1.                 Mean while the heinous and despiteful act

2.                 Of Satan, done in Paradise; and how

3.                 He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve,

4.                 Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,

5.                 Was known in Heaven; for what can ’scape the eye

6.                 Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart

7.                 Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just,

8.                 Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind

9.                 Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed,

10.             Complete to have discovered and repulsed

11.             Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend.

12.             For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered,

13.             The high injunction, not to taste that fruit,

14.             Whoever tempted; which they not obeying,

15.             (Incurred what could they less?) the penalty;

16.             And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall.

17.             Up into Heaven from Paradise in haste

18.             The angelic guards ascended, mute, and sad,

19.             For Man; for of his state by this they knew,

20.             Much wondering how the subtle Fiend had stolen

21.             Entrance unseen. Soon as the unwelcome news

22.             From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased

23.             All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare

24.             That time celestial visages, yet, mixed

25.             With pity, violated not their bliss.

26.             About the new-arrived, in multitudes

27.             The ethereal people ran, to hear and know

28.             How all befell: They towards the Throne Supreme,

29.             Accountable, made haste, to make appear,

30.             With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance

31.             And easily approved; when the Most High

32.             Eternal Father, from his secret cloud,

33.             Amidst in thunder uttered thus his voice.

34.             Assembled Angels, and ye Powers returned

35.             From unsuccessful charge; be not dismayed,

36.             Nor troubled at these tidings from the earth,

37.             Which your sincerest care could not prevent;

38.             Foretold so lately what would come to pass,

39.             When first this tempter crossed the gulf from Hell.

40.             I told ye then he should prevail, and speed

41.             On his bad errand; Man should be seduced,

42.             And flattered out of all, believing lies

43.             Against his Maker; no decree of mine

44.             Concurring to necessitate his fall,

45.             Or touch with lightest moment of impulse

46.             His free will, to her own inclining left

47.             In even scale. But fallen he is; and now

48.             What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass

49.             On his transgression, Death denounced that day,

50.             Which he presumes already vain and void,

51.             Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,

52.             By some immediate stroke; but soon shall find

53.             Forbearance no acquittance, ere day end.

54.             Justice shall not return as bounty scorned.

55.             But whom send I to judge them? whom but thee,

56.             Vicegerent Son? To thee I have transferred

57.             All judgement, whether in Heaven, or Earth, or Hell.

58.             Easy it may be seen that I intend

59.             Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee

60.             Man’s friend, his Mediator, his designed

61.             Both ransom and Redeemer voluntary,

62.             And destined Man himself to judge Man fallen.

63.             So spake the Father; and, unfolding bright

64.             Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son

65.             Blazed forth unclouded Deity: He full

66.             Resplendent all his Father manifest

67.             Expressed, and thus divinely answered mild.

68.             Father Eternal, thine is to decree;

69.             Mine, both in Heaven and Earth, to do thy will

70.             Supreme; that thou in me, thy Son beloved,

71.             Mayest ever rest well pleased. I go to judge

72.             On earth these thy transgressours; but thou knowest,

73.             Whoever judged, the worst on me must light,

74.             When time shall be; for so I undertook

75.             Before thee; and, not repenting, this obtain

76.             Of right, that I may mitigate their doom

77.             On me derived; yet I shall temper so

78.             Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most

79.             Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.

80.             Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none

81.             Are to behold the judgement, but the judged,

82.             Those two; the third best absent is condemned,

83.             Convict by flight, and rebel to all law:

84.             Conviction to the serpent none belongs.

85.             Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose

86.             Of high collateral glory: Him Thrones, and Powers,

87.             Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant,

88.             Accompanied to Heaven-gate; from whence

89.             Eden, and all the coast, in prospect lay.

90.             Down he descended straight; the speed of Gods

91.             Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes winged.

92.             Now was the sun in western cadence low

93.             From noon, and gentle airs, due at their hour,

94.             To fan the earth now waked, and usher in

95.             The evening cool; when he, from wrath more cool,

96.             Came the mild Judge, and Intercessor both,

97.             To sentence Man: The voice of God they heard

98.             Now walking in the garden, by soft winds

99.             Brought to their ears, while day declined; they heard,

100.        And from his presence hid themselves among

101.        The thickest trees, both man and wife; till God,

102.        Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud.

103.        Where art thou, Adam, wont with joy to meet

104.        My coming seen far off? I miss thee here,

105.        Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude,

106.        Where obvious duty ere while appeared unsought:

107.        Or come I less conspicuous, or what change

108.        Absents thee, or what chance detains? Come forth.

109.        He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first

110.        To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed;

111.        Love was not in their looks, either to God,

112.        Or to each other; but apparent guilt,

113.        And shame, and perturbation, and despair,

114.        Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile.

115.        Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief.

116.        I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice

117.        Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom

118.        The gracious Judge without revile replied.

119.        My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not feared,

120.        But still rejoiced; how is it now become

121.        So dreadful to thee? That thou art naked, who

122.        Hath told thee? Hast thou eaten of the tree,

123.        Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?

