Journal Writing 9:

Write a journal response in which you identify some of the discrepancies between what Satan says to his followers in Book I and what he reveals to us in his soliloquy in Book IV. There are numerous discrepancies, so choose those that stand out for you. Be sure to focus on the two specific scenes assigned for your readings in these books. As always, your response should be 350 – 400 words.

Book I

BOOK 1

 THE ARGUMENT

 This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac’t: Then touches the prime cause of his fall of him, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent;  who revolting from God, and drawing to his side of him many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew of him into the great Deep.  Which action past over, the Poem hasts into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ’d here, not in the Center (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos’d as yet not made, certainly not  yet accurst) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call’d Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in  Order and Dignity lay by him;  they confer of thir miserable fall.  Satan awakens all his Legions from him, who lay till then in the same manner confounded;  They rise, thir Numbers, array of Battel, thir chief Leaders nam’d, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoyning.  To these Satan directs his Speech from him, 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 Prophesie 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 Prophesie, and what to determine thereon he refers to a full Councel.  What his Associates of him thence attempt.  Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal Peers there sit in Councel.

 OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

 Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast

 Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,

 With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

 Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [5]

 Sing Heav’nly 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 Heav’ns and Earth

 Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [10]

 Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d

 Fast by the Oracle of God;  I thence

 Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,

 That with no middle flight intends to soar

 Above th ‘Aonian Mount, while it pursues [15]

 Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.

 And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer

 Before all Temples th ‘upright heart and pure,

 Instruct me, for Thou know’st;  Thou from the first

 Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [20]

 Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss

 And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark

 Illumin, what is low raise and support;

 That to the highth of this great Argument

 I may assert Eternal Providence, [25]

 And justifie the ways of God to men.

 Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view

 Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause

 Mov’d our Grand Parents in that happy State,

 Favor’d of Heav’n so highly, to fall off [30]

 From thir Creator, and transgress his Will

 For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?

 Who first seduc’d them to that foul revolt?

 Th ‘infernal Serpent;  he it was, whose guile

 Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d [35]

 The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride

 Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his Host

 Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring

 To set himself in Glory above his Peers de el,

 I have trusted to have equal’d the most High, [40]

 If I have oppos’d;  and with ambitious aim

 Against the Throne and Monarchy of God

 Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battel proud

 With vain attempt.  Him the Almighty Power

 Hurld headlong flaming from th ‘Ethereal Skie [45]

 With hideous ruine and combustion down

 To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

 In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,

 Who durst defie th ‘Omnipotent to Arms.

 Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night [50]

 To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

 Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe

 Confounded though immortal: But his doom

 Reserv’d him to more wrath;  for now the thought

 Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [55]

 Torments him;  round he throws his baleful eyes

 That witness’d huge affliction and dismay

 Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:

 At once as far as Angels kenn he views

 The dismal Situation waste and wilde, [60]

 A horrible dungeon, on all sides round

 As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames

 No light, but rather darkness visible

 Serv’d onely to discover sights of woe,

 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [65]

 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 Sulfur unconsum’d:

 Such place Eternal Justice had prepar’d [70]

 For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain’d

 In utter darkness, and thir portion set

 As far remov’d from God and light of Heav’n

 As from the Center thrice to th ‘utmost Pole.

 O how unlike the place from whence they fell!  [75]

 There the companions of his fall of him, o’rewhelm’d

 With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

 He soon discerns, and weltring by his side

 One next himself in power, and next in crime,

 Long after known in Palestine, and nam’d [80]

 Beelzebub.  To whom th ‘Arch-Enemy,

 And thence in Heav’n call’d Satan, with bold words

 Breaking the horrid silence thus began.

 If thou beest he;  But O how fall’n!  how chang’d

 From him, who in the happy Realms of Light [85]

 Cloth’d with transcendent brightness didst out-shine

 Myriads though bright: If he Whom mutual league,

 United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

 And hazard in the Glorious Enterprize,

 Joynd with me once, now misery hath joynd [90]

 In equal ruin: into what Pit thou seest

 From what highth fall’n, so much the stronger prov’d

 He with his Thunder from him: and till then who knew

 The force of those dire Arms?  yet not for those,

 Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage de l [95]

 Can else inflict, do I repent or change,

 Though chang’d in outward luster;  that fixt mind

 And high disdain, from sence of injur’d merit,

 That with the mightiest rais’d me to contend,

 And to the fierce contention brought along [100]

 Countless force of Spirits arm’d

 That durst dislike his reign of him, and me preferring,

 His utmost power of him with adverse power oppos’d

 In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav’n,

 And he shook his throne from him.  What though the field be lost?  [105]

 All is not lost;  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 of him [110]

 Extort from me.  To bow and sue for grace

 With suppliant knee, and deifie his power of him,

 Who from the terror of this Arm so late

 Doubted his Empire of him, that were low indeed,

 That were an ignominy and shame beneath [115]

 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 advanc’t,

 We may with more successful hope resolve [120]

 To wage by force or guile eternal Warr

 Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,

 Who now triumphs, and in th ‘excess of joy

 Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heav’n.

 So spake th ‘Apostate Angel, though in pain, [125]

 Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:

 And him thus answer’d soon his bold Compeer de el.

 O Prince, O Chief of many Throned Powers,

 That led th ‘imbattelld Seraphim to Warr

 Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds [130]

 Fearless, endanger’d Heav’ns perpetual King;

 And put to proof his high Supremacy of him,

 Whether upheld by strength, or Chance, or Fate,

 Too well I see and rue the dire event,

 That with sad overthrow and foul defeat [135]

 Hath lost us Heav’n, and all this mighty Host

 In horrible destruction laid thus low,

 As far as Gods and Heav’nly Essences

 Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains

 Invincible, and vigor soon returns, [140]

 Though all our Glory extinct, and happy state

 Here swallow’d up in endless misery.

 But what if he our Conquerour, (whom I now

 Of force believe Almighty, since no less

 Then such could hav orepow’rd such force as ours) [145]

 Have left us this our spirit and strength intire

 Strongly to suffer and support our pains,

 That we may so suffice his vengeful ire de el,

 Or do him mightier service as his thralls

 By right of Warr, what are his business be [150]

 Here in the heart of Hell to work in Fire,

 Or do his Errands de l in the gloomy Deep;

 What can it then avail though yet we feel

 Strength undiminisht, or eternal being

 To undergo eternal punishment?  [155]

 Whereto with speedy words th ‘Arch-fiend reply’d.

 Fall’n Cherube, to be weak is miserable

 Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,

 To do ought good never will be our task,

 But ever to do ill our sole delight, [160]

 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 labor must be to pervert that end,

 And out of good still to find means of evil;  [165]

 Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps

 Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb

 His inmost counsels from thir destind aim.

 But see the angry Victor hath recall’d

 His Ministers of vengeance and pursuit [170]

 Back to the Gates of Heav’n: The Sulphurous Hail

 Shot after us in storm, oreblown hath laid

 The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice

 Of Heav’n receiv’d us falling, and the Thunder,

 Wing’d with red Lightning and impetuous rage, [175]

 Perhaps he has spent his shafts, and ceases now

 To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.

 Let us not slip th ‘occasion, whether scorn,

 Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.

 Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde, [180]

 The seat of desolation, voyd 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 harbor there, [185]

 And reassembling 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, [190]

 If not what resolution from despare.

 Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate

 With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes

 That sparkling blaz’d, his other Parts of him besides

 Prone on the Flood, extended long and large [195]

 Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

 As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,

 Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr’d on Jove,

 Briareos or Typhon, whom the Den

 By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast [200]

 Leviathan, which God of all his works

 Created hugest that swim th ‘Ocean stream:

 Him haply slumbring on the Norway foam

 The Pilot of some small night-founder’d Skiff,

 Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell, [205]

 With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind

 Moors by his side of him under the Lee, while Night

 Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes:

 So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay

 Chain’d on the burning Lake, nor ever thence [210]

 He had ris’n or heav’d his head de el, but that the will

 And high permission of all-ruling Heaven

 Left him at large to his own dark designs of him,

 That with reiterated crimes he might

 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought [215]

 Evil to others, and enrag’d might see

 How all his malice de l serv’d but to bring forth

 Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn

 On Man by him seduc’t, but on himself

 Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour’d.  [220]

 Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool

 His mighty Stature of him;  on each hand the flames

 Drivn backward slope thir pointing spires, and rowld

 In billows, leave i’th ‘midst a horrid Vale.

 Then with expanded wings he stears his flight from him [225]

 Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air

 That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land

 He lights, if it were Land that ever burn’d

 With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire;

 And such appear’d in hue, as when the force [230]

 Of subterranean wind transports a Hill

 Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter’d side

 Of thundring tna, whose fuel

 And fewel’d entrals thence conceiving Fire,

 Sublim’d with Mineral fury, aid the Winds, [235]

 And leave a singed bottom all involv’d

 With stench and smoak: Such resting found the sole

 Of unblest feet.  Him followed his next Mate de el,

 Both glorying to have scap’t the Stygian flood

 As Gods, and by thir own recover’d strength, [240]

 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 Heav’n, this mournful gloom

 For that celestial light?  Be it so, since he [245]

 Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

 What shall be right: fardest from him is best

 Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream

 Above his equals of him.  Farewel happy Fields

 Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail [250]

 Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

 Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings

 A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.

 The mind is its own place, and in it self

 Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.  [255]

 What matter where, if I be still the same,

 And what I should be, all but less then he

 Whom Thunder hath made greater?  Here at least

 We shall be free;  th ‘Almighty hath not built

 Here for his envy of him, he will not drive us hence: [260]

 Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce

 To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

 Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.

 But wherefore let us then our faithful friends,

 Th ‘associates and copartners of our loss [265]

 Lye thus astonisht on th ‘oblivious Pool,

 And call them not to share with us their part

 In this unhappy Mansion, or once more

 With rallied Arms to try what may be yet

 Regaind in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?  [270]

 So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub

 Thus answer’d.  Leader of those Armies bright,

 Which but th ‘Onmipotent none could have foyld,

 If once they hear that voyce, thir liveliest pledge

 Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft [275]

 In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge

 Of battel when it rag’d, in all assaults

 Thir surest signal, they will soon resume

 New courage and revive, though now they lye

 Groveling and prostrate on yon Lake of Fire, [280]

 As we erewhile, astounded and amaz’d,

 No wonder, fall’n such a pernicious highth.

 He scarce had ceas’t when the superiour Fiend

 He was moving toward the shoar;  his ponderous shield

 Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, [285]

 Behind him cast;  the broad circumference

 Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose Orb

 Through Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist views

 At Ev’ning from the top of Fesole,

 Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands, [290]

 Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.

 His Spear de ella, to equal which the tallest Pine

 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast

 Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand,

 He walkt with to support uneasie steps [295]

 Over the burning Marle, not like those steps

 On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime

 Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;

 Nathless he so endur’d, till on the Beach

 Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d [300]

 His Legions of him, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t

 Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks

 In Vallombrosa, where th ‘Etrurian shades

 High overarch’t imbowr;  or scatterd sedge

 Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm’d [305]

 Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew

 Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry,

 While with perfidious hatred they pursu’d

 The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld

 From the safe shore thir floating Carkases [310]

 And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown

 Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,

 Under amazement of thir hideous change.

 He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep

 Of Hell resounded.  Princes, Potentates, [315]

 Warriers, the Flowr of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,

 If such astonishment as this can sieze

 Eternal spirits;  or have ye chos’n this place

 After the toyl of Battel to repose

 Your wearied vertue, for the ease you find [320]

 To slumber here, as in the Vales of Heav’n?

 Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

 To adore the Conquerour?  who now beholds

 Cherube and Seraph rowling in the Flood

 With scatter’d Arms and Ensigns, till anon [325]

 His swift pursuers from Heav’n Gates discern

 Th ‘advantage, and descending tread us down

 Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts

 Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.

 Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.  [330]

 They heard, and were abasht, 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 [335]

 In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

 Yet to thir Generals Voyce they soon obeyd

 Innumerable.  As when the potent Rod

 Of Amrams Son in Egypts evill day

 Wav’d round the Coast, up call’d a pitchy cloud [340]

 Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind,

 That ore the Realm of impious Pharaoh hung

 Like Night, and darken’d all the Land of Nile:

 So numberless were those bad Angels seen

 Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell [345]

 ‘Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;

 Till, as a signal giv’n, th ‘uplifted Spear

 Of thir great Sultan waving to direct

 Thir course, in even ballance down they light

 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain;  [350]

 A multitude, like which the populous North

 Pour’d never from her frozen loyns, to pass

 Rhene or the Danaw, when her de ella barbarous Sons

 Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread

 Beneath Gibralter to the Lybian sands.  [355]

 Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band

 The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood

 Thir great Commander;  Godlike shapes and forms

 Excelling human, Princely Dignities,

 And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;  [360]

 Though of thir Names in heav’nly Records now

 Be no memorial blotted out and ras’d

 By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.

 Nor had they yet among the Sons of Eve

 Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth, [365]

 Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,

 By falsities and lyes the greatest part

 Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake

 God thir Creator, and th ‘invisible

 Glory of him that made them, to transform [370]

 Off to the Image of a Brute, adorn’d

 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.  [375]

 Say, Muse, thir Names then known, who first, who last,

 Rous’d from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,

 At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth

 He came singly where he stood on the bare strand,

 While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof?  [380]

 The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell

 Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix

 Thir Seats long after next the Seat of God,

 Thir Altars by his Altar de el, Gods ador’d

 Among the Nations round, and durst abide [385]

 Jehovah thundring out of Zion, thron’d

 Between the Cherubim;  yea, often plac’d

 Within his Sanctuary of he it self thir Shrines,

 Abominations;  and with cursed things

 His holy Rites de el, and solemn Feasts profan’d, [390]

 And with thir darkness durst affront his light from him.

 First Moloch, horrid King besmear’d with blood

 Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,

 Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud

 Thir childrens cries unheard, that past through fire [395]

 To his grim Idol of him.  Him the Ammonite

 Worship in Rabba and her de ella watry Plain de ella,

 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream

 Of utmost Arnon.  Nor content with such

 Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart [400]

 Of Solomon he led by fraud to build

 His Temple de el right against the Temple of God

 On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove

 The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence

 And black Gehenna call’d, the Type of Hell.  [405]

 Next Chemos, th ‘obscene dread of Moabs Sons,

 From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild

 Of Southmost Abarim;  in Hesebon

 And Horonaim, Seons Realm, beyond

 The flowry Dale of Sibma clad with Vines, [410]

 And Eleale to th ‘Asphaltick Pool.

