessour none appeared, 
 Much less that durst upon his own head draw 
 The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set. 
 And now without redemption all mankind 
 Must have been lost, adjudged to Death and Hell 
 By doom severe, had not the Son of God, 
 In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, 
 His dearest mediation thus renewed. 
 
 Father, thy word is past, Man shall find grace ; 
 And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, 
 The speediest of thy winged messengers, 
 To visit all thy creatures, and to all 
 Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought? 
 Happy for Man, so coming j he her aid 
 Can never seek, once dead in sins, and lost ;
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 79 
 
 Atonement for himself, or offering meet, 
 
 Indebted and undone, hath none to bring. 
 
 Behold me then : me for him, life for life 
 
 I offer ; on me let thine anger fall ; 
 
 Account me Man ; I for his sake will leave 
 
 Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee 
 
 Freely put off, and for him lastly die 
 
 Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage; 
 
 Under his gloomy power I shall not long 
 
 Lie vanquished ; thou hast given me to possess 
 
 Life in myself for ever; by thee I live, 
 
 Though now to Death I yield, and am his due 
 
 All that of me can die; yet, that debt paid, 
 
 Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave 
 
 His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul 
 
 For ever with corruption there to dwell; 
 
 But I shall rise victorious, and subdue 
 
 My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil ; 
 
 Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop 
 
 Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed. 
 
 I through the ample air in triumph high 
 
 Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and show 
 
 The Powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight 
 
 Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile, 
 
 While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes, 
 
 Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave : 
 
 Then, with the multitude of my redeemed, 
 
 Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return, 
 
 Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud 
 
 Of anger shall remain, but peace assured
 
 80 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 And reconcilement ; wrath shall be no more 
 Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire. 
 
 His words here ended, but his meek aspect 
 Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love 
 To mortal men, above which only shone 
 Filial obedience : as a sacrifice 
 Glad to be offered, he attends the will 
 Of his great Father. Admiration seised 
 All Heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend, 
 Wondering ; but soon the Almighty thus replied. 
 
 O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace 
 Found out for mankind under wrath ! O thou 
 My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear 
 To me are all my works, nor Man the least, 
 Though last created ; that for him I spare 
 Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, 
 By losing thee awhile, the whole race lost. 
 Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem, 
 Their nature also to thy nature join; 
 And be thyself Man among men on earth, 
 Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed, 
 By wonderous birth : be thou in Adam's room 
 The head of all mankind, though Adam's son. 
 As in him perish all men, so in thee, 
 As from a second root, shall be restored 
 As many as are restored, without thee none. 
 His crime makes guilty all his sons ; thy merit, 
 Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce 
 Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds, 
 And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 81 
 
 Receive new life. So Man, as is most just, 
 
 Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die, 
 
 And dying rise, and rising with him raise 
 
 His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life. 
 
 So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate, 
 
 Giving to death, and dying to redeem, 
 
 So dearly to redeem what hellish hate 
 
 So easily destroyed, and still destroys 
 
 In those who, when they may, accept not grace. 
 
 Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume 
 
 Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own. 
 
 Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss 
 
 Equal to God, and equally enjoying 
 
 God-like fruition, quitted all, to save 
 
 A world from utter loss, and hast been found 
 
 By merit more than birthright Son of God, 
 
 Found worthiest to be so by being good, 
 
 Far more than great or high ; because in thee 
 
 Love hath abounded more than glory abounds ; 
 
 Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt 
 
 With thee thy manhood also to this throne : 
 
 Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign 
 
 Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man, 
 
 Anointed universal King j all power 
 
 I give thee ; reign for ever, and assume 
 
 Thy merits ; under thee, as head supreme, 
 
 Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce : 
 
 All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide 
 
 In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell. 
 
 When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven, 
 
 Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
 
 82 PARADISE LOST. BOOK HI. 
 
 The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim 
 
 Thy dread tribunal ; forthwith from all winds, 
 
 The living, and forthwith the cited dead 
 
 Of all past ages, to the general doom 
 
 Shall hasten ; such a peal shall rouse their sleep. 
 
 Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge 
 
 Bad Men and Angels ; they, arraigned, shall sink 
 
 Beneath thy sentence ; Hell, her numbers full, 
 
 Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while 
 
 The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring 
 
 New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell, 
 
 And, after all their tribulations long, 
 
 See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, 
 
 With joy and peace triumphing, and fair truth. 
 
 Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by, 
 
 For regal scepter then no more shall need, 
 
 God shall be all in all. But, all ye Gods, 
 
 Adore him, who to compass all this dies ; 
 
 Adore the Son, and honour him as me. 
 
 No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all 
 The multitude of Angels, with a shout 
 Loud as from numbers without number, sweet 
 As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung 
 With jubilee, and loud Hosannas filled 
 The eternal regions : lowly reverent 
 Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground 
 With solemn adoration down they cast 
 Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold; 
 Immortal amarant, a flower which once 
 In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 
 Began to bloom 3 but soon for man's offence
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 83 
 
 To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, 
 
 And flowers aloft shading the fount of life, 
 
 And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven 
 
 Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream ; 
 
 With these that never fade the Spirits elect 
 
 Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams ; 
 
 Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright 
 
 Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone, 
 
 Impurpled with celestial roses smiled. 
 
 Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took, 
 
 Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side 
 
 Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet 
 
 Of charming symphony they introduce 
 
 Their sacred song, and waken raptures high ; 
 
 No voice exempt, no voice but well could join 
 
 Melodious part, such concord is in Heaven. 
 
 Thee, Father, first they sung Omnipotent, 
 Immutable, Immortal, Infinite, 
 Eternal King ; the Author of all being, 
 Fountain of light, thyself invisible 
 Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st 
 Throned inaccessible, but when thou shad'st 
 The full blaze of thy beams, and, through a cloud 
 Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine, 
 Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear, 
 Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim 
 Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes. 
 Thee next they sang of all creation first, 
 Begotten Son, Divine Similitude, 
 In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud 
 Made visible, the Almighty Father shines,
 
 84 PARADISE LOST. BOOK II 
 
 Whom else no creature can behold ; on thee 
 Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides, 
 Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests. 
 He Heaven of Heavens and all the Powers therein 
 By thee created ; and by thee threw down 
 The aspiring Dominations : thou that day 
 Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst root spare, 
 Nor stop thy flaming chariot -wheels, that shook 
 Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks 
 Thou drov'st of warring Angels disarrayed. 
 Back from pursuit thy Powers with loud acclaim 
 Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father's might, 
 To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. 
 Not so on Man : him through their malice fallen, 
 Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom 
 So strictly, but much more to pity incline : 
 No sooner did thy dear and only Son 
 Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man 
 So strictly, but much more to pity inclined, 
 He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife 
 Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned, 
 Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat 
 Second to thee, offered himself to die 
 For Man's offence. O unexampled love, 
 Love no where to be found less than Divine ! 
 Hail, Son of JGod, Saviour of men ! Thy name 
 Shall be the copious matter of my song 
 Henceforth, and never shall my heart thy praise 
 Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin. 
 
 Thus they in Heaven, above the starry sphere, 
 Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 85 
 
 Mean while upon the firm opacous globe 
 
 Of this round world, whose first convex divides 
 
 The luminous inferiour orbs, enclosed 
 
 From Chaos, and the inroad of Darkness old, 
 
 Satan alighted walks : a globe far off 
 
 It seemed, now seems a boundless continent 
 
 Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night 
 
 Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms 
 
 Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky; 
 
 Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven, 
 
 Though distant far, some small reflection gains 
 
 Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud : 
 
 Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field. 
 
 As when a vultur on Imaus bred, 
 
 Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, 
 
 Dislodging from a region scarce of prey 
 
 To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids, 
 
 On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs 
 
 Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams ; 
 
 But in his way lights on the barren plains 
 
 Of Sericana, where Chineses drive 
 
 With sails and wind their cany waggons light: 
 
 So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend 
 
 Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey; 
 
 Alone, for other creature in this place, 
 
 Living or lifeless, to be found was none; 
 
 None yet, but store hereafter from the earth 
 
 Up hither like ae'real vapours flew 
 
 Of all things transitory and vain, when sin 
 
 With vanity had filled the works of men: 
 
 Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
 
 86 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III- 
 
 Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame. 
 
 Or happiness in this or the other life ; 
 
 All who have their reward on earth, the fruits 
 
 Of painful superstition and blind zeal, 
 
 Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find 
 
 Fit retribution, empty as their deeds ; 
 
 All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, 
 
 Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed, 
 
 Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain, 
 
 Till final dissolution, wander here ; 
 
 Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed ; 
 
 Those argent fields more likely habitants, 
 
 Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold 
 
 Betwixt the angelical and human kind. 
 
 Hither of ill -joined sons and daughters bom 
 
 First from the ancient world those giants came 
 
 With many a vain exploit, though then renowned : 
 
 The builders next of Babel on the plain 
 
 Of Sennaar, and still with vain design, 
 
 New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build : 
 
 Others came single ; he, who, to be deemed 
 
 A God, leaped fondly into ^Etna flames, 
 
 Empedocles ; and he, who, to enjoy 
 
 Plato's Elysium, leaped into the sea, 
 
 Cleombrotus; and many more too long, 
 
 Embryos, air] idiots, eremites, and friars 
 
 White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery. 
 
 Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek 
 
 In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heaven ; 
 
 And they, who to be sure of Paradise, 
 
 Dying, put on the weeds of Dominick,
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 87 
 
 Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised; 
 
 They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed. 
 
 And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs 
 
 The trepidation talked, and that first moved ; 
 
 And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket seems 
 
 To wait them with his keys, and now at foot 
 
 Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo 
 
 A violent cross wind from either coast 
 
 Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry 
 
 Into the devious air : then might ye see 
 
 Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost 
 
 And fluttered into rags ; then reliques, beads, 
 
 Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, 
 
 The sport of winds : all these, upwhirled aloft, 
 
 Fly o'er the backside of the world far off 
 
 Into a Limbo large and broad, since called 
 
 The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown 
 
 Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod. 
 
 All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed, 
 
 And long he wandered, till at last a gleam 
 
 Of dawning light turned thither-ward in haste 
 
 His travelled steps : far distant he descries 
 
 Ascending by degrees magnificent 
 
 Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high j 
 
 At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared 
 
 The work as of a kingly palace-gate, 
 
 With frontispiece of diamond and gold 
 
 Embellished ; thick with sparling orient gems 
 
 The portal shone, inimitable on earth 
 
 By model, or by shading pencil, drawn. 
 
 The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
 
 88 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 Angels ascending and descending, bands 
 
 Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled 
 
 To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz 
 
 Dreaming by night under the open sky, 
 
 And waking cried, This is the gate of Heaven. 
 
 Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood 
 
 There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes 
 
 Viewless j and underneath a bright sea flowed 
 
 Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon 
 
 Who after came from earth, sailing arrived 
 
 Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake 
 
 Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds. 
 
 The stairs were then let down, whether to dare 
 
 The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate 
 
 His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss : 
 
 Direct against which opened from beneath, 
 
 Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise, 
 
 A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide, 
 
 Wider by far than that of after-times 
 
 Over mount Sion, and, though that were large, 
 
 Over the Promised Land to God so dear ; 
 
 By which, to visit oft those happy tribes, 
 
 On high behests his Angels to and fro 
 
 Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard 
 
 From Paneas, the fount of Jordan's flood, 
 
 To Beersaba, where the Holy Land 
 
 Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore ; 
 
 So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set 
 
 To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave. 
 
 Satan from hence, now on the lower stair, 
 
 That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 89 
 
 Looks down with wonder at the sudden view 
 
 Of all this world at once. As when a scout, 
 
 Through dark and desert ways with peril gone 
 
 All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn 
 
 Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill, 
 
 Which to his eye discovers unaware 
 
 The goodly prospect of some foreign land 
 
 First seen, or some renowned metropolis 
 
 With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned, 
 
 Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams : 
 
 Such wonder seised, though after Heaven seen, 
 
 The Spirit malign, but much more envy seised, 
 
 At sight of all this world beheld so fair. 
 
 Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood 
 
 So high above the circling canopy 
 
 Of night's extended shade,) from eastern point 
 
 Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears 
 
 Andromeda far off Atlantick seas 
 
 Beyond the horizon ; then from pole to pole 
 
 He views in breadth, and without longer pause 
 
 Down right into the world's first region throws 
 
 His flight precipitant, and winds with ease 
 
 Through the pure marble air his oblique way 
 
 Amongst innumerable stars, that shone 
 
 Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds ; 
 
 Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles, 
 
 Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old, 
 
 Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales, 
 
 Thrice happy isles ; but who dwelt happy there 
 
 He staid not to inquire : above them all 
 
 The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven,
 
 90 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 Allured his eye ; thither his course he bends 
 
 Through the calm firmament, (but up or down, 
 
 By center, or eccentrick, hard to tell, 
 
 Or longitude,) where the great luminary 
 
 Aloof the vulgar constellations thick, 
 
 That from his lordly eye keep distance due, 
 
 Dispenses light from far; they, as they move 
 
 Their starry dance in numbers that compute 
 
 Days, months, andyears, towards his all-cheering lamp 
 
 Turn swift their various motions, or are turned 
 
 By his magnetick beam, that gently warms 
 
 The universe, and to each inward part 
 
 With gentle penetration, though unseen, 
 
 Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep ; 
 
 So wonderously was set his station bright. 
 
 There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps 
 
 Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb 
 
 Through his glazed optick tube yet never saw. 
 
 The place he found beyond expression bright, 
 
 Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone j 
 
 Not all parts like, but all alike informed 
 
 With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire ; 
 
 If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear; 
 
 If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite, 
 
 Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone 
 
 In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides 
 
 Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen, 
 
 That stone, or like to that which here below 
 
 Philosophers in vain so long have sought, 
 
 In vain, though by their powerful art they bind 
 
 Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 91 
 
 In various shapes old Proteus from the sea, 
 Drained through a limbeck to his native form. 
 What wonder then if fields and regions here 
 Breathe forth Elixir pure, and rivers run 
 Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch 
 The arch-chemick sun, so far from us remote, 
 Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed, 
 Here in the dark so many precious things 
 Of colour glorious, and effect so rare? 
 Here matter new to gaze the Devil met 
 Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands; 
 For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade, 
 But all sun-shine, as when his beams at noon 
 Culminate from the equator, as they now 
 Shot upward still direct, whence no way round 
 Shadow from body opaque can fall ; and the air, 
 No where so clear, sharpened his visual ray- 
 To objects distant far, whereby he soon 
 Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand, 
 The same whom John saw also in the sun : 
 His back was turned, but not his brightness hid ; 
 Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar 
 Circled his head, nor less his locks behind 
 Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings 
 Lay waving round ; on some great charge employed 
 He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep. 
 Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope 
 To find who might direct his wandering flight 
 To Paradise, the happy seat of Man, 
 His journey's end and our beginning woe. 
 But first he casts to change his proper shape,
 
 92 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 Which else might work him danger or delay : 
 
 And now a stripling Cherub he appears, 
 
 Not of the prime, yet such as in his face 
 
 Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb 
 
 Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned : 
 
 Under a coronet his flowing hair 
 
 In curls on either cheek played ; wings he wore 
 
 Of many a coloured plume, sprinkled with gold ; 
 
 His habit fit for speed succinct, and held 
 
 Before his decent steps a silver wand. 
 
 He drew not nigh unheard j the Angel bright, 
 
 Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned, 
 
 Admonished by his ear, and straight was known 
 
 The Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the seven 
 
 Who in God's presence, nearest to .his throne, 
 
 Stand ready at command, and are his eyes 
 
 That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth 
 
 Bear his swift errands over moist and dry, 
 
 O'er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts. 
 
 Uriel, for thou of those seven Spirits that stand 
 In sight of. God's high throne, gloriously bright, 
 The first art wont his great authentick will 
 Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring, 
 Where all his sons thy embassy attend ; 
 And here art likeliest by supreme decree 
 Like honour to obtain, and as his eye 
 To visit oft this new creation round; 
 Unspeakable desire to see, and know 
 All these his wonderous works, but chiefly Man, 
 His chief delight and favour, him for whom 
 All these his works so wonderous he ordained,
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 93 
 
 Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim 
 
 Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph, tell 
 
 In which of all these shining orbs hath Man 
 
 His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none, 
 
 But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell j 
 
 That I may find him, and with secret gaze 
 
 Or open admiration him behold, 
 
 On whom the great Creator hath bestowed 
 
 Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured ; 
 
 That both in him and all things, as is meet, 
 
 The universal Maker we may praise ; 
 
 Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes 
 
 To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss, 
 
 Created this new happy race of Men 
 
 To serve him better : wise are all his ways. 
 
 So spake the false dissembler unperceived ; 
 For neither Man nor Angel can discern 
 Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks 
 Invisible, except to God alone, 
 By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth : 
 And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps 
 At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity 
 Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill 
 Where no ill seems : which now for once beguiled 
 Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held 
 The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven ; 
 Who to the fraudulent impostor foul, 
 In his uprightness, answer thus returned. 
 
 Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know 
 The works of God, thereby to glorify 
 The great Work-master, leads to no excess
 
 94 PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. 
 
 That reaches blame, but rather merits praise 
 
 The more it seems excess, that led thee hither 
 
 From thy empyreal mansion thus alone, 
 
 To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps, 
 
 Contented with report, hear only in Heaven : 
 
 For wonderful indeed are all his works, 
 
 Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all 
 
 Had in remembrance always with delight; 
 
 But what created mind can comprehend 
 
 Their number, or the wisdom infinite 
 
 That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep? 
 
 I saw when at his word the formless mass, 
 
 This world's material mould, came to a heap: 
 
 Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar 
 
 Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; 
 
 Till at his second bidding Darkness fled, 
 
 Light shone, and order from disorder sprung : 
 
 Swift to their several quarters hasted then 
 
 The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire ; 
 
 And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven 
 
 Flew upward, spirited with various forms, 
 
 That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars 
 
 Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move j 
 
 Each had his place appointed, each his course ; 
 
 The rest in circuit walls this universe. 
 
 Look downward on that globe, whose hither side 
 
 With light from hence, though but reflected, shines ; 
 
 That place is Earth, the seat of Man ; that light 
 
 His day, which else, as the other hemisphere, 
 
 Night would invade ; but there the neighbouring moon 
 
 (So call that opposite fair star) her aid
 
 BOOK III. PARADISE LOST. 95 
 
 Timely interposes, and her monthly round 
 Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven, 
 With borrowed light her countenance triform 
 Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth, 
 And in her pale dominion checks the night. 
 That spot, to which I point, is Paradise, 
 Adam's abode ; those lofty shades, his bower. 
 Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires. 
 Thus said, he turned ; and Satan, bowing low, 
 As to superiour Spirits is wont in Heaven, 
 Where honour due and reverence none neglects, 
 Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath, 
 Down from the ecliptick, sped with hoped success, 
 Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel ; 
 Nor staid, till on Niphates' top he lights. 
 
 END OF THE THIRD BOOK.
 
 THE 
 
 FOURTH BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Satan, now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must 
 now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against 
 God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many 
 passions, fear, envy, and despair ; but at length confirms himself 
 in evil; journeys on to Paradise whose outward prospect and si- 
 tuation is described ; overleaps the bounds ; sits in the shape of 
 a cormorant on the tree of life, as highest in the garden, to look 
 about him. The garden described ; Satan's first sight of Adam 
 and Eve ; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, 
 but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their discourse; 
 thence gathers that the tree of knowledge was forbidden them to 
 eat of, under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his 
 temptation by seducing them to trangress : then leaves them a 
 while to know further of their state by some other means. 
 Meanwhile Uriel descending on a sunbeam warns Gabriel, who 
 had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil Spirit had 
 escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape 
 of a good Angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his fu- 
 rious gestures in the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere 
 morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going 
 to their rest: their bower described; their evening worship. 
 Gabriel, drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the 
 rounds of Paradise, appoints two strong Angels to Adam's bower, 
 lest the evil Spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or 
 Eve sleeping ; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting 
 her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by 
 whom questioned, he scornfully answers ; prepares resistance ; 
 but, hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 O, FOR that warning voice, which he, who saw 
 The Apocalypse, heard cry in Heaven aloud, 
 Then when the Dragon, put to second rout, 
 Came furious down to be revenged on men, 
 Woe to the inhabitants on earth ! that now, 
 While time was, our first parents had been warned 
 The corning of their secret foe, and 'scaped, 
 Haply so 'scaped his mortal snare : for now 
 Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down, 
 The tempter ere the accuser of mankind, 
 To wreak on innocent frail Man his loss 
 Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell : 
 Yet, not rejoicing in his speed, though bold 
 Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast, 
 Begins his dire attempt; which nigh the birth 
 Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast, 
 And like a devilish engine back recoils 
 Upon himself; horrour and doubt distract
 
 100 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IY. 
 
 His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir 
 The Hell within him ; for within him Hell 
 He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell 
 One step, no more than from himself, can fly 
 By change of place : BOW conscience wakes despair, 
 That slumbered ; wakes the bitter memory 
 Of what he was, what is, and what must be 
 Worse ; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue. 
 Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view 
 Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad ; 
 Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun, 
 Which now sat high in his meridian tower : 
 Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began. 
 
 O thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned, 
 Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God 
 Of this new world ; at whose sight all the stars 
 Hide their diminished heads ; to thee I call, 
 But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, 
 
 Sun ! to tell thee how I hate thy beams, 
 That bring to my remembrance from what state 
 
 1 fell, how glorious once above thy sphere ; 
 Till pride and worse ambition threw me down 
 Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King : 
 Ah, wherefore ! he deserved no such return 
 
 From me, whom he created what I was 
 In that bright eminence, and with his good 
 Upbraided none ; nor was his service hard. 
 What could be less than to afford him praise, 
 The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks, 
 How due ! yet all his good proved ill in me, 
 And wrought but malice j lifted up so high
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 101 
 
 I sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher 
 
 Would set me highest, and in a moment quit 
 
 The debt immense of endless gratitude, 
 
 So burdensome still paying, still to owe, 
 
 Forgetful what from him I still received, 
 
 And understood not that a grateful mind 
 
 By owing owes not, but still pays, at once 
 
 Indebted and discharged ; what burden then ? 
 
 O, had his powerful destiny ordained 
 
 Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood 
 
 Then happy ; no unbounded hope had raised 
 
 Ambition ! Yet why not ? some other Power 
 
 As great might have aspired, and me, though mean, 
 
 Drawn to his part ; but other Powers as great 
 
 Fell not, but stand unshaken, from withia 
 
 Or from without, to all temptations armed. 
 
 Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand? 
 
 Thou hadst : whom hast thou then or what to accuse, 
 
 But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all ? 
 
 Be then his love accursed, since love or hate, 
 
 To me alike, it deals eternal woe. 
 
 Nay, cursed be thou ; since against his thy will 
 
 Chose freely what it now so justly rues. 
 
 Me miserable ! which way shall I fly 
 
 Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? 
 
 Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hellj 
 
 And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep 
 
 Still threatening to devour me opens wide, 
 
 To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. 
 
 O, then, at last relent : is there no place 
 
 Left for repentance, none for pardon left ?
 
 102 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 None left but by submission ; and that word 
 
 Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame 
 
 Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced 
 
 With other promises and other vaunts 
 
 Than to submit, boasting I could subdue 
 
 The Omnipotent. Ay me ! they little know 
 
 How dearly I abide that boast so vain, 
 
 Under what torments inwardly I groan, 
 
 While they adore me on the throne of Hell. 
 
 With diadem and scepter high advanced, 
 
 The lower still I fall, only supreme 
 
 In misery : such joy ambition finds. 
 
 But say I could repent, and could obtain, 
 
 By act of grace, my former state ; how soon 
 
 Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay 
 
 What feigned submission swore ? Ease would recant 
 
 Vows made in pain, as violent and void. 
 
 For never can true reconcilement grow, 
 
 Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep : 
 
 Which would but lead me to a worse relapse 
 
 And heavier fall : so should I purchase dear 
 
 Short intermission bought with double smart. 
 
 This knows my Punisher ; therefore as far 
 
 From granting he, as I from begging, peace ; 
 
 All hope excluded thus, behold, in stead 
 
 Of us out-cast, exiled, his new delight, 
 
 Mankind created, and for him this world. 
 
 So farewell, hope ; and with hope farewell, fear ; 
 
 Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost} 
 
 Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least 
 
 Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 103 
 
 By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign ; 
 As Man ere long, and this new world, shall know. 
 
 Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face 
 Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair; 
 Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed 
 Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. 
 For heavenly minds from such distempers foul 
 Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware, 
 Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm, 
 Artificer of fraud ; and was the first 
 That practised falshood under saintly show, 
 Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge : 
 Yet not enough had practised to deceive 
 Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down 
 The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount 
 Saw him disfigured, more than could befall 
 Spirit of happy sort : his gestures fierce 
 He marked and mad demeanour, then alone, 
 As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen. 
 So on he fares, and to the border comes 
 Of Eden, where delicious Paradise, 
 Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green, 
 As with a rural mound, the champain head 
 Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides 
 With thicket overgrown, grottesque and wild, 
 Access denied ; and over-head up grew 
 Insuperable highth of loftiest shade, 
 Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, 
 A sylvan scene ; and, as the ranks ascend 
 Shade above shade, a woody theatre 
 Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
 
 104 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprang : 
 Which to our general sire gave prospect large 
 Into his nether empire neighbouring round. 
 And higher than that wall a circling row 
 Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit, 
 Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue, 
 Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed : 
 On which the sun more glad impressed his beams 
 Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow, 
 When God hath showered the earth ; so lovely seemed 
 That landskip : and of pure now purer air 
 Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires 
 Vernal delight and joy, able to drive 
 All sadness but despair : now gentle gales, 
 Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense 
 Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole 
 Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail 
 Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 
 Mozambick, off at sea north-east winds blow 
 Sabean odours from the spicy shore 
 Of Araby the blest j with such delay 
 Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league 
 Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles : 
 So entertained those odorous sweets the Fiend, 
 Who came their bane j though with them better pleased 
 Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume 
 That drove him, though enamoured, from the spouse 
 Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent 
 From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound. 
 Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill 
 Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow 3
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 105 
 
 But further way found none, so thick entwined, 
 
 As one continued brake, the undergrowth 
 
 Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed 
 
 All path of man or beast that passed that way. 
 
 One gate there only was, and that looked east 
 
 On the other side : which when the arch-felon saw, 
 
 Due entrance he disdained ; and, in contempt, 
 
 At one slight bound high over-leaped all bound 
 
 Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within 
 
 Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, 
 
 Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, 
 
 Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve 
 
 In hurdled cotes amid the field secure, 
 
 Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold : 
 
 Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash 
 
 Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors, 
 
 Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no assault, 
 
 In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles : 
 
 So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold 5 
 
 So since 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 5 yet not true life 
 
 Thereby regained, but sat devising death 
 
 To them who lived ; nor on the virtue thought 
 
 Of that life-giving plant, but only used 
 
 For prospect, what well used had been the pledge 
 
 Of immortality. So little knows 
 
 Any, but God alone, to value right 
 
 The good before him, but perverts best things 
 
 To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.
 
 106 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Beneath him with new wonder now he views, 
 
 To all delight of human sense exposed, 
 
 In narrow room, Nature's whole wealth, yea more, 
 
 A Heaven on Earth : for blissful Paradise 
 
 Of God the garden was, by him in the east 
 
 Of Eden planted ; Eden stretched her line 
 
 From Auran eastward to the royal towers 
 
 Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, 
 
 Or where the sons of Eden long before 
 
 Dwelt in Telassar : in this pleasant soil 
 
 His far more pleasant garden God ordained ; 
 
 Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow 
 
 All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste j 
 
 And all amid them stood 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 changed his course, but through the shaggy hill 
 
 Passed underneath ingulfed; for God had thrown 
 
 That mountain as his garden-mould high raised 
 
 Upon the rapid current, which, through veins 
 
 Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn, 
 
 Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill 
 
 Watered the garden ; thence united fell 
 
 Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood, 
 
 "U hich from his darksome passage now appears, 
 
 And now, divided into four main streams, 
 
 Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm 
 
 And country 7 , whereof here needs no account ;
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 107 
 
 But rather to tell how, if Art could tell, 
 How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, 
 Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, 
 With mazy errour under pendant shades 
 Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 
 Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art 
 In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon 
 Povired forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, 
 Both where the morning sun first warmly smote 
 The open field, and where the unpierccd shade 
 Imbrowned the noontide bowers : thus was this place 
 A happy rural seat of various view ; 
 Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, 
 Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind, 
 Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, 
 If true, here only, and of delicious taste : 
 Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks 
 Grazing the tender herb, were interposed, 
 Or palmy hillock ; or the flowery lap 
 Of some irriguous valley spread her store, 
 Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose : 
 Another side, umbrageous grots and caves 
 Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine 
 Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps 
 Luxuriant ; mean while murmuring waters fall 
 Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake, 
 That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned 
 Her crystal mirrour holds, unite their streams. 
 The birds their quire apply ; airs, vernal airs, 
 Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune 
 The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
 
 108 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance, 
 
 Led on the eternal Spring. Not that fair field 
 
 Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers, 
 
 Herself a fairer flower by gloomy Dis 
 
 Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain 
 
 To seek her through the world ; nor that sweet grove 
 
 Of Daphne by Orontes, and the inspired 
 
 Castalian spring, might with this Paradise 
 
 Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle 
 
 Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham, 
 
 Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove, 
 
 Hid Amalthea, and her florid son 
 
 Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye; 
 
 Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard, 
 
 Mount Amara, though this by some supposed 
 
 True Paradise under the Ethiop line 
 
 By Nilus' head, enclosed with shining rock, 
 
 A whole day's journey high, but wide remote 
 
 From this Assyrian garden, where the Fiend 
 
 Saw, undelighted, all delight, all kind 
 
 Of living creatures, new to sight, and strange. 
 
 Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 
 
 Godlike erect, with native honour clad 
 
 In naked majesty seemed lords of all : 
 
 And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine 
 
 The image of their glorious Maker shone, 
 
 Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure, 
 
 (Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,) 
 
 Whence true authority in men ; though both 
 
 Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed ; 
 
 For contemplation he and valour formed ;
 
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 Published bv .1. Mawman and the other Proprietors 
 1817
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 109 
 
 For softness she and sweet attractive grace ; 
 
 He for God only, she for God in him : 
 
 His fair large front and eye sublime declared 
 
 Absolute rule ; and hyacinthine locks 
 
 Round from his parted forelock manly hung 
 
 Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad : 
 
 She, as a veil, down to the slender waist 
 
 Her unadorned golden tresses wore 
 
 Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved 
 
 As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied 
 
 Subjection, but required with gentle sway, 
 
 And by her yielded, by him best received, 
 
 Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, 
 
 And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. 
 
 Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed ; 
 
 Then was not guilty shame, dishonest shame 
 
 Of nature's works, honour dishonourable, 
 
 Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind 
 
 With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure, 
 
 And banished from man's life his happiest life, 
 
 Simplicity and spotless innocence ! 
 
 So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight 
 
 Of God or Angel ; for they thought no ill : 
 
 So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair, 
 
 That ever since in love's embraces met; 
 
 * ' 
 
 Adam the goodliest man of men since born 
 His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve. 
 Under a tuft of shade that on a green 
 Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain side 
 They sat them down j and, after no more toil 
 Of their sweet gardening labour than sufficed
 
 110 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 To recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease 
 More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite 
 More grateful, to their supper-fruits they fell, 
 Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs 
 Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline 
 On the soft downy bank damasked with flowers : 
 The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind, 
 Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream ; 
 Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles 
 Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems 
 Fair couple, linked in happy nuptial league, 
 Alone as they. About them frisking played 
 All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase 
 In wood or wilderness, forest or den ; 
 Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw 
 Dandled the kid 5 bears, tigers, ounces, pards, 
 Gambolled before them ; the unwieldy elephant, 
 To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed 
 His lithe proboscis ; close the serpent sly, 
 Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine 
 His braided train, and of his fatal guile 
 Gave proof unheeded 5 others on the grass 
 Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat, 
 Or bedward ruminating ; for the sun, 
 Declined, was hasting now with prone career 
 To the ocean isles, and in the ascending scale 
 Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose : 
 When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood, 
 Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad. 
 O Hell ! what do mine eyes with grief behold ! 
 Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. Ill 
 
 Creatures of other mould, earth-bora perhaps, 
 
 Not Spirits, yet to heavenly Spirits bright 
 
 Little inferiour ; whom my thoughts pursue 
 
 AVith wonder, and could love, so lively shines 
 
 In them divine resemblance, and such grace 
 
 The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured . 
 
 Ah ! gentle pair, ye little think how nigh 
 
 Your change approaches, when all these delights 
 
 Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe ; 
 
 More woe, the more your taste is now of joy; 
 
 Happy, but for so happy ill secured 
 
 Long to continue, and this high seat your Heaven 
 
 111 fenced for Heaven to keep out such a foe 
 
 As now is entered; yet no purposed foe 
 
 To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn, 
 
 Though I unpitied : league with you I seek, 
 
 And mutual amity, so strait, so close, 
 
 That I with you must dwell, or you with me 
 
 Henceforth ; iny dwelling haply may not please, 
 
 Like this fair Paradise, your sense; yet such 
 
 Accept your Maker's work ; he gave it me, 
 
 Which I as freely give: Hell shall unfold, 
 
 To entertain you two, her widest gates, 
 
 And send forth all her kings ; there will be room, 
 
 Not like these narrow limits, to receive 
 
 Your numerous offspring ; if no better place, 
 
 Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge 
 
 On you who wrong me not for him who wronged. 
 
 And should I at your harmless innocence 
 
 Melt, as I do, yet publick reason just, 
 
 Honour and empire with revenge enlarged,
 
 1 12 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 By conquering this new world, compels me now 
 To do what else, though damned, I should abhor. 
 
 So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, 
 The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds. 
 Then from his lofty stand on that high tree 
 Down he alights among the sportful herd 
 Of those four-footed kinds, himself now one, 
 Now other, as their shape served best his end 
 Nearer to view his prey, and, unespied, 
 To mark what of their state he more might learn, 
 By word or action marked : about them round 
 A lion now he stalks with fiery glare ; 
 Then as a tiger, who by chance hath spied 
 In some purlieu two gentle fawns at play, 
 Straight couches close, then, rising, changes oft 
 His couchant watch, as one who chose his ground, 
 Whence rushing, he might surest seize them both, 
 Griped in each paw : when, Adam first of men 
 To first of women Eve thus moving speech, 
 Turned him, all ear to hear new utterance flow. 
 
 Sole partner, and sole part, of all these joys, 
 Dearer thyself than all ; needs must the Power 
 That made us, and for us this ample world, 
 Be infinitely good, and of his good 
 As liberal and free as infinite ; 
 That raised us from the dust, and placed us here 
 In all this happiness, who at his hand 
 Have nothing merited, nor can perform 
 Aught whereof he hath need j he who requires 
 From us no other service than to keep 
 This one,, this easy charge, of all the trees
 
 BOOK IV, PARADISE LOST. 113 
 
 In Paradise that bear delicious fruit 
 So various, not to taste that only tree 
 Of knowledge, planted by the tree of life ; 
 So near grows death to life, whate'er death is, 
 Some dreadful thing no doubt ; for well thou know'st 
 God hath pronounced it death to taste that tree, 
 The only sign of our obedience left, 
 Among so many signs of power and rule 
 Conferred upon us, and dominion given 
 Over all other creatures that possess 
 Earth, air, and sea. Then let us not think hard 
 One easy prohibition, who enjoy 
 Free leave so large to all things else, and choice 
 Unlimited of manifold delights : 
 But let us ever praise him, and extol 
 His bounty, following our delightful task, 
 To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers, 
 Which were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet. 
 To whom thus Eve replied. O thou for whom 
 And from whom I was formed, flesh of thy flesh, 
 And without whom am to no end, my guide 
 And head ! what thou hast said is just and right. 
 For we to him indeed all praises owe, 
 And daily thanks ; I chiefly, who enjoy 
 So far the happier lot, enjoying thee 
 Pre-eminent by so much odds, while thou 
 Like consort to thyself canst no where find. 
 That day I oft remember, when from sleep 
 I first awaked, and found myself reposed 
 Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where 
 And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.
 
 1 14 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound 
 
 Of waters issued from a cave, and spread 
 
 Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved 
 
 Pure as the expanse of Heaven ; I thither went 
 
 With unexperienced thought, and laid me down 
 
 On the green bank, to look into the clear 
 
 Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky. 
 
 As I bent down to look, just opposite 
 
 A shape within the watery gleam appeared, 
 
 Bending to look on me : I started back, 
 
 It started back ; but pleased I soon returned, 
 
 Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks 
 
 Of sympathy and love : there I had fixed 
 
 Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire, 
 
 Had not a voice thus warned me j ' What thou seest, 
 
 What there thou seest, fair Creature, is thyself j 
 
 With thee it came and goes : but follow me, 
 
 And I will bring thee where no shadow stays 
 
 Thy coming, and thy soft embraces, he 
 
 Whose image thou art; him thou shalt enjoy 
 
 Inseparably thine, to him shalt bear 
 
 Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called 
 
 Mother of human race.' What could I do, 
 
 But follow straight, invisibly thus led? 
 
 Till I espied thee, fair indeed and tall, 
 
 Under a platane ; yet methought less fair, 
 
 Less winning soft, less amiably mild, 
 
 Than that smooth watery image : back I turned ; 
 
 Thou following cry'dst aloud, ' Return, fair Eve j 
 
 Whom fly'st thou? whom thou fly'st, of him thou art, 
 
 His flesh, his bone ; to give thee being I lent
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 115 
 
 Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart, 
 Substantial life, to have thee by my side 
 Henceforth an individual solace dear} 
 Part of my soul I seek thee, and thee claim 
 My other half:' with that thy gentle hand 
 Seised mine : I yielded ; and from that time see 
 How beauty is excelled by manly grace, 
 And wisdom, which alone is truly fair. 
 
 So spake our general mother, and with eyes 
 Of conjugal attraction unreproved, 
 And meek surrender, half-embracing leaned 
 On our first father ; half her swelling breast 
 Naked met his, under the flowing gold 
 Of her loose tresses hid : he in delight 
 Both of her beauty, and submissive charms, 
 Smiled with superiour love, as Jupiter 
 On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds 
 That shed May flowers ; and pressed her matron lip 
 With kisses pure : aside the Devil turned 
 For envy; yet with jealous leer malign 
 Eyed them askance, and to himself thus plained. 
 
 Sight hateful, sight tormenting ! thus these two, 
 Imparadised in one another's arms, 
 The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill 
 Of bliss on bliss ; while I to Hell am thrust, 
 Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire, 
 Among our other torments not the least, 
 Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines. 
 Yet let me not forget what I have gained 
 From their own mouths : all is not theirs, it seems j 
 One fatal tree there stands, of knowledge called, 
 
 i 2
 
 116 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Fort>idden them to taste: knowledge forbidden? 
 Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord 
 Envy them that ? Can it be sin to know ? 
 Can it be death? And do they only stand 
 By ignorance ? Is that their happy state, 
 The proof of their obedience and their faith ? 
 O fair foundation laid whereon to build 
 Their ruin ! hence I will excite their minds 
 With more desire to know, and to reject 
 Envious commands, invented with design 
 To keep them low, whom knowledge might exalt 
 Equal with Gods : aspiring to be such, 
 They taste and die : what likelier can ensue ? 
 But first with narrow search I must walk round 
 This garden, and no corner leave unspiedj 
 A chance but chance may lead where I may meet 
 Some wandering Spirit of Heaven by fountain side, 
 Or in thick shade retired, from him to draw 
 What further would be learned. Live while ye may, 
 Yet happy pair ; enjoy, till I return, 
 Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed ! 
 So saying, his proud step he scornful turned, 
 But with sly circumspection, and began 
 Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale, 
 
 his roam. 
 
 Mean while in utmost longitude, where Heaven 
 With earth and ocean meets, the setting sun 
 Slowly descended, and with right aspect 
 Against the eastern gate of Paradise 
 Levelled his evening rays : it was a rock 
 Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds,
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 117 
 
 Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent 
 Accessible from earth, one entrance high ; 
 The rest was craggy cliff, that overhung 
 Still as it rose, impossible to climb. 
 Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat, 
 Chief of the angelick guards, awaiting night; 
 About him exercised heroick games 
 The unarmed youth of Heaven, but nigh at hand 
 Celestial armoury, shields, helms, and spears, 
 Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold. 
 Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even 
 On a sun-beam, swift as a shooting star 
 In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired 
 Impress the air, and shows the mariner 
 From what point of his compass to beware 
 Impetuous winds : he thus began in haste. 
 
 Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given 
 Charge and strict watch, that to this happy place 
 No evil thing approach or enter in. 
 This day at highth of noon came to my sphere 
 A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know 
 More of the Almighty's works, and chiefly Man, 
 God's latest image : I described his way 
 Bent all on speed, and marked his aery gait , 
 But in the mount that lies from Eden north, 
 Where he first lighted, soon discerned his looks 
 Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured : 
 Mine eye pursued him still, but under shade 
 Lost sight of him : one of the banished crew, 
 I fear, hath ventured from the deep, to raise 
 New troubles ; him thy care must be to find.
 