124.        To whom thus Adam sore beset replied.

125.        O Heaven! in evil strait this day I stand

126.        Before my Judge; either to undergo

127.        Myself the total crime, or to accuse

128.        My other self, the partner of my life;

129.        Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,

130.        I should conceal, and not expose to blame

131.        By my complaint: but strict necessity

132.        Subdues me, and calamitous constraint;

133.        Lest on my head both sin and punishment,

134.        However insupportable, be all

135.        Devolved; though should I hold my peace, yet thou

136.        Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.--

137.        This Woman, whom thou madest to be my help,

138.        And gavest me as thy perfect gift, so good,

139.        So fit, so acceptable, so divine,

140.        That from her hand I could suspect no ill,

141.        And what she did, whatever in itself,

142.        Her doing seemed to justify the deed;

143.        She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

144.        To whom the svran Presence thus replied.

145.        Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey

146.        Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,

147.        Superior, or but equal, that to her

148.        Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place

149.        Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,

150.        And for thee, whose perfection far excelled

151.        Hers in all real dignity? Adorned

152.        She was indeed, and lovely, to attract

153.        Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts

154.        Were such, as under government well seemed;

155.        Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part

156.        And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.

157.        So having said, he thus to Eve in few.

158.        Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?

159.        To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed,

160.        Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge

161.        Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied.

162.        The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.

163.        Which when the Lord God heard, without delay

164.        To Judgment he proceeded on the accused

165.        Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer

166.        The guilt on him, who made him instrument

167.        Of mischief, and polluted from the end

168.        Of his creation; justly then accursed,

169.        As vitiated in nature: More to know

170.        Concerned not Man, (since he no further knew)

171.        Nor altered his offence; yet God at last

172.        To Satan first in sin his doom applied,

173.        Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:

174.        And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.

175.        Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed

176.        Above all cattle, each beast of the field;

177.        Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,

178.        And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.

179.        Between thee and the woman I will put

180.        Enmity, and between thine and her seed;

181.        Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.

182.        So spake this oracle, then verified

183.        When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve,

184.        Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven,

185.        Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave

186.        Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed

187.        In open show; and, with ascension bright,

188.        Captivity led captive through the air,

189.        The realm itself of Satan, long usurped;

190.        Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;

191.        Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise;

192.        And to the Woman thus his sentence turned.

193.        Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply

194.        By thy conception; children thou shalt bring

195.        In sorrow forth; and to thy husband’s will

196.        Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.

197.        On Adam last thus judgement he pronounced.

198.        Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,

199.        And eaten of the tree, concerning which

200.        I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof:

201.        Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow

202.        Shalt eat thereof, all the days of thy life;

203.        Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth

204.        Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

205.        In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,

206.        Till thou return unto the ground; for thou

207.        Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,

208.        For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.

209.        So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent;

210.        And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day,

211.        Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood

212.        Before him naked to the air, that now

213.        Must suffer change, disdained not to begin

214.        Thenceforth the form of servant to assume;

215.        As when he washed his servants feet; so now,

216.        As father of his family, he clad

217.        Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain,

218.        Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid;

219.        And thought not much to clothe his enemies;

220.        Nor he their outward only with the skins

221.        Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more.

222.        Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness,

223.        Arraying, covered from his Father’s sight.

224.        To him with swift ascent he up returned,

225.        Into his blissful bosom reassumed

226.        In glory, as of old; to him appeased

227.        All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man

228.        Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.

229.        Mean while, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,

230.        Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death,

231.        In counterview within the gates, that now

232.        Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame

233.        Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed through,

234.        Sin opening; who thus now to Death began.

235.        O Son, why sit we here each other viewing

236.        Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives

237.        In other worlds, and happier seat provides

238.        For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be

239.        But that success attends him; if mishap,

240.        Ere this he had returned, with fury driven

241.        By his avengers; since no place like this

242.        Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.

243.        Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,

244.        Wings growing, and dominion given me large

245.        Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,

246.        Or sympathy, or some connatural force,

247.        Powerful at greatest distance to unite,

248.        With secret amity, things of like kind,

249.        By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade

250.        Inseparable, must with me along;

251.        For Death from Sin no power can separate.

252.        But, lest the difficulty of passing back

253.        Stay his return perhaps over this gulf

254.        Impassable, impervious; let us try

255.        Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine

256.        Not unagreeable, to found a path

257.        Over this main from Hell to that new world,

258.        Where Satan now prevails; a monument

259.        Of merit high to all the infernal host,

260.        Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,

261.        Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.

262.        Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn

263.        By this new-felt attraction and instinct.

264.        Whom thus the meager Shadow answered soon.

265.        Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong,

266.        Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err

267.        The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw

268.        Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste

269.        The savour of death from all things there that live:

270.        Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest

271.        Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.