 Worse his other Name of him, when he entic’d

 Israel in Sittim on thir march from Nile

 To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.

 Yet thence his lustful Orgies of him I have enlarg’d [415]

 Even to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove

 Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;

 Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.

 With these came they, who from the bordring flood

 Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts [420]

 Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names

 Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,

 These Feminine.  For Spirits when they please

 Can either Sex assume, or both;  so soft

 And uncompounded is thir Essence pure, [425]

 Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb,

 Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

 Like cumbrous flesh;  but in what shape they choose

 Dilated or condens’t, bright or obscure,

 Can execute thir aerie purposes, [430]

 And works of love or enmity fulfill.

 For those the Race of Israel oft forsook

 Thir living strength, and unfrequented left

 His righteous Altar of him, bowing lowly down

 To bestial Gods;  for which thir heads as low [435]

 Bow’d down in Battel, sunk before the Spear

 Of despicable foes.  With these in troop

 Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call’d

 Astarte, Queen of Heav’n, with crescent Horns;

 To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon [440]

 Sidonian Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,

 In Sion also not unsung, where stood

 Her Temple of her on th ‘offensive Mountain, built

 By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,

 Beguil’d by fair Idolatresses, fell [445]

 To Idols foul.  Thammuz came next behind,

 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur’d

 The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate

 In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,

 While smooth Adonis from his native Rock by him [450]

 Ran purple to the Sea, suppos’d with blood

 Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the Love-tale

 Infected Sions daughters with like heat,

 Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch

 Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led [455]

 His eye of him survay’d the dark Idolatries

 Of alienated Judah.  Next came one

 Who mourn’d in earnest, when the Captive Ark

 Maim’d his brute Image of him, head and hands lopt off

 In his own Temple of him, on the grunsel edge, [460]

 Where he fell flat, and sham’d his Worshipers de el:

 Dagon his Name de el, Sea Monster, upward Man

 And downward Fish: yet had his Temple de l high

 He rear’d in Azotus, dreaded through the Coast

 Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon [465]

 And Accaron and Gaza’s frontier bounds.

 Him follow’d Rimmon, whose delightful Seat

 He was fair Damascus, on the fertile Banks

 Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.

 He also against the house of God was bold: [470]

 A Leper once I have lost and gain’d a King,

 Ahaz his sottish Conquerour de l, whom he drew

 Gods Altar to disparage and displace

 For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn

 His odious off’rings, and adore the Gods [475]

 Whom he had vanquisht.  After these appear’d

 A crew who under Names of old Renown,

 Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train

 With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d

 Fanatic Egypt and her de ella Priests de ella, to seek [480]

 Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms

 Rather then human.  Nor did Israel scape

 Th ‘infection when thir borrow’d Gold compos’d

 The Calf in Oreb: and the Rebel King

 Doubl’d that sin in Bethel and in Dan, [485]

 Lik’ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,

 Jehovah, who in one Night when he pass’d

 From Egypt marching, equal’d with one stroke

 Both her de ella first born de ella and all her de ella bleating Gods.

 Belial came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd [490]

 She fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love

 Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood

 Or Altar smoak’d;  yet who more oft then hee

 In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest

 Turns Atheist, as did Ely’s Sons, who fill’d [495]

 With lust and violence the house of God.

 In Courts and Palaces he also Reigns

 And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse

 Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,

 And injury and outrage: And when Night [500]

 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

 Expos’d a Matron to avoid worse monkfish.  [505]

 These were the prime in order and in might;

 The rest were long to tell, though far renown’d,

 Th ‘Ionian Gods, of Javans Issue held

 Gods, yet confest later then Heav’n and Earth

 Thir boasted Parents;  Titan Heav’ns first born [510]

 With his enormous brood of him, and birthright six’d

 By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove

 His own of him and Rhea’s Son like measure found;

 So Jove usurping reign’d: these first in Creet

 And Ida known, thence on the Snowy top [515]

 Of cold Olympus rul’d the middle Air

 Thir highest Heav’n;  or on the Delphian Cliff,

 Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds

 Of Doric Land;  or who with Saturn old

 Fled over Adria to th ‘Hesperian Fields, [520]

 And pray the Celtic roam’d the utmost Isles.

 All these and more came flocking;  but with looks

 Down cast and damp, yet such wherein appear’d

 Obscure some glimps of joy, to have found thir chief

 Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost [525]

 In loss it self;  which on his count’nance cast

 Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride

 Soon recollecting, with high words, that he bore

 Semblance of worth, not substance, gently rais’d

 Thir fainting courage, and dispel’d thir fears.  [530]

 Then strait commands that at the warlike sound

 Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard

 His mighty Standard of him;  that proud honor claim’d

 Azazel as his right of him, a Cherube tall:

 Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld [535]

 Th ‘Imperial Ensign, which full high advanc’t

 Shon like a Meteor streaming to the Wind

 With Gemms and Golden luster rich imblaz’d,

 Seraphic arms and Trophies: all the while

 Sonorous mettal blowing Martial sounds: [540]

 At which the universal Host upsent

 A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond

 He frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night.

 All in a moment through the gloom were seen

 Ten thousand Banners rise into the Air [545]

 With Orient Colors waving: with them rose

 A Forest huge of Spears: and thronging Helms

 Appear’d, and serried shields in thick array

 Of depth immeasurable: Anon they move

 In perfect Phalanx to the Dorian mood [550]

 Of Flutes and soft Recorders;  such as rais’d

 To hight of noblest temper Hero’s old

 Arming to Battel, and in stead of rage

 Deliberate courage breath’d, firm and unmov’d

 With dread of death to flight or foul retreat, [555]

 Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage

 With solemn touches, troubl’d 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 [560]

 Mov’d on in silence to soft Pipes that charm’d

 Thir painful steps o’re the burnt soyle;  and now

 Advanc’t in view, they stand, a horrid Front

 Of dreadful length and dazling Arms, in guise

 Of Warriers old with order’d Spear and Shield, [565]

 Awaiting what command thir mighty Chief

 Had to impose: He through the armed Files

 Darts his experienc’t eye, and soon traverse

 The whole Battalion views, thir order due,

 Thir visages and stature as of Gods, [570]

 Thir number last he summs.  And now his heart

 From him Distends with pride, and hardning in his strength

 Glories: For never since created man,

 Met such imbodied force, as he nam’d with these

 He could merit more then that small infantry [575]

 Warr’d on by Cranes: though all the Giant brood

 Of Phlegra with th ‘Heroic Race were joyn’d

 That fought at Theb’s and Ilium, on each side

 Mixt with auxiliary Gods;  and what resounds

 In Fable or Romance of Uthers Son [580]

 Begirt with British and Armoric Knights;

 And all who since, Baptiz’d or Infidel

 Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,

 Damascus, or Marocco, or Trebisond,

 Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore [585]