 118 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 To whom the winged warriour thus returned. 
 Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect sight, 
 Amid the sun's bright circle where thou sit'st, 
 See far and wide : in at this gate none pass 
 The vigilance here placed, but such as come 
 Well known from Heaven ; and since meridian hour 
 No creature thence : if Spirit of other sort, 
 So minded, have o'er-leaped these earthly bounds 
 On purpose, hard thou know'st it to exclude 
 Spiritual substance with corporeal bar. 
 But if within the circuit of these walks, 
 In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom 
 Thou tell'st, by morrow dawning I shall know. 
 
 So promised he ; and Uriel to his charge 
 Returned on that bright beam, whose point now raised 
 Bore him slope downward to the sun now fallen 
 Beneath the Azores ; whether the prime orb, 
 Incredible how swift, had thither rolled 
 Diurnal, or this less volubil earth, 
 By shorter flight to the east, had left him there 
 Arraying with reflected purple and gold 
 The clouds that on his western throne attend. 
 Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray 
 Had in her sober livery all things clad ; 
 Silence accompanied ; for beast and bird, 
 They to their grassy couch, these to their nests 
 Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale ; 
 She all night long her amorous descant sung ; 
 Silence was pleased : now glowed the firmament 
 With living sapphires : Hesperus, that led 
 The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 1 1'9 
 
 Rising in clouded majesty, at length 
 Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light, 
 And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. 
 
 When Adam thus to Eve. Fair Consort, the hour 
 Of night, and all things now retired to rest, 
 Mind us of like repose j since God hath set 
 Labour and rest, as day and night, to men 
 Successive ; and the timely dew of sleep, 
 Now falling with soft slumbrous weight, inclines 
 Our eye-lids : other creatures all day long 
 Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest j 
 Man hath his daily work of body or mind 
 Appointed, which declares his dignity, 
 And the regard of Heaven on all his ways ; 
 While other animals unactive range, 
 And of their doings God takes no account. 
 To-morrow, ere fresh morning streak the east 
 With first approach of light, we must be risen, 
 And at our pleasant labour, to reform 
 Yon flowery arbours, yonder alleys green, 
 Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown, 
 That mock our scant manuring, and require 
 More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth : 
 Those blossoms also, aud those dropping gums, 
 That lie bestrown, unsightly and unsmooth, 
 Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease ; 
 Mean while, as Nature wills, night bids us rest. 
 
 To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorned. 
 My Author and Disposer, what thou bid'st 
 Unargued I obey : so God ordains j 
 God is thy law, thou mine : to know no more
 
 120 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Is woman's happiest knowledge, and her praise. 
 With thee conversing I forget all time ; 
 All seasons, and their change, all please alike. 
 Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, 
 With charm of earliest birds : pleasant the sun, 
 When first on this delightful land he spreads 
 His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
 Glistering with dew ; fragrant the fertile earth 
 After soft showers 5 and sweet the coming on ; ijf f. 
 Of grateful Evening mild j then silent Night, 
 With this Jier solemn bird, and this fair moon, 
 And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train : 
 But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends 
 With charm of earliest birds > nor rising sun 
 On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, 
 Glistering with dew ; nor fragrance after showers > 
 Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night, , ( W 
 With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon, 
 Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet. 
 But wherefore all night long shine these ? for whom 
 This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes? 
 
 To whom our general ancestor replied. 
 Daughter of God and Man, accomplished Eve, 
 These have their course to finish round the earth, 
 By morrow evening, and from land to land 
 In order, though to nations yet unborn, 
 Ministring light prepared, they set and rise ; 
 Lest total Darkness should by night regain 
 Her old possession, and extinguish life 
 In Nature and all things ; which these soft fires 
 Not only enlighten, but with kindly heat
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 121 
 
 Of various influence foment and warm, 
 Temper or nourish, or in part shed down 
 Their stellar virtue on all kinds that grow 
 On earth, made hereby apter to receive 
 Perfection from the sun's more potent ray. 
 These then, though unbeheld in deep of night, 
 Shine not in vain ; nor think, though men were none, 
 That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise : 
 Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth 
 Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep : 
 All these with ceaseless praise his works behold 
 Both day and night : how often from the steep 
 Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard 
 Celestial voices to the midnight air, 
 Sole, or responsive each to other's note, 
 Singing their great Creator ? oft in bands 
 While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk, 
 With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds 
 In full harmonick number joined, their songs 
 Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to Heaven. 
 
 Thus talking, hand in hand alone they passed 
 On to their blissful bower : it was a place 
 Chosen by the sovran Planter, when he framed 
 All things to Man's delightful use; the roof 
 Of thickest covert was inwoven shade 
 Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew 
 Of farm and fragrant leaf; on either side 
 Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub, 
 Fenced up the verdant wall ; each beauteous flower 
 Iris all hues, roses, and jessamin, 
 
 "..: <
 
 122 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Reared high their flourished heads between, and 
 
 wrought 
 
 Mosaick ; underfoot the violet, 
 Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay 
 Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone 
 Of costliest emblem : other creature here, 
 Bird, beast, insect, or worm, durst enter none, 
 Such was their awe of Man. In shadier bower 
 More sacred and sequestered, though but feigned, 
 Pan or Sylvanus never slept, nor Nymph 
 Nor Faunus haunted. Here, in close recess, 
 With flowers, garlands, and sweet-smelling herbs, 
 Espoused Eve decked first her nuptial bed ; 
 And heavenly quires the hymenaean sung, 
 What day the genial Angel to our sire 
 Brought her in naked beauty more adorned, 
 More lovely, than Pandora, whom the Gods 
 Endowed with all their gifts, and O ! too like 
 In sad event, when to the unwiser son 
 Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she ensnared 
 Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged 
 On him who had stole Jove's authentick fire. 
 
 Thus, at their shady lodge arrived, both stood, 
 Both turned, and under open sky adored 
 The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven, 
 Which they beheld, the moon's resplendent globe, 
 And starry pole: Thou also mad'st the night, 
 Maker Omnipotent, and thou the day, 
 Which we, in our appointed work employed, 
 Have finished, happy in our mutual help
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 123 
 
 And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss 
 Ordained by thee ; and this delicious place 
 For us too large, where thy abundance wants 
 Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground. 
 But thou hast promised from us two a race 
 To fill the earth, who shall with us extol 
 Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake, 
 And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep. 
 
 This said unanimous, and other rites 
 Observing none, but adoration pure 
 Which God likes best, into their inmost bower 
 Handed they went ; and, eased the putting off 
 These troublesome disguises which we wear, 
 Straight side by side were laid; nor turned; I ween, 
 Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites 
 Mysterious of connubial love refused : 
 Whatever hypocrites austerely talk 
 Of purity, and place, and innocence, 
 Defaming as impure what God declares 
 Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all. 
 Our Maker bids encrease ; who bids abstain 
 But our Destroyer, foe to God and Man ? 
 Hail, wedded Love, mysterious law, true source 
 Of human offspring, sole propriety 
 In Paradise of all things common else ! 
 By thee adulterous Lust was driven from men 
 Among the bestial herds to range ,- by thee 
 Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure, 
 Relations dear, and all the charities 
 Of father, son, and brother, first were known. 
 Far be it, that I should write thee sin or blame,
 
 124 PARADISE LOST. HOOK IV. 
 
 Or think thee unbefitting holiest place, 
 Perpetual fountain of domestick sweets., 
 Whose bed is undented and chaste pronounced, 
 Present, or past, as saints and patriarchs used. 
 Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights 
 His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings, 
 Reigns here and revels ; not in the bought smile 
 Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared, 
 Casual fruition j nor in court-amours, 
 Mixed dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball, 
 Or serenate, which the starved lover sings 
 To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain. 
 These, lulled by nightingales, embracing slept, 
 And on their naked limbs the flowery roof 
 Showered roses, which the morn repaired. Sleep on, 
 Blest pair; and O ! yet happiest, if ye seek 
 No happier state, and know to know no more.'B 3> ^ 
 
 Now had night measured with her shadowy cone 
 Half way up hill this vast sublunar vault, oqori 
 And from their ivory port the Cherubim>'" J 
 Forth issuing at the accustomed hour, stood armed 
 To their night watches in warlike parade ; 
 When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake. 
 
 Uzziel, half these draw off, and coast the south 
 With strictest watch ; these other wheel the north ; 
 Our circuit meets full west. As flame they part, 
 Half wheeling to the shield, half to the spear. 
 From these, two strong and subtle Spirits he called 
 That near him stood, and gave them thus in charge. 
 
 Ithuriel and Zephon, with winged speed 
 Search through this garden, leave unsearched no nook - }
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 125 
 
 But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge, 
 Now laid perhaps asleep, secure of harm. ,,,n 
 This evening from the sun's decline arrived, 
 Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen ,;,, . 
 Hitherward bent (who could have thought?) escaped 
 The bars of Hell, on errand bad no doubt : 
 Such, where ye find, seise fast, and hither bring. 
 
 So saying, on he led his radiant files, 
 Dazzling the moon ; these to the bower direct ; ^cj 
 In search of whom they sought : him there they found 
 Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,^?,nvi r >? fO 
 Assaying by his devilish art to reach < hu<>iq %\i\ ,-,'J 
 The organs of her fancy, and with them forget ,<oHT 
 Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams $;t ^ . bn/ 
 Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint .ii fonjrof!^ 
 The animal spirits, that from pure blood, aris&i , ),.',ff) 
 Like gentle breaths from rivers pure, thence., raist.,'/ 
 At least distempered, discontented thoughts, 
 Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires, () -/BT/ "tJr,M 
 Blown up with high conceits ingendering pri^it fc n / 
 Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear, jjnijjgff ifno'i 
 Touched lightly ; for no falshood can endure siaif 1 oT 
 Touch of celestial temper, but returns 
 Offorce to its own likeness : up he staiferf J 
 Discovered and surprised. As when a 
 Lights on a heap of nitrous powder, laidi thmb urO 
 Fit for the tun some magazine to store 
 Against a rumoured war, the smutty grain jri g f fj 
 With sudden blaze diffused, mJ9aoiieS!thftgii^ ofl Jfit ff 
 So started upwhis.owa shape th*,Rief4 Irjniiritl 
 Back slept those, two {aiEi
 
 126 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 So sudden to behold the grisly king; 
 
 Yet thus, unmoved with fear, accost him soon. 
 
 Which of those rebel Spirits adjudged to Hell 
 Com'st thou, escaped thy prison ? and, transformed, 
 Why sat'st thou like an enemy in wait, 
 Here watching at the head of these that sleep? 
 
 Know ye not then, said Satan, filled with scorn, 
 Know ye not me ? ye knew me once no mate 
 For you, there sitting \vhere ye durst not soar : 
 Not to know me argues yourselves unknown, 
 The lowest of your throng ; or, if ye know, 
 Why ask ye, and superfluous begin 
 Your message, like to end as much in vain ? 
 
 To whom thus Zephon, answering scorn with scorn. 
 Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the same, 
 Or undhninished brightness to be known, 
 As when thou stood'st in Heaven upright and purej 
 That glory then, when thou no more wast good, 
 Departed from thee ; and thou resemblest now 
 Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foul. 
 But come, for thou, be sure, shalt give account 
 To him who sent us, whose charge is to keep 
 This place inviolable, and these from harm. 
 
 So spake the Cherub ; and his grave rebuke, 
 Severe in youthful beauty, added grace 
 Invincible : abashed the Devil stood, 
 And felt how awful goodness is, and saw 
 Virtue in her shape how lovely ; saw, and pined 
 His loss ; but chiefly to find here observed 
 His lustre visibly impaired ; yet seemed 
 Undaunted. If I must contend, said he,
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 127 
 
 Best with the best, the sender, not the sent, 
 Or all at once j more glory will be won, 
 Or less be lost. Thy fear, said Zephon bold, 
 Will save us trial what the least can do 
 Single against thee wicked, and thence weak. 
 
 The Fiend replied not, overcome with rage ; 
 But, like a proud steed reined, went haughty on, 
 Champing his iron curb : to strive or fly 
 He held it vain"} awe from above had quelled 
 His heart, not else dismayed. Now drew they nigh 
 The western point, where those half-rounding guards 
 Just met, and closing stood in squadron joined, 
 Awaiting next command. To whom their Chief, 
 Gabriel, from the front thus called aloud. 
 
 O friends ! I hear the tread of nimble feet 
 Hasting this way, and now by glimpse discern 
 Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade ; 
 And with them comes a third of regal port, 
 But faded splendour wan ; who by his gait 
 And fierce demeanour seems the Prince of Hell, 
 Not likely to part hence without contest ; 
 Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours. 
 
 He scarce had ended, when those two approached, 
 And brief related whom they brought, where found, 
 How busied, in what form and posture couched. 
 
 To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake. 
 Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescribed 
 To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge 
 Of others, who approve not to transgress 
 By thy example, but have power and right 
 To question thy bold entrance on this place ;
 
 128 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Employed, it seeins, to violate sleep, and those 
 Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss? 
 
 To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow. 
 Gabriel! thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise, 
 And such I held theej but this question asked 
 Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain? 
 Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell, 
 Though thither doomed? Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt, 
 And boldly venture to whatever place 
 Farthest from pain, where thou mightst hope to change 
 Torment with ease, and soonest recompense 
 Dole with delight, which in this place I sought ; 
 To thee no reason, who know'st only good, 
 But evil hast not tried : and wilt object 
 His will who bounds us ? Let him surer bar 
 His iron gates, if he intends our stay 
 In that dark durance : thus much what was asked. 
 The rest is true, they found me where they say ; 
 But that implies not violence or harm. 
 
 Thus he in scorn. The warlike Angel moved, 
 Disdainfully half smiling, thus replied. 
 O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise 
 Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew, 
 And now returns him from his prison 'scaped, 
 Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise 
 Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither 
 Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed ; 
 So wise he judges it to fly from pain 
 However, and to 'scape his punishment ! 
 So judge thou still, presumptuous ! till the wrath, 
 Which thou incurr'st by flying, meet thy flight
 
 BOOK IV. PARADISE LOST. 129 
 
 Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell, 
 Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain 
 Can equal anger infinite provoked. 
 But wherefore thou alone ? wherefore with thee 
 Came not all hell broke loose? is pain to them 
 Less pain, less to be fled -, or thou than they 
 Less hardy to endure ? Courageous Chief ! 
 The first in flight from pain ! hadst thou alleged 
 To thy deserted host this cause of flight, 
 Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive. 
 
 To which the Fiend thus answered, frowning stern. 
 Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain, 
 Insulting Angel ! well thou know'st I stood 
 Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid 
 The blasting vollied thunder made all speed, 
 And seconded thy else not dreaded spear. 
 But still thy words at random, as before, 
 Argue thy inexperience what behoves 
 From hard assays and ill successes past -'^MSi I 
 A faithful leader, not to hazard all 
 Through ways of danger by himself untried :<lWUu*Jwn*- 
 I, therefore, I alone first undertook ' W*" 
 To wing the desolate abyss, and spy 
 This new created world, whereof in Hell 
 Fame is not silent, here in hope to find 
 Better abode, and my afflicted Powers ^ x#* 
 To settle here on earth, or in mid airj 
 Though for possession put to try once more 
 What thou and thy gay legions dare against; 
 Whose easier business were to serve their Lord 
 High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne, 
 
 K
 
 130 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 And practised distances to cringe, not fight. 
 
 To whom the warriour Angel soon replied. 
 To say and straight unsay, pretending first 
 Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy, 
 Argues no leader but a liar traced, 
 Satan, and couldst thou faithful add ? O name, 
 O sacred name of faithfulness profaned ! 
 Faithful to whom ? to thy rebellious crew ? 
 Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head. 
 Was this your discipline and faith engaged, 
 Your military obedience, to dissolve 
 Allegiance to the acknowledged Power supreme ? 
 And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem 
 Patron of liberty, who more than thou 
 Once fawned, and cringed, and servily adored 
 Heaven's awful Monarch? wherefore, but in hope 
 To dispossess him, and thyself to reign ? 
 But mark what I arreed thee now, Avant ; 
 Fly thither whence thou fled'st ! If from this hour 
 Within these hallowed limits thou appear, 
 Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained, 
 And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn 
 The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred. 
 
 So threatened he ; but Satan to no threats 
 Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied. 
 
 Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, 
 Proud limitary Cherub ! but ere then 
 Far heavier load thyself expect to feel 
 From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King 
 Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, 
 Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels
 
 BOOK IT. PARADISE LOST. 131 
 
 In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved. 
 
 While thus he spake, the angelick squadron bright 
 Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns 
 Their phalanx, and began to hem him round 
 With ported spears, as thick as when a field 
 Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends 
 Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind 
 Sways them ; the careful plowman doubting stands, 
 Lest on the threshing floor his hopeless sheaves 
 Prove chaff. On the other side, Satan, alarmed, 
 Collecting all his might, dilated stood, 
 Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved : 
 His stature reached the sky, and on his crest 
 Sat Horrour plumed ; nor wanted in his grasp 
 What seemed both spear and shield : now dreadful 
 
 deeds 
 
 Might have ensued, nor only Paradise 
 In this commotion, but the starry cope 
 Of Heaven perhaps, or all the elements 
 At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn 
 With violence of this conflict, had not soon 
 The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray, 
 Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen 
 Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign, 
 Wherein all things created first he weighed, 
 The pendulous round earth with balanced air 
 In counterpoise, now ponders all events, 
 Battles and realms : in these he put two weights, 
 The sequel each of parting and of fight : 
 The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam ; 
 Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend. 
 
 K2
 
 132 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IV. 
 
 Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine ; 
 Neither our own., but given : what folly then 
 To boast what arms can do? since thine no more 
 Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now 
 To trample thee as mire : for proof look up, 
 And read thy lot in yon celestial sign ; 
 Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how 
 
 weak, 
 
 If thou resist. The Fiend looked up, and knew 
 His mounted scale aloft : nor more ; but fled 
 Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night. 
 
 END OF THE FOURTH BOOK.
 
 THE 
 
 FIFTH BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Morning approached, Eve relates to Adam her troublesome dream ; 
 he likes it not, yet comforts her : they come forth to their day- 
 labours: their morning hymn at the door of their bower. God, 
 to render man inexcusable, sends Raphael to admonish him of 
 his obedience, of his free estate, of his enemy near at hand, who 
 he is, and why his enemy, and whatever else may avail Adam to 
 know. Raphael comes down to Paradise ; his appearance de- 
 scribed; his coming discerned by Adam afar off sitting at the 
 door of his bower ; he goes out to meet him, brings him to his 
 lodge, entertains him with the choicest fruits of Paradise got to- 
 gether by Eve; their discourse at table: Raphael perforrns'his 
 message, minds Adam of his state and of his enemy; relates, at 
 Adam's request, who that enemy is, and how he came to be so, 
 beginning from his first revolt in Heaven, and the occasion 
 thereof; how he drew his legions after him to the parts of the 
 north, and there incited them to rebel with him, persuading all 
 but only Abdiel a Seraph, who in argument dissuades and op- 
 poses him, then forsakes him.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime 
 
 Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl, 
 
 When Adam waked, so customed ; for his sleep 
 
 Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred, 
 
 And temperate vapours bland, which the only sound 
 
 Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan, 
 
 Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song 
 
 Of birds on every bough j so much the more 
 
 His wonder was to find unwakened Eve 
 
 With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek, 
 
 As through unquiet rest : he, on his side 
 
 Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love 
 
 Hung over her enamoured, and beheld 
 
 Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep, 
 
 Shot forth peculiar graces j then with voice 
 
 Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, 
 
 Her hand soft touching, whispered thus. Awake, 
 
 My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
 
 136 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight ! 
 Awake : the morning shines, and the fresh field 
 Calls us ; we lose the prime, to mark how spring 
 Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove, 
 What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed, 
 How nature paints her colours, how the bee 
 Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet. 
 
 Such whispering waked her, but with startled eye 
 On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake. 
 
 O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose, 
 My glory, my perfection ! glad I see 
 Thy face, and morn returned ; for I this night 
 (Such night till this I never passed) have dreamed, 
 If dreamed, not, as I oft am wont, of thee, 
 Works of day past, or morrow's next design, 
 But of offence and trouble, which my mind 
 Knew never till this irksome night : methought, 
 Close at mine ear one called me forth to walk 
 With gentle voice ; I thought it thine : it said, 
 1 Why sleep' st thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time, 
 The cool, the silent, save where silence yields 
 To the night-warbling bird, that now awake 
 Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song j now reigns 
 Full-orbed the moon, and with more pleasing light 
 Shadowy sets off the face of things ; in vain, 
 If none regard ; Heaven wakes with all his eyes, 
 Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire ? 
 In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment 
 Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.' 
 I rose as at thy call, but found thee not ; 
 To find thee I directed then my walk j
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 137 
 
 And on, methought, alone I passed through ways 
 
 That brought me on a sudden to the tree 
 
 Of interdicted knowledge : fair it seemed, 
 
 Much fairer to my fancy than by day : 
 
 And, as I wondering looked, beside it stood 
 
 One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven 
 
 By us oft seen ; his dewy locks distilled 
 
 Ambrosia j on that tree he also gazed ; 
 
 And ' O fair plant,' said he, ' with fruit surcharged, 
 
 Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet, 
 
 Nor God, nor Man ? Is knowledge so despised ? 
 
 Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste ? 
 
 Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold 
 
 Longer thy offered good ; why else set here ?' 
 
 This said, he paused not, but with venturous arm 
 
 He plucked, he tasted ; me damp horrour chilled 
 
 At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold : 
 
 But he thus, overjoyed] ( O fruit divine, 
 
 Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt, 
 
 Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit 
 
 For Gods, yet able to make Gods of Men : 
 
 And why not Gods of Men ; since good, the more 
 
 Communicated, more abundant grows, 
 
 The author not impaired, but honoured more ? 
 
 Here, happy creature, fair angelick Eve ! 
 
 Partake thou also; happy though thou art, 
 
 Happier thou mayst be, worthier canst not be : 
 
 Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods 
 
 Thyself a Goddess, not to earth confined, 
 
 But sometimes in the air, as we, sometimes 
 
 Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine, and see
 
 138 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 What life the Gods live there, and such live thou !' 
 
 So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held, 
 
 Even to ray mouth of that same fruit held part 
 
 Which he had plucked ; the pleasant savoury smell 
 
 So quickened appetite, that I, methought, 
 
 Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds 
 
 With him I flew, and underneath beheld 
 
 The earth outstretched immense, a prospect wide 
 
 And various : wondering at my flight and change 
 
 To this high exaltation ; suddenly 
 
 My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down, 
 
 And fell asleep , but O, how glad I waked 
 
 To find this but a dream ! Thus Eve her night 
 
 Related, and thus Adam answered sad. 
 
 Best image of myself, and dearer half, 
 The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep 
 Affects me equally; nor can I like 
 This uncouth dream, of evil sprung, I fear ; 
 Yet evil whence ? in thee can harbour none, 
 Created pure. But know that in the soul 
 Are many lesser faculties, that serve 
 Reason as chief; among these Fancy next 
 Her office holds ; of all external things, 
 Which the five watchful senses represent, 
 She forms imaginations, aery shapes, 
 Which Reason, joining or disjoining, frames 
 All what we affirm or what deny, and call 
 Our knowledge or opinion ; then retires 
 Into her private cell, when nature rests. 
 Oft in her absence mimick Fancy wakes 
 To imitate her ; but, misjoining shapes,
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 139 
 
 Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams ; 
 111 matching words and deeds long past or late. 
 Some such resemblances, methinks, I find 
 Of our last evening's talk, in this thy dream; 
 But with addition strange ; yet be not sad. 
 Evil into the mind of God or Man 
 May come and go, so unapproved, and leave 
 No spot or blame behind : which gives me hope 
 That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream, 
 Waking thou never wilt consent to do. 
 Be not disheartened then, nor cloud those looks, 
 That wont to be more cheerful and serene, 
 Than when fair morning first smiles on the world ; 
 And let us to our fresh employments rise 
 Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers 
 That open now their choicest bosomed smells, 
 Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store. 
 
 So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered j 
 But silently a gentle tear let fall 
 From either eye, and wiped them with her hair; 
 Two other precious drops that ready stood, 
 Each in their crystal sluice, he ere they fell 
 Kissed, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse 
 And pious awe, that feared to have offended. 
 
 So all was cleared, and to the field they haste. 
 But first, from under shady arborous roof 
 Soon as they forth were come to open sight 
 Of day-spring, and the sun, who, scarce up-risen, 
 With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean-brim, 
 Shot parallel to .the earth his dewy ray, 
 Discovering in wide landskip all the east
 
 140 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Of Paradise and Eden's happy plains, 
 
 Lowly they bowed adoring, and began 
 
 Their orisons, each morning duly paid 
 
 In various style; for neither various style 
 
 Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise 
 
 Their Maker, in fit strains pronounced, or sung 
 
 Unmeditated ; such prompt eloquence 
 
 Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous verse, 
 
 More tuneable than needed lute or harp 
 
 To add more sweetness ; and they thus began. 
 
 These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 
 Almighty! Thine this universal frame, 
 Thus wonderous fair ; Thyself how wonderous then ! 
 Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens 
 To us invisible, or dimly seen 
 In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 
 Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine. 
 Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light, 
 Angels ; for ye behold him, and with songs 
 And choral symphonies, day without night, 
 Circle his throne rejoicing ; ye in Heaven, 
 On Earth join all ye Creatures to extol 
 Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. 
 Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, 
 If better thou belong not to the dawn, 
 Sure pledge of day, that crown' st the smiling morn 
 With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere, 
 While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. 
 Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul, 
 Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise 
 In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 141 
 
 And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st. 
 
 Moon, that now meet'st the orient sun, now fly'st, 
 
 With the fixed Stars, fixed in their orb that flies ; 
 
 And ye five other wandering Fires, that move 
 
 In mystick dance not without song, resound 
 
 His praise, who out of darkness called up light. 
 
 Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth 
 
 Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run 
 
 Perpetual circle, multiform j and mix 
 
 And nourish all things ; let your ceaseless change 
 
 Vary to our great Maker still new praise. 
 
 Ye Mists and Exhalations, that now rise 
 
 From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray, 
 
 Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, 
 
 In honour to the world's great Author rise j 
 
 Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky, 
 
 Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers, 
 
 Rising or falling still advance his praise. 
 
 His praise, ye Winds, that from four quarters blow, 
 
 Breathe soft or loud; and, wave your tops, ye Pines, 
 
 With every plant, in sign of worship wave. 
 
 Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow, 
 
 Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise. vi 
 
 Join voices, all ye living Souls : ye Birds, 
 
 That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend, 
 
 Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise. 
 
 Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk 
 
 The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep j 
 
 Witness if I be silent, morn or even, 
 
 To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade, 
 
 Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
 
 142 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Hail, universal Lord, be bounteous still 
 To give us only good 5 and if the night 
 Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed, 
 Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark ! 
 
 So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts 
 Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted calm. 
 On to their morning's rural work they haste, 
 Among sweet dews and flowers ; where any row 
 Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far 
 Their pampered boughs, and needed hands to check 
 Fruitless embraces : or they led the vine 
 To wed her elm ; she, spoused, about him twines 
 Her marriageable arms, and with him brings 
 Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
 His barren leaves. Them thus employed beheld 
 With pity Heaven's high King, and to him called 
 Raphael, the sociable Spirit, that deigned 
 To travel with Tobias, and secured 
 His marriage with the seventimes-wedded maid. 
 
 Raphael, said he, thou hear'st what stir on Earth 
 Satan, from Hell 'scaped through the darksome gulf, 
 Hath raised in Paradise ; and how disturbed 
 This night the human pair ; how he designs 
 In them at once to ruin all mankind. 
 Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend 
 Converse with Adam, in what bower or shade 
 Thou find'st him from the heat of noon retired, 
 To respite his day-labour with repast, 
 Or with repose ; and such discourse bring on, 
 As may advise him of his happy state, 
 Happiness in his power left free to will,
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 143 
 
 Left to his own free will, his will though free, 
 Yet mutable ; whence warn him to bewaije 
 He swerve not, too secure : tell him withal 
 His danger, and from whom ; what enemy, 
 Late fallen himself from Heaven, is plotting now 
 The fall of others from like state of bliss ; 
 By violence? no, for that shall be withstood; 
 But by deceit and lies : this let him know, 
 Lest, wilfully transgressing, he pretend 
 Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned. 
 
 So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfilled 
 All justice : nor delayed the winged Saint 
 After his charge received ; but from among 
 Thousand celestial Ardours, where he stood 
 Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light, 
 Flew through the midst of Heaven ; the angelick quires, 
 On each hand parting, to his speed gave way 
 Through all the empyreal road ; till, at the gate 
 Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide 
 On golden hinges turning, as by work 
 Divine the sovran Architect had framed. 
 From hence no cloud, or, to obstruct bis sight, 
 Star interposed, however small he sees, 
 Not unconformed to other shining globes, 
 Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned 
 Above all hills. As when by night the glass 
 Of Galileo, less assured, observes 
 Imagined lands and regions in the moon : 
 Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades 
 Delos or Samos first appearing, kens 
 A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight
 
 144 PAKADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky 
 Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing 
 Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan 
 Winnows the buxom air; till, within soar 
 Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems 
 A phoenix, gazed by all as that sole bird, 
 When, to enshrine his reliques in the Sun's 
 Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies. 
 At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise 
 He lights, and to his proper shape returns 
 A Seraph winged : six wings he wore, to shade 
 His lineaments divine ; the pair that clad 
 Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast 
 With regal ornament ; the middle pair 
 Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round 
 Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold 
 And colours dipt in Heaven ; the third his feet 
 Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, 
 Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood, 
 And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragance filled 
 The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands 
 Of Angels under watch ; and to his state, 
 And to his message high, in honour rise ; 
 For on some message high they guessed him bound. 
 Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come 
 Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh, 
 And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm j 
 A wilderness of sweets j for Nature here 
 Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will 
 Her virgin fancies pouring forth more sweet, 
 Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 145 
 
 Him through the spicy forest onward come 
 
 Adam discerned, as in the door he sat 
 
 Of his cool bower, while now the mounted sun 
 
 Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm 
 
 Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs : 
 
 And Eve within, due at her hour prepared 
 
 For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please 
 
 True appetite, and not disrelish thirst 
 
 Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream, 
 
 Berry or grape : to whom thus Adam called. 
 
 Haste hither, Eve, and worth thy sight behold 
 Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape 
 Comes this way moving ; seems another morn 
 Risen on mid-noon ; some great behest from Heaven 
 To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe 
 This day to be our guest. But go with speed, 
 And, what thy stores contain, bring forth, and pour 
 Abundance, fit to honour and receive 
 Our heavenly stranger : well we may afford 
 Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow 
 From large bestowed, where Nature multiplies 
 Her fertile growth, and by disburthening grows 
 More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare. 
 
 To whom thus Eve. Adam, earth's hallowed mould, 
 Of God inspired ! small store will serve, where store, 
 All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk ; 
 Save what by frugal storing firmness gains 
 To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes : 
 But I will haste, and from each bough and brake, 
 Each plant and juciest gourd, will pluck such choice 
 To entertain our Angel-guest, as he
 
 146 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth 
 God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven. 
 
 So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste 
 She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent 
 What choice to choose for delicacy best, 
 What order, so contrived as not to mix 
 Tastes, not well joined, inelegant, but bring 
 Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change j 
 Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk 
 Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields 
 In India East or West, or middle shore 
 In Pontus or the Punick coast, or where 
 Alcinous reigned, fruit of all kinds, in coat 
 Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell, 
 She gathers, tribute large, and on the board 
 Heaps with unsparing hand ; for drink the grape 
 She crushes, inoffensive must, and meaths 
 From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressed 
 She tempers dulcet creams ; nor these to hold 
 Wants her fit vessels pure ; then strows the ground 
 With rose and odours from the shrub unfumed. 
 
 Mean while our primitive great sire, to meet 
 His God-like guest, walks forth, without more train 
 Accompanied than with his own complete 
 Perfections j in himself was all his state, 
 More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits 
 On princes, when their rich retinue long 
 Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold, 
 Dazzles the croud, and sets them all agape. 
 Nearer his presence Adam, though not awed, 
 Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 147 
 
 As to a superiour nature bawing low, 
 Thus said. Native of Heaven, for other place 
 None can than Heaven snch glorious shape contain j 
 Since, by descending from the thrones above, 
 Those happy places thou hast deigned a while 
 To want, and honour these, vouchsafe with us 
 Two only, who yet by sovran gift possess 
 This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower 
 To rest j and what the garden choicest bears 
 To sit and taste, till this meridian heat 
 Be over, and the sun more cool decline. 
 
 Whom thus the angelick Virtue answered mild. 
 Adam, I therefore came ; nor art thou such 
 Created, or such place hast here to dwell, 
 As may not oft invite, though Spirits of Heaven, 
 To Tjisit thee j lead on then where thy bower 
 O'ershades ; for these mid-hours, till evening rise, 
 I have at will. So to the sylvan lodge 
 They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled, 
 With flowerets decked, and fragrant smells j but Eve, 
 Undecked save with herself, more lovely fair 
 Than Wood-Nymph, or the fairest Goddess feigned 
 Of three that in mount Ida naked strove, 
 Stood to entertain her guest from Heaven ; no veil 
 She needed, virtue-proof ; no thought infirm 
 Altered her cheek. On whom the Angel Hail 
 Bestowed, the holy salutation used 
 Long after to blest Mary, second Eve. 
 
 Hail, Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful womb 
 Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons, 
 Than with these various fruits the trees of God 
 
 i< 2
 
 148 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Have heaped this table! Raised of grassy turf 
 
 Their table was, and mossy seats had round, 
 
 And on her ample square from side to side 
 
 All autumn piled, though spring and autumn here 
 
 Danced hand in hand. A while discourse they hold ; 
 
 No fear lest dinner cool j when thus began 
 
 Our author. Heavenly stranger, please to taste 
 
 These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom 
 
 All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends, 
 
 To us for food and for delight hath caused 
 
 The earth to yield) unsavoury food perhaps 
 
 To spiritual natures ; only this I know, 
 
 That one celestial Father gives to all. 
 
 To whom the Angel. Therefore what he gives 
 (Whose praise be ever sung) to Man in part 
 Spiritual, may of purest Spirits be found 
 No ingrateful food : and food alike those pure 
 Intelligential substances require, 
 As doth your rational ; and both contain 
 Within them every lower faculty 
 Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, 
 Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate, 
 And corporeal to incorporeal turn. 
 For know, whatever was created, needs 
 To be sustained and fed : of elements 
 The grosser feeds the purer, earth the sea, 
 Earth and the sea feed air, the air those fires 
 Ethereal, and as lowest first the moon j 
 Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged 
 Vapours not yet into her substance turned. 
 Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 14!) 
 
 From her moist continent to higher orbs. 
 
 The sun that light imparts to all, receives 
 
 From all his alimental recompence 
 
 In humid exhalations, and at even 
 
 Sups with the ocean. Though in Heaven the trees 
 
 Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines 
 
 Yield nectar ; though from off the boughs each morn 
 
 We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground 
 
 Covered with pearly grain : yet God hath here 
 
 Varied his bounty so with new delights, 
 
 As may compare with Heaven ; and to taste 
 
 Think not I shall be nice. So down they sat, 
 
 And to their viands fell ; nor seemingly 
 
 The Angel, nor in mist, the common gloss 
 
 Of Theologians ; but with keen dispatch 
 
 Of real hunger, and concoctive heat 
 
 To transubstantiate : what redounds, transpires 
 
 Through Spirits with ease; nor wonder; if by fire 
 
 Of sooty coal the empirick alchemist 
 
 Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, 
 
 Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold, 
 
 As from the mine. Mean while at table Eve 
 
 Ministered naked, and their flowing cups 
 
 With pleasant liquours crowned : O innocence 
 
 Deserving Paradise ! if ever, then, 
 
 Then had the sons of God excuse to have been 
 
 Enamoured at that sight ; but in those hearts 
 
 Love unlibidinous reigned, nor jealousy 
 
 Was understood, the injured lover's hell. 
 
 Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed, 
 Not burdened nature, sudden mind arose
 
 150 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 In Adam, not to let the occasion pass 
 Given him by this great conference to know 
 Of things above his world, and of their being 
 Who dwell in Heaven, whose excellence he saw 
 Transcend his own so far; whose radiant forms, 
 Divine effulgence, whose high power, so far 
 Exceeded human ; and his wary speech 
 Thus to the empyreal minister he framed. 
 
 Inhabitant with God, now know I well 
 Thy favour, in this honour done to Man ; 
 Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed 
 To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste, 
 Food not of Angels, yet accepted so, 
 As that more willingly thou couldst not seem 
 At Heaven'shigh feasts to have fed : yet what compare ? 
 
 To whom the winged Hierarch replied. 
 O Adam, One Almighty is, from whom 
 All things proceed, and up to him return, 
 If not depraved from good, created all 
 Such to perfection, one first matter all, 
 Endued with various forms, various degrees 
 Of substance, and, in things that live, of life 5 
 But more refined, more spiritous, and pure, 
 As nearer to him placed, or nearer tending 
 Each in their several active spheres assigned, 
 Till body up to spirit work, in bounds 
 Proportioned to each kind. So from the root 
 Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 
 More aery, last the bright consummate flower 
 Spirits odorous breathes : flowers and their fruit, 
 Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed.
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 151 
 
 To vital spirits aspire, to animal, 
 
 To intellectual ; give both life and sense, 
 
 Fancy and understanding ; whence the soul 
 
 Reason receives, and reason is her being, 
 
 Discursive, or intuitive ; discourse 
 
 Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, 
 
 Differing but in degree, of kind the same. 
 
 Wonder not then, what God for you saw good 
 
 If I refuse not, but convert, as you 
 
 To proper substance. Time may come, when Men 
 
 With Angels may participate, and find 
 
 No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare ; 
 
 And from these corporal nutriments perhaps 
 
 Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit, 
 
 Improved by tract of time, and, winged, ascend 
 
 Ethereal, as we ; or may, at choice, 
 
 Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell ; 
 
 If ye be found obedient, and retain 
 
 Unalterably firm his love entire, 
 
 Whose progeny you are. Mean while enjoy 
 
 Your fill what happiness this happy state 
 
 Can comprehend, incapable of more. 
 
 To whom the patriarch of mankind replied. 
 O favourable Spirit, propitious guest, 
 Well hast thou taught the way that might direct 
 Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set 
 From center to circumference ; whereon, 
 In contemplation of created things, 
 By steps we may ascend to God. But say, 
 What meant that caution joined, If ye be found 
 Obedient ? Can we want obedience then
 
 152 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 To him, or possibly his love desert, 
 Who formed us from the dust and placed us here 
 Full to the utmost measure of what bliss 
 Human desires can seek or apprehend? 
 
 To whom the Angel, Son of Heaven and Earth, 
 Attend ! That thou art happy, owe to God ; 
 That thou continuest such, owe to thyself, 
 That is, to thy obedience ; therein stand. 
 This was that caution given theej be advised. 
 God made thee perfect, not immutable ; 
 And good he made thee, but to persevere 
 He left it in thy power ; ordained thy will 
 By nature free, not over-ruled by fate 
 Inextricable, or strict necessity : 
 Our voluntary service he requires, 
 Not our necessitated ; such with him 
 Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how 
 Can hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve 
 Willing or no, who will but what they must 
 By destiny, and can no other choose? 
 Myself, and all the angelick host, that stand 
 In sight of God, enthroned, our happy state 
 Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds ; 
 On other surety none : freely we serve, 
 Because we freely love, as in our will 
 To love or not ; in this we stand or fall : 
 And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen, 
 And so from Heaven to deepest Hell; O fall 
 From what high state of bliss, into what woe ! 
 To whom our great progenitor. Thy words 
 Attentive, and with more delighted ear.
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 153 
 
 Divine instructor, I have heard, than when 
 
 Cherubick songs by night from neighbouring hills 
 
 Aereal musick send : nor knew I not 
 
 To be both will and deed created free; 
 
 Yet that we never shall forget to love 
 
 Our Maker, and obey him whose command 
 
 Single is yet so just, my constant thoughts 
 
 Assured me, and still assure : though what thou tell'st 
 
 Hath passed in Heaven, some doubt within me move, 
 
 But more desire to hear, if thou consent, 
 
 The full relation, which must needs be strange, 
 
 Worthy of sacred silence to be heard; 
 
 And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun 
 
 Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins 
 
 His other half in the great zone of Heaven. 
 
 Thus Adam made request; and Raphael, 
 After short pause assenting, thus began. 
 
 High matter thou enjoin'st me, O prime of men, 
 Sad task and hard : for how shall I relate 
 To human sense the invisible exploits 
 Of warring Spirits ? how, without remorse, 
 The ruin of so many glorious once 
 And perfect while they stood ? how last unfold 
 The secrets of another world, perhaps 
 Not lawful to reveal ? yet for thy good 
 This is dispensed; and what surmounts the reach 
 Of human sense, I shall delineate so, 
 By likening spiritual to corporal forms, 
 As may express them best; though what if Earth 
 Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein 
 Each to other like., more than on earth is thought?
 