272.        So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell

273.        Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock

274.        Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,

275.        Against the day of battle, to a field,

276.        Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured

277.        With scent of living carcasses designed

278.        For death, the following day, in bloody fight:

279.        So scented the grim Feature, and upturned

280.        His nostril wide into the murky air;

281.        Sagacious of his quarry from so far.

282.        Then both from out Hell-gates, into the waste

283.        Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,

284.        Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great)

285.        Hovering upon the waters, what they met

286.        Solid or slimy, as in raging sea

287.        Tost up and down, together crouded drove,

288.        From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell;

289.        As when two polar winds, blowing adverse

290.        Upon the Cronian sea, together drive

291.        Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way

292.        Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich

293.        Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil

294.        Death with his mace petrifick, cold and dry,

295.        As with a trident, smote; and fixed as firm

296.        As Delos, floating once; the rest his look

297.        Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;

298.        And with Asphaltick slime, broad as the gate,

299.        Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach

300.        They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on

301.        Over the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge

302.        Of length prodigious, joining to the wall

303.        Immoveable of this now fenceless world,

304.        Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,

305.        Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell.

306.        So, if great things to small may be compared,

307.        Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,

308.        From Susa, his Memnonian palace high,

309.        Came to the sea: and, over Hellespont

310.        Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,

311.        And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.

312.        Now had they brought the work by wonderous art

313.        Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock,

314.        Over the vexed abyss, following the track

315.        Of Satan to the self-same place where he

316.        First lighted from his wing, and landed safe

317.        From out of Chaos, to the outside bare

318.        Of this round world: With pins of adamant

319.        And chains they made all fast, too fast they made

320.        And durable! And now in little space

321.        The confines met of empyrean Heaven,

322.        And of this World; and, on the left hand, Hell

323.        With long reach interposed; three several ways

324.        In sight, to each of these three places led.

325.        And now their way to Earth they had descried,

326.        To Paradise first tending; when, behold!

327.        Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright,

328.        Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering

329.        His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:

330.        Disguised he came; but those his children dear

331.        Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.

332.        He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk

333.        Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape,

334.        To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act

335.        By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded

336.        Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought

337.        Vain covertures; but when he saw descend

338.        The Son of God to judge them, terrified

339.        He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun

340.        The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath

341.        Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned

342.        By night, and listening where the hapless pair

343.        Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,

344.        Thence gathered his own doom; which understood

345.        Not instant, but of future time, with joy

346.        And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned;

347.        And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot

348.        Of this new wonderous pontifice, unhoped

349.        Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear.

350.        Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight

351.        Of that stupendious bridge his joy encreased.

352.        Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair

353.        Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.

354.        O Parent, these are thy magnifick deeds,

355.        Thy trophies! which thou viewest as not thine own;

356.        Thou art their author, and prime architect:

357.        For I no sooner in my heart divined,

358.        My heart, which by a secret harmony

359.        Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet,

360.        That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks

361.        Now also evidence, but straight I felt,

362.        Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt,

363.        That I must after thee, with this thy son;

364.        Such fatal consequence unites us three!

365.        Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds,

366.        Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure

367.        Detain from following thy illustrious track.

368.        Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined

369.        Within Hell-gates till now; thou us impowered

370.        To fortify thus far, and overlay,

371.        With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss.

372.        Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won

373.        What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gained

374.        With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged

375.        Our foil in Heaven; here thou shalt monarch reign,

376.        There didst not; there let him still victor sway,

377.        As battle hath adjudged; from this new world

378.        Retiring, by his own doom alienated;

379.        And henceforth monarchy with thee divide

380.        Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds,

381.        His quadrature, from thy orbicular world;

382.        Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.

383.        Whom thus the Prince of darkness answered glad.

384.        Fair Daughter, and thou Son and Grandchild both;

385.        High proof ye now have given to be the race

386.        Of Satan (for I glory in the name,

387.        Antagonist of Heaven’s Almighty King,)

388.        Amply have merited of me, of all

389.        The infernal empire, that so near Heaven’s door

390.        Triumphal with triumphal act have met,

391.        Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm,

392.        Hell and this world, one realm, one continent

393.        Of easy thorough-fare. Therefore, while I

394.        Descend through darkness, on your road with ease,

395.        To my associate Powers, them to acquaint

396.        With these successes, and with them rejoice;

397.        You two this way, among these numerous orbs,

398.        All yours, right down to Paradise descend;

399.        There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth

400.        Dominion exercise and in the air,

401.        Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared;

402.        Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.

403.        My substitutes I send ye, and create

404.        Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might

405.        Issuing from me: on your joint vigour now

406.        My hold of this new kingdom all depends,

407.        Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit.