 When Charlemain with all his Peerage de he fell

 By Fontarabbia.  Thus far these beyond

 Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed’d

 Thir dread commander: he above the rest

 In shape and gesture proudly eminent [590]

 He stood like a Towr;  his form of he had yet not lost

 All her Original brightness of him, nor appear’d

 Less then Arch Angel ruind, and th ‘excess

 Of Glory obscur’d: As when the Sun new ris’n

 Looks through the Horizontal misty Air [595]

 Shorn of his Beams from him, or from behind the Moon

 In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds

 On half the Nations, and with fear of change

 Perplexes Monarchs.  Dark’n’d so, yet shon

 Above them all th ‘Arch Angel: but his face de l [600]

 Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht, and care

 Sat on his faded cheek of him, but under Browes

 Of dauntless courage, and considerate Pride

 Waiting revenge: cruel his eye of him, but cast

 Signs of remorse and passion to behold [605]

 The fellows of his crime by him, the followers rather

 (Far other once beheld in bliss) condemn’d

 For ever now to have thir lot in pain,

 Millions of Spirits for his fault by him amerc’t

 Of Heav’n, and from Eternal Splendors flung [610]

 For his revolt de l, yet faithfull how they stood,

 Thir Glory witherd.  As when Heavens Fire

 Hath scath’d the Forrest Oaks, or Mountain Pines,

 With singed top thir stately growth though bare

 Stands on the blasted Heath.  He now prepar’d [615]

 To speak;  whereat thir doubl’d Ranks they bend

 From wing to wing, and half enclose him round

 With all his Peers de el: attention held them mute.

 Thrice he assayd, and thrice in spight of scorn,

 Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last [620]

 Words interwove with sighs found out thir way.

 O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers

 Matchless, but with th ‘Almighty, and that strife

 Was not inglorious, though th ‘event was dire,

 As this place testifies, and this dire change [625]

 Hateful to utter: but what power of mind

 Foreseeing or presaging, from the Depth

 Of knowledge past or present, could have fear’d,

 How such united force of Gods, how such

 As stood like these, could ever know repulse?  [630]

 For who can yet beleeve, though after loss,

 That all these puissant Legions, whose exile

 Hath emptied Heav’n, shall fail to re-ascend

 Self-rais’d, and repossess thir native seat?

 For mee be witness all the Host of Heav’n, [635]

 If counsels different, or danger shun’d

 By me, we have lost our hopes.  But he who reigns

 Monarch in Heav’n, till then as one secure

 Sat on his Throne of him, upheld by old repute,

 Consent or custome, and his Regal State de l [640]

 Put forth at full, but still his strength of he conceal’d,

 Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.

 Henceforth his might of him we know, and know our own

 So as not either to provoke, or dread

 New warr, provok’t;  our better part remains [645]

 To work in close design, by fraud or guile

 What force effected not: that he no less

 At length from us may find he, who overcomes

 By force, he has overcome but half his foe of him.

 Space may produces new Worlds;  whereof so rife [650]

 There went a fame in Heav’n that he ere long

 Intended to create, and therein plant

 A generation, whom his choice regard

 Should favor equal to the Sons of Heaven:

 Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps [655]

 Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:

 For this Infernal Pit shall never hold

 Clestial Spirits in Bondage, nor th ‘Abyss

 Long under darkness cover.  But these thoughts

 Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird, [ 660 ]

 For who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr

 Open or understood must be resolv’d.

 He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew

 Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs

 Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze [ 665 ]

 Far round illumin’d hell: highly they rag’d

 Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms

 Clash’d on thir sounding Shields the din of war,

 Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav’n.

 There stood a Hill not far whose griesly top [ 670 ]

 Belch’d fire and rowling smoak; the rest entire

 Shon with a glossie scurff, undoubted sign

 That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,

 The work of Sulphur. Thither wing’d with speed

 A numerous Brigad hasten’d. As when Bands [ 675 ]

 Of Pioners with Spade and Pickax arm’d

 Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field,

 Or cast a Rampart. Mammon led them on,

 Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell

 From heav’n, for ev’n in heav’n his looks and thoughts [ 680 ]

 Were always downward bent, admiring more

 The riches of Heav’ns pavement, trod’n Gold,

 Then aught divine or holy else enjoy’d

 In vision beatific: by him first

 Men also, and by his suggestion taught, [ 685 ]

 Ransack’d the Center, and with impious hands

 Rifl’d the bowels of thir mother Earth

 For Treasures better hid. Soon had his crew

 Op’nd into the Hill a spacious wound

 And dig’d out ribs of Gold. Let none admire [ 690 ]

 That riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best

 Deserve the precious bane. And here let those

 Who boast in mortal things, and wond’ring tell

 Of Babel, and the works of Memphian Kings

 Learn how thir greatest Monuments of Fame, [ 695 ]

 And Strength and Art are easily out-done

 By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour

 What in an age they with incessant toyle

 And hands innumerable scarce perform.

 Nigh on the Plain in many cells prepar’d, [ 700 ]

 That underneath had veins of liquid fire

 Sluc’d from the Lake, a second multitude

 With wondrous Art found out the massie Ore,

 Severing each kind, and scum’d the Bullion dross:

 A third as soon had form’d within the ground [ 705 ]

 A various mould, and from the boyling cells

 By strange conveyance fill’d each hollow nook,

 As in an Organ from one blast of wind

 To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.

 Anon out of the earth a Fabrick huge [ 710 ]

 Rose like an Exhalation, with the sound

 Of Dulcet Symphonies and voices sweet,

 Built like a Temple, where Pilasters round

 Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid

 With Golden Architrave; nor did there want [ 715 ]

 Cornice or Freeze, with bossy Sculptures grav’n,

 The Roof was fretted Gold. Not Babilon,

 Nor great Alcairo such magnificence

 Equal’d in all thir glories, to inshrine

 Belus or Serapis thir Gods, or seat [ 720 ]

 Thir Kings, when gypt with Assyria strove

 In wealth and luxurie. Th’ ascending pile

 Stood fixt her stately highth, and strait the dores

 Op’ning thir brazen foulds discover wide

 Within, her ample spaces, o’re the smooth [ 725 ]

 And level pavement: from the arched roof

 Pendant by suttle Magic many a row

 Of Starry Lamps and blazing Cressets fed

 With Naphtha and Asphaltus yeilded light

 As from a sky. The hasty multitude [ 730 ]

 Admiring enter’d, and the work some praise

 And some the Architect: his hand was known

 In Heav’n by many a Towred structure high,

 Where Scepter’d Angels held thir residence,

 And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King [ 735 ]

 Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,

 Each in his Hierarchie, the Orders bright.

 Nor was his name unheard or unador’d

 In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land

 Men call’d him Mulciber; and how he fell [ 740 ]

 From Heav’n, they fabl’d, thrown by angry Jove

 Sheer o’re the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn

 To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve,

 A Summers day; and with the setting Sun

 Dropt from the Zenith like a falling Star, [ 745 ]

 On Lemnos th’ gean Ile: thus they relate,

 Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

 Fell long before; nor aught avail’d him now

 To have built in Heav’n high Towrs; nor did he scape

 By all his Engins, but was headlong sent [ 750 ]

 With his industrious crew to build in hell.