 154 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild 
 Reigned where these Heavens now roll, where Earth 
 
 now rests 
 
 Upon her center poised ; when on a day 
 (For time, though in eternity, applied 
 To motion, measures all things durable 
 By present, past, and future,) on such day 
 As Heaven's great year brings forth, the empyreal host 
 Of Angels by imperial summons called, 
 Innumerable before the Almighty's throne 
 Forthwith, from all the ends of Heaven, appeared 
 Under their Hierarchs in orders bright : 
 Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced. 
 Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear 
 Stream in the air, and for distinction serve 
 Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees ; 
 Or in their glittering tissues bear imblazed 
 Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love 
 Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs 
 Of circuit inexpressible they stood, 
 Orb within orb, the Father Infinite, 
 By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son, 
 Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top 
 Brightness had made invisible, thus spake. 
 
 Hear, all ye Angels, progeny of light, 
 Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers ; 
 Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand. 
 This day I have begot whom I declare 
 My only Son, and on this holy hill 
 Him have anointed, whom ye now behold 
 At my right hand ; your head I him appoint j
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 155 
 
 And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow 
 All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord : 
 Under his great vice-gerent reign abide 
 United, as one individual soul, 
 For ever happy : him who disobeys, 
 Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day, 
 Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls 
 Into utter darkness, deep ingulfed, his place 
 Ordained without redemption, without end. 
 
 So spake the Omnipotent, and with his words 
 All seemed well pleased ; all seemed, but were not all. 
 That day, as other solemn days, they spent 
 In song and dance about the sacred hill ; 
 Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere 
 Of planets, and of fixed, in all her wheels 
 Resembles nearest, mazes intricate, 
 Eccentrick, intervolved, yet regular 
 Then most, when most irregular they seem; 
 And in their motions harmony divine 
 So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear 
 Listens delighted. Evening now approached, 
 (For we have also our evening and our morn, 
 We ours for change delectable, not need;) 
 Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they tarn 
 Desirous ; all in circles as they stood, 
 Tables are set, and on a sudden piled 
 With Angels' food, and rubied nectar flows 
 In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold, 
 Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heaven. 
 On flowers reposed, and with fresh flowerets crowned, 
 They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
 
 156 PARADISE LOST, BOOK V. 
 
 Quaff immortality and joy, secure 
 
 Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds 
 
 Excess, before the all-bounteous King, who showered 
 
 With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy. 
 
 Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled 
 
 From that high mount of God, whence light and shade 
 
 Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven had changed 
 
 To grateful twilight, (for night comes not there 
 
 In darker veil,) and roseat dews disposed 
 
 All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest j 
 
 Wide over all the plain, and wider far 
 
 Than all this globous earth in plain outspread, 
 
 (Such are the courts of God) the angelick throng, 
 
 Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend 
 
 By living streams among the trees of life, 
 
 Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared, 
 
 Celestial tabernacles, where they slept 
 
 Fanned with cool winds j save those, who, in their 
 
 course, 
 
 Melodious hymns about the sovran throne 
 Alternate all night long : but not so waked 
 Satan^ so call him now, his former name 
 Is heard no more in Heaven ; he of the first, 
 If not the first Arch- Angel, great in power, 
 In favour and pre-eminence, yet fraught 
 With envy against the Son of God, that day 
 Honoured by his great Father, and proclaimed 
 Messiah King anointed, could not bear 
 Through pride that sight, and thought himself im- 
 paired. 
 Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain,
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 157 
 
 Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour 
 Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved 
 With all his legions to dislodge, and leave 
 Unworshipped, unobeyed, the throne supreme, 
 Contemptuous ; and his next subordinate 
 Awakening, thus to him in secret spake. 
 
 Sleep'st thou, Companion dear? What sleep can 
 
 close 
 
 Thy eye-lids ? and remember'st what decree 
 Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips 
 Of Heaven's Almighty. Thou to me thy thoughts 
 Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart j 
 Both waking we were one ; how then can now 
 Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou see'st imposed j 
 New laws from him who reigns, new minds may raise 
 In us who serve, new counsels to debate 
 What doubtful may ensue : more in this place 
 To utter is not safe. Assemble thou 
 Of all those myriads which we lead the chief j 
 Tell them, that by command, ere yet dim night 
 Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste, 
 And all who under me their banners wave, 
 Homeward, with flying march, where we possess 
 The quarters of the north j there to prepare 
 Fit entertainment to receive our King, 
 The great Messiah, and his new commands, 
 Who speedily through all the hierarchies 
 Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws. 
 
 So spake the false Arch- Angel, and infused 
 Bad influence into the unwary breast 
 Of his associate : he together calls,
 
 158 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Or several one by one, the regent Powers, 
 Under him Regent ; tells, as he was taught, 
 That the Most High commanding, now ere night, 
 Now ere dim night had disincumbered Heaven, 
 The great hierarchal standard was to move ; 
 Tells the suggested cause, and casts between 
 Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound 
 Or taint integrity : but all obeyed 
 The wonted signal, and superiour voice 
 Of their great Potentate ; for great indeed 
 His name, and high was his degree in Heaven $ 
 His countenance, as the morning-star that guides 
 The starry flock, allured them, and with lies 
 Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host. 
 Mean while the Eternal eye, whose sight discerns 
 Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount, 
 And from within the golden lamps that burn 
 Nightly before him, saw without their light 
 Rebellion rising ; saw in whom, how spread 
 Among the sons of morn, what multitudes 
 Were banded to oppose his high decree j 
 And, smiling, to his only Son thus said. 
 Son, thou in whom my glory I behold 
 In full resplendence, Heir of all my might, 
 Nearly it now concerns us to be sure 
 Of our Omnipotence, and with what arms 
 We mean to hold what anciently we claim 
 Of deity or empire : such a foe 
 Is rising, who intends to erect his throne 
 Equal to ours, throughout the spacious north ; 
 Nor so content, hath in his thought to try
 
 BOOK V. PARADISK LOST. li 
 
 In battle, what our power is, or our right. 
 Let us advise, and to this hazard draw 
 With speed what force is left, and all employ 
 In our defence ; lest unawares we lose 
 This our high place, our sanctuary, our hill. 
 
 To whom the Son with calm aspect and clear, 
 Lightning divine, ineffable, serene, 
 Made answer. Mighty Father, thou thy foes 
 Justly hast in derision, and, secure, 
 Laugh'st at their vain designs and tumults vain, 
 Matter to me of glory, whom their hate 
 Illustrates, when they see all regal power 
 Given me to quell their pride, and in event 
 Know whether I be dextrous to subdue 
 Thy rebels, or be found the worst in Heaven. 
 
 So spake the Son ; but Satan, with his Powers, 
 Far was advanced on winged speed ; an host 
 Innumerable as the stars of night, 
 Or stars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun 
 Impearls on every leaf and every flower. 
 Regions they passed, the mighty regencies 
 Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones, 
 In their triple degrees ; regions to which 
 All thy dominion, Adam, is no more 
 Than what this garden is to all the earth, 
 And all the sea, from one entire globose 
 Stretched into longitude } which having passed, 
 At length into the limits of the north 
 They came ; and Satan to his royal seat 
 High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount 
 Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers
 
 160 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V 
 
 From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold ; 
 The palace of great Lucifer, (so call 
 That structure in the dialect of men 
 Interpreted,,) which not long after, he 
 Affecting all equality with God, 
 In imitation of that mount whereon 
 Messiah was declared in sight of Heaven, 
 The Mountain of the Congregation called ; 
 For thither he assembled all his train, 
 Pretending so commanded to consult 
 About the great reception of their King, 
 Thither to come, and with calumnious art 
 Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears. 
 
 Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, 
 
 Powers ; 
 
 If these magnifick titles yet remain 
 Not merely titular, since by decree 
 Another now hath to himself engrossed 
 All power, and us eclipsed under the name 
 Of King anointed, for whom all this haste 
 Of midnight-march, and hurried meeting here, 
 This only to consult how we may best, 
 With what may be devised of honours new, 
 Receive him coming to receive from, us 
 Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile ! 
 Too much to one ! but double how endured, 
 To one, and to his image now proclaimed ? 
 But what if better counsels might erect 
 Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke ? 
 Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend 
 The supple knee ? ye will not, if I trust
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 161 
 
 To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves 
 
 Natives and sons of Heaven possessed before 
 
 By none ; and if not equal all, yet free, 
 
 Equally free? for orders and degrees 
 
 Jar not with liberty, but well consist. 
 
 Who can in reason then, or right, assume " 
 
 Monarchy over such as live by right 
 
 His equals, if in power and splendour less, 
 
 In freedom equal ? or can introduce 
 
 Law and edict on us, who without law 
 
 Err not ? much less for this to be our Lord, 
 
 And look for adoration, to the abuse 
 
 Of those imperial titles, which assert 
 
 Our being ordained to govern, not to serve. 
 
 Thus far his bold discourse without controul 
 Had audience; when among the Seraphim 
 Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored 
 The Deity, and divine commands obeyed, 
 Stood up, and in a flame of zeal severe 
 The current of his fury thus opposed. >'- j, * 
 
 O argument blasphemous, false, and proud ! 
 Words which no ear ever to hear in Heaven 
 Expected, least of all from thee, Ingrate, 
 In place thyself so high above thy peers. 
 Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn 
 The just decree of God, pronounced and sworn, 
 That to his only Son, by right endued 
 With regal scepter, every soul in Heaven 
 Shall bend the knee, and in that honour due 
 Confess him rightful King ? unjust, thou say'st, 
 Flatly unjust, to bind with laws the free, 
 
 M
 
 162 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 And equal over equals to let reign, 
 One over all with unsucceeded power. 
 Shalt thou give law to God ? shalt thou dispute 
 With him the points of liberty, who made 
 Thee what thou art, and formed the Powers of Heaven 
 Such as he pleased, and circumscribed their being? 
 Yet, by experience taught, we know how good, 
 And of our good and of our dignity- 
 How provident he is ; how far from thought 
 To make us less, bent rather to exalt 
 Our happy state, under one head more near 
 United. But to grant it thee unjust, 
 That equal over equals monarch reign : 
 Thyself, though great and glorious, dost thou count, 
 Or all angelick nature joined in one, 
 Equal to him begotten Son ? by whom, 
 As by his Word, the Mighty Father made 
 All things, even thee j and all the Spirits of Heaven 
 By him created in their bright degrees, 
 Crowned them with glory, and to their glory named 
 Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, 
 Essential Powers ; nor by his reign obscured, 
 But more illustrious made ; since he the head 
 One of our number thus reduced becomes ; 
 His laws our laws j all honour to him done 
 Returns our own. Cease then this impious rage, 
 And tempt not these > but hasten to appease 
 The incensed Father, and the incensed Son, 
 While pardon may be found in time besought. 
 
 So spake the fervent Angel ; but his zeal 
 None seconded, as out of season judged,
 
 BOOK V. PARADISE LOST. 163 
 
 Or singular and rash : whereat rejoiced 
 
 The Apostate, and, more haughty, thus replied. 
 
 That we were formed then say'st thou ? and the work 
 
 Of secondary hands, by task transferred 
 
 From Father to his Son ? strange point and new ! 
 
 Doctrine which we would know whence learned : who 
 
 saw 
 
 When this creation was? remember'st thou 
 Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being ? 
 We know no time when we were not as now j 
 Know none before us, self-begot, self-raised 
 By our own quickening power, when fatal course 
 Had circled his full orb, the birth mature 
 Of this our native Heaven, ethereal sons. 
 Our puissance is our own ; our own right hand 
 Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try 
 Who is our equal : then thou shall behold 
 Whether by supplication we intend 
 Address, and to begirt the almighty throne 
 Beseeching or besieging. This report, 
 These tidings carry to the anointed King; 
 And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight. 
 
 He said ; and, as the sound of waters deep, 
 Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause 
 Through the infinite host ; nor less for that 
 The flaming Seraph fearless, though alone 
 Encompassed round with foes, thus answered bold. 
 
 O alienate from God, O Spirit accursed, 
 Forsaken of all good ! I see thy fall 
 Determined, and thy hapless crew involved 
 In this perfidious fraud, contagion spread 
 
 M 2
 
 164 PARADISE LOST. BOOK V. 
 
 Both of thy crime and punishment : henceforth 
 No more be troubled how to quit the yoke 
 Of God's Messiah ; those indulgent laws 
 Will not be now vouchsafed j other decrees 
 Against thee are gone forth without recall; 
 That golden scepter, which thou didst reject, 
 Is now an iron rod to bruise and break 
 Thy disobedience. Well thou didst advise j 
 Yet not for thy advice or threats I -fly 
 These wicked tents devoted, lest the wrath 
 Impendent, raging into sudden flame, 
 Distinguish not : for soon expect to feel 
 His thunder on thy head, devouring fire. 
 Then who created thee lamenting learn, 
 When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know. 
 So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found 
 Among the faithless, faithful only he j 
 Among innumerable false, unmoved, 
 Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
 His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; 
 Nor number, nor example, with him wrought 
 To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, 
 Though single. From amidst them forth he passed, 
 Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustained 
 Superiour, nor of violence feared aught ; 
 And, with retorted scorli^ his back he turned 
 On those proud towers to swift destruction doomed. 
 
 END OF THE FIFTH BOOK.
 
 THE 
 
 SIXTH BOOK 
 
 OF
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Raphael continues to relate how Michael and Gabriel were sent 
 forth to battle against Satan and his Angels. The first fight 
 described: Satan and his Powers retire under night: he calls a 
 council; invents devilish engines, which, in the second day's 
 fight, put Michael and his Angels to some disorder ; but they 
 at length, pulling up mountains, overwhelmed both the force and 
 machines of Satan : yet, the tumult not so ending, God, on the 
 third day, sends MESSIAH his son, for whom he had reserved the 
 glory of that victory : he, in the power of his Father, coming to 
 the place, and causing all his legions to stand still on either side, 
 with his chariot and thunder driving into the midst of his ene- 
 mies, pursues them unable to resist towards the wall of Heaven; 
 which opening, they leap down with horrour and confusion into 
 the place of punishment prepared for them in the deep : Mi&- 
 SIAH returns with triumph to his Father.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 ALL night the dreadless Angel, unpursued, 
 Through Heaven's wide champain held his way j till 
 
 Morn, 
 
 Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand 
 Unbarred the gates of light. There is a cave 
 Within the mount of God, fast by his throne, 
 Where light and darkness in perpetual round 
 Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through 
 
 Heaven 
 
 Grateful vicissitude, like day and night ; 
 Light issues forth, and at the other door 
 Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour 
 To veil the Heaven, though darkness there might well 
 Seem twilight here : and now went forth the Morn 
 Such as in highest Heaven arrayed in gold 
 Empyreal ; from before her vanished Night, 
 Shot through with orient beams j when all the plain 
 Covered with thick embattled squadrons bright,
 
 168 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Chariots, and flaming arms, and fiery steeds, 
 Reflecting blaze on blaze, first met his view : 
 War he perceived, war in procinct j and found 
 Already known what he for news had thought 
 To have reported : gladly then he mixed 
 Among those friendly Powers, who him received 
 With joy and acclamations loud, that one, 
 That of so many myriads fallen, yet one 
 Returned not lost. On to the sacred hill 
 They led him high applauded, and present 
 Before the seat supreme ; from whence a voice, 
 From midst a golden cloud, thus mild was heard. 
 
 Servant of God, well done ; well hast thou fought 
 The better fight, who single hast maintained 
 Against revolted multitudes the cause 
 Of truth, in word mightier than they in aims j 
 And for the testimony of truth hast borne 
 Universal reproach, far worse to bear 
 Than violence ; for this was all thy care 
 To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds 
 Judged thee perverse : the easier conquest now 
 Remains thee, aided by this host of friends, 
 Back on thy foes more glorious to return, 
 Than scorned thou didst depart ; and to subdue 
 By force, who reason for their law refuse, 
 Right reason for their law, and for their King 
 Messiah, who by right of merit reigns. 
 Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince, 
 And thou, in military prowess next, 
 Gabriel, lead forth to battle these my sons 
 Invincible j lead forth my armed Saints,
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOAT. 169 
 
 By thousands and by millions, ranged for fight, 
 Equal in number to that Godless crew 
 Rebellious : them with fire and hostile arms 
 Fearless assault ; and, to the brow of Heaven 
 Pursuing, drive them out from God and bliss, 
 Into their place of punishment, the gulf 
 Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide 
 His fiery Chaos to receive their fall. 
 
 So spake the Sovran Voice, and clouds began 
 To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll 
 In dusky wreaths, reluctant flames, the sign 
 Of wrath awaked ; nor with less dread the loud 
 Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow : 
 At which command the Powers militant, 
 That stood for Heaven, in mighty quadrate joined 
 Of union irresistible, moved on 
 In silence their bright legions, to the sound 
 Of instrumental harmony, that breathed 
 Heroick ardour to adventurous deeds 
 Under their God-like leaders, in the cause 
 Of God and his Messiah. On they move 
 Indissolubly firmj nor obvious hill, 
 Nor straitening vale, nor wood, nor stream, divides 
 Their perfect ranks ; for high above the ground 
 Their march was, and the passive air upbore 
 Their nimble tread; as when the total kind 
 Of birds, in orderly array on wing, 
 Came summoned over Eden to receive 
 Their names of thee ; so over many a tract 
 Of Heaven they marched, and many a province wide, 
 Tenfold the length of this terrene : at last,
 
 1/0 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 Far in the horizon to the north appeared 
 
 From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched 
 
 In battailous aspect, and nearer view 
 
 Bristled with upright beams innumerable 
 
 Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shields 
 
 Various, with boastful argument portrayed, 
 
 The banded Powers of Satan hasting on 
 
 With furious expedition ; for they weened 
 
 That self-same day, by fight or by surprise, 
 
 To win the mount of God, and on his throne 
 
 To set the Envier of his state, the proud 
 
 Aspirer; but their thoughts proved fond and vain 
 
 In the mid way : though strange to us it seemed 
 
 At first, that Angel should with Angel war, 
 
 And in fierce hosting meet, who wont to meet 
 
 So oft in festivals of joy and love 
 
 Unanimous, as sons of one great Sire, 
 
 Hymning the Eternal Father : but the shout 
 
 Of battle now began, and rushing sound 
 
 Of onset ended soon each milder thought. 
 
 High in the midst, exalted as a God, 
 
 The Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat, 
 
 Idol of majesty divine, enclosed 
 
 With flaming Cherubim, and golden shields } 
 
 Then lighted from his gorgeous throne, for now 
 
 'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left, 
 
 A dreadful interval, and front to front 
 
 Presented stood in terrible array 
 
 Of hideous length : before the cloudy van, 
 
 On the rough edge of battle ere it joined, 
 
 Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced,
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 171 
 
 Came towering, armed in adamant and gold j 
 Abdiel that sight endured not, where he stood 
 Among the mightiest, bent on highest deeds, 
 And thus his own undaunted heart explores. 
 
 O Heaven ! that such resemblance of the Highest 
 Should yet remain, where faith and realty 
 Remain not : wherefore should not strength and might 
 There fail where virtue fails, or weakest prove 
 Where boldest, though to sight unconquerable? 
 His puissance, trusting in the Almighty's aid, 
 I mean to try, whose reason I have tried 
 Unsound and false j nor is it aught but just, 
 That he, who in debate of truth hath won, 
 Should win in arms, in both disputes alike 
 Victor j though brutish that contest and foul, 
 When reason hath to deal with force, yet so 
 Most reason is that reason overcome. 
 
 So pondering, and from his armed peers 
 Forth stepping opposite, half-way he met 
 His daring foe, at this prevention more 
 Incensed, and thus securely him defied. 
 
 Proud, art thou met ? thy hope was to have reached 
 The highth of thy aspiring unopposed, 
 The throne of God unguarded, and his side 
 Abandoned, at the terrour of thy power 
 Or potent tongue : fool ! not to think how vain 
 Against the Omnipotent to rise in arms j 
 Who out of smallest things could, without end, 
 Have raised incessant armies to defeat 
 Thy folly ; or with solitary hand 
 Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow,
 
 172 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Unaided, could have finished thee, and whelmed 
 
 Thy legions under darkness : but thou seest 
 
 All are not of thy train ; there be, who faith 
 
 Prefer, and piety to God, though then 
 
 To thee not visible, when I alone 
 
 Seemed in thy world erroneous to dissent 
 
 From all : my sect thou seest ; now learn too late 
 
 How few sometimes may know, when thousands err. 
 
 Whom the grand foe, with scornful eye askance, 
 Thus answered. Ill for thee, but in wished hour 
 Of my revenge, first sought for, thou return'st 
 From flight, seditious Angel ! to receive 
 Thy merited reward, the first assay 
 Of this right hand provoked, since first that tongue, 
 Inspired with contradiction, durst oppose 
 A third part of the Gods, in synod met 
 Their deities to assert ; who, while they feel 
 Vigour divine within them, can allow 
 Omnipotence to none. But well thou com'st 
 Before thy fellows, ambitious to win 
 From me some plume, that thy success may show 
 Destruction to the rest : this pause between, 
 (Unanswered lest thou boast) to let thee know, 
 At first I thought that Liberty and Heaven 
 To heavenly souls had been all onej but now 
 I see that most through sloth had rather serve, 
 Ministring Spirits, trained up in feast and song ! 
 Such hast thou armed, the minstrelsy of Heaven, 
 Servility with freedom to contend, 
 As both their deeds compared this day shall prove. 
 
 To whom in brief thus Abdiel stern replied.
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 173 
 
 Apostate ! still thou err'st, nor end wilt find 
 Of erring, from the path of truth remote : 
 Unjustly thou deprav'st it with the name 
 Of servitude, to serve whom God ordains, 
 Or Nature : God and Nature bid the same, 
 When he who rules is worthiest, and excels 
 Them whom he governs. This is servitude, 
 To serve the unwise, or him who hath rebelled 
 Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee, 
 Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled ; 
 Yet lewdly dar'st our ministring upbraid. 
 Reign thou in Hell, thy kingdom ; let me serve 
 In Heaven God ever blest, and his divine 
 Behests obey, worthiest to be obeyed ; 
 Yet chains in Hell, not realms, expect : mean while 
 From me returned, as erst thou saidst, from flight, 
 This greeting on thy impious crest receive. 
 So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high, 
 Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell 
 On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight, , 
 Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield, 
 Such ruin intercept: ten paces huge 
 He back recoiled ; the tenth on bended knee 
 His massy spear upstaid ; as if on earth 
 Winds under ground, or waters forcing way, 
 Sidelong had pushed a mountain from his seat, 
 Half sunk with all his pines. Amazement seised 
 The rebel Thrones, but greater rage, to see 
 Thus foiled their mightiest j ours joy filled, and 
 
 shoutj 
 Presage of victory, and fierce desire
 
 174 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Of battle : whereat Michael bid sound 
 
 The Arch- Angel trumpet ; through the vast of 
 
 Heaven 
 
 It sounded, and the faithful armies rung 
 Hosanna to the Highest : nor stood at gaze 
 The adverse legions, nor less hideous joined 
 The horrid shock. Now storming fury rose, 
 And clamour such as heard in Heaven till now 
 Was never; arms on armour clashing brayed 
 Horrible discord, and the madding wheels 
 Of brazen chariots raged ; dire was the noise 
 Of conflict ; over head the dismal hiss 
 Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew, 
 And flying vaulted either host with fire. 
 So under fiery cope together rushed 
 Both battles main, with ruinous assault 
 And inextinguishable rage. All Heaven 
 Resounded ; and had Earth been then, all Earth 
 Had to her center shook. What wonder ? when 
 Millions of fierce encountering Angels fought 
 On either side, the least of whom could wield 
 These elements, and arm him with the force 
 Of all their regions : how much more of power 
 Army against army numberless to raise 
 Dreadful -combustion warring, and disturb, 
 Though not destroy, their happy native seat ; 
 Had not the Eternal King Omnipotent, 
 From his strong hold of Heaven, high over-ruled 
 And limited their might ; though numbered suck 
 As each divided legion might have seemed 
 A numerous host ; in strength each armed hand
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 1/5 
 
 A legion ; led in fight, yet leader seemed 
 Each warriour single as in chief, expert 
 When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway 
 Of battle, open when, and when to close 
 The ridges of grim war : no thought of flight, 
 None of retreat, no unbecoming deed 
 That argued fear ; each on himself relied, 
 As only in his arm the moment lay 
 Of victory : deeds of eternal fame 
 Were done, but infinite ; for wide was spread 
 That war and various 3 sometimes on firm ground 
 A standing fight, then, soaring on main wing, 
 Tormented all the air j all air seemed then 
 Conflicting fire. Long time in even scale 
 The battle hung ; till Satan, who that day 
 Prodigious power had shown, and met in arms 
 No equal, ranging through the dire attack 
 Of fighting Seraphim confused, at length 
 Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and felled 
 Squadrons at once ; with huge two-handed sway 
 Brandished aloft, the horrid edge came down 
 Wide- wasting ; such destruction to withstand 
 He hasted, and opposed the rocky orb 
 Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield, 
 A vast circumference. At his approach 
 The great Arch- Angel from his warlike toil 
 Surceased, and glad, as hoping here to end 
 Intestine war in Heaven, the arch-foe subdued 
 Or captive dragged in chains, with hostile frown 
 And visage all inflamed first thus began. 
 Author of evil, unknown till thy revolt,
 
 176 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Unnamed in Heaven, now plenteous as thou seest 
 
 These acts of hateful strife, hateful to all, 
 
 Though heaviest by just measure on thyself, 
 
 And thy adherents : how hast thou disturbed 
 
 Heaven's blessed peace, and into nature brought 
 
 Misery, uncreated till the crime 
 
 Of thy rebellion ! how hast thou instilled 
 
 Thy malice into thousands, once upright 
 
 And faithful, now proved false ! But think not here 
 
 To trouble holy rest ; Heaven casts thee out 
 
 From all her confines. Heaven, the seat of bliss, 
 
 Brooks not the works of violence and war. 
 
 Hence then, and evil go with thee along, 
 
 Thy offspring, to the place of evil, Hell ; 
 
 Thou and thy wicked crew ! there mingle broils, 
 
 Ere this avenging sword begin thy doom, 
 
 Or some more sudden vengeance, winged from God, 
 
 Precipitate thee with augmented pain. 
 
 So spake the Prince of Angels ; to whom thus 
 The Adversary. Nor think thou with wind 
 Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds 
 Thou canst not. Hast thou turned the least of these 
 To flight, or if to fall, but that they rise 
 Unvanquished, easier to transact with me 
 That thou shouldst hope, imperious, and with 
 
 threats 
 
 To chase me hence ? err not, that so shall end 
 The strife which thou call'st evil, but we style 
 The strife of glory ; which we mean to win, 
 Or turn this Heaven itself into the Hell 
 Thou fablestj here however to dwell free,
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. ,177 
 
 If not to reign : mean while thy utmost force, 
 And join him named Almighty to thy aid, 
 I fly not, but have sought thee far and nigh. 
 
 They ended parle, and both addressed for fight 
 Unspeakable ; for who, though with the tongue 
 Of Angels, can relate, or to what things 
 Liken on earth conspicuous, that may lift 
 Human imagination to such highth 
 Of Godlike power ? for likest Gods they seemed, 
 Stood they or moved, in stature, motion, arms, 
 Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven. 
 Now waved their fiery swords, and in the air 
 Made horrid circles j two broad suns their shields 
 Blazed opposite, while Expectation stood 
 In horrour : from each hand with speed retired, 
 Where erst was thickest fight, the angelick throng, 
 And left large field, unsafe within the wind 
 Of such commotion j such as, to set forth 
 Great things by small, if, nature's concord broke, 
 Among the constellations war were sprung, 
 Two planets, rushing from aspect malign 
 Of fiercest opposition, in mid sky 
 Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound. 
 Together both with next to almighty arm 
 Up-lifted imminent, one stroke they aimed 
 That might determine, and not need repeat, 
 As not of power at once j nor odds appeared 
 In might or swift prevention : but the sword 
 Of Michael from the armoury of God 
 Was given him tempered so, that neither keen 
 Nor solid might resist that edge : it met 
 
 N
 
 178 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 The sword of Satan, with steep force to smite 
 Descending, and in half cut sheer ; nor staid, 
 But with swift wheel reverse, deep entering, shared 
 All his right side : then Satan first knew pain, 
 And writhed him to and fro convolved ; so sore 
 The griding sword with discontinuous wound 
 Passed through him: but the ethereal substance 
 
 closed, 
 
 Not long divisible ; and from the gash 
 A stream of nectarous humour issuing flowed 
 Sanguine, such as celestial Spirits may bleed, 
 And all his armour stained, ere while so bright. 
 Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run 
 By Angels many and strong, who interposed 
 Defence, while others bore him on their shields 
 Back to his chariot, where it stood retired 
 From off the files of war : there they him laid 
 Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame, 
 To find himself not matchless, and his pride 
 Humbled by such rebuke, so far beneath 
 His confidence to equal God in power. 
 Yet soon he healed ; for Spirits that live throughout 
 Vital in every part, not as frail man 
 In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins, 
 Cannot but by annihilating die ; 
 Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound 
 Receive, no more than can the fluid air : 
 All heart they live, all head, all eye, all ear, 
 All intellect, all sense ; and, as they please, 
 They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size 
 Assume, as likes them best, condense or rare.
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 179 
 
 Mean while in other parts like deeds deserved 
 Memorial, where the might of Gabriel fought, 
 And with fierce ensigns pierced the deep array 
 Of Moloch, furious king j who him defied, 
 And at his chariot-wheels to drag him bound 
 Threatened, nor from the Holy One of Heaven 
 Refrained his tongue blasphemous ; but anon 
 Down cloven to the waist, with shattered arms 
 And uncouth pain fled bellowing. On each wing 
 Uriel, and Raphael, his vaunting foe, 
 Though huge, and in a rock of diamond armed, 
 Vanquished Adramelech, and Asmadai, 
 Two potent Thrones, that to be less than Gods 
 Disdained, but meaner thoughts learned in their 
 
 flight, 
 Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and 
 
 mail. 
 
 Nor stood unmindful Abdiel to annoy 
 The atheist crew, but with redoubled blow 
 Ariel, and Arioch, and the violence 
 Of Ramiel scorched and blasted, overthrew. 
 I might relate of thousands, and their names 
 Eternize here on earth ; but those elect 
 Angels, contented with their fame in Heaven, 
 Seek not the praise of men : the other sort, 
 In might though wonderous and in acts of war, 
 Nor of renown less eager, yet by doom 
 Cancelled from Heaven and sacred memory, 
 Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell. 
 For strength from truth divided, and from just, 
 Illaudable, nought merits but dispraise 
 
 N2
 
 180 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 And ignominy ; yet to glory aspires 
 Vain-glorious, and through infamy seeks fame : 
 Therefore eternal silence be their doom. 
 
 And now, their mightiest quelled, the battle 
 
 swerved, 
 
 With many an inroad gored ; deformed rout 
 Entered, and foul disorder ; all the ground 
 With shivered armour strown, and on a heap 
 Chariot and charioteer lay overturned, 
 And fiery-foaming steeds ; what stood, recoiled 
 O'er-wearied, through the faint Satanick host 
 Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surprised, 
 Then first with fear surprised, and sense of pain, 
 Fled ignominious, to such evil brought 
 By sin of disobedience j till that hour 
 Not liable to fear, or flight, or pain. 
 Far otherwise the inviolable Saints, 
 In cubick phalanx firm, advanced entire, 
 Invulnerable, impenetrably armed ; 
 Such high advantages their innocence 
 Gave them above their foes ; not to have sinned, 
 Not to have disobeyed ; in fight they stood 
 Unwearied, unobnoxious to be pained 
 By wound, though from their place by violence 
 
 moved. 
 
 Now Night her course began, and, over Heaven 
 Inducing darkness, grateful truce imposed, 
 And silence on the odious din of war : 
 Under her cloudy covert both retired, 
 Victor and vanquished : on the foughten field 
 Michael and his Angels prevalent
 
 HOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 181 
 
 Encamping, placed in guard their watches round, 
 Cherubick waving fires : on the other part, 
 Satan with his rebellious disappeared, 
 Far in the dark dislodged ; and, void of rest, 
 "His potentates to council called by night j 
 And in the midst thus undismayed began. 
 
 O now in danger tried, now known in arms 
 Not to be overpowered, Companions dear, 
 Found worthy not of liberty alone, 
 Too mean pretence ! but what we more affect, 
 Honour, dominion, glory, and renown ; 
 Who have sustained one day in doubtful fight, 
 (And if one day, why not eternal days ?) 
 What Heaven's Lord had powerfullest to send 
 Against us from about his throne, and judged 
 Sufficient to subdue us to his will, 
 But proves not so : then fallible, it seems, 
 Of future we may deem him, though till now 
 Omniscient thought. True is, less firmly armed, 
 Some disadvantage we endured and pain, 
 Till now not known, but, known, as soon con- 
 temned ; 
 
 Since now we find this our empyreal form 
 Incapable of mortal injury, 
 Imperishable, and, though pierced with wound, 
 Soon closing, and by native vigour healed. 
 Of evil then so small as easy think 
 The remedy ; perhaps more valid arms, 
 Weapons more violent, when next we meet, 
 May serve to better us, and worse our foes, 
 Or equal what between us made the odds,
 
 182 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 In nature none : if other hidden cause 
 Left them superiour, while we can preserve 
 Unhurt our minds, and understanding sound, 
 Due search and consultation will disclose. 
 
 He sat ; and in the assembly next upstood 
 Nisroch, of Principalities the prime ; 
 As one he stood escaped from cruel fight, 
 Sore toiled, his riven arms to havock hewn, 
 And cloudy in aspect thus answering spake. 
 
 Deliverer from new Lords, leader to free 
 Enjoyment of our right as Gods ; yet hard 
 For Gods, and too unequal work we find, 
 Against unequal arms to fight in pain, 
 Against unpained, impassive ; from which evil 
 Ruin must needs ensue ; for what avails 
 Valour or strength, though matchless, quelled with 
 
 pain 
 
 Which all subdues, and makes remiss the hands 
 Of mightiest ? Sense of pleasure we may well 
 Spare out of life perhaps, and not repine, 
 But live content, which is the calmest life : 
 But pain is perfect misery, the worst 
 Of evils, and, excessive, overturns 
 All patience. He, who therefore can invent 
 With what more forcible we may offend 
 Our yet unwounded enemies, or arm 
 Ourselves with like defence, to me deserves 
 No less than for deliverance what we owe. 
 
 Whereto with look composed Satan replied. 
 Not uninvented that, which thou aright 
 Believ'st so main to our success, I bring.
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 183 
 
 Which of us who beholds the bright surface 
 Of this ethereous mould whereon we stand, 
 This continent of spacious Heaven, adorned 
 With plant, fruit, flower ambrosial, gems, and gold 5 
 Whose eye so superficially surveys 
 These things, as not to mind from whence they grow 
 Deep under ground, materials dark and crude, 
 Of spiritous and fiery spume, till touched 
 With Heaven's rayj and tempered, they shoot forth 
 So beauteous, opening to the ambient light ? 
 These in their dark nativity the deep 
 Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame j 
 Which, into hollow engines, long and round, 
 Thick rammed, at the other bore with touch of fire 
 Dilated and infuriate, shall send forth 
 From far, with thundering noise, among our foes 
 Such implements of mischief, as shall dash 
 To pieces, and o'erwhelm whatever stands 
 Adverse, that they shall fear we have disarmed 
 The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt. 
 Nor long shall be our labour ; yet ere dawn, 
 Effect shall end our wish. Mean while revive} 
 Abandon fearj to strength and counsel joined 
 Think nothing hard, much less to be despaired. 
 He ended, and his words their drooping cheer 
 Enlightened, and their languished hope revived. 
 The invention all admired, and each, how he 
 To be the inventer missed 5 so easy it seemed 
 Once found, which yet unfound most would have 
 
 thought 
 Impossible : yet, haply, of thy race
 
 184 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 In future days, if malice should abound, 
 Some one intent on mischief, or inspired 
 With devilish machination, might devise 
 Like instrument to plague the sons of men 
 For sin, on war and mutual slaughter bent. 
 Forthwith from council to the work they flew; 
 None arguing stood ; innumerable hands 
 Were ready ; in a moment up they turned 
 Wide the celestial soil, and saw beneath 
 The originals of nature in their crude 
 Conception ; sulphurous and nitrous foam 
 They found, they mingled, and, with subtle art, 
 Concocted and adusted they reduced 
 To blackest grain, and into store conveyed : 
 Part hidden veins digged up (nor hath this earth 
 Entrails unlike) of mineral and stone, 
 Whereof to found their engines and their balls 
 Of missive ruin ; part incentive reed 
 Provide, pernicious with one touch to fire. 
 So all ere day-spring, under conscious night, 
 Secret they finished, and in order set, 
 With silent circumspection, Hnespied. 
 
 Now when fair morn orient in Heaven appeared, 
 Up rose the victor- Angels, and to arms 
 The matin trumpet sung : in arms they stood 
 Of golden panoply, refulgent host, 
 Soon banded; others from the dawning hills 
 Look round, and scouts each coast light-armed scour, 
 Each quarter to descry the distant foe, 
 Where lodged, or whither fled, or if for fight, 
 In motion or in halt : him soon they met
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 185 
 
 Under spread ensigns moving nigh, in slow 
 But firm battalion ; back with speediest sail 
 Zophiel, of Cherubim the swiftest wing, 
 Came flying, and in'mid air aloud thus cried. 
 
 Arm, Warriours, arm for fight ; the foe at hand, 
 Whom fled we thought, will save us long pursuit 
 This day ; fear not his flight j so thick a cloud 
 He comes, and settled in his face I see 
 Sad resolution, and secure : let each 
 His adamantine coat gird well, and each 
 Fit well his helm, gripe fast his orbed shield, 
 Borne even or high ; for this day will pour down, 
 If I conjecture aught, no drizzling shower, 
 But rattling storm of arrows barbed with fire. 
 
 So warned he them, aware themselves, and soon 
 In order, quit of all impediment j 
 Instant without disturb they took alarm, 
 And onward moved embattled : when behold ! 
 Not distant far with heavy pace the foe 
 Approaching gross and huge, in hollow cube 
 Training his devilish enginery, impaled 
 On every side with shadowing squadrons deep, 
 To hide the fraud. At interview both stood 
 A while ; but suddenly at head appeared 
 Satan, and thus was heard commanding loud. 
 
 Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold ; 
 That all may see who hate us, how we seek 
 Peace and composure, and with open breast 
 Stand ready to receive them, if they like 
 Our overture ; and turn not back perverse : 
 But that I doubt; however witness, Heaven!
 
 186 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Heaven, witness thou anon ! while we discharge 
 Freely our part : ye, who appointed stand 
 Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch 
 What we propound, and loud that all may hear ! 
 
 So scoffing in ambiguous words, he scarce 
 Had ended ; when to right and left the front 
 Divided, and to either flank retired : 
 Which to our eyes discovered, new and strange, 
 A triple mounted row of pillars laid 
 On wheels (for like to pillars most they seemed, 
 Or hollowed bodies made of oak or fir, 
 With branches lopped, in wood or mountain felled,) 
 Brass, iron, stony mould, had not their mouths 
 With hideous orifice gaped on us wide, 
 Portending hollow truce : at each behind 
 A Seraph stood, and in his hand a reed 
 Stood waving tipt with fire , while we, suspense, 
 Collected stood within our thoughts amused, 
 Not long for sudden all at once their reeds 
 Put forth, and to a narrow vent applied 
 With nicest touch. Immediate in a flame, 
 But soon obscured with smoke, all Heaven appeared, 
 From those deep-throated engines belched, whose 
 
 roar 
 
 Embowelled with outrageous noise the air, 
 And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul 
 Their devilish glut, chained thunderbolts and hail 
 Of iron globes ; which, on the victor host 
 Levelled, with such impetuous fury smote, 
 That, whom they hit, none on their feet might stand, 
 Though standing else as rocks, bat down they fell
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 187 
 
 By thousands, Angel on Arch- Angel rolled -, 
 
 The sooner for their arms j unarmed, they might 
 
 Have easily, as Spirits, evaded swift 
 
 By quick contraction or remove; but now 
 
 Foul dissipation followed, and forced rout 3 
 
 Nor served it to relax their serried files. 
 
 What should they do ? if on they rushed, repulse 
 
 Repeated, and indecent overthrow 
 
 Doubled, would render them yet more despised, 
 
 And to their foes a laughter ; for in view 
 
 Stood ranked of Seraphim another row, 
 
 In posture to displode their second tire 
 
 Of thunder : back defeated to return 
 
 They worse abhorred. Satan beheld their plight, 
 
 And to his mates thus in derision called. 
 