408.        If your joint power prevail, the affairs of Hell

409.        No detriment need fear; go, and be strong!

410.        So saying he dismissed them; they with speed

411.        Their course through thickest constellations held,

412.        Spreading their bane; the blasted stars looked wan,

413.        And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse

414.        Then suffered. The other way Satan went down

415.        The causey to Hell-gate: On either side

416.        Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,

417.        And with rebounding surge the bars assailed,

418.        That scorned his indignation: Through the gate,

419.        Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed,

420.        And all about found desolate; for those,

421.        Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,

422.        Flown to the upper world; the rest were all

423.        Far to the inland retired, about the walls

424.        Of Pandemonium; city and proud seat

425.        Of Lucifer, so by allusion called

426.        Of that bright star to Satan paragoned;

427.        There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand

428.        In council sat, solicitous what chance

429.        Might intercept their emperour sent; so he

430.        Departing gave command, and they observed.

431.        As when the Tartar from his Russian foe,

432.        By Astracan, over the snowy plains,

433.        Retires; or Bactrin Sophi, from the horns

434.        Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond

435.        The realm of Aladule, in his retreat

436.        To Tauris or Casbeen: So these, the late

437.        Heaven-banished host, left desart utmost Hell

438.        Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch

439.        Round their metropolis; and now expecting

440.        Each hour their great adventurer, from the search

441.        Of foreign worlds: He through the midst unmarked,

442.        In show plebeian Angel militant

443.        Of lowest order, passed; and from the door

444.        Of that Plutonian hall, invisible

445.        Ascended his high throne; which, under state

446.        Of richest texture spread, at the upper end

447.        Was placed in regal lustre. Down a while

448.        He sat, and round about him saw unseen:

449.        At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head

450.        And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter; clad

451.        With what permissive glory since his fall

452.        Was left him, or false glitter: All amazed

453.        At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng

454.        Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld,

455.        Their mighty Chief returned: loud was the acclaim:

456.        Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers,

457.        Raised from their dark Divan, and with like joy

458.        Congratulant approached him; who with hand

459.        Silence, and with these words attention, won.

460.        Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;

461.        For in possession such, not only of right,

462.        I call ye, and declare ye now; returned

463.        Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth

464.        Triumphant out of this infernal pit

465.        Abominable, accursed, the house of woe,

466.        And dungeon of our tyrant: Now possess,

467.        As Lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven

468.        Little inferiour, by my adventure hard

469.        With peril great achieved. Long were to tell

470.        What I have done; what suffered;with what pain

471.        Voyaged th’ unreal, vast, unbounded deep

472.        Of horrible confusion; over which

473.        By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved,

474.        To expedite your glorious march; but I

475.        Toiled out my uncouth passage, forced to ride

476.        The untractable abyss, plunged in the womb

477.        Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild;

478.        That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed

479.        My journey strange, with clamorous uproar

480.        Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found

481.        The new created world, which fame in Heaven

482.        Long had foretold, a Fabric wonderful

483.        Of absolute perfection, therein Man

484.        Placed in a Paradise, by our exile

485.        Made happy: Him by fraud I have seduced

486.        From his Creator; and, the more to encrease

487.        Your wonder, with an apple; he, thereat

488.        Offended, worth your laughter! hath given up

489.        Both his beloved Man, and all his world,

490.        To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,

491.        Without our hazard, labour, or alarm;

492.        To range in, and to dwell, and over Man

493.        To rule, as over all he should have ruled.

494.        True is, me also he hath judged, or rather

495.        Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape

496.        Man I deceived: that which to me belongs,

497.        Is enmity which he will put between

498.        Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;

499.        His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:

500.        A world who would not purchase with a bruise,

501.        Or much more grievous pain?--Ye have the account

502.        Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,

503.        But up, and enter now into full bliss?

504.        So having said, a while he stood, expecting

505.        Their universal shout, and high applause,

506.        To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears

507.        On all sides, from innumerable tongues,

508.        A dismal universal hiss, the sound

509.        Of public scorn; he wondered, but not long

510.        Had leisure, wondering at himself now more,

511.        His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare;

512.        His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining

513.        Each other, till supplanted down he fell

514.        A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,

515.        Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power

516.        Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,

517.        According to his doom: he would have spoke,

518.        But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue

519.        To forked tongue; for now were all transformed

520.        Alike, to serpents all, as accessories

521.        To his bold riot: Dreadful was the din

522.        Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now

523.        With complicated monsters head and tail,

524.        Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbaena dire,

525.        Cerastes horned, Hydrus, and Elops drear,

526.        And Dipsas; (not so thick swarmed once the soil

527.        Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle

528.        Ophiusa,) but still greatest he the midst,

529.        Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the sun

530.        Ingendered in the Pythian vale or slime,

531.        Huge Python, and his power no less he seemed

532.        Above the rest still to retain; they all

533.        Him followed, issuing forth to the open field,

534.        Where all yet left of that revolted rout,

535.        Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array;

536.        Sublime with expectation when to see

537.        In triumph issuing forth their glorious Chief;

538.        They saw, but other sight instead! a croud

539.        Of ugly serpents; horrour on them fell,

540.        And horrid sympathy; for, what they saw,

541.        They felt themselves, now changing; down their arms,

542.        Down fell both spear and shield; down they as fast;

543.        And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form

544.        Catched, by contagion; like in punishment,

545.        As in their crime. Thus was the applause they meant,

546.        Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame

547.        Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood

548.        A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,

549.        His will who reigns above, to aggravate

550.        Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that

551.        Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve

552.        Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange

553.        Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining

554.        For one forbidden tree a multitude

555.        Now risen, to work them further woe or shame;

556.        Yet, parched with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,

557.        Though to delude them sent, could not abstain;

558.        But on they rolled in heaps, and, up the trees

559.        Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks

560.        That curled Megaera: greedily they plucked

561.        The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew

562.        Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;