 Mean while the winged Haralds by command

 Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony

 And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim

 A solemn Councel forthwith to be held [ 755 ]

 At Pandmonium, the high Capital

 Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons call’d

 From every Band and squared Regiment

 By place or choice the worthiest; they anon

 With hunderds and with thousands trooping came [ 760 ]

 Attended: all access was throng’d, the Gates

 And Porches wide, but chief the spacious Hall

 (Though like a cover’d field, where Champions bold

 Wont ride in arm’d, and at the Soldans chair

 Defi’d the best of Paynim chivalry [ 765 ]

 To mortal combat or carreer with Lance)

 Thick swarm’d, both on the ground and in the air,

 Brusht with the hiss of russling wings. As Bees

 In spring time, when the Sun with Taurus rides,

 Pour forth thir populous youth about the Hive [ 770 ]

 In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers

 Flie to and fro, or on the smoothed Plank,

 The suburb of thir Straw-built Cittadel,

 New rub’d with Baum, expatiate and confer

 Thir State affairs. So thick the aerie crowd [ 775 ]

 Swarm’d and were straitn’d; till the Signal giv’n.

 Behold a wonder! they but now who seemd

 In bigness to surpass Earths Giant Sons

 Now less then smallest Dwarfs, in narrow room

 Throng numberless, like that Pigmean Race [ 780 ]

 Beyond the Indian Mount, or Faerie Elves,

 Whose midnight Revels, by a Forrest side

 Or Fountain some belated Peasant sees,

 Or dreams he sees, while over-head the Moon

 Sits Arbitress, and neerer to the Earth [ 785 ]

 Wheels her pale course, they on thir mirth and dance

 Intent, with jocond Music charm his ear;

 At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.

 Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms

 Reduc’d thir shapes immense, and were at large, [ 790 ]

 Though without number still amidst the Hall

 Of that infernal Court. But far within

 And in thir own dimensions like themselves

 The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim

 In close recess and secret conclave sat [ 795 ]

 A thousand Demy-Gods on golden seats,

 Frequent and full. After short silence then

 And summons read, the great consult began.

Book IV

BOOK 4

 THE ARGUMENT

 Satan now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprize which he undertook alone against God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy, and despare;  but at length confirms himself in evil, journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and scituation is discribed, 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 describe’d;  Satans first sight of Adam and Eve;  his wonder of him at thir excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work thir fall;  he overhears thir discourse, thence gathers that the Tree of knowledge was forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death;  and he thereon he intends to found his Temptation of him, by seducing them to transgress: then he leaves them a while, to know further of thir state by some other means.  Mean while Uriel descending on a Sun-beam warns Gabriel, who had in charge the Gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escap’d the Deep, and past at Noon by his Sphere in the shape of a good Angel down to Paradise,  discovered after by his furious gestures in the Mount.  Gabriel promises to find him ere morning.  Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to thir rest: thir Bower describe’d;  thir Evening worship.  Gabriel drawing forth his Bands of Night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong Angels to Adams Bower, least the evill 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 he question’d, he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but hinder’d by a Sign from Heaven, he flies out of Paradise.

 O For that warning voice, which he who saw

 Th ‘Apocalyps, heard cry in Heaven aloud,

 Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,

 Came furious down to be reveng’d on men,

 Wo to the inhabitants on Earth!  that now, [5]

 While time was, our first-Parents had bin warnd

 The coming of thir secret foe, and scap’d

 Haply so scap’d his mortal snare from him;  for now

 Satan, now first inflam’d with rage, came down,

 The Tempter ere th ‘Accuser of man-kind, [10]

 To wreck on innocent frail man his loss

 Of that first Battel, and his flight from him to Hell:

 Yet not rejoycing in his speed of him, though bold,

 Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,

 Begins his dire attempt by him, which night the birth [15]

 Now rowling, boiles in his tumultuous brest of him,

 And like a devillish Engine back recoiles

 Upon himself;  horror and doubt distract

 His troubl’d thoughts of him, and from the bottom stirr

 The Hell within him, for within him Hell [20]

 He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

 One step no more then from himself can fly

 By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair

 That slumberd, wakes the bitter memorie

 Of what he was, what is he, and what must be [25]

 Worse;  of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

 Sometimes towards Eden which now in his view

 Lay pleasant, his grievd look de l he fixes sad,

 Sometimes towards Heav’n and the full-blazing Sun,

 Which now sat high in his Meridian Towre: [30]

 Then much revolving, thus in sighs began.

 O thou that with surpassing Glory crownd,

 Look’st from thy sole Dominion like the God

 Of this new World;  at whose sight all the Starrs

 Hide thir diminisht heads;  to thee I call, [35]

 But with no friendly voice, and add thy name

 O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams

 That bring to my remembrance from what state

 I fell, how glorious once above thy Spheare;

 Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down [40]

 Warring in Heav’n against Heav’ns matchless King:

 Ah wherefore!  I have deservd no such return

 From me, whom I created what I was

 In that bright eminence, and with his good

 Upbraided none;  nor was his service from him hard.  [ Four. Five ]

 What could be less then to afford him praise,

 The easiest reward, and pay him thanks,

 How due!  yet all his good of him prov’d ill in me,

 And wrought but malice;  lifted up so high

 I sdeind subjection, and thought one step higher [50]

 He would set me highest, and in a moment quit

 The debt immense of endless gratitude,

 So burthensome, still paying, still to ow;

 Forgetful what from him I still received,

 And understood not that a grateful mind [55]

 By owing owes not, but still pays, at once

 Indebted and dischargd;  what burden then?

 O had his powerful Destiny of him ordaind

 Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood

 Then happie;  no unbounded hope had rais’d [60]

 Ambition.  Yet why not?  som other Power

 As great he might have aspir’d, and me though mean

 Drawn to his part of him;  but other Powers as great

 He fell not, but stand unshak’n, from within

 Or from without, to all temptations he arm’d.  [65]

 Hadst thou the same free Will and Power to stand?

 Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,

 But Heav’ns free Love dealt equally to all?

 Be then his Love de l accurst, since love or hate,

 To me alike, it deals eternal woe.  [70]

 Nay curs’d be thou;  since against his thy will

 Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

 I miserable!  which way shall I flie

 Infinite wrauth, and infinite despaire?

 Which way I flie is Hell;  my self am Hell;  [75]

 And in the lowest deep a lower deep

 Still threatning to devour me opens wide,

 To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.

 Or then at last relent: is there no place

 Left for Repentance, none for Pardon left?  [80]

 None left but by submission;  and that word

 Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame

 Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduc’d

 With other promises and other vaunts

 Then to submit, boasting I could subdue [85]

 Th ‘Omnipotent.  Ay me, they little know

 How dearly I abide that boast so vaine,

 Under what torments inwardly I groane:

 While they adore me on the Throne of Hell,

 With Diadem and Scepter high advanc’d [90]

 The lower still I fall, onely Supream

 In miserie;  such joy Ambition findes.

 But say I could repent and could obtain

 By Act of Grace my former state;  how soon

 Would higth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay [95]

 What feign’d 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 peirc’d so deep:

 Which would but lead me to a worse relapse [100]

 And heavier fall: so should I purchase deare

 Short intermission bought with double smart.