 O Friends ! why come not on these victors proud ? 
 Ere while they fierce were coming ; and when we, 
 To entertain them fair with open front 
 And breast, (what could we more ?) propounded 
 
 terms 
 
 Of composition, straight they changed their minds, 
 Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell, 
 As they would dance ; yet for a dance they seemed 
 Somewhat extravagant and wild ; perhaps 
 For joy of offered peace : but I suppose, 
 If our proposals once again were heard, 
 We should compel them to a quick result. 
 
 To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood. 
 Leader ! the terms we sent were terms of weight, 
 Of hard contents, and full of force urged home ; 
 Such as we might perceive amused them all,
 
 188 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 And stumbled many : who receives them right, 
 Had need from head to foot well understand j 
 Not understood, this gift they have besides, 
 They show us when our foes walk not upright. 
 
 So they among themselves in pleasant vein 
 Stood scoffing, hightened in their thoughts beyond 
 All doubt of victory : Eternal Might 
 To match with their inventions they presumed 
 So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn, 
 And all his host derided, while they stood 
 A while in trouble : but they stood not long ; 
 Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms 
 Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose. 
 Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power, 
 Which God hath in his mighty Angels placed!) 
 Their arms away they threw, and to the hills 
 (For Earth hath this variety from Heaven 
 Of pleasure situate in hill and dale,) 
 Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flevr ; 
 From their foundations loosening to and fro, 
 They plucked the seated hills, with all their load, 
 Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops 
 Up-lifting bore them in their hands : amaze, 
 Be sure, and terrour, seized the rebel host, 
 When coming towards them so dread they saw 
 The bottom of the mountains upward turned ; 
 Till on those cursed engines' triple-row 
 They saw them whelmed, and all their confidence 
 Under the weight of mountains buried deep ; 
 Themselves invaded next, and on their heads 
 Main promontories flung, which in the air
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 189 
 
 Came shadowing, and oppressed whole legions armed ; 
 
 Their armour helped their harm, crushed in and bruised 
 
 Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain 
 
 Implacable, and many a dolorous groan 5 
 
 Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind 
 
 Out of such prison, though Spirits of purest light, 
 
 Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown. 
 
 The rest, in imitation, to like arms 
 
 Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore : 
 
 So hills amid the air encountered hills, 
 
 Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire ; 
 
 That under ground they fought in dismal shade ; 
 
 Infernal noise ! war seemed a civil game 
 
 To this uproar j horrid confusion heaped 
 
 Upon confusion rose : and now all Heaven 
 
 Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread ; 
 
 Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits 
 
 Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure, 
 
 Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen 
 
 This tumult, and permitted all, advised : 
 
 That his great purpose he might so fulfil, 
 
 To honour his anointed Son avenged 
 
 Upon his enemies, and to declare 
 
 All power on him transferred : whence to his Son, 
 
 The Assessour of his throne, he thus began. 
 
 Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved, 
 Son, in whose face invisible is beheld 
 Visibly, what by Deity I am ; 
 And in whose hand what by decree I do, 
 Second Omnipotence ! two days are past, 
 Two days, as we compute the days of Heaven,
 
 190 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame 
 
 These disobedient : sore hath been their fight, 
 
 As likeliest was, when two such foes met armed ; 
 
 For to themselves I left them ; and thou know'st, 
 
 Equal in their creation they were formed, 
 
 Save what sin hath impaired ; which yet hath wrought 
 
 Insensibly, for I suspend their doom ; 
 
 Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last 
 
 Endless, and no solution will be found : 
 
 War wearied hath performed what war can do, 
 
 And to disordered rage let loose the reins, 
 
 With mountains, as with weapons, armed ; which makes 
 
 Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the main. 
 
 Two days are therefore past, the third is thine j 
 
 For thee I have ordained it ; and thus far 
 
 Have suffered, that the glory may be thine 
 
 Of ending this great war, since none but Thou 
 
 Can end it. Into thee such virtue and graee 
 
 Immense I have transfused, that all may know 
 
 In Heaven and Hell thy power above compare ; 
 
 And, this perverse commotion governed thus, 
 
 To manifest thee worthiest to be Heir 
 
 Of all things ; to be Heir, and to be King 
 
 By sacred unction, thy deserved right. 
 
 Go then, Thou Mightiest, in thy Father's might; 
 
 Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels 
 
 That shake Heaven's basis, bring forth all my war, 
 
 My bow and thunder, my almighty arms 
 
 Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh ; 
 
 Pursue these sons of darkness, drive them out 
 
 From all Heaven's bounds into the utter deep :
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 191 
 
 There let them learn, as likes them, to despise 
 God, and Messiah his anointed King. 
 
 He said, and on his Son with rays direct 
 Shone full ; he all his Father full expressed 
 Ineffably into his face received j 
 And thus the Filial Godhead answering spake. 
 
 O Father, O Supreme of heavenly Thrones, 
 First, Highest, Holiest, Best ; thou always seek'st 
 To glorify thy Son, I always thee, 
 As is most just: this I my glory account, 
 My exaltation, and my whole delight, , 4 
 That thou, in me well pleased, declar'st thy will 
 Fulfilled, which to fulfil is all my bliss. 
 Scepter and power, thy giving, I assume, 
 And gladlier shall resign, when in the end 
 Thou shall be all in all, and I in thee 
 For ever ; and in me all whom thou lov'st : 
 But whom thou hat'st, I hate, and can put on 
 Thy terrours, as I put thy mildness on, 
 Image of thee in all things ; and shall soon, 
 Armed with thy might, rid Heaven of these rebelled ; 
 To their prepared ill mansion driven down, 
 To chains of darkness, and the undying worm ; 
 That from thy just obedience could revolt, 
 Whom to obey is happiness entire. 
 Then shall thy Saints unmixed, and from the impure 
 Far separate, circling thy holy mount, 
 Unfeigned Halleluiahs to thee sing, 
 Hymns of high praise, and I among them Chief. 
 
 So said, he, o'er his scepter bowing, rose 
 From the right hand of Glory where he sat;
 
 192 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 And the third sacred morn began to shine, 
 Dawning through Heaven. Forth rushed with whirl- 
 wind sound 
 
 The chariot of Paternal Deity, 
 Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn, 
 Itself instinct with Spirit, but convoyed 
 By four Cherubick shapes j four faces each 
 Had wonderous ; as with stars, their bodies all 
 And wings were set with eyes j with eyes the wheels 
 Of beryl, and careering fires between ; 
 Over their heads a crystal firmament, 
 Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure 
 Amber, and colours of the showery arch. 
 He, in celestial panoply all armed 
 Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought, 
 Ascended j at his right hand Victory 
 Sat eagle- winged ; beside him hung his bow 
 And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored j 
 And from about him fierce effusion rolled 
 Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles dire : 
 Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints, 
 He onward came ; far off his coming shone j 
 And twenty thousand (I their number heard) 
 Chariots of God, half on each hand, were seen ; 
 He on the wings of Cherub rode sublime 
 On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned, 
 Illustrious far and wide ; but by his own 
 First seen: them unexpected joy surprised, 
 When the great ensign of Messiah blazed 
 Aloft by Angels borne, his sign in Heaven ; 
 Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 193 
 
 His army, circumfused on either wing, 
 
 Under their Head imbodied all in one. 
 
 Before him Power Divine his way prepared; 
 
 At his command the uprooted hills retired 
 
 Each to his place ; they heard his voice, and went 
 
 Obsequious; Heaven his wonted face renewed, 
 
 And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled. 
 
 This saw his hapless foes, but stood obdured, 
 
 And to rebellious fight rallied their Powers, 
 
 Insensate, hope conceiving from despair. 
 
 In heavenly Spirits could such perverseness dwell? 
 
 But to convince the proud what signs avail, 
 
 Or wonders move the obdurate to relent? 
 
 They, hardened more by what might most reclaim, 
 
 Grieving to see his glory, at the sight 
 
 Took envy ; and, aspiring to his highth, 
 
 Stood re-embattled fierce, by force or fraud 
 
 Weening to prosper, and at length prevail 
 
 Against God and Messiah, or to fall 
 
 In universal ruin last ; and now 
 
 To final battle drew, disdaining flight, 
 
 Or faint retreat ; when the great Son of God 
 
 To all his host on either hand thus spake. 
 
 Stand still in bright array, ye Saints ; here stand, 
 Ye Angels armed ; this day from battle rest : 
 Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God 
 Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause ; 
 And as ye have received, so have ye done, 
 Invincibly : but of this cursed crew 
 The punishment to other hand belongs ; 
 Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints :
 
 194 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Number to this day's work is not ordained, 
 Nor multitude; stand only, and behold 
 God's indignation on these godless poured 
 By me j not you, but me, they have despised, 
 Yet envied ; against me is all their rage, 
 Because the Father, to whom in Heaven supreme 
 Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains, 
 Hath honoured me, according to his will. 
 Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned ; 
 That they may have their wish, to try with me 
 Jn battle which the stronger proves ; they all, 
 Or I alone against them ; since by strength 
 They measure all, of other excellence 
 Not emulous, nor care who them excels 3 
 Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe. 
 
 So spake the Son, and into terrour changed 
 His countenance too severe to be beheld, 
 And full of wrath bent on his enemies. 
 At once the Four spread out their starry wings 
 With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs 
 Of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound 
 Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. 
 He on his impious foes right onward drove, 
 Gloomy as night ; under his burning wheels 
 The stedfast empyrean shook throughout, 
 All but the throne itself of God. Full soon 
 Among them he arrived ; in his right hand 
 Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent 
 Before him, such as in their souls infixed 
 Plagues : they, astonished, all resistance lost, 
 All courage ; down their idle weapons dropt ^
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 195 
 
 O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode 
 Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate, 
 That wished the mountains now might be again 
 Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire. 
 Nor less on either side tempestuous fell 
 His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged Four 
 Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels 
 Distinct alike with multitude of eyes ; 
 One Spirit in them ruled; and every eye 
 Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire 
 Among the accursed, that withered all their strength, 
 And of their wonted vigour left them drained, 
 Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen. 
 Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked 
 His thunder in mid volley ; for he meant 
 Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven : 
 The overthrown he raised, and as a herd 
 Of goats or timorous flock together thronged 
 Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued 
 With terrours, and with furies, to the bounds 
 And crystal wall of Heaven ; which, opening wide, 
 Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed 
 Into the wasteful deep : the monstrous sight 
 Struck them with horrour backward, but far worse 
 Urged them behind : headlong themselves they threw 
 Down from the verge of Heaven ; eternal wrath 
 Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. 
 
 Hell heard the unsufferable noise, Hell saw 
 Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled 
 Affrighted 5 but strict Fate had cast too deep 
 Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. 
 
 o2
 
 196 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VI. 
 
 Nine days they fell : confounded Chaos roared, 
 And felt tenfold confusion in their fall 
 Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout 
 Incumbered him with ruin : Hell at last 
 Yawning received them whole, and on them closed ; 
 Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire 
 Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain. 
 Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired 
 Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled. 
 Sole victor, from the expulsion of his foes, 
 Messiah his triumphal chariot turned : 
 To meet him all his Saints, who silent stood 
 Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts, 
 With jubilee advanced; and, as they went, 
 Shaded with branching palm, each Order bright, 
 Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King, 
 Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given, 
 Worthiest to reign : he, celebrated, rode 
 Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the courts 
 And temple of his Mighty Father throned 
 On high ; who into glory him received, 
 Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss. 
 Thus, measuring things in Heaven by things on 
 
 Earth, 
 
 At thy request, and that thou mayst beware 
 By what is past, to thee I have revealed 
 What might have else to human race been hid ; 
 The discord which befel, and war in Heaven 
 Among the angelick Powers, and the deep fall 
 Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled 
 With Satan 5 he who envies now thy state,
 
 BOOK VI. PARADISE LOST. 197 
 
 Who now is plotting how he may seduce 
 Thee also from obedience, that, with him 
 Bereaved of happiness, thou mayst partake 
 His punishment, eternal misery 5 
 Which would be all his solace and revenge, 
 As a despite done against the Most High, 
 Thee once to gain companion of his woe. 
 But listen not to his temptations, warn 
 Thy weaker ; let it profit thee to have heard, 
 By terrible example, the reward 
 Of disobedience ; firm they might have stood, 
 Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress. 
 
 END OF THE SIXTH BOOK.
 
 THE 
 
 SEVENTH BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this 
 world was first created ; that God, after the expelling of Satan 
 and his Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create 
 another world, and other creatures to dwell therein ; sends his 
 Son with glory, and attendance of Angels, to perform the work 
 of Creation in six days: the Angels celebrate with hymns the 
 performance thereof, and his reascension into Heaven.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 DESCEND from Heaven, Urania, by that name 
 If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine 
 Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, 
 Above the flight of Pegas6an wing ! 
 The meaning, not the name, I call : for thou 
 Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top 
 Of old Olympus dwell' st ; but, heavenly-born, 
 Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed, 
 Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse, 
 Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play 
 In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased 
 With thy celestial song. Up led by thee 
 Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, 
 An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, 
 Thy tempering : with like safety guided down 
 Return me to my native element : 
 Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once 
 Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,)
 
 202 PABADISE LOST, BOOK VII. 
 
 Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall, 
 Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn. 
 Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound 
 Within the visible diurnal sphere ; 
 Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole, 
 More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged 
 To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, 
 On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues j 
 In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, 
 And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou 
 Visit' st my slumbers nightly, or when morn 
 Purples the east : still govern thou my song, 
 Urania, and fit audience find, though few. 
 But drive far off the barbarous dissonance 
 Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race 
 Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard 
 In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears 
 To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned 
 Both harp and voice ; nor could the Muse defend 
 Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores : 
 For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream. 
 
 Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphael, 
 The affable Arch- Angel, had forewarned 
 Adam, by dire example, to beware 
 Apostasy, by what befell in Heaven 
 To those apostates ; lest the like befall 
 In Paradise to Adam or his race, 
 Charged not to touch the interdicted tree, 
 If they transgress, and slight that sole command, 
 So easily obeyed amid the choice 
 Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 203 
 
 Though wandering. He, with his consorted Eve, 
 
 The story heard attentive, and was filled 
 
 With admiration and deep muse, to hear 
 
 Of things so high and strange ; things, to their thought 
 
 So unimaginable, as hate in Heaven, 
 
 And war so near the peace of God in bliss, 
 
 With such confusion : but the evil, soon 
 
 Driven back, redounded as a flood on those 
 
 From whom it sprung j impossible to mix 
 
 With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed 
 
 The doubts that in his heart arose : and now 
 
 Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know 
 
 What nearer might concern him, how this world 
 
 Of Heaven and Earth conspicuous first began ; 
 
 When, and whereof created ; for what cause j 
 
 What within Eden, or without, was done 
 
 Before his memory ; as one whose drouth 
 
 Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream, 
 
 Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites, 
 
 Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest. 
 
 Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, 
 Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed, 
 Divine interpreter! by favour sent 
 Down from the empyrean, to forewarn 
 Us timely of what might else have been our loss, 
 Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach : 
 For which to the infinitely Good we owe 
 Immortal thanks, and his admonishment 
 Receive, with solemn purpose to observe 
 Immutably his sovran will, the end 
 Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed-
 
 204 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 Gently, for our instruction, to impart 
 Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned 
 Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed, 
 Deign to descend now lower, and relate 
 What may no less perhaps avail us known, 
 How first began this Heaven which we behold 
 Distant so high, with moving fires adorned 
 Innumerable ; and this which yields or fills 
 All space, the ambient air wide ^interfused 
 Embracing round this florid Earth j what cause 
 Moved the Creator, in his holy rest 
 Through all eternity, so late to build 
 In Chaos j and the work begun, how soon 
 Absolved ; if unforbid thou mayst unfold 
 What we, not to explore the secrets ask 
 Of his eternal empire, but the more 
 To magnify his works, the more we know. 
 And the great Jight of day yet wants to run tjq-" 
 Much of his race though steep ; suspense in Heaven, 
 Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears, 
 And longer will delay to hear thee tell 
 His generation, and the rising birth 
 Of Nature from the unapparent Deep : 
 Or if the star of evening and the moon 
 Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring 
 Silence 5 and Sleep, listening to thee, will watch j 
 Or we can bid his absence, till thy song 
 End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine. 
 Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought : 
 And thus the Godlike Angel answered mild. 
 This also thy request, with caution asked,
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 205 
 
 Obtain ; though to recount almighty works 
 
 What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice, 
 
 Or heart of man suffice to comprehend ? 
 
 Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve 
 
 To glorify the Maker, and infer 
 
 Thee also happier, shall not be withheld 
 
 Thy hearing ; such commission from above 
 
 I have received, to answer thy desire 
 
 Of knowledge within bounds ; beyond, abstain 
 
 To ask j nor let thine own inventions hope 
 
 Things not revealed, which the invisible King, 
 
 Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night ; 
 
 To none communicable in Earth or Heaven : 
 
 Enough is left besides to search and know. 
 
 But knowledge is as food, and needs no less 
 
 Her temperance over appetite, to know 
 
 In measure what the mind may well contain ; 
 
 Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns 
 
 Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind. 
 
 Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven 
 (So call him, brighter once amidst the host 
 Of Angels, than that star the stars among), '-i^Sf 
 Fell with his flaming legions through the deep 
 Into his place, and the great Son returned 
 Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent 
 Eternal Father from his throne beheld 
 Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake. 
 
 At least our envious Foe hath failed, who thought 
 All like himself rebellious, by whose aid 
 This inaccessible high strength, the seat 
 Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed.
 
 206 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 He trusted to have seised, and into fraud 
 
 Drew many, whom their place knows here no more : 
 
 Yet far the greater part have kept, I see, 
 
 Their station ; Heaven, yet populous, retains 
 
 Number sufficient to possess her realms 
 
 Though wide, and this high temple to frequent 
 
 With ministeries due, and solemn rites : 
 
 But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm 
 
 Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven, 
 
 My damage fondly deemed, I can repair 
 
 That detriment, if such it be to lose 
 
 Self-lost ; and in a moment will create 
 
 Another world, out of one man a race 
 
 Of men innumerable, there to dwell, 
 
 Not here ; till, by degrees of merit raised, 
 
 They open to themselves at length the way 
 
 Up hither, under long obedience tried ; 
 
 And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth, 
 
 One kingdom, joy and union without end. 
 
 Mean while inhabit lax, ye Powers of Heaven ; 
 
 And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee 
 
 This I perform ; speak thou, and be it done ! 
 
 My overshadowing Spirit and Might with thee 
 
 I send along ; ride forth, and bid the Deep 
 
 Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth ; 
 
 Boundless the Deep, because I Am who fill 
 
 Infinitude, nor vacuous the space. 
 
 Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire, 
 
 And put not forth my goodness, which is free 
 
 To act or not, Necessity and Chance 
 
 Approach not me, and what I will is Fate.
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 207 
 
 So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake 
 His Word, the Filial Godhead, gave effect. 
 Immediate are the acts of God, more swift 
 Than time or motion, but to human ears 
 Cannot without process of speech be told, 
 So told as earthly notion can receive. 
 Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven, 
 When such was heard declared the Almighty's will ; 
 Glory they sung to the Most High, good will 
 To future men, and in their dwellings peace j 
 Glory to Him, whose just avenging ire 
 Had driven out the ungodly from his sight 
 And the habitations of the just; to Him 
 Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained 
 Good out of evil to create j instead 
 Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring 
 Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse 
 His good to worlds and ages infinite. 
 
 So sang the Hierarchies : mean while the Son 
 On his great expedition now appeared, 
 Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crowned 
 Of Majesty Divine ; sapience and love 
 Immense, and all his Father in him shone. 
 About his chariot numberless were poured 
 Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones, 
 And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots winged 
 From the armoury of God ; where stand of old 
 Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged 
 Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand, 
 Celestial equipage ; and now came forth 
 Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived,
 
 208 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 Attendant on their Lord : Heaven opened wide 
 
 Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound 
 
 On golden hinges moving, to let forth 
 
 The King of Glory, in his powerful Word 
 
 And Spirit, coming to create new worlds. 
 
 On heavenly ground they stood ; and from the shore 
 
 They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss 
 
 Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, 
 
 Up from the bottom turned by furious winds 
 
 And surging waves, as mountains, to assault 
 
 Heaven's highth, and with the center mix the pole. 
 
 Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace, 
 Said then the Omnifick Word ; your discord end ! 
 Nor staid ; but, on the wings of Cherubim 
 Uplifted, in paternal glory rode 
 Far into Chaos, and the world unborn ; 
 For Chaos heard his voice : Him all his train 
 Followed in bright procession, to behold 
 Creation, and the wonders of his might. 
 Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand 
 He took the golden compasses, prepared 
 In God's eternal store, to circumscribe 
 This universe, and all created things : 
 One foot he centered, and the other turned 
 Round through the vast profundity obscure ; 
 And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 
 This be thy just circumference, O World ! 
 Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth, 
 Matter unformed and void : darkness profound 
 Covered the abyss : but on the watery calm 
 His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 209 
 
 And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth 
 Throughout the fluid mass ; but downward purged 
 The black tartareous cold infernal dregs, 
 Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed 
 Like things to like ; the rest to several place 
 Disparted, and between spun out the air j 
 And Earth self-balanced on her center hung. 
 
 Let there be light, said Godj and forthwith Light 
 Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, 
 Sprung from the deep ; and from her native east 
 To journey through the aery gloom began, 
 Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun 
 Was not ; she in a cloudy tabernacle 
 Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good j 
 And light from darkness by the hemisphere 
 Divided : light the Day, and darkness Night, 
 He named. Thus was the first day even and morn : 
 Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung 
 By the celestial quires, when orient light 
 Exhaling first from darkness they beheld 
 Birth-day of Heaven and Earth ; with joy and shout 
 The hollow universal orb they filled, 
 And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised 
 God and his works ; Creator him they sung, 
 Both when first evening was, and when first morn. 
 
 Again, God said, Let there be firmament 
 Amid the waters, and let it divide 
 The waters from the waters j and God made 
 The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, 
 Transparent, elemental air, diffused 
 In circuit to the uttermost convex 
 
 p
 
 210 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 Of this great round ; partition firm and sure, 
 The waters underneath from those above 
 Dividing : for as earth, so he the world 
 Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide 
 Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule 
 Of Chaos far removed ; lest fierce extremes 
 Contiguous might distemper the whole frame : 
 And Heaven he named the Firmament : so even 
 And morning chorus sung the second day. 
 
 The Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet 
 Of waters, embryon immature involved, 
 Appeared not : over all the face of Earth 
 Main ocean flowed, not idle; but, with warm 
 Prolifick humour softening all her globe, 
 Fermented the great mother to conceive, 
 Satiate with genial moisture ; when God said, 
 Be gathered now ye waters under Heaven 
 Into one place, and let dry land appear. 
 Immediately the mountains huge appear 
 Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave 
 Into the clouds ; their tops ascend the sky : 
 So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low 
 Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, 
 Capacious bed of waters : thither they 
 Hasted with glad precipitance, uprolled, 
 As drops on dust conglobing from the dry : 
 Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, 
 For haste; such flight the great command impressed 
 On the swift floods : as armies at the call 
 Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard) 
 Troop to their standard; so the watery throng,
 
 HOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 211 
 
 Wave rolling after wave, where way they found, 
 If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain, 
 Soft-ebbing ; nor withstood them rock or hill 3 
 But they, or under ground, or circuit wide 
 With serpent errour wandering, found their way, 
 And on the washy oose deep channels wore; 
 Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry, 
 All but within those banks, where rivers now 
 Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train. 
 The dry land, Earth ; and the great receptacle 
 Of congregated waters, he called Seas : 
 And saw that it was good; and said, Let the Earth 
 Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, 
 And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, 
 Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth. 
 He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then 
 Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned, 
 Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad 
 Her universal face with pleasant green ; 
 Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered 
 Opening their various colours, and made gay 
 Her bosom, smelling sweet : and, these scarce blown, 
 Forth flourished thick the clustering vine, forth crept 
 The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed 
 Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, 
 And bush with frizzled hair implicit : last 
 Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread 
 Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed 
 Their blossoms : with high woods the hills were 
 
 crowned ; 
 
 With tufts the valleys, and each fountain sidej 
 
 p 2
 
 212 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 With borders long the rivers : that Earth now 
 
 Seemed like to Heaven,, a seat where Gods might dwell, 
 
 Or wander with delight, and love to haunt 
 
 Her sacred shades : though God had yet not rained 
 
 Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground 
 
 None was ; but from the Earth a dewy mist 
 
 Went up, and watered all the ground, and each 
 
 Plant of the field ; which, ere it was in the Earth, 
 
 God made, and every herb, before it grew 
 
 On the green stem : God saw that it was good : 
 
 So even and morn recorded the third day. 
 
 Again the Almighty spake, Let there be lights 
 High in the expanse of Heaven, to divide 
 The day from night; and let them be for signs, 
 For seasons, and for days, and circling years ; 
 And let them be for lights, as I ordain 
 Their office in the firmament of Heaven, 
 To give light on the Earth ; and it was so. 
 And God made two great lights, great for their use 
 To Man, the greater to have rule by day, 
 The less by night, altern ; and made the stars, 
 And set them in the firmament of Heaven 
 To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day 
 In their vicissitude, and rule the night, 
 And light from darkness to divide. God saw, 
 Surveying his great work, that it was good : 
 For of celestial bodies first the sun 
 A mighty sphere he framed, unlightsome first, 
 Though of ethereal mould : then formed the moon 
 Globose, and every magnitude of stars, 
 And sowed with stars the Heaven, thick as n field :
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 213 
 
 Of light by far the greater part he took, 
 
 Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed 
 
 In the sun's orb, made porous to receive 
 
 And drink the liquid light ; firm to retain 
 
 Her gathered beams, great palace now of light. 
 
 Hither, as to their fountain, other stars 
 
 Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, 
 
 And hence the morning-planet gilds her horns j 
 
 By tincture or reflection they augment 
 
 Their small peculiar, though from human sight 
 
 So far remote, with diminution seen. 
 
 First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, 
 
 Regent of day, and all the horizon round 
 
 Invested with bright rays, jocund to run 
 
 His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray 
 
 Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced, 
 
 Shedding sweet influence : less bright the moon, 
 
 But opposite in levelled west was set, 
 
 His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light 
 
 From him ; for other light she needed none 
 
 In that aspect, and still that distance keeps 
 
 Till night; then in the east her turn she shines, 
 
 Revolved on Heaven's great axle, and her reign 
 
 With thousand lesser lights dividual holds, 
 
 With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared 
 
 Spangling the hemisphere : then first adorned 
 
 With their bright luminaries that set and rose, 
 
 Glad evening and glad morn crowned the fourth day. 
 
 And God said, Let the waters generate 
 Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul : 
 And let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings
 
 214 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 Displayed on the open firmament of Heaven. 
 
 And God created the great whales, and each 
 
 Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously 
 
 The waters generated by their kinds ; 
 
 And every bird of wing after his kind ; 
 
 And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying., 
 
 Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, 
 
 And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill ; 
 
 And let the fowl be multiplied on the Earth. 
 
 Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, 
 
 With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals 
 
 Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales, 
 
 Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft 
 
 Bank the mid sea : part single, or with mate, 
 
 Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves 
 
 Of coral stray ; or, sporting with quick glance, 
 
 Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold j 
 
 Or, in the pearly shells at ease, attend 
 
 Moist nutriment ; or under rocks their food 
 
 In jointed armour watch : on smooth the seal 
 
 And bended dolphins play : part huge of bulk 
 
 Wallowing unwieldly, enormous in their gait, 
 
 Tempest the ocean : there leviathan, 
 
 Hugest of living creatures, on the deep 
 
 Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims, 
 
 And seems a moving land ; and at his gills 
 
 Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. 
 
 Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, 
 
 Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that soon 
 
 Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclosed 
 
 Their callow young ; but feathered soon and fledge
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 2)5 
 
 They summed their pens ; and, soaring the air sublime. 
 
 With clang despised the ground, under a cloud 
 
 In prospect j there the eagle and the stork 
 
 On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build: 
 
 Part loosely wing the region, part more wise 
 
 In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way> 
 
 Intelligent of seasons, and set forth 
 
 Their aery caravan, high over seas 
 
 Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing 
 
 Easing their flight ; so steers the prudent crane 
 
 Her annual voyage, borne on winds ; the air 
 
 Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes ; 
 
 From branch to branch the smaller birds with song 
 
 Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings 
 
 Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale 
 
 Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays : 
 
 Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed 
 
 Their downy breast ; the swan with arched neck, 
 
 Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows 
 
 Her state with oary feet ; yet oft they quit 
 
 The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower 
 
 The mid ae'real sky : others on ground 
 
 Walked firm ; the crested cock whose clarion sounds 
 
 The silent hours, and the other whose gay train 
 
 Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue 
 
 Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus 
 
 With fish replenished, and the air with fowl, 
 
 Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day. 
 
 The sixth, and of creation last, arose 
 With evening harps and matin ; when God said, 
 Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind,
 
 216 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the Earth, 
 Each in their kind. The Earth obeyed, and straight 
 Opening her fertile womb teemed at a birth 
 Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, 
 Limbed and full grown : out of the ground up rose, 
 As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons 
 In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den ; 
 Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked : 
 The cattle in the fields and meadows green : 
 Those rare and solitary, these in flocks 
 Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. 
 The grassy clods now calved ; now half appeared 
 The tawny lion, pawing to get free 
 His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 
 And rampant shakes his brinded mane ; the ounce, 
 The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole 
 Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw 
 In hillocks : the swift stag from under ground 
 Bore up his branching head : scarce from his mould 
 Behemoth biggest born of earth upheaved 
 His vastness : fleeced the flocks and bleating rose, 
 As plants : ambiguous between sea and land 
 The river-horse, and scaly crocodile. 
 At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 
 Insect or worm : those waved their limber fans 
 For wings, and smallest lineaments exact 
 In all the liveries decked of summer's pride 
 With spots of gold and purple, azure and green: 
 These, as a line, their long dimension drew, 
 Streaking the ground with sinuous trace ; not all 
 Minims of nature ; some of serpent-kind,
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 217 
 
 Wonderous in length and corpulence, involved 
 
 Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept 
 
 The parsimonious emmet, provident 
 
 Of future ; in small room large heart enclosed ; 
 
 Pattern of just equality perhaps 
 
 Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes 
 
 Of commonalty : swarming next appeared 
 
 The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 
 
 Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells 
 
 With honey stored : the rest are numberless, 
 
 And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them 
 
 names, 
 
 Needless to thee repeated ; nor unknown 
 The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field, 
 Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes 
 And hairy mane terrifick, though to thee 
 Not noxious, but obedient at thy call. 
 
 Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and rolled 
 Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand 
 First wheeled their course : Earth in her rich attire 
 Consummate lovely smiled ; air, water, earth, 
 By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was 
 
 walked, 
 
 Frequent ; and of the sixth day yet remained : 
 There wanted yet the master-work,, the end 
 Of all yet done ; a creature, who, not prone 
 And brute as other creatures, but endued 
 With sanctity of reason, might erect 
 His stature, and upright with front serene 
 Govern the rest, self-knowing ; and from thence 
 Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
 
 21S PARADISE LOST. BOOK vn. 
 
 But grateful to acknowledge whence his good 
 
 Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes 
 
 Directed in devotion, to adore 
 
 And worship God supreme, who made him chief 
 
 Of all his works : therefore the Omnipotent 
 
 Eternal Father (for where is not he 
 
 Present ?) thus to his Son audibly spake. 
 
 Let us make now Man in our image, Man 
 In our similitude, and let them rule 
 Over the fish and fowl of sea and air, 
 Beast of the field, and over all the earth, 
 And every creeping thing that creeps the ground. 
 This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O man, 
 Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed 
 The breath of life ; in his own image he 
 Created thee, in the image of God 
 Express ; and thou becam'st a living soul. 
 Male he created thee ; but thy consort 
 Female, for race ; then blessed mankind, and said, 
 Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth ; 
 Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold 
 Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air, 
 And every living thing that moves on the earth. 
 Wherever thus created, for no place 
 Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know'st, 
 He brought thee into this delicious grove, 
 This garden, planted with the trees of God, 
 Delectable both to behold and taste j 
 And freely all their pleasant fruit for food 
 Gave thee ; all sorts are here that all the earth yields, 
 Variety without end ; but of the tree,
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 219 
 
 Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil, 
 Thou mayst not; in the day thou eat'st, thou dy'st; 
 Death is the penalty imposed j beware, 
 And govern well thy appetite ; lest Sin 
 Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death. 
 Here finished he, and all that he had made 
 Viewed, and behold all was entirely good ; 
 So even and morn accomplished the sixth day : 
 Yet not till the Creator from his work 
 Desisting, though unwearied, up returned, 
 Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode ; 
 Thence to behold this new created world, 
 The addition of his empire, how it showed 
 In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair, 
 Answering his great idea. Up he rode 
 Followed with acclamation, and the sound 
 Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned 
 Angelick harmonies : the earth, the air 
 Resounded, (thou remember' st, for thou heard'st 
 The heavens and all the constellations rung, 
 The planets in their station listening stood, 
 While the bright pomp ascended jubilant. 
 Open, ye everlasting gates ! they sung, 
 Open, ye Heavens ! your living doors ; let in 
 The great Creator from his work returned 
 Magnificent, his six days work, a World ; 
 Open, and henceforth oft ; for God will deign 
 To visit oft the dwellings of just men, 
 Delighted ; and with frequent intercourse 
 Thither will send his winged messengers 
 On errands of supernal grace. So sung
 
 220 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. 
 
 The glorious train ascending : He through Heaven, 
 That opened wide her blazing portals, led 
 To God's eternal house direct the way; 
 A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold 
 And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear, 
 Seen in the galaxy, that milky way, 
 Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest 
 Powdered with stars. And now on Earth the seventh 
 Evening arose in Eden, for the sun 
 Was set, and twilight from the east came on, 
 Forerunning night; when at the holy mount 
 Of Heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne 
 Of Godhead, fixed for ever firm and sure, 
 The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down 
 With his great Father; for he also went 
 Invisible, yet staid, (such privilege 
 Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordained, 
 Author and End of all things ; and, from work 
 Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day, 
 As resting on that day from all his work, 
 But not in silence holy kept : the harp 
 Had work and rested not ; the solemn pipe, 
 And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop, 
 All sounds on fret by string or golden wire, 
 Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice 
 Choral or unison : of incense clouds, 
 Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount. 
 Creation and the six days acts they sung : 
 Great are thy works, Jehovah ! infinite 
 Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or 
 tongue
 
 BOOK VII. PARADISE LOST. 221 
 
 Relate thee ! Greater now in thy return 
 Than from the giant Angels : Thee that day 
 Thy thunders magnified ; but to create 
 Is greater than created to destroy. 
 Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound 
 Thy empire ! Easily the proud attempt 
 Of Spirits apostate, and their counsels vain, 
 Thou hast repelled ; while impiously they thought 
 Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw 
 The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks 
 To lessen thee, against his purpose serves 
 To manifest the more thy might : his evil 
 Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more good. 
 Witness this new-made world, another Heaven 
 From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view 
 On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea ; 
 Of amplitude almost immense, with stars 
 Numerous, and eA r ery star perhaps a world 
 Of destined habitation; but thou know'st 
 Their seasons : among these the seat of Men, 
 Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused, 
 Their pleasant-dwelling-place. Thrice happy Men, 
 And sons of Men, whom God hath thus advanced ! 
 Created in his image, there to dwell 
 And worship him ; and in reward to rule 
 Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air, 
 And multiply a race of worshippers 
 Holy and just : thrice happy, if they know 
 Their happiness, and persevere upright ! 
 So sung they, and the empyrean rung 
 With halleluiahs : thus was sabbath kept.
 
 222 PARADISE LOST. BOOK Til. 
 
 And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked 
 
 How first this world and face of things began, 
 
 And what before thy memory was done 
 
 From the beginning ; that posterity, 
 
 Informed by thee, might know : if else thou seek'st 
 
 Aught, not surpassing human measure, say. 
 
 END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK.
 
 THE 
 
 EIGHTH BOOK 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Adam inquires concerning celestial motions ; is doubtfully answer- 
 ed, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of know- 
 ledge : Adam assents : and, still desirous to detain Raphael, 
 relates to him what he remembered since his own creation ; his 
 placing in Paradise; his talk with God concerning solitude and 
 fit society ; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve ; his dis- 
 course with the Angel thereupon ; who, after admonitions re- 
 peated, departs.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 THE Angel ended, and in Adam's ear 
 So charming left his voice, that he a while 
 Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hearj 
 Then, as new waked, thus gratefully replied. 
 
 What thanks sufficient, or what recompence 
 Equal, have I to render thee, divine 
 Historian, who thus largely hast allayed 
 The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed 
 This friendly condescension to relate 
 Things, else by me unsearchable ; now heard 
 With wonder, but delight, and, as is due, 
 With glory attributed to the high 
 Creator ! Something yet of doubt remains, 
 Which only thy solution can resolve. 
 When I behold this goodly frame, this world, 
 Of Heaven and Earth consisting ; and compute 
 Their magnitudes ; this Earth, a spot, a grain, 
 An atom, with the firmament compared 
 
 o
 
 226 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII . 
 
 And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll 
 
 Spaces incomprehensible, (for such 
 
 Their distance argues, and their swift return 
 
 Diurnal,) merely to officiate light 
 
 Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot, 
 
 One day and night; in all her vast survey 
 
 Useless besides ; reasoning I oft admire, 
 
 How Nature wise and frugal could commit 
 
 Such disproportions, with superfluous hand 
 
 So many nobler bodies to create, 
 
 Greater so manifold, to this one use, 
 
 For aught appears, and on their orbs impose 
 
 Such restless revolution day by day 
 
 Repeated ; while the sedentary Earth, 
 
 That better might with far less compass move, 
 
 Served by more noble than herself, attains 
 
 Her end without least motion, and receives, 
 
 As tribute, such a sumless journey brought 
 
 Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light ; 
 
 Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails. 
 
 So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed 
 Entering on studious thoughts abstruse ; which Eve 
 Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight, 
 With lowliness majestick from her seat, 
 And grace that won who saw to wish her stay, 
 Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers, 
 To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom, 
 Her nursery ; they at her coming sprung, 
 And, touched by her fair tendance, gladlier grew. 
 Yet went she not, as not with such discourse 
 Delighted, or not capable her ear
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 227 
 
 Of what was high : such pleasure she reserved, 
 
 Adam relating, she sole auditress ; 
 
 Her husband the relater she preferred 
 
 Before the Angel, and of him to ask 
 
 Chose rather ; he, she knew, would intermix 
 
 Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute 
 
 With conjugal caresses : from his lip 
 
 Not words alone pleased her. O ! when meet now 
 
 Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined ? 
 
 With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went, 
 
 Not unattended ; for on her, as Queen, 
 
 A pomp of winning Graces waited still, 
 
 And from about her shot darts of desire 
 
 Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight. 
 
 And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt proposed, 
 
 Benevolent and facile thus replied. 
 
 To ask or search, I blame thee not} for Heaven 
 Is as the book of God before thee set, 
 Wherein to read his wonderous works, and learn 
 His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years : 
 This to attain, whether Heaven move or Earth, 
 Imports not, if thou reckon right ; the rest 
 From Man or Angel the great Architect 
 Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge 
 His secrets to be scanned by them who ought 
 Rather admire ; or, if they list to try 
 Conjecture, he his fabrick of the Heavens 
 Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move 
 His laughter at their quaint opinions wide 
 Hereafter j when they come to model Heaven 
 And calculate the stars, how they will wield 
 
 02
 
 228 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 The mighty frame ; how build, unbuild, contrive 
 
 To save appearances j how gird the sphere 
 
 With centrick and eccentrick scribbled o'er, 
 
 Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb : 
 
 Already by thy reasoning this I guess, 
 
 Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest 
 
 That bodies bright and greater should not serve 
 
 The less not bright, nor Heaven such journeys run, 
 
 Earth sitting still, when she alone receives 
 
 The benefit : consider first, that great 
 
 Or bright infers not excellence : the Earth 
 
 Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small, 
 
 Nor glistering, may of solid good contain 
 
 More plenty than the sun that barren shines ; 
 
 Whose virtue on itself works no effect, 
 
 But in the fruitful Earth ; there first received, 
 
 His beams, unactive else, their vigour find. 
 
 Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries 
 
 Officious ; but to thee, Earth's habitant. 
 
 And for the Heaven's wide circuit, let it speak 
 
 The Maker's high magnificence, who built 
 
 So spacious, and his line stretched out so far ; 
 
 That Man may know he dwells not in his own ; 
 
 An edifice too large for him to fill, 
 
 Lodged in a small partition ; and the rest 
 
 Ordained for uses to his Lord best known. 
 
 The swiftness of those circles attribute, 
 
 Though numberless, to his Omnipotence, 
 
 That to corporeal substances could add 
 
 Speed almost spiritual : me thou think'st not slow, 
 
 Who since the morning-hour set out from Heaven
 
 BOOK VIII. PAHADISE LOST. 229 
 
 Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived 
 
 In Eden ; distance inexpressible 
 
 By numbers that have name. But this I urge, 
 
 Admitting motion in the Heavens, to show 
 
 Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved ; 
 
 Not that I so affirm, though so it seem 
 
 To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth. 
 