563.        This more delusive, not the touch, but taste

564.        Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay

565.        Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit

566.        Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste

567.        With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,

568.        Hunger and thirst constraining; drugged as oft,

569.        With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws,

570.        With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell

571.        Into the same illusion, not as Man

572.        Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were they plagued

573.        And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,

574.        Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed;

575.        Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo,

576.        This annual humbling certain numbered days,

577.        To dash their pride, and joy, for Man seduced.

578.        However, some tradition they dispersed

579.        Among the Heathen, of their purchase got,

580.        And fabled how the Serpent, whom they called

581.        Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide--

582.        Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule

583.        Of high Olympus; thence by Saturn driven

584.        And Ops, ere yet Dictaean Jove was born.

585.        Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair

586.        Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power before,

587.        Once actual; now in body, and to dwell

588.        Habitual habitant; behind her Death,

589.        Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet

590.        On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.

591.        Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death!

592.        What thinkest thou of our empire now, though earned

593.        With travel difficult, not better far

594.        Than still at Hell’s dark threshold to have sat watch,

595.        Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved?

596.        Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon.

597.        To me, who with eternal famine pine,

598.        Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven;

599.        There best, where most with ravine I may meet;

600.        Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems

601.        To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corps.

602.        To whom the incestuous mother thus replied.

603.        Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers,

604.        Feed first; on each beast next, and fish, and fowl;

605.        No homely morsels! and, whatever thing

606.        The Scythe of Time mows down, devour unspared,

607.        Till I, in Man residing through the race,

608.        His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect;

609.        And season him thy last and sweetest prey.

610.        This said, they both betook them several ways,

611.        Both to destroy, or unimmortal make

612.        All kinds, and for destruction to mature

613.        Sooner or later; which the Almighty seeing,

614.        From his transcendent seat the Saints among,

615.        To those bright Orders uttered thus his voice.

616.        See, with what heat these dogs of Hell advance

617.        To waste and havoc yonder world, which I

618.        So fair and good created; and had still

619.        Kept in that state, had not the folly of Man

620.        Let in these wasteful Furies, who impute

621.        Folly to me; so doth the Prince of Hell

622.        And his adherents, that with so much ease

623.        I suffer them to enter and possess

624.        A place so heavenly; and, conniving, seem

625.        To gratify my scornful enemies,

626.        That laugh, as if, transported with some fit

627.        Of passion, I to them had quitted all,

628.        At random yielded up to their misrule;

629.        And know not that I called, and drew them thither,

630.        My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth

631.        Which Man’s polluting sin with taint hath shed

632.        On what was pure; til, crammed and gorged, nigh burst

633.        With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling

634.        Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son,

635.        Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave, at last,

636.        Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell

637.        For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.

638.        Then Heaven and Earth renewed shall be made pure

639.        To sanctity, that shall receive no stain:

640.        Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes.

641.        He ended, and the heavenly audience loud

642.        Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas,

643.        Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways,

644.        Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;

645.        Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,

646.        Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom

647.        New Heaven and Earth shall to the ages rise,

648.        Or down from Heaven descend.--Such was their song;

649.        While the Creator, calling forth by name

650.        His mighty Angels, gave them several charge,

651.        As sorted best with present things. The sun

652.        Had first his precept so to move, so shine,

653.        As might affect the earth with cold and heat

654.        Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call

655.        Decrepit winter; from the south to bring

656.        Solstitial summer’s heat. To the blanc moon

657.        Her office they prescribed; to the other five

658.        Their planetary motions, and aspects,

659.        In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite,

660.        Of noxious efficacy, and when to join

661.        In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed

662.        Their influence malignant when to shower,

663.        Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,

664.        Should prove tempestuous: To the winds they set

665.        Their corners, when with bluster to confound

666.        Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll

667.        With terrour through the dark aereal hall.

668.        Some say, he bid his Angels turn ascanse

669.        The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more,

670.        From the sun’s axle; they with labour pushed

671.        Oblique the centrick globe: Some say, the sun

672.        Was bid turn reins from the Equinoctial Road

673.        Like distant breadth to Taurus with the Sev’n

674.        Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins,

675.        Up to the Tropic Crab: thence down amain

676.        By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales,

677.        As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change

678.        Of seasons to each Clime; else had the Spring

679.        Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers,

680.        Equal in days and nights, except to those

681.        Beyond the polar circles; to them day

682.        Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun,

683.        To recompense his distance, in their sight

684.        Had rounded still the horizon, and not known

685.        Or east or west; which had forbid the snow

686.        From cold Estotiland, and south as far

687.        Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit

688.        The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turned

689.        His course intended; else, how had the world

690.        Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,

691.        Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?