 This knows my punisher;  therefore as farr

 From granting hee, as I from begging peace:

 All hope excluded thus, behold in stead [105]

 Of us out-cast, exil’d, his new delight de l,

 Mankind created, and for him this World.

 So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear,

 Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost;

 Evil be thou my Good;  by thee at least [110]

 Divided Empire with Heav’ns King I hold

 By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne;

 As Man ere long, and this new World shall know.

 Thus while he spake, each passion dimm’d his face

 Thrice chang’d with pale, ire, envie and despair, [115]

 Which marrd his borrow’d visage de l, and betraid

 Him counterfet, if any eye beheld.

 For heav’nly mindes from such distempers foule

 Are ever cleer.  Whereof hee soon aware,

 Each perturbation smooth’d with outward calme, [120]

 Artificer of fraud;  and was the first

 That practisd falshood under saintly shew,

 Deep malice to conceale, couch’t with revenge:

 Yet not anough had practisd to deceive

 Uriel eleven warnd;  whose eye pursu’d him down [125]

 The way he went, and on th ‘Assyrian mount

 Saw him disfigur’d, more then he could befall

 Spirit of happie sort: his gestures de el fierce

 He markd and mad demeanour, then alone,

 Thus I have suppos’d him all unobserv’d, unseen.  [130]

 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 hairie sides [135]

 With thicket overgrown, grottesque and wilde,

 Access deni’d;  and over head up grew

 Unsurpassed highth of loftiest shade,

 Cedar, and Pine, and Firr, and branching Palm

 A Silvan Scene, and as the ranks ascend [140]

 Shade above shade, a woodie Theater

 Of stateliest view.  Yet higher then thir tops

 The verdurous wall of paradise up sprung:

 Which to our general Sire gave prospect large

 Into his neather Empire neighboring round.  [145]

 And higher then that Wall a circling row

 Of goodliest Trees loaden with fairest Fruit,

 Blossoms and Fruits at once of golden hue

 Appeerd, with gay enameld colors mixt:

 On which the Sun more glad impress’d his beams de el [150]

 Then in fair Evening Cloud, or humid Bow,

 When God hath showrd the earth;  so lovely seemd

 That Lantskip: And of pure now purer air

 Meets his approach de l, and to the heart inspires

 Vernal delight and joy, able to drive [155]

 All sadness but despair: now gentle wales

 Fanning thir odoriferous wings dispense

 Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

 Those balmie spoiles.  As when to them who saile

 Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past [160]

 Mozambic, off at Sea North-East windes blow

 Sabean Odours from the Spicie Shoare

 Of Arabie the blest, with such delay

 Well pleas’d they slack thir course, and many a League

 Chear’d with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.  [165]

 So entertaind those odorous sweets the Fiend

 Who came thir bane, though with them better pleas’d

 Then Asmodeus with the fishie smoke,

 That drove him, though enamourd, from the Spouse

 Of Tobits Son, and with a vengeance sent [170]

 From Media post to gypt, there fast bound.

 Now to th ‘ascent of that steep savage Hill

 Satan had journied on, pensive and slow;

 But further way he found none, so thick entwin’d,

 As one continu’d brake, the undergrowth [175]

 Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplext

 All path of Man or Beast that past that way:

 One Gate there only was, and that look’d East

 On th ‘other side: which when th’ arch-fellon saw

 Due entrance he disdaind, and in contempt, [180]

 At one slight bound high over leap’d all bound

 Of Hill or highest Wall, and sheer within

 Lights on his feet from him.  As when a prowling Wolfe,

 Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,

 Watching where Shepherds pen thir Flocks at eeve [185]

 In hurdl’d Cotes amid the field secure,

 Leaps o’re the fence with ease into the Fould:

 Or as a Thief bent to unhoord the cash

 Of some rich Burgher, whose substantial dores,

 Cross-barrd and bolted fast, fear no assault, [190]

 In at the window climbs, or o’re the tiles;

 So clomb this first grand Thief into Gods Fould:

 So since into his Church lewd Hirelings climbe.

 Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,

 The middle Tree and highest there that grew, [195]

 Sat like a Cormorant;  yet not true life

 Thereby regaind, but sat devising Death

 To them who liv’d;  nor on the vertue thought

 Of that life-giving Plant, but only us’d

 For prospect, what well us’d had bin the pledge [200]

 Of immortality.  So little knows

 Any, but God alone, to value right

 The good before him, but perverts best things

 To worst abuse, or to thir meanest use.

 Beneath him with new wonder now he views [205]

 To all delight of human sense expos’d

 In narrow room Natures 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 stretchd her Line [210]

 From Auran Eastward to the Royal Towrs

 Of Great Seleucia, built by Grecian Kings,

 Or where the Sons of Eden long before

 Dwelt in Telassar: in this pleasant soile

 His farr more pleasant Garden God ordaind;  [215]

 Out of the fertil ground he caus’d to grow

 All Trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;

 And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,

 High eminent, blooming Ambrosial Fruit

 Of vegetable Gold;  and next to Life [220]

 Our Death the Tree of Knowledge grew fast by,

 Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill.

 Southward through Eden went a River large,

 Nor chang’d his course, but through the shaggie hill

 Pass’d underneath ingulft, for God had thrown [225]

 That Mountain as his Garden by him mold high rais’d

 Upon the rapid current, which through veins

 Of porous Earth with kindly thirst up drawn,

 Rose a fresh Fountain, and with many a rill

 Waterd the Garden;  thence united fell [230]

 Down the steep glade, and met the neather Flood,

 Which from his darksom passage de l now appeers,

 And now divided into four main Streams,

 Runs divers, wandring many a famous Realme

 And Country whereof here needs no account, [235]

 But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,

 How from that Saphire Fount the crisped Brooks,

 Rowling on Orient Pearl and sands of Gold,

 With mazie error under pendant shades

 Ran Nectar, visiting each plant, and fed [240]

 Flours worthy of Paradise which not nice Art

 In Beds and curious Knots, but Nature boon

 Powrd forth profuse on Hill and Dale and Plaine,

 Both where the morning Sun first warmly smote

 The open field, and where the unpierc’t shade [245]

 Imbround the noontide Bowrs: Thus was this place,

 A happy rural seat of various view;

 Groves whose rich Trees wept odorous Gumms and Balme,

 Others whose fruit burnisht with Golden Rinde

 Hung amiable, Hesperian Fables true, [250]

 If true, here only, and of delicious taste:

 Betwixt them Lawns, or level Downs, and Flocks

 Grasing the tender herb, were interpos’d,

 Or palmie hilloc, or the flourie lap

 Of som irriguous Valley spred her store de ella, [255]

 Flours of all hue, and without Thorn the Rose:

 Another side, umbrageous Grots and Caves

 Of coole recess, o’re which the mantling vine

 Layes forth her de ella purple Grape, and gently creeps

 Luxuriant;  mean while murmuring waters fall [260]

 Down the slope hills, disperst, or in a Lake,

 That to the fringed Bank with Myrtle crownd,

 Her chrystal mirror holds, unite thir streams.