 God, to remove his ways from human sense, 
 
 Placed Heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight, 
 
 If it presume, might err in things too high, 
 
 And no advantage gain. What if the sun 
 
 Be center to the world ; and other stars, 
 
 By his attractive virtue and their own 
 
 Incited, dance about him various rounds ? 
 
 Their wandering course now high, now low, then hid, 
 
 Progressive, retrograde, or standing still, 
 
 In six thou seest ; and what if seventh to these 
 
 The planet earth, so stedfast though she seem, 
 
 Insensibly three different motions move ? 
 
 Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe, 
 
 Moved contrary with thwart obliquities ; 
 
 Or save the sun his labour, and that swift 
 
 Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed, 
 
 Invisible else above all stars, the wheel 
 
 Of day and night ; which needs not thy belief, 
 
 If earth, industrious of herself, fetch day 
 
 Travelling east, and with her part averse 
 
 From the sun's beam meet night, her other part 
 
 Still luminous by his ray. What if that light, 
 
 Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air, 
 
 To the terrestrial moon be as a star,
 
 230 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Enlightening her by day, as she by night 
 This earth ? reciprocal, if land be there, 
 Fields and inhabitants : her spots thou seest 
 As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce 
 Fruits in her softened soil for some to eat 
 Allotted there ; and other suns perhaps, 
 With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry, 
 Communicating male and female light ; 
 Which two great sexes animate the world, 
 Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live. 
 For such vast room in Nature unpossessed 
 By living soul, desert and desolate, 
 Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute 
 Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far 
 Down to this habitable, which returns 
 Light back to them, is obvious to dispute. 
 But whether thus these things, or whether not j 
 Whether the sun, predominant in Heaven, 
 Rise on the earth ; or earth rise on the sun ; 
 He from the east his flaming road begin ; 
 Or she from west her silent course advance, 
 With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps 
 On her soft axle, while she paces even, 
 And bears thee soft with the smooth air along j 
 Sollicit not thy thoughts with matters hid ; 
 Leave them to God above ; him serve, and fear ! 
 Of other creatures, as him pleases best, 
 Wherever placed, let him dispose ; joy thou 
 In what he gives to thee, this Paradise 
 And thy fair Eve ; Heaven is for thee too high 
 To know what passes there j be lowly wise :
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 231 
 
 Think only what concerns thee, and thy being ; 
 Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there 
 Live, in what state, condition, or degree ; 
 Contented that thus far hath been revealed 
 Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven. 
 
 To whom thus Adam, cleared of doubt, replied. 
 How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure 
 Intelligence of Heaven, Angel serene ! 
 And, freed from intricacies, taught to live 
 The easiest way ; nor with perplexing thoughts 
 To interrupt the sweet of life, from which 
 God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares, 
 And not molest us ; unless we ourselves 
 Seek them with wandering thoughts, and notions vain. 
 But apt the mind or fancy is to rove 
 Unchecked, and of her roving is no end ; 
 Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn, 
 That, not to know at large of things remote 
 From use, obscure and subtle ; but, to know 
 That which before us lies in daily life, 
 Is the prime wisdom : what is more, is fume, 
 Or emptiness, or fond impertinence : 
 And renders us, in things that most concern, 
 Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek. 
 Therefore from this high pitch let us descend 
 A lower flight, and speak of things at hand 
 Useful ; whence, haply, mention may arise 
 Of something not unseasonable to ask, 
 By sufferance, and thy wonted favour, deigned. 
 Thee I have heard relating what was done 
 Ere my remembrance : now, hear me relate
 
 232 PARADISE L08T. BOOK VIII. 
 
 My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard j 
 And day is not yet spent 5 till then thou seest 
 How subtly to detain thee I devise ; 
 Inviting thee to hear while I relate ; 
 Fond ! were it not in hope of thy reply : 
 For, while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven ; 
 And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear 
 Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst 
 And hunger both, from labour, at the hour 
 Of sweet repast ; they satiate, and soon fill, 
 Though pleasant ; but thy words, with grace divine 
 Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety. 
 
 To whom thus Raphael answered heavenly meek. 
 Nor are thy lips ungraceful, Sire of men., 
 Nor tongue ineloquent ; for God on thee 
 Abundantly his gifts hath also poured 
 Inward and outward both, his image fair : 
 Speaking, or mute, all comeliness and grace 
 Attends thee ; and each word, each motion, forms ; 
 Nor less think we in Heaven of thee on Earth 
 Than of our fellow-servant, and inquire 
 Gladly into the ways of God with Man : 
 For God, we see, hath honoured thee, and set 
 On Man his equal love : say therefore on j 
 For I that day was absent, as befel, 
 Bound on a voyage uncouth and obscure, 
 Far on excursion toward the gates of Hell j 
 Squared in full legion (such command we had) 
 To see that none thence issued forth a spy, 
 Or enemy, while God was in his work ; 
 Lest he, incensed at such eruption bold,
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 233 
 
 Destruction with creation might have mixed. 
 
 Not that they durst without his leave attempt $ 
 
 But us he sends upon his high behests 
 
 For state, as Sovran King ; and to inure 
 
 Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut, 
 
 The dismal gates, and barricadoed strong ; 
 
 But long ere our approaching heard within 
 
 Noise, other than the sound of dance or song, 
 
 Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage. 
 
 Glad we returned up to the coasts of light 
 
 Ere sabbath-evening : so we had in charge. 
 
 But thy relation now ; for I attend, 
 
 Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine. 
 
 So spake the Godlike Power, and thus our Sire. 
 For Man to tell how human life began 
 Is hard ; for who himself beginning knew ? 
 Desire with thee still longer to converse 
 Induced me. As new waked from soundest sleep, 
 Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid, 
 In balmy sweat ; which with his beams the sun 
 Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed. 
 Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned, 
 And gazed a while the ample sky ; till, raised 
 By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung, 
 As thitherward endeavouring, and upright 
 Stood on my feet : about me round I saw 
 Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, 
 And liquid lapse of murmuring streams ; by these, 
 Creatures that lived and moved, and walked, or flew ; 
 Birds on the branches warbling ; all things smiled j 
 With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.
 
 234 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 Myself I then perused, and limb by limb 
 
 Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran 
 
 With supple joints, as lively vigour led : 
 
 But who I was, or where, or from what cause, 
 
 Knew not ; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake ; 
 
 My tongue obeyed, and readily could name 
 
 Whate'er I saw. Thou Sun, said I, fair light, 
 
 And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay, 
 
 Ye Hills, and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains, 
 
 And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell, 
 
 Tell, if ye saw, how I came thus, how here ? 
 
 Not of myself ; by some great Maker then, 
 
 In goodness and in power pre-eminent : 
 
 Tell me, how may 1 know him, how adore, 
 
 From whom 1 have that thus I move and live, 
 
 And feel that I am happier than 1 know. 
 
 While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither, 
 
 From where I first drew air, and first beheld 
 
 This happy light ; when, answer none returned, 
 
 On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers, 
 
 Pensive I sat me down : there gentle sleep 
 
 First found me, and with soft oppression seised 
 
 My droused sense, untroubled, though I thought 
 
 I then was passing to my former state 
 
 Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve : 
 
 When suddenly stood at my head a dream, 
 
 Whose inward apparition gently moved 
 
 My fancy to believe I yet had being, 
 
 And lived : one came, methought, of shape divine, 
 
 And said, ' Thy mansion wants thee, Adam ; rise, 
 
 First Man, of men innumerable ordained
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 235 
 
 First Father ! called by thee, I come thy guide 
 
 To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.' 
 
 So saying, by the hand he took me raised, 
 
 And over fields and waters, as in air 
 
 Smooth-sliding without step, last led me up 
 
 A woody mountain ; whose high top was plain, 
 
 A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees 
 
 Planted, with walks, and bowers ; that what I saw 
 
 Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemed. Each tree, 
 
 Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to the eye 
 
 Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite 
 
 To pluck and eat ; whereat 1 waked, and found 
 
 Before mine eyes all real, as the dream 
 
 Had lively shadowed : here had new begun 
 
 My wandering, had not he, who was my guide 
 
 Up hither, from among the trees appeared, 
 
 Presence Divine. Rejoicing, but with awe, 
 
 In adoration at his feet I fell 
 
 Submiss : he reared me, and ' Whom thou sought'st 
 
 I am,' 
 
 Said mildly, ' Author of all this thou seest 
 Above, or round about thee, or beneath. 
 This Paradise I give thee, count it thine 
 To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat : 
 Of every tree that in the garden grows 
 Eat freely with glad heart ; fear here no dearth : 
 But of the tree whose operation brings 
 Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set 
 The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith, 
 Amid the garden by the tree of life, \ 
 
 Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,
 
 236 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 And shun the bitter consequence : for know, 
 
 The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command 
 
 Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die, 
 
 From that day mortal ; and this happy state 
 
 Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world 
 
 Of woe and sorrow.' Sternly he pronounced 
 
 The rigid interdiction, which resounds 
 
 Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice 
 
 Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect 
 
 Returned, and gracious purpose thus renewed. 
 
 ' Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth 
 
 To thee and to thy race I give ; as lords 
 
 Possess it, and all things that therein live, 
 
 Or live in sea, or air ; beast, fish, and fowl. 
 
 In sign whereof, each bird and beast behold 
 
 After their kinds ; I bring them to receive 
 
 From thee their names, find pay thee fealty 
 
 With low subjection ; understand the same 
 
 Of fish within their watery residence, 
 
 Not hither summoned, since they cannot change 
 
 Their element, to draw the thinner air.' 
 
 As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold 
 
 Approaching two and two ; these cowering low 
 
 With blandishment ; each bird stooped on his wing. 
 
 I named them, as they passed, and understood 
 
 Their nature, with such knowledge God endued 
 
 My sudden apprehension : but in these 
 
 I found not what meth ought I wanted still ; 
 
 And to the heavenly Vision thus presumed. 
 
 O, by what name, for thou above all these, 
 Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher,
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 237 
 
 Surpassest far my naming ; how may I 
 
 Adore thee, Author of this universe, 
 
 And all this good to man ? for whose well being 
 
 So amply, and with hands so liberal, 
 
 Thou hast provided all things : but with me 
 
 I see not who partakes. In solitude 
 
 \\Tiat happiness, who can enjoy alone, 
 
 Or, all enjoying, what contentment find ? 
 
 Thus I presumptuous ; and the Vision bright, 
 
 As with a smile more brightened, thus replied. 
 
 What call'st thou solitude? Is not the Earth 
 With various living creatures, and the air 
 Replenished, and all these at thy command 
 To come and play before thee ? Know'st thou not 
 Their language and their ways ? They also know, 
 And reason not contemptibly : with these 
 Find pastime, and bear rule ; thy realm is large. 
 So spake the Universal Lord, and seemed 
 So ordering : I, with leave of speech implored, 
 And humble deprecation, thus replied. 
 
 Let not my words offend thee, Heavenly Power ; 
 My Maker, be propitious while I speak. 
 Hast thou not made me here thy substitute, 
 And these inferiour far beneath me set? 
 Among unequals what society 
 Can sort, what harmony, or true delight ? 
 Which must be mutual, in proportion due 
 Given and received ; but, in disparity 
 The one intense, the other still remiss, 
 Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove 
 Tedious alike : of fellowship I speak
 
 238 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 Such as I seek, fit to participate 
 
 All rational delight : wherein the brute 
 
 Cannot be human consort : they rejoice 
 
 Each with their kind, lion with lioness ; 
 
 So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined : 
 
 Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl 
 
 So well converse, nor with the ox the ape 5 
 
 Worse then can man with beast, and least of all. 
 Whereto the Almighty answered, not displeased. 
 
 A nice and subtle happiness, I see, 
 
 Thou to thyself proposest, in the choice 
 
 Of thy associates, Adam ! and wilt taste 
 
 No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary. 
 
 What think'st thou then of me, and this my state ? 
 
 Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed 
 
 Of happiness, or not ? who am alone 
 
 From all eternity; for none I know 
 
 Second to me or like, equal much less. 
 
 How have 1 then with whom to hold converse, 
 
 Save with the creatures which I made, and those 
 
 To me inferiour, infinite descents 
 
 Beneath what other creatures are to thee ? 
 
 He ceased} I lowly answered. To attain 
 The highth and depth of thy eternal ways 
 All human thoughts come short, Supreme of things ! 
 Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee 
 Is no deficience found : not so is Man, 
 But in degree ; the cause of his desire 
 By conversation with his like to help 
 Or solace his defects. No need that thou 
 Shouldst propagate, already Infinite ;
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 2 
 
 And through all numbers absolute, though One : 
 But Man by number is to manifest 
 His single imperfection, and beget 
 Like of his like, his image multiplied, 
 In unity defective j which requires 
 Collateral love, and dearest amity. 
 Thou in thy secresy although alone, 
 Best with thyself accompanied, seek'st not 
 Social communication : yet, so pleased, 
 Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt 
 Of union or communion, deified : 
 I, by conversing, cannot these erect 
 From prone ; nor in their ways complacence find. 
 Thus I emboldened spake, and freedom used 
 Permissive, and acceptance found; which gained 
 This answer from the gracious Voice Divine. 
 Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased; 
 And find thee knowing, not of beasts alone, 
 Which thou hast rightly named, but of thyself j 
 Expressing well the spirit within thee free, 
 My image, not imparted to the brute ; 
 Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee 
 Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike ; 
 And be so minded still: I, ere thou spak'st, 
 Knew it not good for Man to be alone ; 
 And no such company as then thou saw'st 
 Intended thee ; for trial only brought, 
 To see how thou couldst judge of fit and meet : 
 What next I bring shall please thee, be assured, 
 Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, 
 Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.
 
 240 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VMI. 
 
 He ended, or I heard no more ; for now 
 My earthly by his heavenly overpowered, 
 Which it had long stood under, strained to the 
 
 highth 
 
 In that celestial colloquy sublime, 
 As with an object that excels the sense 
 Dazzled and spent, sunk down > and sought repair 
 Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, called 
 By Nature as in aid, and closed mine eyes. 
 Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell 
 Of fancy, my internal sight ; by which, 
 Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw, 
 Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape 
 Still glorious before whom awake I stood : 
 Who stooping opened my left side, and took 
 From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm, 
 And life-blood streaming fresh ; wide was the 
 
 wound, 
 
 But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed: 
 The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands ; 
 Under his forming hands a creature grew, 
 Man-like, but different sex; so lovely fair, 
 That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now 
 Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained 
 And in her looks ; which from that time infused 
 Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before, 
 And into all things from her air inspired 
 The spirit of love and amorous delight. 
 She disappeared, and left me dark ; I waked 
 To find her, or for ever to deplore 
 Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure :
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 241 
 
 When out of hope, behold her,, not far off, 
 Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned 
 With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow 
 To make her amiable : on she came, 
 Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen, 
 And guided by his voice ; nor uninformed 
 Of nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites : 
 Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye, 
 In every gesture dignity and love. 
 I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud. 
 
 This turn hath made amends ; thou hast fulfilled 
 Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, 
 Giver of all things fair ! but fairest this 
 Of all thy gifts ! nor enviest. I now see 
 Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself 
 Before me : Woman is her name ; of Man 
 Extracted : for this cause he shall forego 
 Father and mother, and to his wife adhere; 
 And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul. 
 
 She heard me thus ; and though divinely brought, - 
 Yet innocence, and virgin modesty, 
 Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth, 
 That would be wooed, and not unsought be won, 
 Not obvious, not obtrusive, but, retired, 
 The more desirable ; or, to say all, 
 Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought, 
 Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned: 
 I followed her ; she what was honour knew, 
 And with obsequious majesty approved 
 My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower 
 I led her blushing like the morn : all Heaven,
 
 242 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 And happy constellations, on that hour 
 
 Shed their selectest influence; the Earth 
 
 Clave sign of gratulation, and each hill ; 
 
 Joyous the birds ; fresh gales and gentle airs 
 
 Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings 
 
 Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub, 
 
 Disporting, till the amorous bird of night 
 
 Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening-star 
 
 On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp. 
 
 Thus have 1 told thee all my state, and brought 
 
 My story to the sum of earthly bliss, 
 
 Which I enjoy; and must confess to find 
 
 In all things else delight indeed, but such 
 
 As, used or not, works in the mind no change, 
 
 Nor vehement desire ; these delicacies 
 
 I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and 
 
 flowers, 
 
 Walks, and the melody of birds : but here 
 Far otherwise, transported I behold, 
 Transported touch ; here passion first I felt, 
 Commotion strange ! in all enjoyments else 
 Superiour and unmoved j here only weak 
 Against the charm of Beauty's powerful glance. 
 Or Nature failed in me, and left some part 
 Not proof enough such object to sustain ; 
 Or, from my side subducting, took perhaps 
 More than enough ; at least on her bestowed 
 Too much of ornament, in outward show- 
 Elaborate, of inward less exact. 
 For well I understand in the prime end 
 Of Nature her the inferiour, in the mind
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 2 
 
 And inward faculties, which most excel ; 
 In outward also her resembling less 
 His image who made both, and less expressing 
 The character of that dominion given 
 O'er other creatures : yet when I approach 
 Her loveliness, so absolute she seems 
 And in herself complete, so well to know 
 Her own, that what she wills to do or say, 
 Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best: 
 All higher knowledge in her presence falls 
 Degraded 5, Wisdom in discourse with her 
 Loses discountenanced, and like Folly shows j 
 Authority and Reason on her wait, 
 As one intended first, not after made 
 Occasionally; and, to consummate all, 
 Greatness of mind and Nobleness their seat 
 Build in her loveliest, and create an awe 
 About her, as a guard angelick placed. 
 
 To whom the Angel with contracted brow. 
 Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part; 
 Do thou but thine ; and be not diffident 
 Of Wisdom ; she deserts thee not, if thou 
 Dismiss not her, when most thou need'st her nigh, 
 By attributing overmuch to things 
 Less excellent, as thou thyself perceiv'st. 
 For, what admir'st thou, what transports thee so, 
 An outside? fair, no doubt, and worthy well 
 Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love ; 
 Not thy subjection: weigh with her thyself; 
 Then value : oft-times nothing profits more 
 Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right 
 
 R 2
 
 244 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 Well managed ; of that skill the more thou know'st, 
 The more she will acknowledge thee her head, 
 And to realities yield all her shows : 
 Made so adorn for thy delight the more, 
 So awful, that with honour thou mayst love 
 Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise. 
 But if the sense of touch, whereby mankind 
 Is propagated, seem such dear delight 
 Beyond all other ; think the same vouchsafed 
 To cattle and each beast ; which would not be 
 To them made common and divulged, if aught 
 Therein enjoyed were worthy to subdue 
 The soul of man, or passion in him move. 
 What higher in her society thou find'st 
 Attractive, human, rational, love still j 
 In loving thou dost well, in passion not, 
 Wherein true love consists not : love refines 
 The thoughts, and heart enlarges j hath his seat 
 In reason, and is judicious; is the scale 
 By which to heavenly love thou mayst ascend, 
 Not sunk in carnal pleasure } for which cause, 
 Among the beasts no mate for thee was found. 
 To whom thus, half abashed, Adam replied. 
 Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught 
 In procreation common to all kinds, 
 (Though higher of the genial bed by far, 
 And with mysterious reverence I deem,) 
 So much delights me, as those graceful acts, 
 Those thousand decencies, that daily flow 
 From all her words and actions mixed with love 
 And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned
 
 BOOK VIII. PARADISE LOST. 245 
 
 Union of mind, or in us both one soul ; 
 
 Harmony to behold in wedded pair 
 
 More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear. 
 
 Yet these subject not ; I to thee disclose 
 
 What inward thence I feel, not therefore foiled, 
 
 Who meet with various objects, from the sense 
 
 Variously representing ; yet, still free, 
 
 Approve the best, and follow what I approve. 
 
 To love, thou blam'st me not ; for Love, thou say'st, 
 
 Leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide ; 
 
 Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask : 
 
 Love not the heavenly Spirits, and how their love 
 
 Express they ? by looks only ? or do they mix 
 
 Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch? 
 
 To whom the Angel, with a smile that glowed 
 Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue, 
 Answered. Let it suffice thee that thou know'st 
 Us happy, and without love no happiness. 
 Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy 'st, 
 (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy 
 In eminence ; and obstacle find none 
 Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars ; 
 Easier than air with air, if Spirits embrace, 
 Total they mix, union of pure with pure 
 Desiring, nor restrained conveyance need, 
 As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul. 
 But I can now no more j the parting sun 
 Beyond the Earth's green Cape and verdant Isles 
 Hesperian sets, my signal to depart. 
 Be strong, live happy, and love ! But, first of all, 
 Him, whom to love is to obey, and keep
 
 246 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. 
 
 His great command j take heed lest passion sway 
 Thy judgement to do aught, which else free will 
 Would not admit : thine, and of all thy sons, 
 The weal or woe in thee is placed j beware ! 
 I in thy persevering shall rejoice, 
 And all the Blest : stand fast ; to stand or fall 
 Free in thine own arbitrement it lies. 
 Perfect within, no outward aid require; 
 And all temptation to transgress repel. 
 
 So saying, he arose ; whom Adam thus 
 Followed with benediction. Since to part, 
 Go, heavenly guest, ethereal Messenger, 
 Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore ! 
 Gentle to me and affable hath been 
 Thy condescension, and shall be honoured ever 
 With grateful memory: thou to mankind 
 Be good and friendly still, and oft return ! 
 
 So parted they; the Angel up to Heaven 
 From the thick shade, and Adam to his bower. 
 
 END OF THE EIGHTH BOOK.
 
 TBB 
 
 NINTH BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Satan, having compassed the Earth, with meditated guile returns, 
 as a mist, by night into Paradise ; enters into the Serpent sleep- 
 ing. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labours, 
 which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each labouring 
 apart : Adam consents not, alleging the danger, lest that enemy, 
 of whom they were forewarned, should attempt her found alone: 
 Eve, loth to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges 
 her going apart, the rather desirous to make trial of her strength ; 
 Adam at last yields : the Serpent finds her alone ; his subtle 
 approach, tirst gazing, then speaking ; with much flattery ex- 
 tolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, wondering to hear 
 the Serpent speak, asks how he attained to human speech, and 
 such understanding, not till now ; the Serpent answers, that by 
 tasting of a certain tree in the garden he attained both to speech 
 and reason, till then void of both : Eve requires him to bring 
 her to that tree, and finds it to be the tree of knowledge for- 
 bidden : the Serpent, now grown bolder, with many wiles and 
 arguments, induces her at length to eat ; she, pleased with the 
 taste, deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or 
 hot ; at last brings him of the fruit ; relates what persuaded her 
 to eat thereof: Adam, at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, 
 resolves, through vehemence of love, to perish with her : and, 
 extenuating the trespass, eats also of the fruit : the effects 
 thereof in them both ; they seek to cover their nakedness ; then 
 fall to variance and accusation of one another.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 No more of talk where God or Angel guest 
 
 With Man, as with his friend, familiar used, 
 
 To sit indulgent, and with him partake 
 
 Rural repast ; permitting him the while 
 
 Venial discourse unblamed. I now must change 
 
 Those notes to tragick ; foul distrust, and breach 
 
 Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt, 
 
 And disobedience : on the part of Heaven 
 
 Now alienated, distance and distaste, 
 
 Anger and just rebuke, and judgement given, 
 
 That brought into this world a world of woe, 
 
 Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery 
 
 Death's harbinger : sad task ! yet argument 
 
 Not less but more heroick than the wrath 
 
 Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued 
 
 Thrice fugitive about Troy wall ; or rage 
 
 Of Turnus for Lavinia disespoused ; 
 
 Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long
 
 250 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son ; 
 
 If answerable style I can obtain 
 
 Of my celestial patroness, who deigns 
 
 Her nightly visitation unimplored, 
 
 And dictates to me slumbering ; or inspires 
 
 Easy my unpremeditated verse : 
 
 Since first this subject for heroick song 
 
 Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late j 
 
 Not sedulous by nature to indite 
 
 Wars, hitherto the only argument 
 
 Heroick deemed ; chief mastery to dissect 
 
 With long and tedious havock fabled knights 
 
 In battles feigned ; the better fortitude 
 
 Of patience and heroick martyrdom 
 
 Unsung ; or to describe races and games, 
 
 Or tilting furniture, imblazoned shields, 
 
 Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, 
 
 Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights 
 
 At joust and tournament ; then marshalled feast 
 
 Served up in hall with sewers and seneshals ; 
 
 The skill of artifice or office mean, 
 
 Not that which justly gives heroick name 
 
 To person, or to poem. Me, of these 
 
 Nor skilled nor studious, higher argument 
 
 Remains ; sufficient of itself to raise 
 
 That name, unless an age too late, or cold 
 
 Climate, or years, damp my intended wing 
 
 Depressed 5 and much they may, if ajl be mine, 
 
 Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear. 
 
 The sun was sunk, and after him the star 
 Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 251 
 
 Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter 
 
 'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end 
 
 Night's hemisphere had veiled the horizon round : 
 
 When Satan, who late fled before the threats 
 
 Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improved 
 
 In meditated fraud and malice, bent 
 
 On Man's destruction, maugre what might hap 
 
 Of heavier on himself, fearless returned. 
 
 By night he fled, and at midnight returned 
 
 From compassing the earth; cautious of day, 
 
 Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried 
 
 His entrance, and forewarned the Cherubim 
 
 That kept their watch ; thence full of anguish 
 
 driven, 
 
 The space of seven continued nights he rode 
 With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line 
 He circled ; four times crossed the car of night 
 From pole to pole, traversing each colure; 
 On the eighth returned ; and, on the coast averse 
 From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth 
 Found unsuspected way. There was a place, 
 Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the 
 
 change, 
 
 Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise, 
 Into a gulf shot under ground, till part 
 Rose up a fountain by the tree of life : 
 In with the river sunk, and with it rose 
 Satan, involved in rising mist; then sought 
 Where to lie hid ; sea he had searched, and land, 
 From Eden over Pontus and the pool 
 Mseotis, up beyond the river Ob ;
 
 252 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Downward as far antarctick ; and in length, 
 West from Orontes to the ocean barred 
 At Darien ; thence to the land where flows 
 Ganges and Indus : thus the orb he roamed 
 With narrow search ; and with inspection deep 
 Considered every creature, which of all 
 Most opportune might serve his wiles ; and found 
 The Serpent subtlest beast of all the iield. 
 Him after long debate, irresolute 
 Of thoughts revolved, his final sentence choose 
 Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom 
 To enter, and his dark suggestions hide 
 From sharpest sight : for, in the wily snake 
 Whatever sleights, none would suspicious mark, 
 As from his wit and native subtlety 
 Proceeding ; which, in other beasts observed, 
 Doubt might beget of diabolick power 
 Active within, beyond the sense of brute. 
 Thus he resolved, but first from inward grief 
 His bursting passion into plaints thus poured. 
 
 O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred 
 More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built 
 With second thoughts, reforming what was old ! 
 For what God, after better, worse would build ? 
 Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens 
 That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, 
 Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, 
 In thee concentring all their precious beams 
 Of sacred influence ! As God in Heaven 
 Is center, yet extends to all ; so thou, 
 Centring, receiv'st from all those orbs : in thee,
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 253 
 
 Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears 
 
 Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth 
 
 Of creatures animate with gradual life 
 
 Of growth, sense, reason, all'summed up in Man. 
 
 With what delight could I have walked thee round, 
 
 If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange 
 
 Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, 
 
 Now land, now sea and shores with forest crowned, 
 
 Rocks, dens, and caves ! But I in none of these 
 
 Find place or refuge ; and the more I see 
 
 Pleasures about me, so much more I feel 
 
 Torment within me, as from the hateful siege 
 
 Of contraries : all good to me becomes 
 
 Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my state. 
 
 But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven 
 
 To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme ; 
 
 Nor hope to be myself less miserable 
 
 By what I seek, but others to make such 
 
 As I, though thereby worse to me redound: 
 
 For only in destroying I find ease 
 
 To my relentless thoughts j and, him destroyed, 
 
 Or won to what may work his utter loss, 
 
 For whom all this was made, all this will soon 
 
 Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe ; 
 
 In woe then; that destruction wide may range: 
 
 To me shall be the glory sole among 
 
 The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred 
 
 What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days 
 
 Continued making ; and who knows how long 
 
 Before had been contriving? though perhaps 
 
 Not longer than since I, in one night, freed
 
 254 PARADISE LOST, BOOK IX. 
 
 From servitude inglorious well nigh half 
 
 The angelick name, and thinner left the throng 
 
 Of his adorers : He, to be avenged, 
 
 And to repair his numbers thus impaired, 
 
 Whether such virtue spent of old now failed 
 
 More Angels to create, if they at least 
 
 Are his created, or, to spite us more, 
 
 Determined to advance into our room 
 
 A creature formed of earth, and him endow, 
 
 Exalted from so base original, 
 
 With heavenly spoils, our spoils : what he decreed, 
 
 He effected ; Man he made, and for him built 
 
 Magnificent this world, and earth his seat, 
 
 Him lord pronounced; and, O indignity! 
 
 Subjected to his service angel-wings, 
 
 And flaming ministers to watch and tend 
 
 Their earthy charge : of these the vigilance 
 
 1 dread ; and, to elude, thus wrapt in mist 
 
 Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry 
 
 In every bush and brake, where hap may find 
 
 The serpent sleeping; in whose mazy folds 
 
 To hide me, and the dark intent I bring. 
 
 O foul descent ! that I, who erst contended 
 
 With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained 
 
 Into a beast ; and, mixed with bestial slime, 
 
 This essence to incarnate and imbrute, 
 
 That to the highth of Deity aspired ! 
 
 But what will not ambition and revenge 
 
 Descend to ? Who aspires, must down as low 
 
 As high he soared ; obnoxious, first or last, 
 
 To basest things. Jtevenge, at first though sweet,
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST, 25 
 
 Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils : 
 Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed, 
 Since higher I fall short, on him who next 
 Provokes my envy, this new favourite 
 Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite, 
 Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker raised 
 From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid. 
 So saying, through each thicket dank or dry, 
 Like a black mist low-creeping, he held on 
 His midnight-search, where soonest he might find 
 The serpent ; him fast-sleeping soon he found 
 In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled, 
 His head the mist, well stored with subtile wiles : 
 Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den, 
 Nor nocent yet ; but, on the grassy herb, 
 Fearless unfeared he slept : in at his mouth 
 The Devil entered ; and his brutal sense, 
 In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired 
 With act intelligential ; but his sleep 
 Disturbed not, waiting close the approach of morn. 
 Now, when as sacred light began to dawn 
 In Eden on the humid flowers, that breathed 
 Their morning incense, when all things, that breathe. 
 From the Earth's great altar send up silent praise 
 To the Creator, and his nostrils fill 
 With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, 
 And joined their vocal worship to the quire 
 Of creatures wanting voice ; that done, partake 
 The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs : 
 Then commune, how that day they best may ply 
 Their growing work : for much their work outgrew
 
 256 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 The hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide, 
 And Eve first to her husband thus began. 
 
 Adam, well may we labour still to dress 
 This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, 
 Our pleasant task enjoined ; but, till more hands 
 Aid us, the work under our labour grows, 
 Luxurious by restraint ; what we by day 
 Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, 
 One night or two with wanton growth derides 
 Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise, 
 Or bear what to my mind first thoughts present : 
 Let us divide our labours ; thou, where choice 
 Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind 
 The woodbine round this arbour, or direct 
 The clasping ivy where to climb ; while I, 
 In yonder spring of roses intermixed 
 With myrtle, find what to redress till noon : 
 For, while so near each other thus all day 
 Our task we choose, what wonder if so near 
 Looks intervene and smiles, or object new 
 Casual discourse draw on ; which intermits 
 Our day's work, brought to little, though begun 
 Early, and the hour of supper comes unearned ? 
 
 To whom mild answer Adam thus returned. 
 Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond 
 Compare above all living creatures dear ! 
 Well hast thou motioned, well thy thoughts employed, 
 How we might best fulfil the work which here 
 God hath assigned us ; nor of me shalt pass 
 Unpraised : for nothing lovelier can be found 
 In woman, than to study houshold good,
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 257 
 
 And good works in her husband to promote. 
 Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed 
 Labour, as to debar us when we need 
 Refreshment, whether food, or talk between, 
 Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse 
 Of looks and smiles j for smiles from reason flow, 
 To brute denied, and are of love the food; 
 Love, not the lowest end of human life. 
 For not to irksome toil, but to delight, 
 He made us, and delight to reason joined. 
 These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands 
 Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide 
 As we need walk, till younger hands ere long 
 Assist us : but, if much converse perhaps 
 Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield : 
 For solitude sometimes is best society, 
 And short retirement urges sweet return. 
 But other doubt possesses me, lest harm 
 Befall thee severed from me ; for thou know'st 
 What hath been warned us, what malicious foe 
 Envying our happiness, and of his own 
 Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame 
 By sly assault ; and somewhere nigh at hand 
 Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find 
 His wish and best advantage, us asunder ; 
 Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each 
 To other speedy aid might lend at need : 
 Whether his first design be to withdraw 
 Our fealty from God, or to disturb 
 Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss 
 Enjoyed by us excites his envy more ; 
 
 s
 
 258 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Or this, or worse, leave not the faithful side 
 That gave thee being, still shades thee, and protects. 
 The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, 
 Safest and seemliest by her husband stays, 
 Who guards her, or with her the worst endures. 
 
 To whom the virgin majesty of Eve, 
 As one who loves, and some unkindness meets, 
 With sweet austere composure thus replied. 
 
 Offspring of Heaven and Earth, and all Earth's 
 
 lord! 
 
 That such an enemy we have, who seeks 
 Our ruin, both by thee informed I learn, 
 And from the parting Angel over-heard, 
 As in a shady nook I stood behind, 
 Just then returned at shut of evening flowers. 
 But, that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt 
 To God or thee, because we have a foe 
 May tempt it, I expected not to hear. 
 His violence thou fear'st not, being such 
 As we, not capable of death or pain, 
 Can either not receive, or can repel. 
 His fraud is then thy fear j which plain infers 
 Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love 
 Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced ; 
 Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy breast, 
 Adam, mis-thought of her to thee so dear ? 
 
 To whom with healing words Adam replied. 
 Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve ! 
 For such thou art ; from sin and blame entire : 
 Not diffident of thee do I dissuade 
 Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 259 
 
 The attempt itself, intended by our foe. 
 
 For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses 
 
 The tempted with dishonour foul ; supposed 
 
 Not incorruptible of faith, not proof 
 
 Against temptation : thou thyself with scorn 
 
 And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong, 
 
 Though ineffectual found : misdeem not then, 
 
 If such affront I labour to avert 
 
 From thee alone, which on us both at once 
 
 The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare ; 
 
 Or daring, first on me the assault shall light. 
 
 Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn ; 
 
 Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce 
 
 Angels ; nor think superfluous others aid. 
 
 I, from the influence of thy looks, receive 
 
 Access in every virtue ; in thy sight 
 
 More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were 
 
 Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on, 
 
 Shame to be overcome or over-reached, 
 
 Would utmost vigour raise, and raised unite. 
 
 Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel 
 
 When I am present, and thy trial choose 
 
 With me, best witness of thy virtue tried ? 
 
 So spake domestick Adam in his care 
 And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought 
 Less attributed to her faith sincere, 
 Thus her reply with accent sweet renewed. 
 
 If this be our condition, thus to dwell 
 In narrow circuit straitened by a foe, 
 Subtle or violent, we not endued 
 Single with like defence, wherever met ; 
 
 s 2
 
 260 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 How are we happy, still in fear of harm ? 
 
 But harm precedes not sin : only our foe, 
 
 Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem 
 
 Of our integrity : his foul esteem 
 
 Sticks no dishonour on our front, but turns 
 
 Foul on himself ; then wherefore shunned or feared 
 
 By us ? who rather double honour gain 
 
 From his surmise proved false; find peace within, 
 
 Favour from Heaven, our witness, from the erent. 
 
 And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed 
 
 Alone, without exteriour help sustained ? 
 
 Let us not then suspect our happy state 
 
 Left so imperfect by the Maker wise, 
 
 As not secure to single or combined. 
 
 Frail is our happiness, if this be so, 
 
 And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed. 
 
 To whom thus Adam fervently replied. 
 O Woman, best are all things as the will 
 Of God ordained them : his creating hand 
 Nothing imperfect or deficient left 
 Of all that he created, much less Man, 
 Or aught that might his happy state secure, 
 Secure from outward force ; within himself 
 The danger lies, yet lies within his power : 
 Against his will he can receive no harm. 
 But God left free the will ; for what obeys 
 Reason, is free ; and Reason he made right, 
 But bid her well be ware, and still erect j 
 Lest, by some fair-appearing good surprised, 
 She dictate false ; and mis-inform the will 
 To do what God expressly hath forbid.
 
 BtJOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 261 
 
 Not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins, 
 
 That I should mind thee oft ; and mind thou me. 
 
 Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve ; 
 
 Since Reason not impossibly may meet 
 
 Some specious object by the foe suborned, 
 
 And fall into deception unaware, 
 
 Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warned. 
 
 Seek not temptation then, which to avoid 
 
 Were better, and most likely if from me 
 
 Thou sever not : trial will come unsought. 
 
 Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve 
 
 First thy obedience ; the other who can know, 
 
 Not seeing thee attempted, who attest ? 
 
 But, if thou think, trial unsought may find 
 
 Us both securer than thus warned thou seem'st, 
 
 Go ; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more ; 
 
 Go in thy native innocence, rely 
 
 On what thou hast of virtue; summon alii 
 
 For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine. 
 
 So spake the patriarch of mankind ; but Eve 
 Persisted; yet submiss, though last, replied. 
 
 With thy permission then, and thus forewarned 
 Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words 
 Touched only ; that our trial, when least sought, 
 May find us both perhaps far less prepared, 
 The willinger I go, nor much expect 
 A foe so proud will first the weaker seek ; 
 So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse. 
 
 Thus saying, from her husband's hand her hand 
 Soft she withdrew ; and, like a Wood-Nymph light, 
 Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's train,
 
 262 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Betook her to the groves ; but Delia's self 
 
 In gait surpassed, and Goddess-like deport, 
 
 Though not as she with bow and quiver armed, 
 
 But with such gardening tools as Art yet rude. 
 
 Guiltless of fire, had formed, or Angels brought. 
 
 To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorned, 
 
 Likest she seemed, Pomona when she fled 
 
 Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime, 
 
 Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove. 
 
 Her long with ardent look his eye pursued 
 
 Delighted, but desiring more her stay. 
 
 Oft he to her his charge of quick return 
 
 Repeated ; she to him as oft engaged 
 
 To be returned by noon amid the bower, 
 
 And all things in best order to invite 
 
 Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. 
 
 O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve, 
 
 Of thy presumed return ! event perverse ! 
 
 Thou never from that hour in Paradise 
 
 Found' st either sweet repast, or sound repose; 
 
 Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers and shades, 
 
 Waited with hellish rancour imminent 
 
 To intercept thy way, or send thee back 
 
 Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss ! 
 
 For now, and since first break of dawn, the Fiend, 
 
 Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come; 
 
 And on his quest, where likeliest he might find 
 
 The only two of mankind, but in them 
 
 The whole included race, his purposed prey. 
 
 In bower and field he sought, where any tuft 
 
 Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 263 
 
 Their tendance, or plantation for delight j 
 
 By fountain or by shady rivulet 
 
 He sought them both, but wished his hap might find 
 
 Eve separate ; he wished, but not with hope 
 
 Of what so seldom chanced ; when to his wish, 
 
 Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies, 
 
 Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, 
 
 Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round 
 
 About her glowed, oft stooping to support 
 
 Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay 
 
 Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, 
 
 Hung drooping unsustainedj them she upstays 
 
 Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while 
 
 Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, 
 
 From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh. 
 
 Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed 
 
 Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm ? 
 
 Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, 
 
 Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers 
 
 Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve : 
 
 Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned 
 
 Or of revived Adonis, or renowned 
 
 Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son $ 
 
 Or that, not mystick, where the sapient king 
 
 Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse. 
 
 Much he the place admired, the person more. 
 
 As one who long in populous city pent, 
 
 Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, 
 
 Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe 
 
 Among the pleasant villages and farms 
 
 Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight ;
 
 264 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine, 
 Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound ; 
 If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass, 
 What pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more > 
 She most, and in her look sums all delight : 
 Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold 
 This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve 
 Thus early, thus alone : her heavenly form 
 Angelick, but more soft, and feminine, 
 Her graceful innocence, her every air 
 Of gesture, or least action, overawed 
 His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved 
 His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought : 
 That space the Evil-one abstracted stood 
 From his own evil, and for the time remained 
 Stupidly good 5 of enmity disarmed, 
 Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge : 
 But the hot Hell that always in him burns, 
 Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight, 
 And tortures him now more, the more he sees 
 Of pleasure, not for him ordained : then soon 
 Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts 
 Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites. 
 Thoughts, whither have ye led me ! with what 
 
 sweet 
 
 Compulsion thus transported, to forget 
 What hither brought us ! hate, not love ; nor hope 
 Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste 
 Of pleasure j but all pleasure to destroy, 
 Save what is in destroying j other joy 
 To me i& lost. Then, let me not let pass
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 265 
 
 Occasion which now smiles ; behold alone 
 The woman, opportune to all attempts, 
 Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh, 
 Whose higher intellectual more I shun, 
 And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb 
 Heroick built, though of terrestrial mould ; 
 Foe not informidable ! exempt from wound, 
 I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain 
 Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven. 
 She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods ! 
 Not terrible, though terrour be in love 
 And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, 
 Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned ; 
 The way which to her ruin now I tend. 
 