692.        These changes in the Heavens, though slow, produced

693.        Like change on sea and land; sideral blast,

694.        Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,

695.        Corrupt and pestilent: Now from the north

696.        Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,

697.        Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice,

698.        And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw,

699.        Boreas, and Caecias, and Argestes loud,

700.        And Thrascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn;

701.        With adverse blast upturns them from the south

702.        Notus, and Afer black with thunderous clouds

703.        From Serraliona; thwart of these, as fierce,

704.        Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds,

705.        Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,

706.        Sirocco and Libecchio. Thus began

707.        Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,

708.        Daughter of Sin, among the irrational

709.        Death introduced, through fierce antipathy:

710.        Beast now with beast ’gan war, and fowl with fowl,

711.        And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,

712.        Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe

713.        Of Man, but fled him; or, with countenance grim,

714.        Glared on him passing. These were from without

715.        The growing miseries, which Adam saw

716.        Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,

717.        To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within;

718.        And, in a troubled sea of passion tost,

719.        Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.

720.        O miserable of happy! Is this the end

721.        Of this new glorious world, and me so late

722.        The glory of that glory, who now become

723.        Accursed, of blessed? hide me from the face

724.        Of God, whom to behold was then my highth

725.        Of happiness: yet well, if here would end

726.        The misery; I deserved it, and would bear

727.        My own deservings; but this will not serve:

728.        All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,

729.        Is propagated curse. O voice, once heard

730.        Delightfully, increase and multiply,

731.        Now death to hear! for what can I encrease,

732.        Or multiply, but curses on my head?

733.        Who of all ages to succeed, but, feeling

734.        The evil on him brought by me, will curse

735.        My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,

736.        For this we may thank Adam! but his thanks

737.        Shall be the execration: so, besides

738.        Mine own that bide upon me, all from me

739.        Shall with a fierce reflux on me rebound;

740.        On me, as on their natural center, light

741.        Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys

742.        Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!

743.        Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

744.        To mould me Man? did I solicit thee

745.        From darkness to promote me, or here place

746.        In this delicious garden? As my will

747.        Concurred not to my being, it were but right

748.        And equal to reduce me to my dust;

749.        Desirous to resign and render back

750.        All I received; unable to perform

751.        Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold

752.        The good I sought not. To the loss of that,

753.        Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added

754.        The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable

755.        Thy Justice seems; yet to say truth, too late,

756.        I thus contest; then should have been refus’d

757.        Those terms whatever, when they were propos’d:

758.        Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good,

759.        Then cavil the conditions? And though God

760.        Made thee without thy leave, what if thy Son

761.        Prove disobedient, and reprov’d, retort,

762.        Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not:

763.        Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee

764.        That proud excuse? yet him not thy election

765.        But Natural necessity begot.

766.        God made thee of choice his own, and of his own

767.        To serve him, thy reward was of his grace,

768.        Thy punishment then justly is at his Will.

769.        Be it so, for I submit, his doom is fair,

770.        That dust I am, and shall to dust return:

771.        O welcome hour whenever! Why delays

772.        His hand to execute what his Decree

773.        Fix’d on this day? Why do I overlive,

774.        Why am I mock’d with death, and length’n’d out

775.        To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet

776.        Mortality my sentence, and be earth

777.        Insensible! How glad would lay me down

778.        As in my mother’s lap! There I should rest,

779.        And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more

780.        Would thunder in my ears; no fear of worse

781.        To me, and to my offspring, would torment me

782.        With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt

783.        Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;

784.        Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man

785.        Which God inspired, cannot together perish

786.        With this corporeal clod; then, in the grave,

787.        Or in some other dismal place, who knows

788.        But I shall die a living death? O thought

789.        Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath

790.        Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life

791.        And sin? The body properly had neither,

792.        All of me then shall die: let this appease

793.        The doubt, since human reach no further knows.

794.        For though the Lord of all be infinite,

795.        Is his wrath also? Be it, Man is not so,

796.        But mortal doomed. How can he exercise

797.        Wrath without end on Man, whom death must end?

798.        Can he make deathless death? That were to make

799.        Strange contradiction, which to God himself

800.        Impossible is held; as argument

801.        Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,

802.        For anger’s sake, finite to infinite,

803.        In punished Man, to satisfy his rigour,

804.        Satisfied never? That were to extend

805.        His sentence beyond dust and Nature’s law;

806.        By which all causes else, according still

807.        To the reception of their matter, act;

808.        Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say

809.        That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,

810.        Bereaving sense, but endless misery

811.        From this day onward; which I feel begun

812.        Both in me, and without me; and so last

813.        To perpetuity; Ay me, that fear

814.        Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution

815.        On my defenceless head; both Death and I

816.        Am found eternal, and incorporate both;

817.        Nor I on my part single; in me all

818.        Posterity stands cursed: Fair patrimony

819.        That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able

820.        To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!

821.        So disinherited, how would you bless

822.        Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind,

823.        For one man’s fault, thus guiltless be condemned,

824.        If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,

825.        But all corrupt; both mind and will depraved

826.        Not to do only, but to will the same

827.        With me? How can they then acquitted stand

828.        In sight of God? Him, after all disputes,

829.        Forced I absolve: all my evasions vain,

830.        And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still

831.        But to my own conviction: first and last

832.        On me, me only, as the source and spring

833.        Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;