 The Birds thir want apply;  aires, vernal aires,

 Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune [265]

 The trembling leaves, while Universal Pan

 Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance

 Led on th ‘Eternal Spring.  Not that faire field

 Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flours

 Her de ella self de ella a fairer Floure by gloomie Dis [270]

 Was gatherd, which cost Ceres all that pain

 To seek her through the world;  nor that sweet grove

 Of Daphne by Orontes, and th ‘inspir’d

 Castalian Spring, might with this Paradise

 Of Eden strive;  nor that Nyseian Ile [275]

 Girt with the River Triton, where old Cham,

 Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Lybian Jove,

 Hid Amalthea and her de ella Florid Son

 Young Bacchus from his Stepdame Rhea’s eye;

 Nor where Abassin Kings thir issue Guard, [280]

 Mount Amara, though this by som suppos’d

 True Paradise under the Ethiop Line

 By Nilus head, enclosd with shining Rock,

 A whole days journy high, but wide remote

 From this Assyrian Garden, where the Fiend [285]

 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 Honor clad

 In naked Majestie seemd Lords of all, [290]

 And worthie seemd, for in thir looks Divine

 The image of thir glorious Maker shon,

 Truth, wisdome, Sanctitude severe and pure,

 Severe but in true affiliate freedom plac’t;

 Whence true authority in men;  though both [295]

 Not equal, as thir sex not equal seemd;

 For contemplation hee and value formd,

 For softness shee and sweet attractive Grace,

 Hee for God only, shee for God in him:

 His fair large Front and Eye sublime declared’d [300]

 Absolute rule;  and Hyacinthin Locks

 Round from his parted forelock manly hung

 Clustring, but not beneath his shoulders broad:

 Shee as a vail down to the slender waste

 Her unadorned golden tresses de ella wore [305]

 Disheveld, but in wanton ringlets wav’d

 As the Vine curles her tendrils de ella, which impli’d

 Subjection, but requir’d with gentle sway,

 And by her de ella yielded de ella, by him best received,

 Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, [310]

 And sweet reluctant amorous delay.

 Nor those mysterious parts were then conceald,

 Then was not guiltie shame, dishonest shame

 Of natures works, honor dishonorable,

 Sin-bred, how have ye troubl’d all mankind [315]

 With shews instead, meer shews of seeming pure,

 And banisht from mans life his happiest life of him,

 Simplicitie and spotless innocence.

 So passd they naked on, nor shund the sight

 Of God or Angel, for they thought no ill: [320]

 So hand in hand they passd, the lovliest pair

 That ever since in loves imbraces met,

 Adam the goodliest man of men since borne

 His Sons de ella, the fairest of her Daughters Eve.

 Under a tuft of shade that on a green [325]

 She stood whispering soft, by a fresh Fountain side

 They sat them down, and after no more toil

 Of thir sweet Gardning labor then suffic’d

 To recommend coole Zephyr, and made ease

 More easie, wholsom thirst and appetite [330]

 More grateful, to thir Supper Fruits they fell,

 Nectarine Fruits which the compliant boughes

 Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline

 On the soft downie Bank damaskt with flours:

 The savorie pulp they chew, and in the rinde [335]

 Still as they thirsted scoop the brimming stream;

 Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles

 Wanted, nor youthful dalliance as beseems

 Fair couple, linkt in happie nuptial League,

 Alone as they.  About them frisking playd [340]

 All Beasts of th ‘Earth, since wilde, and of all chase

 In Wood or Wilderness, Forrest or Den;

 Sporting the Lion rampd, and in his paw

 Dandl’d the Kid;  Bears, Tygers, Ounces, Pards

 Gambold before them, th ‘unwieldy Elephant [345]

 To make them mirth us’d all his might of him, and wreathd

 His Lithe Proboscis of him;  close the Serpent sly

 Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine

 His breaded train of him, and of his fatal guile

 Gave proof unheeded;  others on the grass [350]

 Coucht, and now fild with pasture gazing sat,

 Or Bedward ruminating: for the Sun

 Declin’d was hasting now with prone carreer

 To th ‘Ocean Iles, and in th’ ascending Scale

 Of Heav’n the Starrs that usher Evening rose: [355]

 When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood,

 Scarce thus at length faild speech recoverd sad.

 Or Hell!  what doe mine eyes with grief behold,

 Into our room of bliss thus high advanc’t

 Creatures of other mold, earth-born perhaps, [360]

 Not Spirits, yet to heav’nly Spirits bright

 Little bottom;  whom my thoughts pursue

 With wonder, and could love, so lively shines

 In them Divine resemblance, and such grace

 The hand that formd them on thir shape hath pourd.  [365]

 Ah gentle pair, yee 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;

 Happie, but for so happie ill secur’d [370]

 Long to continue, and this high seat your Heav’n

 Ill fenc’t for Heav’n to keep out such a foe

 As now is enterd;  yet no purpos’d foe

 To you whom I could pittie thus forlorne

 Though I unpittied: League with you I seek, [375]

 And mutual amitie so streight, so close,

 That I with you must dwell, or you with me

 Henceforth;  my dwelling haply may not please

 Like this fair Paradise, your sense, yet such

 Accept your Makers work;  he gave it me, [380]

 Which I as freely give;  Hell shall unfold,

 To entertain you two, her widest Gates de ella,

 And send forth all her Kings of her;  there will be room,

 Not like these narrow limits, to receive

 Your number of spring;  if no better place, [385]

 Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge

 On you who wrong me not for him who wrongd.

 And should I at your harmless innocence

 Melt, as I doe, yet public reason just,

 Honor and Empire with revenge enlarg’d, [390]

 By conquering this new World, compels me now

 To do what else though damnd I should abhorre.

 So spake the Fiend, and with necessitie,

 The Tyrants plea, excus’d his devilish deeds from him.

 Then from his loftie stand on that high Tree [395]

 Down he alights among the sportful Herd

 Of those fourfooted kindes, himself now one,

 Now other, as thir shape servd best his end

 Neerer to view his prey of him, and unespi’d

 To mark what of thir state he more might learn [400]

 By word or action markt: about them round

 A Lion now he stalkes with fierie glare,

 Then as a Tyger, who by chance hath spi’d

 In some Purlieu two gentle Fawnes at play,

 Strait couches close, then rising changes oft [405]

 His couchant watch de el, as one who chose his ground

 Whence rushing he might surest seize them both

 Gript in each paw: when Adam first of men

 To first of women Eve thus moving speech,

 Turnd him all eare to hear new utterance flow.  [410]

 Sole partner and sole part of all these joyes,

 Dearer thy self then all;  needs must the Power

 That made us, and for us this ample World

 Be infinitly good, and of his good

 As liberal and free as infinite, [415]

 That rais’d us from the dust and plac’t us here

 In all this happiness, who at his hand

 Have nothing merited, nor can performe

 Aught whereof hee hath need, hee who requires

 From us no other service then to keep [420]

 This one, this easie charge, of all the Trees

 In Paradise that bear delicious fruit

 So various, not to taste that onely Tree

 Of knowledge, planted by the Tree of Life,

 So neer grows Death to Life, what ere Death is, [425]

 Som dreadful thing no doubt;  for well thou knowst

 God hath pronounc’t it death to taste that Tree,

 The only sign of our obedience left

 Among so many signs of power and rule

 Conferrd upon us, and Dominion giv’n [430]

 Over all other Creatures that possess

 Earth, Aire, and Sea. Then let us not think hard

 One easie prohibition, who enjoy

 Free leave so large to all things else, and choice

 Unlimited of manifold delights: [435]

 But let us ever praise him, and extoll

 His bountie de el, following our delightful task

 To prune these growing Plants, and tend these Flours,

 Which were it toilsom, yet with thee were sweet.