 So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed 
 In serpent, inmate bad ! and toward Eve 
 Addressed his way : not with indented wave, 
 Prone on the ground, as since ; but on his rear, 
 Circular base ot rising folds, that towered 
 Fold above fold, a surging maze ! his head 
 Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes ; 
 With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect 
 Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass 
 Floated redundant : pleasing was his shape 
 And lovely ; never since of serpent-kind 
 Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed, 
 Hermione and Cadmus, or the god 
 In Epidaurus j nor to which transformed 
 Ammooian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen; 
 He with Olympiae ; this with her who bore 
 Scipio, the highth of Rome. With tract oblique
 
 266 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 At first, as one who sought access, but feared 
 To interrupt, side-long he works his way. 
 As when a ship, by skilful steersmen wrought 
 Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind 
 Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail : 
 So varied he, and of his tortuous train 
 Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, 
 To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound 
 Of rusling leaves, but minded not, as used 
 To such disport before her through the field, 
 From every beast ; more duteous at her call, 
 Than at Circean call the herd disguised. 
 He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood, 
 But as in gaze admiring : oft he bowed 
 His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, 
 Fawning ; and licked the ground whereon she trod. 
 His gentle dumb expression turned at length 
 The eye of Eve to mark his play ; he, glad 
 Of her attention gained, with serpent-tongue 
 Organick, or impulse of vocal air, 
 His fraudulent temptation thus began. 
 
 Wonder not, sovran Mistress, if perhaps 
 Thou canst, who art sole wonder ! much less arm 
 Thy looks, the Heaven of mildness, with disdain, 
 Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze 
 Insatiate ; I thus single $ nor have feared 
 Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired. 
 Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair, 
 Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine 
 By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore 
 With ravishment beheld ! there best beheld,
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Where universally admired j but here 
 
 In this enclosure wild, these beasts among, 
 
 Beholders rude, and shallow to discern. 
 
 Half what in thee is fair, one man except, 
 
 Who sees thee ? (and what is one ?) who should be seen 
 
 A Goddess among Gods, adored and served 
 
 By Angels numberless, thy daily train. 
 
 So glozed the Tempter, and his proem tuned : 
 Into the heart of Eve his words made way, 
 Though at the voice much marvelling ; at length, 
 Not unamazed, she thus in answer spake. 
 
 What may this mean ? language of man pronounced 
 By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed ? 
 The first, at least, of these 1 thought denied 
 To beasts ; whom God, on their creation-day, 
 Created mute to all articulate sound : 
 The latter I demur ; for in their looks 
 Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears. 
 Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field 
 I knew, but not with human voice endued ; 
 Redouble then this miracle, and say, 
 How cam'st thou speakable of mute, and how 
 To me so friendly grown above the rest 
 Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight ? 
 Say, for such wonder claims attention due. 
 
 To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied. 
 Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve 1 
 Easy to me it is to tell thee all 
 What thou command'st ; and right thou shouldst be 
 
 obeyed : 
 I was at first as other beasts that graze
 
 288 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low, 
 
 As was my food 5 nor aught but food discerned 
 
 Or sex, and apprehended nothing high : 
 
 Till, on a day roving the field, I chanced 
 
 A goodly tree far distant to behold 
 
 Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixed, 
 
 Ruddy and gold : I nearer drew to gaze ; 
 
 When from the boughs a savoury odour blown, 
 
 Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense 
 
 Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats 
 
 Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even, 
 
 Unsucked of lamb or kid, that tend their play. 
 
 To satisfy the sharp desire I had 
 
 Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved 
 
 Not to defer ; hunger and thirst at once, 
 
 Powerful persuaders, quickened at the scent 
 
 Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen. 
 
 About the mossy trunk I wound me soon ; 
 
 For, high from ground, the branches would require 
 
 Thy utmost reach or Adam's : round the tree 
 
 All other beasts that saw, with like desire 
 
 Longing and envying stood, but could not reach. 
 
 Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung 
 
 Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill 
 
 I spared not 3 for, such pleasure till that hour, 
 
 At feed or fountain, never had I found. 
 
 Sated at length, ere long I might perceive 
 
 Strange alteration in me, to degree 
 
 Of reason in my inward powers ; and speech 
 
 Wanted not long ; though to this shape retained. 
 
 Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 269 
 
 I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind 
 Considered all things visible in Heaven, 
 Or Earth, or Middle ; all things fair and good : 
 But all that fair and good in thy divine 
 Semblance, and in thy beauty's heavenly ray, 
 United I beheld ; no fair to thine 
 Equivalent or second ! which compelled 
 Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come 
 And gaze, and worship thee of right declared 
 Sovran of creatures, universal Dame ! 
 
 So talked the spirited sly Snake ; and Eve, 
 Yet more amazed, unwary thus replied. 
 
 Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt 
 The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved : 
 But say, where grows the tree ? from hence how far ? 
 For many are the trees of God that grow 
 In Paradise, and various, yet unknown 
 To us ; in such abundance lies our choice, 
 As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched, 
 Still hanging incorruptible, till men 
 Grow up to their provision, and more hands 
 Help to disburden Nature of her birth. 
 
 To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad. 
 Empress, the way is ready, and not long ; 
 Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat, 
 Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past 
 Of blowing myrrh and balm : if thou accept 
 My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon. 
 
 Lead then, said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled 
 In tangles, and made intricate seem straight.
 
 270 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy 
 Brightens his crest ; as when a wandering fire, 
 Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night 
 Condenses, and the cold environs round, 
 Kindled through agitation to a flame, 
 Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends, 
 Hovering and blazing with delusive light, 
 Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his way 
 To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool ; 
 There swallowed up and lost, from succour far. 
 So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud 
 Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree 
 Of prohibition, root of all our woe ; 
 Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake. 
 
 Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither, 
 Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess, 
 The credit of whose virtue rest with theej 
 Wonderous indeed, if cause of such effects. 
 But of this tree we may not taste nor touch ; 
 God so commanded, and left that command 
 Sole daughter of his voice ; the rest, we live 
 Law to ourselves ; our reason is our law. 
 
 To whom the Tempter guilefully replied. 
 Indeed ! hath God then said that of the fruit 
 Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat, 
 Yet Lords declared of all in earth or air ? 
 
 To whom thus Eve, yet sinless. Of the fruit 
 Of each tree in the garden we may eat j 
 But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst 
 The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 271 
 
 Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 
 
 She scarce had said, though brief, when now more 
 
 bold 
 
 The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love 
 To Man, and indignation at his wrong, 
 New part puts on j and, as to passion moved, 
 Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely and in act 
 Raised, as of some great matter to begin. 
 As when of old some orator renowned, 
 In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence 
 Flourished, since mute ! to some great cause addressed, 
 Stood in himself collected j while each part, 
 Motion, each act, won audience ere the tongue ; 
 Sometimes in highth began, as no delay 
 Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right : 
 So standing, moving, or to highth up grown, 
 The Tempter, all impassioned, thus began* 
 
 O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant, 
 Mother of science ! now I feel thy power 
 Within me clear j not only to discern 
 Things in their causes, but to trace the ways 
 Of highest agents, deemed however wise. 
 Queen of this universe ! do not believe 
 Those rigid threats of death : ye shall not die : 
 How should you ? by the fruit ? it gives you life 
 To knowledge ; by the threatener ? look on me, 
 Me, who have touched and tasked j yet both live, 
 And life more perfect have attained than Fate 
 Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot. 
 Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast 
 Is open ? or will God incense his ire
 
 272 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 For such a petty trespass ? and not praise 
 
 Bather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain 
 
 Of death denounced, whatever thing death be, 
 
 Deterred not from achieving what might lead 
 
 To happier life, knowledge of good and evil ; 
 
 Of good, how just ? of evil, if what is evil 
 
 Be real, why not known, since easier shunned ? 
 
 God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just ; 
 
 Not just, not God ; not feared then, nor obeyed : 
 
 Your fear itself of death removes the fear. 
 
 Why then was this forbid ? Why, but to awe ; 
 
 Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant, 
 
 His worshippers ? He knows that in the day 
 
 Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear, 
 
 Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then 
 
 Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods, 
 
 Knowing both good and evil, as they know. 
 
 That ye shall be as Gods, since I as Man, 
 
 Internal Man, is but proportion meet ; 
 
 I, of brute, human ; ye, of human, Gods. 
 
 So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off 
 
 Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished. 
 
 Though threatened, which no worse than this can 
 
 bring. 
 
 And what are Gods, that Man may not become 
 As they, participating God-like food? 
 The Gods are first, and that advantage use 
 On our belief, that all from them proceeds : 
 I question it ; for this fair earth I see, 
 Warmed by the sun, producing every kind; 
 Them, nothing : if they all things, who enclosed
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 273 
 
 Knowledge of good and evil in this tree, 
 That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains 
 Wisdom without their leave ? and wherein lies 
 The offence, that Man should thus attain to know ? 
 What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree 
 Impart against his will, if all be his ? 
 Or is it envy? and can envy dwell 
 In heavenly breasts? These, these, and many more 
 Causes import your need of this fair fruit. 
 Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste ! 
 
 He ended ; and his words, replete with guile, 
 Into her heart too easy entrance won : 
 Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold 
 Might tempt alone ; and in her ears the sound 
 Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregn'd 
 With reason, to her seeming, and with truth : 
 Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and waked 
 An eager appetite, raised by the smell 
 So savoury of that fruit, which with desire, 
 Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, 
 Solicited her longing eye ; yet first 
 Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused. 
 
 Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, 
 Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired ; 
 Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay 
 Gave elocution to the mute, and taught 
 The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise : 
 Thy praise he also, who forbids thy use, 
 Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree 
 Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil ; 
 Forbids us then to taste ! but his forbidding 
 
 T
 
 274 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX, 
 
 Commends thee more, while it infers the good 
 
 By thee communicated, and our want : 
 
 For good unknown sure is not had ; or, had 
 
 And yet unknown, is as not had at all. 
 
 In plain then, what forbids he but to know, 
 
 Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise? 
 
 Such prohibitions bind not. But, if death 
 
 Bind us with after-bands, what profits then 
 
 Our inward freedom ? In the day we eat 
 
 Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die ! 
 
 How dies the Serpent ? he hath eaten and lives, 
 
 And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, 
 
 Irrational till then. For us alone 
 
 Was death invented? or to us denied 
 
 This intellectual food, for beasts reserved ? 
 
 For beasts it seems : yet that one beast which first 
 
 Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy 
 
 The good befallen him, author unsuspect, 
 
 Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. 
 
 What fear I then ? rather, what know to fear 
 
 Under this ignorance of good and evil, 
 
 Of God or death, of law or penalty? 
 
 Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine, 
 
 Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, 
 
 Of virtue to make wise : what hinders then 
 
 To reach, and feed at once both body and mind ? 
 
 So saying, her rash hand in evil hour 
 Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat ! 
 Earth felt the wound ; and Nature from her seat, 
 Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, 
 That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 275 
 
 The guilty Serpent j and well might ; for Eve, 
 
 Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else 
 
 Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed, 
 
 In fruit she never tasted, whether true 
 
 Or fancied so, through expectation high 
 
 Of knowledge ; nor was Godhead from her thought. 
 
 Greedily she ingorged without restraint, 
 
 And knew not eating death : satiate at length, 
 
 And hightened as with wine, jocund and boon, 
 
 Thus to herself she pleasingly began. 
 
 O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees 
 In Paradise ! of operation blest 
 To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed, 
 And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end 
 Created; but henceforth my early care, 
 Not without song, each morning, and due praise, 
 Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease 
 Of thy full branches offered free to all ; 
 Till, dieted by thee, I grow mature 
 In knowledge, as the Gods, who all things know; 
 Though others envy what they cannot give : 
 For, had the gift been theirs, it had not here 
 Thus grown. Experience, next, to thee I owe, 
 Best guide ; not following thee, I had remained 
 In ignorance ; thou open'st wisdom's way, 
 And giv'st access, though secret she retire. 
 And I perhaps am secret : Heaven is high, 
 High, and remote to see from thence distinct 
 Each thing on Earth ; and other care perhaps 
 May have diverted from continual watch 
 Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies 
 
 T2
 
 276 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 About him. But to Adam in what sort 
 Shall I appear? shall I to him make known 
 As yet my change, and give him to partake 
 Full happiness with me, or rather not, 
 But keep the odds of knowledge in my power 
 Without copartner? so to add what wants 
 In female sex, the more to draw his love, 
 And render me more equal j and perhaps, 
 A thing not undesirable, sometime 
 Superiour ; for, inferiour, who is free ? 
 This may be well: but what if God have seen. 
 And death ensue ? then I shall be no more 1 
 And Adam, wedded to another Eve, 
 Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct j 
 A death to think ! Confirmed then 1 resolve, 
 Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe : 
 So dear I love him, that with him all deaths 
 I could endure, without him live no life. 
 
 So saying, from the tree her step she turned; 
 But first low reverence done, as to the Power 
 That dwelt within, whose presence had infused 
 Into the plant sciential sap, derived 
 From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while, 
 Waiting desirous her return, had wove 
 Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn 
 Her tresses, and her rural labours crown ; 
 As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen. 
 Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new 
 Solace in her return, so long delayed : 
 Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, 
 Misgave him ; he the faltering measure felt j
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST, 277 
 
 And forth to meet her went, the way she took 
 
 That morn when first they parted : by the tree 
 
 Of knowledge he must pass ; there he her met, 
 
 Scarce from the tree returning} in her hand 
 
 A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smiled, 
 
 New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused. 
 
 To him she hasted ; in her face excuse 
 
 Came prologue, and apology too prompt j 
 
 Which, with bland words at will, she thus addressed. 
 
 Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay ? 
 Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived 
 Thy presence ; agony of love till now 
 Not felt, nor shall be twice $ for never more 
 Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought, 
 The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange 
 Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear : 
 This tree is not, as we are told, a tree 
 Of danger tasted, nor to evil unknown 
 Opening the way, but of divine effect 
 To open eyes, and make them Gods who taste ; 
 And hath been tasted such : the serpent wise, 
 Or not restrained as we, or not obeying, 
 Hath eaten of the fruit ; and is become, 
 Not dead, as we are threatened, but thenceforth 
 Endued with human voice and human sense, 
 Reasoning to admiration ; and with me 
 Persuasively hath so prevailed, that I 
 Have also tasted, and have also found 
 The effects to correspond ; opener mine eyes, 
 Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart, 
 And growing up to Godhead ; which for thee
 
 278 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise. 
 For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss ; 
 Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon. 
 Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot 
 May join us, equal joy, as equal love ; 
 Lest, thou not tasting, different degree 
 Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce 
 Deity for thee, when Fate will not permit. 
 
 Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told; 
 But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed. 
 On the other side Adam, soon as he heard 
 The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed, 
 Astonied stood and blank, while horrour chill 
 Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed ; 
 From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve 
 Down dropped, and all the faded roses shed : 
 Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length 
 First to himself he inward silence broke, 
 
 O fairest of Creation, last and best 
 Of all God's works, Creature in whom excelled 
 Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, 
 Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet ! 
 How art thou lost ! how on a sudden lost, 
 Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote ! 
 Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress 
 The strict forbiddance, how to violate 
 The sacred fruit forbidden ! Some cursed fraud 
 Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown. 
 And me with thee hath ruined ; for with thee 
 Certain my resolution is to die : 
 How can I live without thee ! how forego
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 279 
 
 Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, 
 To live again in these wild woods forlorn ! 
 Should God create another Eve, and 1 
 Another rib afford, yet loss of thee 
 Would never from my heart : no, no ! I feel 
 The link of Nature draw me : flesh of flesh, 
 Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state 
 Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe. 
 
 So having said, as one from sad dismay 
 Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbed 
 Submitting to what seemed remediless, 
 Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned. 
 
 Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve, 
 And peril great provoked, who thus hast dared, 
 Had it been only coveting to eye 
 That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence, 
 Much more to taste it under ban to touch. 
 But past who can recall, or done undo ? 
 Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate 5 yet so 
 Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact 
 Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, 
 Profaned first by the serpent, by him first 
 Made common, and unhallowed, ere our taste ; 
 Nor yet on him found deadly ; yet he lives ; 
 Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as Man, 
 Higher degree of life ; inducement strong 
 To us, as likely tasting to attain 
 Proportional ascent j which cannot be 
 But to be Gods, or Angels, demi-Gods. 
 Nor can I think that God, Creator wise, 
 Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy
 
 280 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Us his prime creatures, dignified so high, 
 
 Set over all his works ; which in our fall, 
 
 For us created, needs with us must fail, 
 
 Dependant made ; so God shall uncreate, 
 
 Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour lose ; 
 
 Not well conceived of God, who, though his power 
 
 Creation could repeat, yet would be loth 
 
 Us to abolish, lest the Adversary 
 
 Triumph, and say j ' Fickle their state whom God 
 
 Most favours ; who can please him long ? Me first 
 
 He ruined, now Mankind; whom will he next?' 
 
 Matter of scorn, not to be given the Foe. 
 
 However I with thee have fixed my lot, 
 
 Certain to undergo like doom : if death 
 
 Consort with thee, death is to me as life ; 
 
 So forcible within my heart I feel 
 
 The bond of Nature draw me to my own j 
 
 My own in thee, for what thou art is mine ; 
 
 Our state cannot be severed; we are one, 
 
 One flesh ; to lose thee were to lose myself. 
 
 So Adam ; and thus Eve to him replied. 
 O glorious trial of exceeding love, 
 Illustrious evidence, example high ! 
 Engaging me to emulate ; but, short 
 Of thy perfection, how shall 1 attain, 
 Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung, 
 And gladly of our union hear thee speak, 
 One heart, one soul in both ; whereof good proof 
 This day affords, declaring thee resolved, 
 Rather than death, or aught than death more dread, 
 Shall separate us, linked in love so dear,
 
 HOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 28l 
 
 To undergo with me one guilt, one crime, 
 
 If any be, of tasting this fair fruit ; 
 
 Whose virtue (for of good still good proceeds, 
 
 Direct, or by occasion,) hath presented 
 
 This happy trial of thy love, which else 
 
 So eminently never had been known ? 
 
 Were it I thought death menaced would ensue 
 
 This my attempt, I would sustain alone 
 
 The worst, and not persuade thee, rather die 
 
 Deserted, than oblige thee with a fact 
 
 Pernicious to thy peace ; chiefly assured 
 
 Remarkably so late of thy so true, 
 
 So faithfal, love unequalled : but I feel 
 
 Far otherwise the event 5 not death, but life 
 
 Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys, 
 
 Taste so divine, that what of sweet before 
 
 Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh. 
 
 On my experience, Adam, freely taste, 
 
 And fear of death deliver to the winds. 
 
 So saying, she embraced him, and for joy 
 Tenderly wept ; much won, that he his love 
 Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur 
 Divine displeasure for her sake, or death. 
 In recompence (for such compliance bad 
 Such recompence best merits) from the bough 
 She gave him of that fair enticing fruit 
 With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat, 
 Against his better knowledge ; not deceived, 
 But fondly overcome with female charm. 
 Earth trembled from her entrails, as again 
 In pangs ; and Nature gave a second groan j
 
 282 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Sky loured; and, muttering thunder, some sad drops 
 
 Wept at completing of the mortal sin 
 
 Original: while Adam took no thought, 
 
 Eating his fill ; nor Eve to iterate 
 
 Her former trespass feared, the more to sooth 
 
 Him with her loved society ; that now, 
 
 As with new wine intoxicated both, 
 
 They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel 
 
 Divinity within them breeding wings, 
 
 Wherewith to scorn the earth : but that false fruit 
 
 Far other operation first displayed, 
 
 Carnal desire inflaming : he on Eve 
 
 Began to cast lascivious eyes ; she him 
 
 As wantonly repaid ; in lust they burn : 
 
 Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move. 
 
 Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, 
 And elegant, of sapience no small part ; 
 Since to each meaning savour we apply, 
 And palate call judicious ; I the praise 
 Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purveyed. 
 Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained 
 From this delightful fruit, nor known till now 
 True relish, tasting ; if such pleasure be 
 In things to us forbidden, it might be wished, 
 For this one tree had been forbidden ten. 
 But come, so well refreshed, now let us play, 
 As meet is, after such delicious fare ; 
 For never did thy beauty, since the day 
 I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorned 
 With all perfections, so inflame my sense 
 With ardour to enjoy thee, fairer now
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 283 
 
 Than ever ; bounty of this virtuous tree ! 
 
 So said he, and forbore not glance or toy 
 Of amorous intent ; well understood 
 Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire. 
 Her hand he seised ; and to a shady bank, 
 Thick over-head with verdant roof imbowered, 
 He led her nothing loth ; flowers were the couch, 
 Pansies, and violets, and asphodel, 
 And hyacinth ; Earth's freshest softest lap. 
 There they their fill of love and love's disport 
 Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal, 
 The solace of their sin ; till dewy sleep 
 Oppressed them, wearied with their amorous play. 
 Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, 
 That with exhilarating vapour bland 
 About their spirits had played, and inmost powers 
 Made err, was now exhaled ; and grosser sleep, 
 Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams 
 Incumbered, now had left them ; up they rose 
 As from unrest ; and, each the other viewing, 
 Soon found their eyes how opened, and their minds 
 How darkened ; innocence, that as a veil 
 Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone ; 
 Just confidence, and native righteousness, 
 And honour, from about them, na$ed left 
 To guilty Shame ; he covered, but his robe 
 Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong, 
 Herculean Samson, from the harlot-lap 
 Of Philistean Dalilah, and waked 
 Shorn of his strength, They destitute and bare 
 Of all their virtue : silent, and in face
 
 284 PABADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Confounded, long they sat, as strucken mute : 
 Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed, 
 At length gave utterance to these words constrained. 
 
 O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear 
 To that false worm, of whomsoever taught 
 To counterfeit Man's voice ; true in our fall, 
 False in our promised rising ; since our eyes 
 Opened we find indeed, and find we know 
 Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got $ 
 Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know ; 
 Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void, 
 Of innocence, of faith, of purity, 
 Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, 
 And in our faces evident the signs 
 Of foul concupiscence ; whence evil store j 
 Even shame, the last of evils ; of the first 
 Be sure then. How shall I behold the face 
 Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy 
 And rapture so oft beheld ? Those heavenly shapes 
 Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze 
 Insufferably bright. O ! might I here 
 In solitude live savage; in some glade 
 Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable 
 To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad 
 And brown as evening : cover me, ye Pines ! 
 Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs 
 Hide me, where I may never see them more ! 
 But It t us now, as in bad plight, devise 
 What best may for the present serve to hide 
 The parts of each from other, that seem most 
 To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen ,
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 285 
 
 Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together 
 
 sewed, 
 
 And girded on our loins, may cover round 
 Those middle parts ; that this new comer, Shame, 
 There sit not, and reproach us as unclean. 
 
 So counselled he, and both together went 
 Into the thickest wood ; there soon they chose 
 The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renowned, 
 But such as at this day, to Indians known, 
 In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms 
 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 
 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
 About the mother tree, a pillared shade 
 High over-arched, and echoing walks between : 
 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 
 Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 
 At loop-holes cut through thickest shade : those leaves 
 They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe ; 
 And, with what skill they had, together sewed, 
 To gird their waist ; vain covering, if to hide 
 Their guilt and dreaded shame ! O, how unlike 
 To that first naked glory ! Such of late 
 Columbus found the American, so girt 
 With feathered cincture ; naked else, and wild 
 Among the trees on isles and woody shores. 
 Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part 
 Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind, 
 They sat them down to weep; nor only tears 
 Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within 
 Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate, 
 Mistrust, suspicion, discord; and shook sore
 
 286 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Their inward state of mind, calm region once 
 And full of peace, now tost and turbulent : 
 For Understanding ruled not, and the Will 
 Heard not her lore ; both in subjection now 
 To sensual Appetite, who from beneath 
 Usurping over sovran Reason claimed 
 Superiour sway : from thus distempered breast, 
 Adam, estranged in look and altered style, 
 Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed. 
 
 Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and staid 
 With me, as I besought thee, when that strange 
 Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn, 
 I know not whence possessed thee ; we had then 
 Remained still happy ; not, as now, despoiled 
 Of all our good ; shamed, naked, miserable ! 
 Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve 
 The faith they owe ; when earnestly they seek 
 Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail. 
 
 To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve. 
 What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe ! 
 Imput'st thou that to my default, or will 
 Of wandering, as thou call'st it, which who knows 
 But might as ill have happened thou being by, 
 Or to thyself perhaps ? Hadst thou been there, 
 Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned 
 Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake j 
 No ground of enmity between us known, 
 Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm. 
 Was I to have never parted from thy side ? 
 As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. 
 Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head,
 
 BOOK IX. PARADISE LOST. 287 
 
 Command me absolutely not to go, 
 Going into such danger, as thou saidst? 
 Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay ; 
 Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. 
 Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, 
 Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me. 
 To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied. 
 Is this the love, is this the recompence 
 Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve ! expressed 
 Immutable, when thou wert lost, not I j 
 Who might have lived, and joyed immortal bliss, 
 Yet willingly chose rather death with thee ? 
 And am I now upbraided as the cause 
 Of thy transgressing? Not enough severe, 
 It seems, in thy restraint : what could I more ? 
 I warned thee, I adThonished thee, foretold 
 The danger, and the lurking enemy 
 That lay in wait ; beyond this, had been force 5 
 And force upon free will hath here no place. 
 But confidence then bore thee on ; secure 
 Either to meet no danger, or to find 
 Matter of glorious trial ; and perhaps 
 I also erred, in overmuch admiring 
 What seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought 
 No evil durst attempt thee; but I rue 
 The errour now, which is become my crime, 
 And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall 
 Him, who, to worth in women overtrusting, 
 Lets her will rule : restraint she will not brook ; 
 And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue, 
 She first his weak indulgence will accuse.
 
 288 PARADISE LOST. BOOK IX. 
 
 Thus they in mutual accusation spent 
 The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning ; 
 And of their vain contest appeared no end. 
 
 EXI) OF THE NINTH BOOK.
 
 THE 
 
 TENTH BOOK 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Man's transgression known, the guardian- Angels forsake Para- 
 dise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and 
 are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could 
 not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the 
 transgressours ; who descends and gives sentence accordingly ; 
 then in pity clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, 
 sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wonderous sympathy 
 feeling the success of Satan in this new world, and the sin by 
 Man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, 
 but to follow Satan their sire up to the place of Man : to make 
 the way easier from Hell to this world to and fro, they pave a 
 broad high-way or bridge over Chaos, according to the track 
 that Satan first made ; then, preparing for Earth, they meet 
 him, proud of his success, returning to Hell ; their mutual gra- 
 tulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium, in full assembly re- 
 lates with boasting his success against Man ; instead of ap- 
 plause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, 
 transformed with himself also suddenly into serpents, according 
 to his doom given in Paradise ; then, deluded with a shew of 
 the forbidden tree springing up before them, they, greedily 
 reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The 
 proceedings of Sin and Death ; God foretels the final victory 
 of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things ; but, for 
 the present, commands his Angels to make several alterations 
 in the Heavens and elements. Adam, more and more per- 
 ceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails, rejects the condole- 
 ment of Eve ; she persists, and at length appeases him : then, 
 to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to 
 Adam violent ways, which he approves not; but, conceiving 
 better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made them, 
 that her seed should be revenged on the Serpent ; and exhorts 
 her with him to seek peace of the offended Deity, by repent- 
 ance and supplication.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 MEAN while the heinous and despiteful act 
 Of Satan, done in Paradise ; and how 
 He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve, 
 Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit, 
 Was known in Heaven ; for what can 'scape the eye 
 Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart 
 Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just, 
 Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind 
 Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed, 
 Complete to have discovered and repulsed 
 Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend. 
 For still they knew, and ought to have still remem- 
 bered, 
 
 The high injunction, not to taste that fruit, 
 Whoever tempted; which they not obeying, 
 Incurred (what could they less?) the penalty; 
 And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall. 
 Up into Heaven from Paradise in haste 
 
 u2
 
 292 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 The angelick guards ascended, mute, and sad, 
 For Man ; for of his state by this they knew, 
 Much wondering how the subtle Fiend had stolen 
 Entrance unseen. Soon as the unwelcome news 
 From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased 
 All were who heard ; dim sadness did not spare 
 That time celestial visages, yet, mixed 
 With pity, violated not their bliss. 
 About the new-arrived, in multitudes 
 The ethereal people ran, to hear and know 
 How all befel : they towards the throne supreme, 
 Accountable, made haste, to make appear, 
 With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance, 
 And easily approved 3 when the Most High 
 Eternal Father, from his secret cloud, 
 Amidst in thunder uttered thus his voice. 
 
 Assembled Angels, and ye Powers returned 
 From unsuccessful charge ; be not dismayed, 
 Nor troubled at these tidings from the earth, 
 Which your sincerest care could not prevent) 
 Foretold so lately what would come to pass, 
 When first this tempter crossed the gulf from Hell. 
 I told ye then he should prevail, and speed 
 On his bad errand; Man should be seduced, 
 And flattered out of all, believing lies 
 Against his Maker ; no decree of mine 
 Concurring to necessitate his fall, 
 Or touch with lightest moment of impulse 
 His free will, to her own inclining left 
 In even scale. But fallen he is ; and now 
 What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 293 
 
 On his transgression, death denounced that day ? 
 
 Which he presumes already vain and void, 
 
 Because not yet inflicted, as he feared, 
 
 By some immediate stroke j but soon shall find 
 
 Forbearance no acquittance, ere day end. 
 
 Justice shall not return as bounty scorned. 
 
 But whom send I to judge them ? whom but thee, 
 
 Vicegerent Son? To thee I have transferred 
 
 All judgement, whether in Heaven, or Earth, or 
 
 Hell. 
 
 Easy it may be seen that I intend 
 Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee 
 Man's friend, his Mediator, his designed 
 Both ransom and Redeemer voluntary, 
 And destined Man himself to judge Man fallen. 
 
 So spake the Father ; and, unfolding bright 
 Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son 
 Blazed forth unclouded Deity : he full 
 Resplendent all his Father manifest 
 Expressed, and thus divinely answered mild. 
 
 Father Eternal, thine is to decree ; 
 Mine, both in Heaven and Earth, to do thy will 
 Supreme ; that thou in me, thy Son beloved, 
 Mayst ever rest well pleased. I go to judge 
 On earth these thy transgressours ; but thou know'st, 
 Whoever judged, the worst on me must light, 
 When time shall be ; for so I undertook 
 Before thee ; and, not repenting, this obtain 
 Of right, that I may mitigate their doom 
 On me derived} yet I shall temper so 
 Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most
 
 294 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Them fully satisfied, and thee appease. 
 Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none 
 Are to behold the judgement, but the judged, 
 Those two ; the third best absent is condemned, 
 Convict by flight, and rebel to all law : 
 Conviction to the serpent none belongs. 
 
 Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose 
 Of high collateral glory : Him Thrones, and Powers, 
 Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant, 
 Accompanied to Heaven-gate ; from whence 
 Eden, and all the coast, in prospect lay. 
 Down he descended straight ; the speed of Gods 
 Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes 
 
 winged. 
 
 Now was the sun in western cadence low 
 From noon, and gentle airs, due at their hour, 
 To fan the earth now waked, and usher in 
 The evening cool ; when he, from wrath more cool, 
 Came the mild Judge, and Intercessour both, 
 To sentence Man : the voice of God they heard 
 Now walking in the garden, by soft winds 
 Brought to their ears, while day declined ; they 
 
 heard, 
 
 And from his presence hid themselves among 
 The thickest trees, both man and wife j till God, 
 Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud. 
 
 Where art thou, Adam, wont with joy to meet 
 My coming seen far off ? I miss thee here, 
 Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude, 
 Where obvious duty ere while appeared unsought : 
 Or come I less conspicuous, or what change
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 295 
 
 Absents thee, or what chance detains ? Come 
 forth ! 
 
 He came ; and with him Eve, more loth, though 
 
 first 
 
 To offend ; discountenanced both, and discomposed ; 
 Love was not in their looks, either to God, 
 Or to each other j but apparent guilt, 
 And shame, and perturbation, and despair, 
 Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile. 
 Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief. 
 
 I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice 
 Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom 
 The gracious Judge without revile replied. 
 
 My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not feared, 
 But still rejoiced; how is it now become 
 So dreadful to thee ? That thou art naked, who 
 Hath told thee ? Hast thou eaten of the tree, 
 Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat ? 
 
 To whom thus Adam sore beset replied. 
 
 Heaven ! in evil strait this day I stand 
 Before my Judge ; either to undergo 
 Myself the total crime, or to accuse 
 
 My other self, the partner of my life ; 
 Whose failing, while her faith to me remains, 
 
 1 should conceal, and not expose to blame 
 By my complaint : but strict necessity 
 Subdues me, and calamitous constrain*: ; 
 Lest on my head both sin ana punisament, 
 However insupportable, be all 
 
 Devolved ; though should I hold my peace, yet thou 
 Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.
 
 296 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 This Woman, whom thou mad'st to be my help, 
 
 And gav'st me as thy perfect gift, so good, 
 
 So fit, so acceptable, so divine, 
 
 That from her hand I could suspect no ill, 
 
 And what she did, whatever iu itself, 
 
 Her doing seemed to justify the deed} 
 
 She gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 
 
 To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied. 
 Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey 
 Before his voice ? or was she made thy guide, 
 Superiour, or but equal, that to her 
 Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place 
 Wherein God set thee above her made of thee, 
 And for thee, whose perfection far excelled 
 Hers in all real dignity? Adorned 
 She was indeed, and lovely, to attract 
 Thy love, not thy subjection ; and her gifts 
 Were such, as under government well seemed; 
 Unseemly to bear rulej which was thy part 
 And person, hadst thou known thyself aright. 
 
 So having said, he thus to Eve in few. 
 Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done? 
 
 To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed, 
 Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge 
 Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied. 
 The Serpent me beguiled, and 1 did eat. 
 
 Which when the Lord God heard, without delay 
 To judgement he proceeded on the accused 
 Serpent, though brute ; unable to transfer 
 The guilt on him, who made him instrument 
 Of mischief, and polluted from the end
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 297 
 
 Of his creation ; justly then accursed, 
 
 As vitiated in nature : more to know 
 
 Concerned not Man, (since he no further knew) 
 
 Nor altered his offence ; yet God at last 
 
 To Satan first in sin his doom applied, 
 
 Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best : 
 
 And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall. 
 
 Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed 
 Above all cattle, each beast of the field ; 
 Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go, 
 Aud dust shalt eat all the days of thy life. 
 Between thee and the woman I will put 
 Enmity, and between thine and her seed ; 
 Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel. 
 
 So spake this oracle, then verified 
 When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve, 
 Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven, 
 Prince of the air j then, rising from his grave, 
 Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed 
 In open show; and, with ascension bright, 
 Captivity led captive through the air, 
 The realm itself of Satan, long usurped ; 
 Whom he shall tread at last under our feetj 
 Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise ; 
 And to the Woman thus, his sentence turned. 
 
 Thy sorrow 1 will greatly multiply 
 By thy conception ; children thou shalt bring 
 In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will 
 Thine shall submit ; he over thee shall rule. 
 
 On Adam last thus judgement he pronounced. 
 Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,
 
 298 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 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 
 Unhid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field j 
 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
 Till thou return unto the ground ; for thou 
 Out of the ground 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 j 
 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 
 All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man 
 Recounted, mixing intercession sweet. 
 Mean while, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 299 
 
 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 here 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 : j f/jv 
 For Death from Sin no power can separate. 
 But, lest the difficulty of passing back 
 Stay his return perhaps over this gulf 
 Impassable, impervious 3 let us try 
 Adventurous work, yet to thy power ami 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 hot, 
 Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,,
 
 300 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 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 meager Shadow answered soon. 
 Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong, 
 Leads thee 5 I shall not lag behind, nor err 
 The way, thou leading ; such a scent I draw 
 Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste 
 The savour of death from all things there that lire : 
 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 carcasses designed 
 For death, the following day, in bloody fight : 
 So scented the grim Feature, and upturned 
 His nostril wide into the murky air j 
 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 
 Tost up and down, together crouded drove, 
 From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell : 
 As when two polar winds, blowing adverse 
 Upon the Cronian sea, together drive
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 301 
 
 Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way 
 Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich 
 Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil 
 Death with his mace petrifick, cold and dry, 
 As with a trident, smote ; and faced as firm 
 As Delos, floating once ; the rest his look 
 Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move ; 
 And with Asphaltick 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 bridged 1 "' 
 Of length prodigious, joining to the wall 
 Iramoveable of this now fenceless worWj^'' 
 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, to 3f &'* 
 From Susa, his Memnonian palace high,^ .dteafr 
 Came to the sea ; and, over Hellespont^ boJnaoa J 
 Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined, 
 And scourged with many a stroke the in 
 
 waves. ">tJ5$-lbH Juo taoit rijod 
 
 Now had they brought the work 
 Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock,' tflfi f oaioviJ 
 Over the vexed abyss, following the track 
 Of Satan to the self-same place where' 
 First lighted from his wing, and landed safe'* 5 
 From out of Chaos, to the outside bare >b ^ w 
 Of this round world : with pins of adama'fft '^ 
 And chains they made all fast, too fastfMijP%fillb v 
 And durable ! And now in little s
 
 302 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 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 5 that past, returned 
 
 By night, and listening where the hapless pair 
 
 Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint, 
 
 Thence gathered his own doom ; which understood 
 
 Not instant, but of future time, with joy 
 
 And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned j 
 
 And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot 
 
 Of this new wonderous pontifice, unhoped 
 
 Met, who-to meet him came, his offspring dear. 
 
 Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight 
 
 Of that stupendious bridge his joy encreased.
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 303 
 
 Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair 
 Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke. 
 
 O Parent, these are thy magnifick deeds, 
 Thy trophies! which thou view'st as not thine ownj 
 Thou art their author, and prime architect : 
 For I no sooner in my heart divined, 
 My heart, which by a secret harmony 
 Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet, 
 That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks 
 Now also evidence, but straight I felt, 
 Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt, 
 That I must after thee, with this thy son ; 
 Such fatal consequence unites us three ! 
 Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds, 
 Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure 
 Detain from following thy illustrious track. 
 Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined 
 Within Hell-gates till now ; thou us impowered 
 To fortify thus far, and overlay, 
 With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss. 
 Thine now is all this world ; thy virtue hath won 
 What thy hands builded not ; thy wisdom gained 
 With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged 
 Our foil in Heaven ; here thou shalt monarch reign, 
 There didst not j there let him still victor sway, 
 As battle hath adjudged ; from this new world 
 Retiring, by his own doom alienated; 
 And henceforth monarchy with thee divide 
 Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds, 
 His quadrature, from thy orbicular world ; 
 Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.
 
 304 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Whom thus the Prince of darkness answered glad. 
 Fair Daughter, and thou Son and Grandchild both ; 
 High proof ye now have given to be the race 
 Of Satan, (for I glory in the name, 
 Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty King,) 
 Amply have merited of me, of all 
 The infernal empire, that so near Heaven's door 
 Triumphal with triumphal act have met, 
 Mine, with this glorious work ; and made one realm, 
 Hell and this world, one realm, one continent 
 Of easy thorough-fare. Therefore, while I 
 Descend through darkness, on your road with ease, 
 To my associate Powers, them to acquaint 
 With these successes, and with them rejoice ; 
 You two this way, among these numerous orbs, 
 All yours, right down to Paradise descend] 
 There dwell, and reign in bliss 5 thence on the earth 
 Dominion exercise and in the air, 
 Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared ; 
 Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill. 
 My substitutes I send ye, and create 
 Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might 
 Issuing from me : on your joint vigour now 
 My hold of this new kingdom all depends, 
 Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit. 
 If your joint power prevail, the affairs of Hell 
 No detriment need fear ; go, and be strong ! 
 