834.        So might the wrath. Fond wish! couldst thou support

835.        That burden, heavier than the earth to bear;

836.        Than all the world much heavier, though divided

837.        With that bad Woman? Thus, what thou desirest,

838.        And what thou fearest, alike destroys all hope

839.        Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable

840.        Beyond all past example and future;

841.        To Satan only like both crime and doom.

842.        O Conscience! into what abyss of fears

843.        And horrours hast thou driven me; out of which

844.        I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!

845.        Thus Adam to himself lamented loud,

846.        Through the still night; not now, as ere Man fell,

847.        Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air

848.        Accompanied; with damps, and dreadful gloom;

849.        Which to his evil conscience represented

850.        All things with double terrour: On the ground

851.        Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground; and oft

852.        Cursed his creation; Death as oft accused

853.        Of tardy execution, since denounced

854.        The day of his offence. Why comes not Death,

855.        Said he, with one thrice-acceptable stroke

856.        To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word,

857.        Justice Divine not hasten to be just?

858.        But Death comes not at call; Justice Divine

859.        Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries,

860.        O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers!

861.        With other echo late I taught your shades

862.        To answer, and resound far other song.--

863.        Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld,

864.        Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh,

865.        Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed:

866.        But her with stern regard he thus repelled.

867.        Out of my sight, thou Serpent! That name best

868.        Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false

869.        And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,

870.        Like his, and colour serpentine, may show

871.        Thy inward fraud; to warn all creatures from thee

872.        Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form, pretended

873.        To hellish falshood, snare them! But for thee

874.        I had persisted happy; had not thy pride

875.        And wandering vanity, when least was safe,

876.        Rejected my forewarning, and disdained

877.        Not to be trusted; longing to be seen,

878.        Though by the Devil himself; him overweening

879.        To over-reach; but, with the serpent meeting,

880.        Fooled and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee

881.        To trust thee from my side; imagined wise,

882.        Constant, mature, proof against all assaults;

883.        And understood not all was but a show,

884.        Rather than solid virtue; all but a rib

885.        Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,

886.        More to the part sinister, from me drawn;

887.        Well if thrown out, as supernumerary

888.        To my just number found. O why did God,

889.        Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven

890.        With Spirits masculine, create at last

891.        This novelty on earth, this fair defect

892.        Of nature, and not fill the world at once

893.        With Men, as Angels, without feminine;

894.        Or find some other way to generate

895.        Mankind? This mischief had not been befallen,

896.        And more that shall befall; innumerable

897.        Disturbances on earth through female snares,

898.        And strait conjunction with this sex: for either

899.        He never shall find out fit mate, but such

900.        As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;

901.        Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain

902.        Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained

903.        By a far worse; or, if she love, withheld

904.        By parents; or his happiest choice too late

905.        Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound

906.        To a fell adversary, his hate or shame:

907.        Which infinite calamity shall cause

908.        To human life, and houshold peace confound.

909.        He added not, and from her turned; but Eve,

910.        Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing

911.        And tresses all disordered, at his feet

912.        Fell humble; and, embracing them, besought

913.        His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.

914.        Forsake me not thus, Adam, witness Heaven

915.        What love sincere, and reverence in my heart

916.        I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,

917.        Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant

918.        I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,

919.        Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,

920.        Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress,

921.        My only strength and stay: Forlorn of thee,

922.        Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?

923.        While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,

924.        Between us two let there be peace; both joining,

925.        As joined in injuries, one enmity

926.        Against a foe by doom express assigned us,

927.        That cruel Serpent: On me exercise not

928.        Thy hatred for this misery befallen;

929.        On me already lost, me than thyself

930.        More miserable! Both have sinned;but thou

931.        Against God only; I against God and thee;

932.        And to the place of judgement will return,

933.        There with my cries importune Heaven; that all

934.        The sentence, from thy head removed, may light

935.        On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe;

936.        Me, me only, just object of his ire!

937.        She ended weeping; and her lowly plight,

938.        Immoveable, till peace obtained from fault

939.        Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought

940.        Commiseration: Soon his heart relented

941.        Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,

942.        Now at his feet submissive in distress;

943.        Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,

944.        His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid:

945.        As one disarmed, his anger all he lost,

946.        And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon.

947.        Unwary, and too desirous, as before,

948.        So now of what thou knowest not, who desirest

949.        The punishment all on thyself; alas!

950.        Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain

951.        His full wrath, whose thou feelest as yet least part,

952.        And my displeasure bearest so ill. If prayers

953.        Could alter high decrees, I to that place

954.        Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,

955.        That on my head all might be visited;

956.        Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven,

957.        To me committed, and by me exposed.

958.        But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame

959.        Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive

960.        In offices of love, how we may lighten

961.        Each other’s burden, in our share of woe;

962.        Since this day’s death denounced, if aught I see,

963.        Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil;