 So saying he dismissed them ; they with speed 
 Their course through thickest constellations held, 
 Spreading their bane ; the blasted stars looked wan, 
 And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 305 
 
 Then suffered. The other way Satan went down 
 The causey to Hell-gate : on either side 
 Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed, 
 And with rebounding surge the bars assailed, 
 That scorned his indignation : through the gate, 
 Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed, 
 And all about found desolate ; for those, 
 Appointed to sit there, had left their charge, 
 Flown to the upper world j the rest were all 
 Far to the inland retired, about the walls 
 Of Pandemonium ; city and proud seat 
 Of Lucifer, so by allusion called 
 Of that bright star to Satan paragoned ; 
 There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand 
 In council sat, solicitous what chance 
 Might intercept their emperour sent ; so he 
 Departing gave command, and they observed. 
 As when the Tartar from his Russian foe, 
 By Astracan, over the snowy plains, 
 Retires ; or Bactrian Sophi, from the horns 
 Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond . i H . 
 The realm of Aladule, in his retreat 
 To Tauris or Casbeen : so these, the late 
 Heaven-banished host, left desert utmost Hell 
 Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch 
 Round their metropolis ; and now expecting 
 Each hour their great adventurer, from the search 
 Of foreign worlds : he through the midst un- 
 marked, 
 
 In show plebeian Angel militant 
 Of lowest order, passed j and from the door
 
 306 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Of that Plutonian hall, invisible 
 Ascended his high throne ; which, under state 
 Of richest texture spread, at the upper end 
 Was placed in regal lustre. Down a while 
 He sat, and round about him saw unseen : 
 At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head 
 And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter j clad 
 With what permissive glory since his fall 
 Was left him, or false glitter : all amazed 
 At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng 
 Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld, 
 Their mighty Chief returned : loud was the acclaim : 
 Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers, 
 Raised from their dark Divan, and with like joy 
 Congratulant approached him ; who with hand 
 Silence, and with these words attention, won. 
 Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, 
 
 Powers ; 
 
 For in possession such, not only of right, 
 I call ye, and declare ye now ; returned 
 Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth 
 Triumphant out of this infernal pit 
 Abominable, accursed, the house of woe, 
 And dungeon of our tyrant : now possess, 
 As Lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven 
 Little inferiour, by my adventure hard 
 With peril great achieved. Long were to tell 
 What I have done ; what suffered ; with what pain 
 Voyaged th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep 
 Of horrible confusion ; over which 
 By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved,
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE I.OST. 307 
 
 To expedite your glorious march 5 but I 
 
 Toiled out my uncouth passage, forced to ride 
 
 The untractable abyss, plunged in the womb 
 
 Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild ; 
 
 That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed 
 
 My journey strange, with clamorous uproar 
 
 Protesting Fate supreme ; thence how I found 
 
 The new created world, which fame in Heaven 
 
 Long had foretold, a fabrick wonderful 
 
 Of absolute perfection ! therein Man 
 
 Placed in a Paradise, by our exile 
 
 Made happy : him by fraud I have seduced 
 
 From his Creator; and, the more to encrease 
 
 Your wonder, with an apple ; he, thereat 
 
 Offended, worth your laughter ! hath given up 
 
 Both his beloved Man, and all his world, 
 
 To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us, 
 
 Without our hazard, labour, or alarm; 
 
 To range in, and to dwell, and over Man 
 
 To rule, as over all he should have ruled. 
 
 True is, me also he hath judged, or rather 
 
 Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape 
 
 Man I deceived : that which to me belongs, 
 
 Is enmity which he will put between 
 
 Me and mankind ; I am to bruise his heel ; 
 
 His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head: 
 
 A world who would not purchase with a bruise, 
 
 Or much more grievous pain? Ye have the account 
 
 Of my performance : what remains, ye Gods, 
 
 But up, and enter now into full bliss ? 
 
 So having said, a while he stood, expecting 
 
 x 2
 
 308 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Their universal shout, and high applause, 
 
 To fill his ear ; when, contrary, he hears 
 
 On all sides, from innumerable tongues, 
 
 A dismal universal hiss, the sound 
 
 Of publick scorn , he wondered, but not long 
 
 Had leisure, wondering at himself now more ; 
 
 His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare ; 
 
 His arms clung to his ribs ; his legs entwining 
 
 Each other, till supplanted down he fell 
 
 A monstrous serpent on his belly prone, 
 
 Reluctant, but in vain 5 a greater power 
 
 Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned, 
 
 According to his doom : he would have spoke, 
 
 But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue 
 
 To forked tongue ; for now were all transformed 
 
 Alike, to serpents all, as accessories 
 
 To his bold riot : dreadful was the din 
 
 Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now 
 
 With complicated monsters head and tail, 
 
 Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbaena dire, 
 
 Cerastes horned, Hydras, and Elops drear, 
 
 And Dipsas ; (not so thick swarmed once the soil 
 
 Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle 
 
 Ophiusa,) but still greatest he the midst, 
 
 Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the sun 
 
 Ingendered in the Pythian vale or slime, 
 
 Huge Python, and his power no less he seemed 
 
 Above the rest still to retain ; they all 
 
 Him followed, issuing forth to the open field, 
 
 Where all yet left of that revolted rout, 
 
 Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array - f
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 309 
 
 Sublime with expectation when to see 
 
 In triumph issuing forth their glorious Chief ; 
 
 They saw, but other sight instead ! a croud 
 
 Of ugly serpents ; horrour on them fell, 
 
 And horrid sympathy; for, what they saw, 
 
 They felt themselves, now changing; down their arms, 
 
 Down fell both spear and shield ; down they as fast ; 
 
 And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form 
 
 Catched, by contagion ; like in punishment, 
 
 As in their crime. Thus was the applause they meant, 
 
 Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame 
 
 Cast on themselves from their OAvn mouths. There 
 
 stood 
 
 A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change, 
 His will who reigns above, to aggravate 
 Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that 
 Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve 
 Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange 
 Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining 
 For one forbidden tree a multitude 
 Now risen, to work them further woe or shame 5 
 Yet, parched with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, 
 Though to delude them sent, could not abstain ; 
 But on they rolled in heaps, and, up the trees 
 Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks 
 That curled Megaera : greedily they plucked 
 The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew 
 Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed j 
 This more delusive, not the touch, but taste 
 Deceived ; they, fondly thinking to allay 
 Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
 
 310 FARABISK LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste 
 
 With spattering noise rejected : oft they assayed, 
 
 Hunger ana thirst constraining ; drugged as oft, 
 
 With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws, 
 
 With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell 
 
 Into the same illusion, not as Man 
 
 Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were they 
 
 pLigued 
 
 And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss, 
 Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed; 
 Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo, 
 This annual humbling certain numbered days, 
 To dash their pride, and joy, for Man seduced. 
 However, some tradition they dispersed 
 Among the Heathen, of their purchase got, 
 And fa. led how the Serpent, whom they called 
 Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide- 
 Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule 
 Of high Oiympus ; thence by Saturn driven 
 And Ops, ere yet Dictaean Jove was born. 
 
 Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair 
 Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power before, 
 Once actual ; now in body, and to dwell 
 Habitual hauitant ; behind her Death, 
 Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet 
 On his pale horse : to whom Sin thus began. 
 
 Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death ! 
 What think st thou of our empire now, though earned 
 With travel difficult, not better far 
 Than still at Hell's dark threshold to have sat watch, 
 Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved ?
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 311 
 
 Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon. 
 To me, who with eternal famine pine, 
 Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven ; 
 There best, where most with ravine I may meet ; 
 Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems 
 To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corps. 
 
 To whom the incestuous mother thus replied. 
 Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers, 
 Feed first j on each beast next, and fish, and fowl ; 
 No homely morsels ! and, whatever thing 
 The sithe of Time mows down, devour unspared ; 
 Till I, in Man residing, through the race, 
 His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect j 
 And season him thy last and sweetest prey. 
 
 This said, they both betook them several ways, 
 Both to destroy, or unimmortal make 
 All kinds, and for destruction to mature 
 Sooner or later ; which the Almighty seeing, 
 From his transcendent seat the Saints among, 
 To those bright Orders uttered thus his voice. 
 
 See, with what heat these dogs of Hell advance 
 To waste and havock yonder world, which I 
 So fair and good created ; and had still 
 Kept in that state, had not the folly of Man 
 Let in these wasteful furies, who impute 
 Folly to me ; so doth the Prince of Hell 
 And his adherents, that with so much ease 
 I suffer them to enter and possess 
 A place so heavenly j and, conniving, seem 
 To gratify my scornful enemies, 
 That laugh, as if, transported with some fit
 
 312 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Of passion, I to them had quitted all, 
 
 At random yielded up to their misrule ; 
 
 And know not that I called, and drew them thither, 
 
 My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth 
 
 Which Man's polluting sin with taint hath shed 
 
 On what was pure j till, crammed and gorged, nigh 
 
 burst 
 
 With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling 
 Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, 
 Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave, at last, 
 Through Chaos hurled, obstmct the mouth of Hell 
 For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws. 
 Then Heaven and Earth renewed shall be made pure 
 To sanctity, that shall receive no stain : 
 Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes. 
 
 He ended, and the heavenly audience loud 
 Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas, 
 Through multitude that sung : Just are thy ways, 
 Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works j 
 Who can extenuate thee ? Next, to the Son, 
 Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom 
 New Heaven and Earth shall to the ages rise, 
 Or down from Heaven descend. Such was their song - } 
 While the Creator, calling forth by name 
 His mighty Angels, gave them several charge, 
 As sorted best with present things. The sun 
 Had first his precept so 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 south to bring 
 Solstitial summer's heat. To the blanc moon
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 313 
 
 Her office they prescribed ; to the other five 
 Their planetary motions, and aspects, 
 In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite, 
 Of noxious efficacy, and when to join 
 In synod unbenign j and taught the fixed 
 Their influence malignant when to shower, 
 Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, 
 Should prove tempestuous : to the winds they set 
 Their corners, when with bluster to confound 
 Sea, air, and shore j the thunder when to roll 
 With terrour through the dark ae'real hall. 
 Some say, he bid his Angels turn ascanse 
 The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more, 
 From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed 
 Oblique the centrick globe : some say, the sun 
 Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road 
 Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven. 
 Atlantick Sisters, and the Spartan Twins, 
 Up to the Tropick 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 ; else had the spring 
 Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers, 
 Equal in days and nights, except to those 
 Beyond the polar circles ; to them day 
 Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun, 
 To recompense his distance, in their sight 
 Had rounded still the horizon, and not knovm 
 Or east or west ; which had forbid the snow 
 From cold Estotiland, and south as far 
 Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
 
 314 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turned 
 His course intended 5 else, how had the world 
 Inhabited, though sinless, more than now, 
 Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat ? 
 These changes in the Heavens, though slow, pro- 
 duced 
 
 Like change on sea and land ; sideral blast, 
 Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot, 
 Corrupt and pestilent : now from the north 
 Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore, 
 Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice, 
 And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw, 
 Boreas, and Caecias, and Argestes loud, 
 And Thrascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn; 
 With adverse blast upturns them from the south 
 Notus, and Afer black with thunderous 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 lifeless things ; but Discord first, 
 Daughter of Sin, among the irrational 
 Death introduced, through fierce antipathy : 
 Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, 
 And fish with fish ; to graze the herb all leaving, 
 Devoured each other j nor stood much in awe 
 Of Man, but fled him ; or, with countenance grim, 
 Glared on him passing. These were from without 
 The growing miseries, which Adam saw 
 Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade, 
 To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within j
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 31 J 
 
 And, in a troubled sea of passion tost, 
 Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint. 
 
 O miserable of happy ! Is this the end 
 Of this new glorious world, and me so late 
 The glory of that glory, who now become 
 Accursed, 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 deserved it, and would bear 
 My own deservings ; but this will not serve : 
 All that I eat or drink, or shall beget, 
 Is propagated curse. O voice, once heard 
 Delightfully, increase and multiply; 
 Now death to hear ! for what can I encrease, 
 Or multiply, but curses on my head ? 
 Who of all ages to succeed, 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 : so, besides 
 Mine own that bide upon me, all from me 
 Shall with a fierce reflux on me rebound ; 
 On me, as on their natural center, light 
 Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys 
 Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes ! 
 Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay 
 To mould me Man ? did I solicit thee 
 From darkness to promote me, or here place 
 In this delicious garden ? As my will 
 Concurred not to my being, it were but right 
 And equal to reduce me to my dustj
 
 316 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 Desirous to resign and render back 
 
 All I received j unable to perform 
 
 Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold 
 
 The good I sought not. To the loss of that, 
 
 Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added 
 
 The sense of endless woes ? Inexplicable 
 
 Thy justice seems ; yet, to say truth, too late 
 
 I thus contest ; then should have been refused 
 
 Those terms, whatever, when they were proposed : 
 
 Thou didst accept them : wilt thou enjoy the good, 
 
 Then cavil the conditions ? and, though God 
 
 Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son 
 
 Prove disobedient ; and, reproved, retort, 
 
 ' Wherefore didst thou beget me ? I sought it not :' 
 
 Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee 
 
 That proud excuse? yet him not thy election, 
 
 But natural necessity, begot. 
 
 God made thee of choice his own, and of his own 
 
 To serve him ; thy reward was of his grace j 
 
 Thy punishment then justly is at his will. 
 
 Be it so, for I submit; his doom is fair, 
 
 That dust I am, and shall to dust return : 
 
 O welcome hour whenever ! Why delays 
 
 His hand to execute what his decree 
 
 Fixed on this day? Why do I overlive? 
 
 Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out 
 
 To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet 
 
 Mortality my sentence, and be earth 
 
 Insensible ! How glad would lay me down 
 
 As in my mother's lap ! There I should rest, 
 
 And sleep secure ; his dreadful voice no more
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 317 
 
 Would thunder in my ears ; no fear of worse 
 
 To me, and to my offspring, would torment me 
 
 With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt 
 
 Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die; 
 
 Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man 
 
 Which God inspired, cannot together perish 
 
 With this corporeal clod ; then, in the grave, 
 
 Or in some other dismal place, who knows 
 
 But I shall die a living death? O thought 
 
 Horrid, if true ! Yet why ? It was but breath 
 
 Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life 
 
 And sin ? The body properly had neither. 
 
 All of me then shall die : let this appease 
 
 The doubt, since human reach no further knows. 
 
 For though the Lord of all be infinite, 
 
 Is his wrath also? Be it, Man is not so, 
 
 But mortal doomed. How can he exercise 
 
 Wrath without end on Man, whom death must end? 
 
 Can he make deathless death ! That were to make 
 
 Strange contradiction, which to God himself 
 
 Impossible is held; as argument 
 
 Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out, 
 
 For anger's sake, finite to infinite, 
 
 In punished Man, to satisfy his rigour, 
 
 Satisfied never? That were to extend 
 
 His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law ; 
 
 By which all causes else, according still 
 
 To the reception of their matter, act $ 
 
 Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say 
 
 That death be not one stroke, as I supposed, 
 
 Bereaving sense, but endless misery
 
 318 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 From this day onward ; which I feel begun 
 
 Both in me, and without me ; and so last 
 
 To perpetuity ! Ay me ! that fear 
 
 Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution 
 
 On my defenceless head j both Death and I 
 
 Am found eternal, and incorporate both ; 
 
 Nor I on my part single ; in me all 
 
 Posterity stands cursed: fair patrimony 
 
 That I must leave ye, Sons ! O, were I able 
 
 To waste it all myself, and leave ye none ! 
 
 So disinherited, how would you bless 
 
 Me, now your curse ! Ah, why should all mankind, 
 
 For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemned, 
 
 If guiltless ? But from me what can proceed, 
 
 But all corrupt ; both mind and will depraved 
 
 Not to do only, but to will the same 
 
 With me ? How can they then acquitted stand 
 
 In sight of God ? Him, after all disputes, 
 
 Forced I absolve : all my evasions vain, 
 
 And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still 
 
 But to my own conviction : first and last 
 
 On me, me only, as the source and spring 
 
 Of all corruption, all the blame lights due ; 
 
 So might the wrath ! Fond wish ! couldst thou support 
 
 That burden, heavier than the earth to bear ; 
 
 Than all the world much heavier, though divided 
 
 With that bad Woman ? Thus, what thou desir'st, 
 
 And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope 
 
 Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable 
 
 Beyond all past example and future j 
 
 To Satan only like both crime and doom.
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 319 
 
 Conscience ! into what abyss of fears 
 
 And horrours hast thou driven me ; out of which 
 
 1 find no way, from deep to deeper plunged! 
 Thus Adam to himself lamented loud, 
 
 Through the still night ; not now, as ere Man fell, 
 
 Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air 
 
 Accompanied ; with damps, and dreadful gloom j 
 
 Which to his evil conscience represented 
 
 All things with double terrour : on the ground 
 
 Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground, and oft 
 
 Cursed his creation ; Death as oft accused 
 
 Of tardy execution, since denounced 
 
 The day of his offence. Why comes not Death, 
 
 Said he, with one thrice-acceptable stroke 
 
 To end me ? Shall Truth fail to keep her word, 
 
 Justice Divine not hasten to be just ? 
 
 But Death comes not at call ; Justice Divine 
 
 Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries. 
 
 O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers ! 
 
 With other echo late I taught your shades 
 
 To answer, and resound far other song. 
 
 Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld, 
 
 Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, 
 
 Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed : 
 
 But her with stern regard he thus repelled. 
 
 Out of my sight, thou Serpent ! That name best 
 Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false 
 And hateful ; nothing wants, but that thy shape, 
 Like his, and colour serpentine, may show 
 Thy inward fraud ; to warn all creatures from thee 
 Henceforth ; lest that too heavenly form, pretended
 
 320 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 To hellish falshood, snare them ! But for thee 
 I had persisted happy ; had not thy pride 
 And wandering vanity, when least was safe, 
 Rejected my forewarning, and disdained 
 Not to be trusted ; longing to be seen, 
 Though by the Devil himself ; him overweening 
 To over-reach j but, with the serpent meeting, 
 Fooled and beguiled ; by him thou, I by thee 
 To trust thee from my side; imagined wise, 
 Constant, mature, proof against all assaults ; 
 And understood not all was but a show, 
 Rather than solid virtue ; all but a rib 
 Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears, 
 More to the part sinister, from me drawn } 
 Well if thrown out, as supernumerary 
 To my just number found. O ! why did God, 
 Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven 
 With Spirits masculine, create at last 
 This novelty on earth, this fair defect 
 Of nature, and not fill the world at once 
 With Men, as Angels, without feminine j 
 Or find some other way to generate 
 Mankind ? This mischief had not been befallen. 
 And more that shall befall ; innumerable 
 Disturbances on earth through female snares, 
 And strait conjunction with this sex : for either 
 He never shall find out fit mate, but such 
 As some misfortune brings him, or mistake j 
 Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain 
 Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained 
 By a far worse 3 or, if she love, withheld
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 321 
 
 By parents ; or his happiest choice too late 
 Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound 
 To a fell adversary, his hate or shame : 
 Which infinite calamity shall cause 
 To human life, and houshold peace confound. 
 
 He added not, and from her turned; but Eve, 
 Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing 
 And tresses all disordered, at his feet 
 Fell humble ; and, embracing them, besought 
 His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint. 
 
 Forsake me not thus, Adam ! witness Heaven 
 What love sincere, and reverence in my heart 
 I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, 
 Unhappily deceived ! Thy suppliant 
 I beg, and clasp thy knees ; bereave me not, 
 Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, 
 Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress, 
 My only strength and stay : forlorn of thee, 
 Whither shall I betake me, where subsist ? 
 While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, 
 Between us two let there be peace ; both joining, 
 As joined in injuries, one enmity 
 Against a foe by doom express assigned us, 
 That cruel Serpent ; on me exercise not 
 Thy hatred for this misery befallen ; 
 On me already lost, me than thyself 
 More miserable ! Both have sinned; but thou 
 Against God only ; I against God and thee ; 
 And to the place of judgement will return, 
 There with my cries imp6rtune Heaven ; that all 
 The sentence, from thy head removed, may light
 
 322 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 On me, sole cause to thee of all this woej 
 Me, me only, just object of his ire ! 
 
 She ended weeping ; and her lowly plight, 
 Immoveable, till peace obtained from fault 
 Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought 
 Commiseration : soon his heart relented 
 Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight, 
 Now at his feet submissive in distress j 
 Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking, 
 His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid : 
 As one disarmed, his anger all he lost, 
 And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon. 
 
 Unwary, and too desirous, as before, 
 So now of what thou know'st not, who desir'st 
 The punishment all on thyself ; alas ! 
 Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain 
 His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet least part, 
 And my displeasure bear'st so ill. If prayers 
 Could alter high decrees, I to that place 
 Would speed before thee, and be louder heard, 
 That on my head all might be visited j 
 Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven, 
 To me committed, and by me exposed. 
 But rise 5 let us no more contend, nor blame 
 Each other, blamed enough elsewhere ; but strive 
 In offices of love, how we may lighten 
 Each other's burden, in our share of woe j 
 Since this day's death denounced, if aught I see, 
 Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced, evil j 
 A long day's dying, to augment our pain; 
 And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 323 
 
 To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied. 
 Adam, by sad experiment I know 
 How little weight my words with thee can find, 
 Found so erroneous ; thence by just event 
 Found so unfortunate : nevertheless, 
 Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place 
 Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain 
 Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart 
 Living or dying, from thee I will not hide 
 What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen, 
 Tending to some relief of our extremes, 
 Or end; though sharp and sad, yet tolerable, 
 As in our evils, and of easier choice. 
 If care of our descent perplex us most, 
 Which must be born to certain woe, devoured 
 By Death at last ; and miserable it is 
 To be to others cause of misery, 
 Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring 
 Into this cursed world a woeful race, 
 That after wretched life must be at last 
 Food for so foul a monster ; in thy power 
 It lies, yet ere conception to prevent 
 The race unblest, to being yet unbegot. 
 Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death 
 Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two 
 Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw. 
 But if thou judge it hard and difficult, 
 Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain 
 From love's due rights, nuptial embraces sweet ; 
 And with desire to languish without hope, 
 Before the present object languishing
 
 324 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. 
 
 With like desire ; which would be misery 
 And torment less than none of what we dread; 
 Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free 
 From what we fear for both, let us make short, 
 Let us seek death; or, he not found, supply 
 With our own hands his office on ourselves : 
 Why stand we longer shivering under fears, 
 That show no end but death, and have the power, 
 Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, 
 Destruction with destruction to destroy ? 
 
 She ended here, or vehement despair 
 Broke off the rest ; so much of death her thoughts 
 Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale. 
 But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed, 
 To better hopes his more attentive mind 
 Labouring had raised; and thus to Eve replied. 
 
 Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems 
 To argue in thee something more sublime 
 And excellent, than what thy mind contemns ; 
 But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes 
 That excellence thought in thee ; and implies, 
 Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret 
 For loss of life and pleasure overloved. 
 Or if thou covet death, as utmost end 
 Qf misery, so thinking to evade 
 The penalty pronounced ; doubt not but God 
 Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so 
 To be forestalled ; much more I fear lest death, 
 So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain 
 We are by doom to pay; rather, such acts 
 Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 325 
 
 To make death in us live : then let us seek 
 Some safer resolution, which methinks 
 I have in view, calling to mind with heed 
 Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise 
 The Serpent's head ; piteous amends ! unless 
 Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe, 
 Satan ; who, in the serpent, hath contrived 
 Against us this deceit : to crush his head 
 Would be revenge indeed ! which will be lost 
 By death brought on ourselves, or childless days 
 Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe 
 Shall 'scape his punishment ordained, and we 
 Instead shall double ours upon our heads. 
 No more be mentioned then of violence 
 Against ourselves ; and wilful barrenness, 
 That cuts us off from hope ; and savours only 
 Rancour and pride, impatience and despite, 
 Reluctance against God and his just yoke 
 Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild 
 And gracious temper he both heard, and judged, 
 Without wrath or reviling; we expected 
 Immediate dissolution, which we thought 
 Was meant by death that day; when lo! to thee 
 Pains only in child-bearing were foretold, 
 And bringing forth ; soon recompensed with joy, 
 Fruit of thy womb : on me the curse aslope 
 Glanced on the ground ; with labour I must earn 
 My bread ; what harm ? Idleness had been worse ; 
 My labour will sustain me ; and, lest cold 
 Or heat should injure us, his timely care 
 Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands
 
 326 PARADISE LOST. BOOK X, 
 
 Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged j 
 How much more, if we pray him, will his ear 
 Be open, and his heart to pity incline, 
 And teach us further by what means to shun 
 The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow ! 
 Which now the sky, with various face, begins 
 To show us in this mountain ; while the winds 
 Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks 
 Of these fair spreading trees ; which bids us seek 
 Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish 
 Our limbs benummed, ere this diurnal star 
 Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams 
 Reflected may with matter sere foment ; 
 Or, by collision of two bodies, grind 
 The air attrite to fire ; as late the clouds 
 Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their shock, 
 Tine the slant lightning ; whose thwart flame, dri- 
 ven down, 
 
 Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine ; 
 And sends a comfortable heat from far, 
 Which might supply the sun : such fire to use, 
 And what may else be remedy or cure 
 To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought, 
 He will instruct us praying, and of grace 
 Beseeching him ; so as we need not fear 
 To pass commodiously this life, sustained 
 By him with many comforts, till we end 
 In dust, our final rest and native home. 
 What better can we do, than, to the place 
 Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall 
 Before him reverent 3 and there confess
 
 BOOK X. PARADISE LOST. 327 
 
 Humbly our faults, and pardon beg; with tears 
 Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air 
 Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign 
 Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek? 
 Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn 
 From his displeasure ; in whose look serene, 
 When angry most he seemed and most severe, 
 What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone ? 
 
 So spake our father penitent ; nor Eve 
 Felt less remorse : they, forthwith to the place 
 Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell 
 Before him reverent j and both confessed 
 Humbly their faults, and pardon begged j with tears 
 Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air 
 Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign 
 Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek. 
 
 END OF THE TENTH BOOK. 
 
 i 
 J
 
 THE 
 
 ELEVENTH BOOK 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first 
 parents now repenting, and intercedes for them : God accepts 
 them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise ; 
 sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them ; 
 but first to reveal to Adam future things : Michael's coming 
 down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs ; he discerns 
 Michael's approach ; goes out to meet him ; the Angel de- 
 nounces their departure. Eve's Lamentation. Adam pleads, 
 but submits : the Angel leads him up to a high hill ; sets be- 
 fore him in vision what shall happen till the Flood.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK XI. 
 
 THUS they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood 
 
 Praying ; for from the mercy-seat above 
 
 Prevenient grace descending had removed 
 
 The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh 
 
 Regenerate grow instead ; that sighs now breathed 
 
 Unutterable ; which the Spirit of prayer 
 
 Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier 
 
 flight 
 
 Than loudest oratory : yet their port 
 Not of mean suitors ; nor important less 
 Seemed their petition, than when the ancient pair 
 In fables old, less ancient yet than these, 
 Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore 
 The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine 
 Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers 
 Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious wind 
 Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they passed 
 Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then clad
 
 332 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 With incense, where the golden altar fumed, 
 By their great Intercessour, came in sight 
 Before the Father's throne : them the glad Son 
 Presenting, thus to intercede began. 
 
 See, Father, what first-fruits on earth are sprung 
 From thy implanted grace in Man j these sighs 
 And prayers, which in this golden censer, mixed 
 With incense, I thy priest before thee bring ; 
 Fruits of more pleasing savour, from thy seed 
 Sown with contrition in his heart, than those 
 Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees 
 Of Paradise could have produced, ere fallen 
 From innocence. Now therefore, bend thine ear 
 To supplication j hear his sighs, though mute j 
 Unskilful with what words to pray, let me 
 Interpret for him ; me, his advocate 
 And propitiation ; all his works on me, 
 Good, or not good, ingraft ; my merit those 
 Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay. 
 Accept me 3 and, in me, from these receive 
 The smell of peace toward mankind : let him live 
 Before thee reconciled, at least his days 
 Numbered, though sad; till death, his doom, 
 
 (which I 
 
 To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,) 
 To better life shall yield him : where with me 
 All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss j 
 Made one with me, as I with thee am one. 
 
 To whom the Father, without cloud, serene. 
 All thy request for Man, accepted Son, 
 Obtain ; all thy request was my decree :
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 333 
 
 But, longer in that Paradise to dwell, 
 
 The law I gave to Nature him forbids : 
 
 Those pure immortal elements, that know 
 
 No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul, 
 
 Eject him, tainted now ; and purge him off, 
 
 As a distemper, gross, to air as gross, 
 
 And mortal food ; as may dispose him best 
 
 For dissolution wrought by sin, that first 
 
 Distempered all things, and of incorrupt 
 
 Corrupted. I, at first, with two fair gifts 
 
 Created him endowed ; with happiness, 
 
 And immortality: that fondly lost, 
 
 This other served but to eternize woe ; 
 
 Till I provided death : so death becomes 
 
 His final remedy; and, after life, 
 
 Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined 
 
 By faith and faithful works, to second life, 
 
 Waked in the renovation of the just, 
 
 Resigns him up with Heaven and Earth renewed. 
 
 But let us call to synod all the Blest, 
 
 Through Heaven's wide bounds : from them I will 
 
 not hide 
 
 My judgements; how with mankind I proceed, 
 As how with peccant Angels late they saw, 
 And in their state, though firm, stood more con- 
 firmed. 
 
 He ended, and the Son gave signal high 
 To the bright minister that watched; he blew 
 His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps 
 When God descended, and perhaps once more 
 To sound at general doom. The angelick blast
 
 334 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 Filled all the regions : from their blissful bowers 
 
 Of amarantine shade, fountain or spring, 
 
 By the waters of life, where'er they sat 
 
 In fellowships of joy, the sons of light 
 
 Hasted, resorting to the summons high j 
 
 And took their seats ; till from his throne supreme 
 
 The Almighty thus pronounced his sovran will. 
 
 O Sons, 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 j 
 Take to thee from among the Cherubim 
 Thy choice of flaming warriours, 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 remorse drive out the sinful pair; 
 From hallowed ground the unholy ; and denounce 
 To them, and to their progeny, from thence
 
 BOOK XI, PARADISE LOST. 335 
 
 Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint 
 
 At the sad sentence rigorously urged, 
 
 (For I behold them softened, and with tears 
 
 Bewailing their excess,) all terrour hide. 
 
 If patiently thy bidding they obey, 
 
 Dismiss them not disconsolate j reveal 
 
 To Adam what shall come in future days, 
 
 As I shall thee enlighten j 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, 
 
 Cherubick 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 
 
 To Spirits foul, and all my trees their prey ; 
 
 With whose stolen fruit Man once more to delude. 
 
 He ceased j and the arch-angelick 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 drouse, 
 Charmed with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed 
 Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Mean while, 
 To re-salute the world with sacred light, 
 Leucothea waked ; and with fresh dews imbalmed 
 The earth ; when Adam and first matron Eve 
 Had ended now their orisons, and found 
 Strength added from above j new hope to spring
 
 336 PABADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 Out of despair; joy, but with fear yet linked; 
 Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewed. 
 
 Eve, easily may faith admit, that all 
 The good which we enjoy from Heaven descends; 
 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 ; 
 Kneeled, and before him humbled all my heart ; 
 Methought I saw him placable and mild, 
 Bending his ear ; 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 meek. 
 Ill-worthy I such title should belong 
 To me transgressour ; 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 favourable thou,
 
 BOOK XI, PARADISE LOST. 337 
 
 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 more, 
 All unconcerned with our unrest, begins 
 Her rosy progress smiling : let us forth j 
 I never from thy side henceforth to stray, 
 Where'er our day's work lies, though now enjoined 
 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 
 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 aery 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 hindj 
 Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight. 
 Adam observed, and with his eye the chase 
 Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve thus spake. 
 
 O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh, 
 Which Heaven, by these mute signs in Nature, 
 
 shows 
 
 Forerunners of his purpose ; or to warn 
 Us, haply too secure, of our discharge 
 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, >
 
 338 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 And thither must return, and be no more ? 
 
 Why else this double object in our sight 
 
 Of flight 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 ? 
 
 He erred not ; for by this the heavenly bands 
 Down from a sky of jasper lighted now 
 In Paradise, and on a hill made halt ; 
 A glorious apparition, had not doubt 
 And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam's eye. 
 Not that more glorious, when the Angels met 
 Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw 
 The field pavilioned with his guardians bright ; 
 Nor that, which on the flaming mount appeared 
 In Dothan, covered with a camp of fire, 
 Against the Syrian king, who to surprise 
 One man, assassin-like, had levied war, 
 War unproclaimed. The princely Hierarch 
 In their bright stand there left his Powers, to seise 
 Possession of the garden ; he alone, 
 To find where Adam sheltered, took his way, 
 Not unperceived of Adam ; who to Eve, 
 While the great visitant approached, thus spake. 
 
 Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps 
 Of us will soon determine, or impose 
 New laws to be observed ; for I descry, 
 From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill , 
 One of the heavenly host; and, by his gait,
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 339 
 
 None of the meanest ; some great Potentate 
 Or of the Thrones above; such majesty 
 Invests him coining ! yet not terrible, 
 That I should fear; nor sociably mild, 
 As Raphael, that I should much confide; 
 But solemn and sublime; whom not to offend, 
 With reverence I must meet, and thou retire. 
 
 He ended ; and the Arch- Angel soon drew nigh, 
 Not in his shape celestial, but as man 
 Clad to meet man ; over his lucid arms 
 A military vest of purple flowed, 
 Livelier than Meliboean, or the grain 
 Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old 
 In time of truce; Iris had dipped the woof; 
 His starry helm unbuckled showed him prime 
 In manhood where youth ended; by his side, 
 As in a glistering zodiack, hung the sword, 
 Satan's dire dread; and in his hand the spear. 
 Adam bowed low ; he, kingly, from his state 
 Inclined not, but his coming thus declared. 
 
 Adam, Heaven's high behest no preface needs: 
 Sufficient that thy prayers are heard ; and Death, 
 Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress, 
 Defeated of his seisure many days 
 Given thee of grace ; wherein thou mayst repent, 
 And one bad act with many deeds well done 
 Mayst cover : well may then thy ^ord, appeased, 
 Redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim; 
 But longer in this Paradise to dwell 
 Permits not : to remove thee I am come, 
 
 2 2
 
 340 PARADISE LOST, BOOK XI. 
 
 And send thec from the garden forth to till 
 The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil. 
 
 He added not ; for Adam at the news 
 Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood, 
 That all his senses bound; Eve, who unseen 
 Yet all had heard, with audible lament 
 Discovered soon the place of her retire. 
 
 O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death ! 
 Must I thus leave thee, Paradise ? thus leave 
 Thee, native soil ! these happy walks and shacks, 
 Fit haunt of Gods ? where I had hope to spend, 
 Quiet though sad, the respite of that day 
 That must be mortal to us both. O flowers, 
 That never will in other climate grow, 
 My early visitation, and my last 
 
 . T , , , , 
 
 At even, which 1 bred up with tender hand 
 From the first opening bud, and gave ye names ! 
 Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank 
 Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount ? 
 Thee lastly, nuptial bower ! by me adorned 
 With what to sight or smell was sweet ! from thee 
 How shall I part, and whither wander down 
 Into a lower world 5 to this obscure 
 And wild ? how shall we breathe in other air 
 Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits ? 
 Whom thus the Angel interrupted mild. 
 Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign 
 What justly thou hast lost, nor set thy heart, 
 Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine : 
 Thy going is not loaely 3 with thee goes
 
 BOOK Xf. PARADISE LOST. 341 
 
 Thy husband ; him to follow thou art bound j 
 Where he abides, think there thy native soil. 
 
 Adam, by this from the cold sudden damp 
 Recovering, and his scattered spirits returned, 
 To Michael thus his humble words addressed. 
 
 Celestial, whether among the Thrones, or named 
 Of them the highest ; for such of shape may seem 
 Prince above princes ! gently hast thou told 
 Thy message, which might else in telling wound, 
 And in performing end us ; what besides 
 Of sorrow, and dejection, and despair, 
 Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring, 
 
 > ' i ii * F 
 
 Departure from this happy place, our sweet 
 
 Recess, and only consolation left 
 
 17 ! i 11 i " :|( 'i' :i 
 
 t amiliar to our eyes ! all places else 
 
 , , . , , , , di II OltJit ("I'/ vllli'i .'!/ 
 
 Inhospitable appear, and desolate ; 
 
 Nor knowing us, nor known : and, if by prayer 
 
 Incessant I could hope to change the will 
 
 Of Him who all things can, I would not cease 
 
 To weary him with my assiduous cries : 
 
 But prayer against his absolute decree 
 
 No more avails than breath against the wind, 
 
 Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth : 
 
 Therefore to his great bidding I submit. 
 
 This most afflicts me, that, departing hence, 
 
 As from his face I shall be hid, deprived 
 
 His blessed countenance : here I could frequent 
 
 With worship place by place where he vouchsafed 
 
 Presence Divine ; and to my sons relate, 
 
 ' On this mount he appeared ; under this tree 
 
 Stood visible j among these pines his voice
 
 342 PARAD16E LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 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 lus're f oin the brook, in memory, 
 
 Or monument to ages; and thereon 
 
 Offer sweet-sn:e;ling gums, and fruits, and flowers : 
 
 In yonder nether worid where shall I seek 
 
 His bright appearances, or foot-step 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 know'st Heaven his, and all the Earth; 
 Not this rock only; his Omnipresence fills 
 Land, sea, and air, a?id 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 
 Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread 
 All generations ; and had hither come 
 From ail 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 be found alike 
 Present ; and of his presence many a sign 
 Still following thee, still compassing thee round
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 343 
 
 With goodness and paternal love, his face 
 Express, and of his steps the track divine. 
 Which that thou mayst 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 inured 
 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'stj 
 As once thou slept'st, while she to life was formed. 
 
 To whom thus Adam gratefully replied. 
 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 earn 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 Adain, in the wilderness ;
 
 344 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI, 
 
 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 -w<! 
 
 Of mightiest empire,, from the destined walls 
 
 Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, . *n . 
 
 And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, 
 
 To Paquin of Sinaean kings ; and thence 
 
 To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul, 
 
 Down to the golden Chersonese j 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 maritim kings 
 
 Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind, 
 
 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 Tremisenj 
 
 On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway 
 
 The world : in spirit perhaps he also saw 
 
 Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume, 
 
 And Gusco 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 film removed, 
 
 Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight 
 
 Had bred - } then purged with euphrasy and rue
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 345 
 
 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 behold 
 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 j 
 I' the midst an altar as the land-mark stood, 
 Rustick, 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, 
 More 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 rights performed: 
 His offering soon propitious fire from Heaven 
 Consumed with nimble glance, and grateful steam j 
 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
 
 346 PAKADIS* LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 That beat out life ; he fell ; and, deadly pale, 
 Groaned out his soul with gushing blood effused. 
 Much at that sight was Adam in his heart 
 Dismayed, and thus in haste to the 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 coine 
 Out of thy loins ; the unjust the just hath slain, 
 For envy that his brother's offering found 
 From Heaven acceptance ; but the bloody fact 
 Will be avenged 5 and the other's faith, approved. 
 Lose no reward ; though here thou see him die, 
 Rolling 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 terronr, foul and ugly to behold, 
 Horrid to think, how horrible to feel ! 
 
 To whom thus Michael. Death thou hast 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 the entrance, than within. 
 Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die; 
 By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more < O T 
 In meats and drinks, which on the earth shall bring 
 Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew 
 Before thee shall appear ; that thou mayst know 
 What misery the inabstinence of Eve
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST.' 347 
 
 Shall bring on Men. Immediately a place 
 Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark ; 
 A lazar-house it seemed ; wherein were laid 
 Numbers of all diseased ; all maladies 
 Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualm.-. 
 Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, 
 Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, 
 Intestine stone and ulcer, colick-pangs, 
 Demoniack phrenzy, moaping melancholy, 
 And moon-struck 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 <ir unilioft 
 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 -irir. f 
 Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but weptj'-ngj 1O 
 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> / e'> cnrrjj aid c 
 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 '"!< rtsii 
 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
 
 348 PAEADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 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 Michael, then 
 Forsook them, when themselves they vilified 
 To serve ungoverned Appetite ; and took 
 His image whom they served, a brutish vice, ., r ,n 
 Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. 
 Therefore so abject is their punishment, 
 Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own j 
 Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced ; , m 
 
 While they pervert pure Nature's healthful rule*. _j^ 
 To loathsome sickness ; worthily, since they 
 God's image did not reverence in themselves. 
 
 I yield it just,, said Adam, and submit. , /OJI ( JuA 
 But is there yet no other way, besides 
 These painful passages, how we may come ( /j 
 
 To death, and mix with our connatural dust? ^ 
 
 There is, said Michael, if thou w r ell observe ^ ^ 
 The rule of Not too much ; by temperance 
 In what thou eat'st and drink' st 3 seeking 
 
 thence f i( j 
 
 Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight, 
 Till many years over thy head return : 
 So mayst thou live ; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop 
 Into thy mother's lap j or be with ease 
 Gathered, not harshly plucked $ for death mature :
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 349 
 
 This is Old Age ; but then, thou must outlive 
 Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty : which will 
 
 change ''' M ' ^tm-jfiitr 
 
 To withered, weak; and gray ; thy senses then, 
 Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego, 
 To what thou hast ; Md, for the air of youth, 
 Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign 
 A melancholy damp of cold 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 j 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. 
 
 Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou Kv'st 
 Live 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 stJm'e, Hveite herds 
 Of cattle grazing; others, Wh'en^thV&tmd 
 Of instruments, that made mel6d!6us chirae,' 
 Was heard, of harp and organ ; and, who moved 
 Their stops and chords, was seen ; his vblant touch, 
 Instinct through all proportions, low a'ttd 'high, 
 Fled and pursued transverse the resonant 1 ftfguU '" 
 In other part stood one who, at the forge' 
 Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass 
 Had melted, (whether found whe^e ca&iaTftrfc 11 
 Had wasted woods on
 
 350 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 Down to the veins of earth ; thence gliding hot 
 To some cave's mouth ; or whether washed by stream 
 From underground;) the liquid ore he drained 
 Into fit moulds prepared ; from which he formed 
 First his own tools ; then, what might else be wrought 
 Fusil or graven in metal. After these, 
 But on the hither side, a different sort 
 From the high neighbouring hills, which was their 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 preserve 
 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 Kked ; and each his liking chose ; 
 And now of love they treat, till the evening-star, 
 Love's harbinger, appeared; then, all in heat 
 They light the nuptial torch, and bid invoke 
 Hymen, then first to marriage rites invoked : 
 With feast and musick all the tents resound. 
 Such happy interview, and fair event 
 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 ;
 
 BOOK XI. , PARADISE LOST. 351 
 
 Much better seems this vision, and more hope 
 Of peaceful days portends, than those two pastj 
 Those were of hate and death, or pain much worse j 
 Here Nature seems fulfilled in all her ends. 
 
 To whom thus Michael. Judge not what is best 
 By pleasure, though to nature seeming meetj 
 Created, as thou art, to nobler end 
 Holy and pure, conformity divine. ;_,( ,o n 
 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, inventers rare ; 
 Unmindful of their Maker, though his Spirit moli:):- 
 Taught them; but they his gifts acknowledged none. 
 Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget } i |<, , 
 For that fair female troop thou saw'st, that seemed 
 Of Goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay, 
 Yet empty of all good wherein consist^ L! ,, M ft rwp ;.dT 
 Woman's domestick honour and chief praise,j(n w 
 Bred only and completed to the taste , it n'jjuo 
 Of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance* ,>! i.-> //on bo/ 
 To dress, and troll the tongue, and roll the ey : jj^oJ 
 To these that sober race of men, whose lives. 'yd 
 Religious titled them the sons of God, > ,il , . 
 Shall yield up all their virtue, all their fame 
 Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles '<w 
 Of these fair atheists; and now swim in joy, 
 Erelong to swim at large ; and laugh, for which (>n/ 
 The world erelong a world of tears must weep. 
 
 To whom thus Adam, of short joy bereft. 
 O pity and shame, that they, who to live well
 
 352 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 Entered so fair, should turn aside to tread 
 Paths indirect, or in the mid way faint ! 
 But still I see the tenour of Man's woe 
 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 superiour 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 j 
 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 fly, 
 But call in aid, which makes a bloody fray ; 
 With cruel tournament the squadrons join; 
 Where cattle pastured late, now scattered lies 
 With carcasses and arms the ensanguined field, 
 Deserted : others to a city strong 
 Lay siege, encamped ; by batter)', scale, and mine, 
 Assaulting; others from the wall defend 
 With dart and javelin, stones, and sulphurous fire ; 
 On each hand slaughter, and gigantick deeds. 
 In other part the sceptered heralds call
 
 BOOK XI. . PARADISE LOST. 353 
 
 To council, in the city-gates j anon 
 
 Gray-headed men and grave, with warriours mixed, 
 
 Assemble, and harangues are heard ; but soon, 
 
 In factious opposition ; till at last, 
 
 Of middle age one rising, eminent 
 
 In wise deport, spake much of right and wrong, 
 
 Of justice, of religion, truth, and peace, 
 
 And judgement from above : him old and young 
 
 Exploded, and had seized with violent hands, 
 
 Had not a cloud descending snatched him thence 
 
 Unseen amid the throng : so violence 
 
 Proceeded, and oppression, and sword-law, 
 
 Through all the plain, and refuge none was found. 
 
 Adam was all in tears, and to his guide 
 
 Lamenting turned full sad : O ! what are these, 
 
 Death's ministers, not men ? who thus deal death 
 
 Inhumanly to men, and multiply 
 
 Ten thousandfold the sin of him who slew 
 
 His brother : for of whom such massacre 
 
 Make they, but of their brethren ; men of men ? 
 
 But who was that just man, whom had not Heaven 
 
 Rescued, had in his righteousness been lost? 
 
 To whom thus Michael. These are the product,, n 
 Of those ill-mated marriages thou saw'st ; 
 Where good with bad were matched, who of 
 
 themselves 
 
 Abhor to join ; and, by imprudence mixed, 
 Produce prodigious births of body or mind. 
 Such were these giants, men of high renown ; 
 For in those days might only shall be admired, 
 And valour and heroick virtue called j . nfe 
 
 2A
 
 354 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 To overcome in battle, and subdue 
 
 Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite 
 
 Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch 
 
 Of human glory ; and for glory done 
 
 Of triumph, to be styled great conquerours 
 
 Patrons of mankind, Gods, and sons of Gods ; 
 
 Destroyers rightlier called, and plagues of men. 
 
 Thus fame shall be achieved, renown on earth j 
 
 And what most merits fame, in silence hid. 
 
 But he, the seventh from thee, whom thou beheld'st 
 
 The only righteous in a world perverse, 
 
 And therefore hated, therefore so beset 
 
 With foes, for daring single to be just, 
 
 And utter odious truth, that God would come 
 
 To judge them with his Saints: him the Most High 
 
 Rapt in a balmy cloud with winged steeds 
 
 Did, as thou saw'st, receive, to walk with God 
 
 High in salvation and the climes of bliss, 
 
 Exempt from death} to show thee what reward 
 
 Awaits the good ; the rest what punishment 5 
 
 Which now direct thine eyes and soon behold. 
 
 He looked, and saw the face of things quite changed ; 
 The brazen throat of war had ceased to roar j 
 All now was turned to jollity and game, 
 To luxury and riot, feast and dance ; 
 Marrying or prostituting, as befel, 
 Rape or adultery, where passing fair 
 Allured them ; thence from cups to civil broils. 
 At length a reverend sire among them came, 
 And of their doings great dislike declared, 
 And testified against their ways ; he oft
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 355 
 
 Frequented their assemblies, whereso met, 
 
 Triumphs or festivals ; and to them preached 
 
 Conversion and repentance, as to souls 
 
 In prison, under judgements imminent: 
 
 But all in vain : which when he saw, he ceased 
 
 Contending, and removed his tents far off; 
 
 Then, from the mountain hewing timber tall, 
 
 Began to build a vessel of huge bulk ; 
 
 Measured by cubit, length, and breadth, and highth ; 
 
 Smeared round with pitch ; and in the side a door 
 
 Contrived; and of provisions laid in large, 
 
 For man and beast : when lo, a wonder strange ! 
 
 Of every beast, and bird, and insect small, 
 
 Came sevens, and pairs ; and entered in as taught 
 
 Their order : last the sire and his three sons, 
 
 With their four wives ; and God made fast the door. 
 
 Mean while the south-wind rose, and, with black 
 
 wings 
 
 Wide-hovering, all the clouds together drove 
 From under Heaven ; the hills to their supply 
 Vapour, and exhalation dusk and moist, 
 Sent up amain ; and now the thickened sky 
 Like a dark cieling stood , down rushed the rain 
 Impetuous; and continued, till the earth 
 No more was seen .- the floating vessel swum 
 Uplifted, and secure with iieaked prow 
 Rode tilting o'er the waves ; all dwellings else 
 Flood overwhelmed, and them with all their pomp 
 Deep under water rolled ; sea covered sea, 
 Sea without shore ; and in their palaces, 
 Where luxury late reigned, sea-monsters whelped 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 And stabled ; of mankind, so numerous late, 
 All left, in one small bottom swum imbarked. 
 How didst thou grieve then, Adam, to behold 
 The end of all thy offspring, end so sad, 
 Depopulation ! Thee another flood, 
 Of tears and sorrow a flood, thee also drowned, 
 And sunk thee as thy sons ; till, gently reared 
 By the Angel, on thy feet thou stood'st at last, 
 Though comfortless ; as when a father mourns 
 His children, all in view destroyed at once; 
 And scarce to the Angel utter'dst thus thy plaint. 
 
 O visions ill foreseen ! Better had I 
 Lived ignorant of future ! so had borne 
 My part of evil only, each day's lot 
 Enough to bear ; those now, that were dispensed 
 The burden of many ages, on me light 
 At once, by my foreknowledge gaining birth 
 Abortive, to torment me ere their being, 
 With thought that they must be. Let no man seek 
 Henceforth to be foretold, what shall befall 
 Him or his children ; evil he may be sure, 
 Which neither his foreknowing can prevent ; 
 And he the future evil shall no less 
 In apprehension than in substance feel, 
 Grievous to bear : but that care now is past, 
 Man is not whom to warn : those few escaped 
 Famine and anguish will at last consume, 
 Wandering that watery desert : I had hope, 
 When violence was ceased, and war on earth, 
 All would have then gone well 5 peace would have 
 crowned
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 357 
 
 With length of happy days the race of Man ; 
 But I was far deceived ; for now I see 
 Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste. 
 How comes it thus ? unfold, celestial Guide, 
 And whether here the race of Man will end. 
 
 To whom thus Michael. Those, whom last thou 
 
 saw'st 
 
 In triumph and luxurious wealth, are they 
 First seen in acts of prowess eminent 
 And great exploits, but of true virtue void ; 
 Who, having spilt much blood, and done much waste 
 Subduing nations, and achieved thereby 
 Fame in the world, high titles, and rich prey ; 
 Shall change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth, 
 Surfeit, and lust ; till wantonness and pride 
 Raise out of friendship hostile deeds in peace. 
 The conquered also, and enslaved by war, 
 Shall, with their freedom lost, all virtue lose 
 And fear of God j from whom their piety feigned 
 In sharp contest of battle found no aid 
 Against invaders ; therefore, cooled in zeal, 
 Thenceforth shall practise how to live secure, 
 Worldly or dissolute, on what their lords 
 Shall leave them to enjoy ; for the earth shall bear 
 More than enough, that temperance may be tried : 
 So all shall turn degenerate, all depraved ; 
 Justice and temperance, truth and faith, forgot j 
 One man except, the only son of light 
 In a dark age, against example good, 
 Against allurement, custom, and a world 
 Offended : fearless of reproach and scorn,
 
 358 PA.RADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 Or violence, he of their wicked ways 
 
 Shall them admonish ; and before them set 
 
 The paths of righteousness, how much more safe 
 
 And full of peace ; denouncing wrath to come 
 
 On their impenitence ; and shall return 
 
 Of them derided, but of God observed 
 
 The one just man alive ; by his command 
 
 Shall build a wonderous ark, as thou beheld' st, 
 
 To save himself, and houshold, from amidst 
 
 A world devote to universal wrack. 
 
 No sooner he, with them of man and beast 
 
 Select for life, shall in the ark be lodged 
 
 And sheltered round j but all the cataracts 
 
 Of Heaven set open on the Earth shall pour 
 
 Rain, day and night ; all fountains of the deep, 
 
 Broke up, shall heave the ocean to usurp 
 
 Beyond all bounds j till inundation rise 
 
 Above the highest hills : then shall this mount 
 
 Of Paradise by might of waves be moved 
 
 Out of his place, pushed by the horned flood, 
 
 With all his verdure spoiled, and trees adrift, 
 
 Down the great river to the opening gulf, 
 
 And there take root an island salt and bare, 
 
 The haunt of seals, and ores, and sea-mews' clang : 
 
 To teach thee that God attributes to place 
 
 No sanctity, if none be thither brought 
 
 By men who there frequent, or therein dwell. 
 
 And now, what further shall ensue, behold. 
 
 He looked, and saw the ark hull on the flood, 
 Which now abated 5 for the clouds were fled, 
 Driven by a keen north-wind, that, blowing dry,
 
 BOOK XI. PARADISE LOST. 359 
 
 Wrinkled the face of deluge, as decayed; 
 And the clear sun on his wide watery glass 
 Gazed hot, and of the fresh wave largely drew, 
 As after thirst ; which made their flowing shrink 
 From standing lake to tripping ebb, that stole 
 With soft foot towards the deep ; who now had stopped 
 His sluces, as the Heaven his windows shut. 
 The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground, 
 Fast on the top of some high mountain fixed. 
 And now the tops of hills, as rocks, appear j 
 With clamour thence the rapid currents drive, 
 Towards the retreating sea, their furious tide. 
 Forthwith from out the ark a raven flies, 
 And after him, the surer messenger, 
 A dove sent forth once and again to spy 
 Green tree or ground, whereon his foot may light : 
 The second time returning, in his bill 
 An olive-leaf he brings, pacifick sign : 
 Anon dry ground appears, and from his ark 
 The ancient sire descends, with all his train j 
 Then with uplifted hands, and eyes devout, 
 Grateful to Heaven, over his head beholds 
 A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow 
 Conspicuous with three listed colours gay, 
 Betokening peace from God, and covenant new. 
 Whereat the heart of Adam, erst so sad, 
 Greatly rejoiced ; and thus his joy broke forth. 
 
 O thou, who future things canst represent 
 As present, heavenly Instructor ! I revive 
 At this last sight; assured that Man shall live, 
 With all the creatures, and their seed preserve.
 
 360 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. 
 
 Far less I now lament for one whole world 
 
 Of wicked sons destroyed, than I rejoice 
 
 For one man found so perfect, and so just, 
 
 That God vouchsafes to raise another world 
 
 From him, and all his anger to forget. 
 
 But say, what mean those coloured streaks in Heaven 
 
 Distended, as the brow of God appeased ? 
 
 Or serve they, as a flowery verge, to bind 
 
 The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud, 
 
 Lest it again dissolve, and shower the earth ? 
 
 To whom the Arch-Angel. Dextrously thou aim'st ; 
 So willingly doth God remit his ire, 
 Though late repenting him of Man depraved ; 
 Grieved at his heart, when looking down he saw 
 The whole earth filled with violence, and all flesh 
 Corrupting each their way ; yet, those removed, 
 Such grace shall one just man find in his sight, 
 That he relents, not to blot out mankind j 
 And makes a covenant never to destroy 
 The earth again by flood j nor let the sea 
 Surpass his bounds ; nor rain to drown the world, 
 With man therein or beast j but, when he brings 
 Over the earth a cloud, will therein set 
 His triple-coloured bow, whereon to look, 
 And call to mind his covenant : day and night, 
 Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost, 
 Shall hold their course j till fire purge all things new. 
 Both Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell. 
 
 END OF THE ELEVENTH BOOK,
 
 THE 
 
 TWELFTH BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 PARADISE LOST.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 The Angel Michael continues, from the Flood, to relate what shall 
 succeed; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees 
 to explain, who that Seed of the Woman shall be, which was 
 promised Adam and Eve in the Fall; his incarnation, death, re- 
 surrection, and ascension ; the state of the church till his second 
 oming. Adam, greatly satisfied and recomforted by these re- 
 lations and promises, descends the hill with Michael; wakens 
 Eve, who all this while had slept, but with gentle dreams com- 
 posed to quietness of mind and submission. Michael in either 
 hand leads them out of Paradise, the fiery sword waving behind 
 them, and the Cherubim taking their stations to guard the 
 place.
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK XII. 
 
 As one who in his journey bates at noon, 
 
 Though bent on speed ; so here the Arch- Angel paused 
 
 Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored, 
 
 If Adam aught perhaps might interpose ; 
 
 Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes. 
 
 Thus thou hast seen one world begin, and end ; 
 And Man, as from a second stock, proceed. 
 Much thou hast yet to see j but I perceive 
 Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine 
 Must needs impair and weary human sense : 
 Henceforth what is to come I will relate ; 
 Thou therefore give due audience, and attend. 
 
 This second source of Men, while yet but few, 
 And while the dread of judgement past remains 
 Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity, 
 With some regard to what is just and right 
 Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace, 
 Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
 
 364 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XII. 
 
 Corn, wine, and oil ; and, from the herd or flock, 
 
 Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid, 
 
 ,7ith large wine-offerings poured, and sacred feast, 
 
 Shall spend their days in joy unblamed 5 and dwell 
 
 Long time in peace, by families and tribes, 
 
 Under paternal rule : till one shall rise 
 
 Of proud ambitious heart ; who, not content 
 
 With fair equality, fraternal state, 
 
 Will arrogate dominion undeserved 
 
 Over his brethren, and quite dispossess 
 
 Concord and law of nature from the earth ; 
 
 Hunting (and men not beasts shall be his game) 
 
 With war, and hostile snare, such as refuse 
 
 Subjection to his empire tyrannous : 
 
 A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled 
 
 Before the Lord ; as in despite of Heaven, 
 
 Or from Heaven, claiming second sovrantyj 
 
 And from rebellion shall derive his name, 
 
 Though of rebellion others he accuse. 
 
 He with a crew, whom like ambition joins 
 
 With him or under him to tyrannize, 
 
 Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find 
 
 The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge 
 
 Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell : 
 
 Of brick, and of that stuff, they cast to build 
 
 A city and tower, whose top may reach to Heaven j 
 
 And get themselves a name ; lest, far dispersed 
 
 In foreign lands, their memory be lost j 
 
 Regardless whether good or evil fame. 
 
 But God, who oft descends to visit men 
 
 Unseen, and through their habitations walks
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 365 
 
 To mark their doings, them beholding soon, 
 Comes down to see their city, ere the tower 
 Obstruct Heaven-towers ; and in derision sets 
 Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase 
 Quite out their native 'language; and, instead, 
 To sow a jangling noise of words unknown : 
 Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud, 
 Among the builders ; each to other calls 
 Not understood ; till hoarse, and all in rage, 
 As mocked they storm : great laughter was in Heaven, 
 And looking down, to see the hubbub strange, 
 And hear the din : thus was the building left 
 Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named. 
 
 Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeased. 
 O execrable son ! so to aspire 
 Above his brethren - } to himself assuming 
 Authority usurped, from God not given : 
 He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, 
 Dominion absolute} that right we hold 
 By his donation ; but man over men 
 He made not lordj such title to himself 
 Reserving, human left from human free. 
 But this usurper his encroachment proud 
 Stays not on Man ; to God his tower intends 
 Siege and defiance : wretched man ! what food 
 Will he convey up thither, to sustain 
 Himself and his rash army; where thin air 
 Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross, 
 And famish him of breath, if not of bread? 
 
 To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorr'st 
 That son, who on the quiet state of men
 
 366 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XII. 
 
 Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue 
 
 Rational liberty 5 yet know withal, 
 
 Since thy original lapse, true liberty 
 
 Is lost, which always with right reason dwells 
 
 Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being : 
 
 Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed, 
 
 Immediately iaordinate desires, 
 
 And upstart passions, catch the government 
 
 From reason j and to servitude reduce 
 
 Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits 
 
 Within himself unworthy powers to reign 
 
 Over free reason, God, in judgement just, 
 
 Subjects him from without to violent lords j 
 
 Who oft as undeservedly enthrall 
 
 His outward freedom : tyranny must be ; 
 
 Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse. 
 
 Yet sometimes nations will decline so low 
 
 From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, 
 
 But justice, and some fatal curse annexed, 
 
 Deprives them of their outward liberty} 
 
 Their inward lost : witness the irreverent son 
 
 Of him who built the ark ; who, for the shame 
 
 Done to his father, heard this heavy curse, 
 
 Servant of servants, on his vicious race. 
 
 Thus will this latter, as the former world, 
 
 Still tend from bad to worse ; till God at last, 
 
 Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw 
 
 His presence from among them, and avert 
 
 His holy eyes j resolving from thenceforth 
 
 To leave them to their own polluted ways ; 
 
 And one peculiar nation to select
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 367 
 
 From all the rest, of whom to be invoked, 
 
 A nation from one faithful man to spring : 
 
 Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, 
 
 Bred up in idol-worship : O, that men 
 
 (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, 
 
 While yet the patriarch lived, who 'scaped the flood, 
 
 As to forsake the living God, and fall 
 
 To worship their own work in wood and stone 
 
 For Gods ! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes 
 
 To call by vision, from his father's house, 
 
 His kindred, and false Gods, into a land 
 
 Which he will show him ; and from him will raise 
 
 A mighty nation ; and upon him shower 
 
 His benediction so, that in his seed 
 
 All nations shall be blest: he straight obeys; 
 
 Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes : 
 
 I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith 
 
 He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native soil, 
 
 Ur of Chaldasa, passing now the ford 
 
 To Haran ; after him a cumbrous train 
 
 Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude ; 
 
 Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth 
 
 With God, who called him, in a land unknown. 
 
 Canaan he now attains; I see his tents 
 
 Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain 
 
 Of Moreh ; there by promise he receives 
 
 Gift to his progeny of all that land, 
 
 From Hamath northward to the Desert south ; 
 
 (Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed j) 
 
 From Hermon east to the great western Sea; 
 
 Mount Hermon, yonder sea; each place behold
 
 368 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XII. 
 
 In prospect, as I point them ; on the shore 
 
 Mount Carmel ; here, the double-founted stream, 
 
 Jordan, true limit eastward ; but his sons 
 
 Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills. 
 
 This ponder, that all nations of the earth 
 
 Shall in his seed be blessed : by that seed 
 
 Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise 
 
 The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon 
 
 Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest, 
 
 Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call, 
 
 A son, and of his son a grand-child, leaves ; 
 
 Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown : 
 
 The grand-child, with twelve sons encreased, departs 
 
 From Canaan, to a land hereafter called 
 
 Egypt, divided by the river Nile 5 
 
 See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths 
 
 Into the sea : to sojourn in that land 
 
 He comes, invited by a younger son 
 
 In time of dearth ; a son, whose worthy deeds 
 
 Raise him to be the second in that realm 
 
 Of Pharaoh : there he dies, and leaves his race 
 
 Growing into a nation, and now grown 
 
 Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks 
 
 To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests 
 
 Too numerous 5 whence of guests he makes them 
 
 slaves 
 
 Inhospitably, and kills their infant males : 
 Till by two brethren (these two brethren call 
 Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim 
 His people from enthralment, they return, 
 With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
 
 BOOK XII. 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 369 
 
 But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies 
 To know their God, or message to regard, 
 Must be compelled by signs and judgements dire ; 
 To blood unshed the rivers must be turned ; 
 Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill 
 With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land ; 
 His cattle must of rot and murren die ; 
 Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss, 
 And all his people ; thunder mixed with hail, 
 Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky, 
 And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls 5 
 What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain, 
 A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down 
 Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green ; 
 Darkness must overshadow all his bounds, 
 Palpable darkness, and blot out three days j 
 Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born 
 Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds 
 The river-dragon tamed at length submits 
 To let his sojourners depart, and oft 
 Humbles his stubborn heart ; but still, as ice 
 More hardened after thaw j till, in his rage 
 Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea 
 Swallows him with his host j but them lets pass, 
 As on dry land, between two crystal walls 5 
 Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand 
 Divided, till his rescued gain their shore : 
 Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend, 
 Though present in his Angel ; who shall go 
 Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire j 
 By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire j 
 
 20
 
 3/0 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK XII. 
 
 To guide them in their journey, and remove 
 
 Behind them, while the obdurate king pursues : 
 
 All night he will pursue 5 but his approach 
 
 Darkness defends between till morning watch ; 
 
 Then through the fiery pillar, and the cloud, 
 
 God looking forth will trouble all his host, 
 
 And craze their chariot-wheels : when by command 
 
 Moses once more his potent rod extends 
 
 Over the sea j the sea his rod obeys ; 
 
 On their embattled ranks the waves return, 
 
 And overwhelm their war: the race elect 
 
 Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance 
 
 Through the wild Desert, not the readiest way ; 
 
 Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed, 
 
 War terrify them inexpert, and fear 
 
 Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather 
 
 Inglorious life with servitude ; for life 
 
 To noble and ignoble is more sweet 
 
 Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on. 
 
 This also shall they gain by their delay 
 
 In the wide wilderness ; there they shall found 
 
 Their government, and their great senate choose 
 
 Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained : 
 
 God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top 
 
 Shall tremble, he descending, will himself 
 
 In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound, 
 
 Ordain them laws ; part, such as appertain 
 
 To civil justice? part, religious rites 
 
 Of sacrifice ; informing them, by types 
 
 And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise 
 
 The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 371 
 
 Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God 
 To mortal ear is dreadful : they beseech 
 That Moses might report to them his will, 
 And terrour cease ; he grants what they besought, 
 Instructed that to God is no access 
 Without Mediator, whose high office now 
 Moses in figure bears ; to introduce 
 One greater, of whose day he shall foretel, 
 And all the Prophets in their age the times 
 Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites 
 Established, such delight hath God in Men 
 Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes 
 Among them to set up his tabernacle ; 
 The Holy One with mortal Men to dwell : 
 By his prescript a sanctuary is framed 
 Of cedar, overlaid with gold ; therein 
 An ark, and in the ark his testimony, 
 The records of his covenant ; over these 
 A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings 
 Of two bright Cherubim ; before liim burn 
 Seven lamps as in a zodiack representing 
 The heavenly fires ; over the tent a cloud 
 Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night; 
 Save when they journey, and at length they come, 
 Conducted by his Angel, to the land 
 Promised to Abraham and his seed: the rest 
 Were long to tell ; how many battles fought ; 
 How many kings destroyed ; and kingdoms won ; 
 Or how the sun shall in mid Heaven stand still 
 A day entire, and night's due course adjourn, 
 Man's voice commanding, ' Sun, in Gibeon stand, 
 
 2u 2
 
 372 PAKADISE LOST. BOOK XII. 
 
 And thou moon in the vale of Aialon, 
 Till Israel overcome !' so call the third 
 From Abraham, son of Isaac ; and from him 
 His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win. 
 
 Here Adam interposed. O sent from Heaven, 
 Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things 
 Thou hast revealed ; those chiefly, which concern 
 Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find 
 Mine eyes true-opening, and my heart much eased ; 
 Erewhile perplexed with thoughts, what would become 
 Of me and all mankind : but now I see 
 His day, in whom all nations shall be blest ; 
 Favour unmerited by me, who sought 
 Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means. 
 This yet 1 apprehend not, why to those 
 Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth 
 So many and so various laws are given ; 
 So many laws argue so many sins 
 Among them ; how can God with such reside ? 
 
 To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that sin 
 Will reign among them, as of thee begot j 
 And therefore was law given them, to evince 
 Their natural pravity, by stirring up 
 Sin against law to fight : that when they see 
 Law can discover sin, but not remove, 
 Save by those shadowy expiations weak, 
 The blood of bulls, and goats, they may conclude 
 Some blood more precious must be paid for Man ; 
 Just for unjust j that, in such righteousness 
 To them by faith imputed, they may find 
 Justification towards God, and peace
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 3/3 
 
 Of conscience ; which the law by ceremonies 
 
 Cannot appease ; nor Man the moral part 
 
 Perform ; and, not performing, cannot live. 
 
 So law appears imperfect ; and but given 
 
 With purpose to resign them, in full time. 
 
 Up to a better covenant; disciplined 
 
 From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit; 
 
 From imposition of strict laws to free 
 
 Acceptance of large grace ; from servile fear 
 
 To filial ; works of law to works of faith. 
 
 And therefore shall not Moses, though of God 
 
 Highly beloved, being but the minister 
 
 Of law, his people into Canaan lead ; 
 
 Bat Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call, 
 
 His name and office bearing, who shall quell 
 
 The adversary-Serpent, and bring back 
 
 Through the world's wilderness long-wandered Man 
 
 Safe to eternal Paradise of rest. 
 
 Mean while they, in their earthly Canaan placed, 
 
 Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins 
 
 National interrupt their publick peace, 
 
 Provoking God to raise them enemies; 
 
 From whom as oft he saves them penitent 
 
 By Judges first, then under Kings ; of whom 
 
 The second, both for piety renowned 
 
 And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive 
 
 Irrevocable, that his regal throne 
 
 For ever shall endure ; the like shall sing 
 
 All Prophecy, that of the royal stock 
 
 Of David (so I name this king) shall rise 
 
 A Son, the Woman's seed to thee foretold,
 
 374 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XU. 
 
 Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust 
 
 All nations ; and to kings foretold, of kings 
 
 The last} for of his reign shall be no end. 
 
 But first, a long succession must ensue ; 
 
 And his next son, for jwealth and wisdom famed, 
 
 The clouded ark of God, till then in tents 
 
 Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine. 
 
 Such follow him, as shall be registered 
 
 Part good, part bad ; of bad the longer scroll ; 
 
 Whose foul idolatries, and other faults 
 
 Heaped to the popular sum, will so incense 
 
 God, as to leave them, and expose their land, 
 
 Their city, his temple, and his holy ark. 
 
 With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey 
 
 To that proud city, whose high walls thou saw'st 
 
 Left in confusion ; Babylon thence called. 
 
 There in captivity he lets them dwell 
 
 The space of seventy years ; then brings them back, 
 
 Remembering mercy, and his covenant sworn 
 
 To David, stablished as the days of Heaven. 
 
 Returned from Babylon by leave of kings 
 
 Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God 
 
 They first re-edify ; and for a while 
 
 In mean estate live moderate ; till, grown 
 
 In wealth and multitude, factious they grow 5 
 
 But first among the priests dissention springs, 
 
 Men who attend the altar, and should most 
 
 Endeavour peace : their strife pollution brings 
 
 Upon the temple itself : at last they seise 
 
 The scepter, and regard not David's sons 5 
 
 Then lose it to a stranger, that the true
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 375 
 
 Anointed King Messiah might be born 
 
 Barred of his right j yet at his birth a star, 
 
 Unseen before in Heaven, proclaims him come ; 
 
 And guides the eastern sages, who inquire 
 
 His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold,; 
 
 His place of birth a solemn Angel tells 
 
 To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night j 
 
 They gladly thither haste, and by a quire 
 
 Of squadroned Angels hear his carol sung. 
 
 A virgin is his mother, but his sire 
 
 The power of the Most High : he shall ascend 
 
 The throne hereditary, and bound his reign 
 
 With Earth's wide bounds, his glory with the Heavens. 
 
 He ceased, discerning Adam with such joy 
 Surcharged, as had like grief been dewed in tears, 
 Without the vent of words 5 which these he breathed. 
 
 O prophet of glad tidings, finisher 
 Of utmost hope ! now clear 1 understand 
 What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain ; 
 Why our great Expectation should be called 
 The seed of Woman : Virgin Mother, hail, 
 High in the love of Heaven; yet from my loins 
 Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son 
 Of God Most High : so God with Man unites ! 
 Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise 
 Expect with mortal pain : say where and when 
 Their fight; what stroke shall bruise the victor's heel. 
 
 To whom thus Michael. Dream not of their fight, 
 As of a duel, or the local wounds 
 Of head or heel : not therefore joins the Son 
 Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil
 
 376 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XII. 
 
 Thy enemy; nor so is overcome 
 
 Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier bruise, 
 
 Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound : 
 
 Which 'he, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure, 
 
 Not by destroying Satan, but his works 
 
 In thee, and in thy seed : nor can this be, 
 
 But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, 
 
 Obedience to the law of God, imposed 
 
 On penalty of death, and suffering death ; 
 
 The penalty to thy transgression due, 
 
 And due to theirs which out of thine will grow ; 
 
 So only can high Justice rest appaid. 
 
 The law of God exact he shall fulfil 
 
 Both by obedience and by love, though love 
 
 Alone fulfil the law ; thy punishment 
 
 He shall endure, by coming in the flesh 
 
 To a reproachful life, and cursed death ; 
 
 Proclaiming life to all who shall believe 
 
 In his redemption ; and that his obedience, 
 
 Imputed, becomes theirs by faith ; his merits 
 
 To save them, not their own, though legal, works. 
 
 For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, 
 
 Seised on by force, judged, and to death condemned 
 
 A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross 
 
 By his own nation ; slain for bringing life : 
 
 But to the cross he nails thy enemies, 
 
 The law that is against thee, and the sins 
 
 Of all mankind, with him there crucified, 
 
 Never to hurt them more who rightly trust 
 
 In this his satisfaction ; so he dies, 
 
 But soon revives 3 Death over him no power
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 3/7 
 
 Shall long usurp j ere the third dawning light 
 
 Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise 
 
 Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light, 
 
 Thy ransom paid, which Man from death redeems, 
 
 His death for Man, as many as offered life 
 
 Neglect not, and the benefit embrace 
 
 By faith not void of works : this God-like act 
 
 Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst have died, 
 
 In sin for ever lost from life ; this act 
 
 Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, 
 
 Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms ; 
 
 And fix far deeper in his head their stings 
 
 Than temporal death shall bruise the victor's heel, 
 
 Or theirs whom he redeems ; a death, like sleep, 
 
 A gentle wafting to immortal life. 
 
 Nor after resurrection shall he stay 
 
 Longer on earth, than certain times to appear 
 
 To his disciples, men who in his life 
 
 Still followed him ; to them shall leave in charge 
 
 To teach all nations what of him they learned 
 
 And his salvation ; them who shall believe 
 
 Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign 
 
 Of washing them from guilt of sin to life 
 
 Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, 
 
 For death, like that which the Redeemer died. 
 
 All nations they shall teach ; for, from that day, 
 
 Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins 
 
 Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons 
 
 Of Abraham's faith wherever through the world; 
 
 So in his seed all nations shall be blest. 
 
 Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall ascend
 
 378 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XII. 
 
 With victory, triumphing through the air 
 
 Over his foes and thine ; there shall surprise 
 
 The Serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains 
 
 Through all his realm, and there confounded leave ; 
 
 Then enter into glory, and resume 
 
 His seat at God's right hand, exalted high 
 
 Above all names in Heaven : and thence shall come. 
 
 When this world's dissolution shall be ripe, 
 
 With glory and power to judge both quick and dead ; 
 
 To judge the unfaithful dead, but to reward 
 
 His faithful, and receive them into bliss, 
 
 Whether in Heaven or Earth ; for then the Earth 
 
 Shall all be Paradise, far happier place 
 
 Than this of Eden, and far happier days. 
 
 So spake the Arch- Angel Michael, then paused, 
 As at the world's great period ; and our sire, 
 Replete with joy and wonder, thus replied. 
 
 O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense ! 
 That all this good of evil shall produce, 
 And evil turn to good ; more wonderful 
 Than that which by creation first brought forth 
 Light out of darkness ! Full of doubt 1 stand, 
 Whether I should repent me now of sin 
 By me done, and occasioned ; or rejoice 
 Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring ; 
 To God more glory, more good-will to Men 
 From God, and over wrath grace shall abound. 
 But say, if our Deliverer up to Heaven 
 Must re-ascend, what will betide the few 
 His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd, 
 The enemies of truth ? Who then shall guide
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 379 
 
 His people, who defend? Will they not deal 
 Worse with his followers than with him they dealt ? 
 
 Be sure they will, said the Angel ; but from Heaven 
 He to his own a Comforter will send, 
 The promise of the Father, who shall dwell 
 His Spirit within them ; and the law of faith, 
 Working through love, upon their hearts shall write, 
 To guide them in all truth j and also arm 
 With spiritual armour, able to resist 
 Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts ; 
 What man can do against them, not afraid, 
 Though to the death; against such cruelties 
 With inward consolations recompensed, 
 And oft supported so as shall amaze 
 Their proudest persecutors : for the Spirit, 
 Poured first on his Apostles, whom he sends 
 To evangelize the nations, then on all 
 Baptized, shall them with wonderous gifts endue 
 To speak all tongues, and do all miracles, 
 As did their Lord before them. Thus they win 
 Great numbers of each nation to receive 
 With joy the tidings brought from Heaven : at length 
 Their ministry performed, and race well run, 
 Their doctrine and their story written left, 
 They die; bufin their room, as they forewarn, 
 Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves. 
 Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven 
 To their own vile advantages shall turn 
 Of lucre and ambition; and the truth 
 With superstitions and traditions taint, 
 Left only in those written records pure,
 
 380 PARADISE LOST. BOOK XH. 
 
 Though not but by the Spirit understood. 
 Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names, 
 Places, and titles, and with these to join 
 Secular power ; though feigning still to act 
 By spiritual, to themselves appropriating 
 The Spirit of God, promised alike and given 
 To all believers j and, from that pretence, 
 Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force 
 On every conscience ; laws which none shall find 
 Left them inrolled, or what the Spirit within 
 Shall on. the heart engrave. What will they then 
 But force the Spirit of Grace itself, and bind 
 His consort Liberty? what, but unbuild 
 His living temples, built by faith to stand, 
 Their own faith, not another's ? for, on earth, 
 Who against faith and conscience can be heard 
 Infallible ? yet many will presume : 
 Whence heavy persecution shall arise 
 On all, who in the worship persevere 
 Of spirit and truth ; the rest, far greater part. 
 Will deem in outward rites and specious forms 
 Religion satisfied ; truth shall retire 
 Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith 
 Rarely be found : so shall the world go on, 
 To good malignant, to bad men benign 5 
 Under her own weight groaning ; till the day- 
 Appear of respiration to the just, 
 And vengeance to the wicked, at return 
 Of him so lately promised to thy aid, 
 The Woman's Seed ; obscurely then foretold, 
 Now ampler known thy Saviour and thy
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 38 
 
 Last, in the clouds, from Heaven to be revealed 
 In glory of the Father, to dissolve 
 Satan with his perverted world ; then raise 
 From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, 
 New Heavens, new Earth, ages of endless date, 
 Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love 5 
 To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss. 
 
 He ended ; and thus Adam last replied. 
 How soon hath thy prediction, seer blest, 
 Measured this transient world, the race of time, 
 Till time stand fixed ! Beyond is all abyss, 
 Eternity, whose end no eye can reach. 
 Greatly instructed I shall hence depart j 
 Greatly in peace of thought ; and have my fill 
 Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain ; 
 Beyond which was my folly to aspire. 
 Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best, 
 And love with fear the only Godj to walk 
 As in his presence ; ever to observe 
 His providence ; and on him sole depend, 
 Merciful over all his works, with good 
 Still overcoming evil, and by small 
 Accomplishing great things, by things deemed weak 
 Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise 
 By simply meek : that suffering for truth's sake 
 Is fortitude to highest victory, 
 And, to the faithful, death the gate of life ; 
 Taught this by his example, whom I now 
 Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest. 
 
 To whom thus also the Angel last replied. 
 This having learned, thou hast attained the sum
 
 382 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK XII. 
 
 Of wisdom j hope no higher, though all the stars 
 
 Thou knew'st by name, and all the ethereal powers, 
 
 All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works, 
 
 Or works of God in Heaven, air, earth, or sea, 
 
 And all the riches of this world enjoy'dst, 
 
 And all the rule, one empire ; only add 
 
 Deeds to thy knowledge answerable ; add faith, 
 
 Add virtue, patience, temperance ; add love, 
 
 By name to come called charity, the soul 
 
 Of all the rest : then wilt thou not be loth 
 
 To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess 
 
 A Paradise within thee, happier far. 
 
 Let us descend now therefore from this top 
 
 Of speculation ; for the hour precise 
 
 Exacts our parting hence ; and see ! the guards, 
 
 By me encamped on yonder hill, expect 
 
 Their motion ; at whose front a flaming sword, 
 
 In signal of remove, waves fiercely round : 
 
 We may no longer stay : go, waken Eve ; 
 
 Her also I with gentle dreams have calmed 
 
 Portending good, and all her spirits composed 
 
 To meek submission : thou, at season fit, 
 
 Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard ; 
 
 Chiefly what may concern her faith to know, 
 
 The great deliverance by her seed to come 
 
 (For by the Woman's seed) on all mankind : 
 
 That ye may live, which will be many days, 
 
 Both in one faith unanimous, though sad, 
 
 With cause, for evils past ; yet much more cheered 
 
 With meditation on the happy end. 
 
 He ended, and they both descend the hill ;
 
 BOOK XII. PARADISE LOST. 383 
 
 Descended, Adam to the bower, where Eve 
 Lay sleeping, ran before ; but found her waked ; 
 And thus with words not sad she him received. 
 Whence thou return' st, and whither went'st, I 
 
 know 5 
 
 For God is also in sleep ; and dreams advise, 
 Which he hath sent propitious, some great good 
 Presaging, since with sorrow and heart's distress 
 Wearied I fell asleep : but now lead on ; 
 In me is no delay ; with thee to go, 
 Is to stay herej without thee here to stay, 
 Is to go hence unwilling ; thou to me 
 Art all things under Heaven, all places thou, 
 Who for my wilful crime art banished hence. 
 This further consolation yet secure 
 I carry hence ; though all by me is lost, 
 Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed, 
 By me the Promised Seed shall all restore. 
 
 So spake our mother Eve j and Adam heard 
 Well pleased, but answered not : for now, too nigh 
 The Arch- Angel stood ; and, from the other hill 
 To their fixed station, all in bright array 
 The Cherubim descended } on the ground 
 Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist 
 Risen from a river o'er the marish glides, 
 And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel 
 Homeward returning. High in front advanced, 
 The brandished sword of God before them blazed, 
 Fierce as a comet j which with torrid heat, 
 And vapour as the Libyan air adust, 
 Began to parch that temperate clime ; whereat
 
 384 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 In either hand the hastening Angel caught 
 Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate 
 Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast 
 To the subjected plain ; then disappeared. 
 They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld 
 Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, 
 Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate 
 With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms : 
 Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon; 
 The world was all before them, where to choose 
 Their place of rest, and Providence their guide : 
 They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, 
 Through Eden took their solitary way.
 
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