964.        A long day’s dying, to augment our pain;

965.        And to our seed (O hapless Seed!) derived.

966.        To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied.

967.        Adam, by sad experiment I know

968.        How little weight my words with thee can find,

969.        Found so erroneous; thence by just event

970.        Found so unfortunate: Nevertheless,

971.        Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place

972.        Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain

973.        Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart

974.        Living or dying, from thee I will not hide

975.        What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen,

976.        Tending to some relief of our extremes,

977.        Or end; though sharp and sad, yet tolerable,

978.        As in our evils, and of easier choice.

979.        If care of our descent perplex us most,

980.        Which must be born to certain woe, devoured

981.        By Death at last; and miserable it is

982.        To be to others cause of misery,

983.        Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring

984.        Into this cursed world a woeful race,

985.        That after wretched life must be at last

986.        Food for so foul a monster; in thy power

987.        It lies, yet ere conception to prevent

988.        The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.

989.        Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death

990.        Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two

991.        Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw.

992.        But if thou judge it hard and difficult,

993.        Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain

994.        From love’s due rights, nuptial embraces sweet;

995.        And with desire to languish without hope,

996.        Before the present object languishing

997.        With like desire; which would be misery

998.        And torment less than none of what we dread;

999.        Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free

1000.    From what we fear for both, let us make short, --

1001.    Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply

1002.    With our own hands his Office on ourselves;

1003.    Why stand we longer shivering under fears,

1004.    That show no end but death, and have the power,

1005.    Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,

1006.    Destruction with destruction to destroy.

1007.    She ended here, or vehement despair

1008.    Broke off the rest: so much of death her thoughts

1009.    Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.

1010.    But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed,

1011.    To better hopes his more attentive mind

1012.    Labouring had raised; and thus to Eve replied.

1013.    Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems

1014.    To argue in thee something more sublime

1015.    And excellent, than what thy mind contemns;

1016.    But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes

1017.    That excellence thought in thee; and implies,

1018.    Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret

1019.    For loss of life and pleasure overloved.

1020.    Or if thou covet death, as utmost end

1021.    Of misery, so thinking to evade

1022.    The penalty pronounced; doubt not but God

1023.    Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so

1024.    To be forestalled; much more I fear lest death,

1025.    So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain

1026.    We are by doom to pay; rather, such acts

1027.    Of contumacy will provoke the Highest

1028.    To make death in us live: Then let us seek

1029.    Some safer resolution, which methinks

1030.    I have in view, calling to mind with heed

1031.    Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise

1032.    The Serpent’s head; piteous amends! unless

1033.    Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe,

1034.    Satan; who, in the serpent, hath contrived

1035.    Against us this deceit: To crush his head

1036.    Would be revenge indeed! which will be lost

1037.    By death brought on ourselves, or childless days

1038.    Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe

1039.    Shall ’scape his punishment ordained, and we

1040.    Instead shall double ours upon our heads.

1041.    No more be mentioned then of violence

1042.    Against ourselves; and wilful barrenness,

1043.    That cuts us off from hope; and savours only

1044.    Rancour and pride, impatience and despite,

1045.    Reluctance against God and his just yoke

1046.    Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild

1047.    And gracious temper he both heard, and judged,

1048.    Without wrath or reviling; we expected

1049.    Immediate dissolution, which we thought

1050.    Was meant by death that day; when lo, to thee

1051.    Pains only in child-bearing were foretold,

1052.    And bringing forth; soon recompensed with joy,

1053.    Fruit of thy womb: On me the curse aslope

1054.    Glanced on the ground; with labour I must earn

1055.    My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;

1056.    My labour will sustain me; and, lest cold

1057.    Or heat should injure us, his timely care

1058.    Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands

1059.    Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged;

1060.    How much more, if we pray him, will his ear

1061.    Be open, and his heart to pity incline,

1062.    And teach us further by what means to shun

1063.    The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow!

1064.    Which now the sky, with various face, begins

1065.    To show us in this mountain; while the winds

1066.    Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks

1067.    Of these fair spreading trees; which bids us seek

1068.    Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish

1069.    Our limbs benummed, ere this diurnal star

1070.    Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams

1071.    Reflected may with matter sere foment;

1072.    Or, by collision of two bodies, grind

1073.    The air attrite to fire; as late the clouds

1074.    Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their shock,

1075.    Tine the slant lightning; whose thwart flame, driven down

1076.    Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine;

1077.    And sends a comfortable heat from far,

1078.    Which might supply the sun: Such fire to use,

1079.    And what may else be remedy or cure

1080.    To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,

1081.    He will instruct us praying, and of grace

1082.    Beseeching him; so as we need not fear

1083.    To pass commodiously this life, sustained

1084.    By him with many comforts, till we end

1085.    In dust, our final rest and native home.

1086.    What better can we do, than, to the place

1087.    Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall

1088.    Before him reverent; and there confess

1089.    Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears

1090.    Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air

1091.    Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign

1092.    Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek?

1093.    Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn

1094.    From his displeasure; in whose look serene,

1095.    When angry most he seem’d and most severe,

1096.    What else but favour, grace, and mercy shone?

1097.    So spake our father penitent; nor Eve