 To whom thus Eve repli’d.  O thou for whom [440]

 And from whom I was formd flesh of thy flesh,

 And without whom am to no end, my Guide

 And Head, what thou hast said is just and right.

 For wee to him indeed all praises owe,

 And daily thanks, I chiefly who enjoy [445]

 So farr the happier Lot, enjoying thee

 Preminent by so much odds, while thou

 Like consort to thy self canst no where find.

 That day I oft remember, when from sleep

 I first awak’t, and found my self repos’d [450]

 Under a shade of flours, much wondring where

 And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.

 Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound

 Of waters issu’d from a Cave and spread

 Into a liquid Plain, then stood unmov’d [455]

 Pure as th ‘expanse of Heav’n;  I thither went

 With unexperienc’t thought, and laid me downe

 On the green bank, to look into the cleer

 Smooth Lake, that to me seemd another Skie.

 As I bent down to look, just opposite, [460]

 A Shape within the watry gleam appeard

 Bending to look on me, I started back,

 It started back, but pleas’d I soon returnd,

 Pleas’d it returnd as soon with answering looks

 Of sympathie and love;  there I had fixt [465]

 Mine eyes till now, and pin’d with vain desire,

 Had not a voice thus warnd me, What thou seest,

 What there thou seest fair Creature is thy self,

 With thee it came and goes: but follow me,

 And I will bring thee where no shadow staies [470]

 Thy coming, and thy soft imbraces, hee

 Whose image thou art, him thou shalt enjoy

 Inseparablie thine, to him shalt beare

 Crowds like thy self, and thence be call’d

 Mother of human Race: what could I doe, [475]

 But follow strait, invisibly thus led?

 Till I espi’d thee, fair indeed and tall,

 Under a Platan, yet methought less faire,

 Less winning soft, less amiablie milde,

 Then that smooth watry image;  back I turnd, [480]

 Thou following cryd’st aloud, Return faire Eve,

 Whom fli’st thou?  whom thou fli’st, of him thou art,

 His flesh of him, his bone of him;  to give thee being I lent

 Out of my side to thee, neerest my heart

 Substantial Life, to have thee by my side [485]

 Henceforth an individual solace dear;

 Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim

 My other half: with that thy gentle hand

 Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see

 How beauty is excelld by manly grace [490]

 And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.

 So spake our general Mother, and with eyes

 Of conjugal attraction unreprov’d,

 And meek surrender, half imbracing leand

 On our first Father, half her de ella swelling Breast de ella [495]

 Naked met his de l under the flowing Gold

 Of her loose tresses de ella hid: he in delight

 Both of her de ella Beauty de ella and submissive Charms

 Smil’d with superior Love, as Jupiter

 On Juno smiles, when he impregns the Clouds [500]

 That shed May Flowers;  and press’d her de ella Matron lip

 With kisses pure: aside the Devil turnd

 For envie, yet with jealous read maligne

 Ey’d them askance, and to himself thus plaind.

 Sight hateful, sight tormenting!  thus these two [505]

 Imparadis’t in one anothers arms

 The happier Eden, shall enjoy thir 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, [510]

 Still unfulfill’d with pain of longing pins;

 Yet let me not forget what I have gain’d

 From thir own mouths;  all is not theirs it seems:

 One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge call’d,

 Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidd’n?  [515]

 Suspicious, reasonless.  Why should thir Lord

 Send them that?  can it be without to know,

 Can it be death?  and do they onely stand

 By Ignorance, is that thir happie state,

 The proof of thir obedience and thir faith?  [520]

 O fair foundation laid whereon to build

 Thir ruine!  Hence I will excite thir minds

 With more desire to know, and to reject

 Envious commands, invented with designe

 To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt [525]

 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 unspi’d;

 A chance but chance may lead where I may meet [530]

 Some wandring Spirit of Heav’n, by Fountain side,

 Or in thick shade retir’d, from him to draw

 What further would be learned.  Live while ye may,

 Yet happie pair;  enjoy, till I return,

 Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed.  [535]

 So saying, his proud step of he scornful turn’d,

 But with sly circumspection, and he began

 Through wood, through waste, o’re hill, o’re dale his roam de l.

 Mean while in utmost Longitude, where Heav’n

 With Earth and Ocean meets, the setting Sun [540]

 Slowly descended, and with right aspect

 Against the eastern Gate of Paradise

 Leveld his eevning Rayes: it was a Rock

 Of Alablaster, he pil’d up to the Clouds,

 Conspicuous farr, winding with one ascent [545]

 Accessible from Earth, one entrance high;

 The rest was craggie cliff, that overhung

 Still as it rose, impossible to climbe.

 Betwixt these rockie Pillars Gabriel sat

 Chief of th ‘Angelic Guards, awaiting night;  [550]

 About him exercis’d Heroic Games

 Th ‘unarmed Youth of Heav’n, but nigh at hand

 Celestial Armory, Shields, Helmes, and Speares

 Hung high with Diamond flaming, and with Gold.

 Thither came Uriel, gliding through the Eeven [555]

 On a Sun beam, swift as a shooting Starr

 In Autumn thwarts the night, when vapors fir’d

 Impress the Air, and shews the Mariner

 From what point of his Compass de el to beware

 Impetuous winds: he thus began in haste.  [560]

 Gabriel, to thee thy course by Lot hath giv’n

 Charge and strict watch that to this happie place

 No evil thing approach or enter in;

 This day at highth of Noon came to my Spheare

 A Spirit, zealous, as he seem’d, to know [565]

 More of th ‘Almighties works, and chiefly Man

 Gods latest Image: I describe’d his way

 Bent all on speed, and markt his Aerie Gate;

 But in the Mount that lies from Eden North,

 Where he first lighted, soon discernd his looks of him [570]

 Alien from Heav’n, with passions foul obscur’d:

 Mine eye pursu’d him still, but under shade

 Lost sight of him;  one of the banisht crew

 I fear, hath ventur’d from the Deep, to raise

 New troubles;  him thy care must be to find.  [575]

 To whom the winged Warriour thus returnd:

 Uriel, no wonder if thy perfet sight,

 Amid the Suns bright circle where thou sitst,

 See farr and wide: in at this Gate none pass

 The vigilance here plac’t, but such as come [580]

 Well known from Heav’n;  and since Meridian hour

 No Creature thence: if Spirit of other sort,

 So minded, have oreleapt these earthie bounds

 On purpose, hard thou knowst it to exclude

 Spiritual substance with corporeal barr.  [585]

 But if within the circuit of these walks,

 In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom

 Thou tellst, by morrow dawning I shall know.

 So promis’d hee, and Uriel to his charge

 Returnd on that bright beam, whose point he now rais’d [590]

 Bore him slope downward to the Sun now fall’n

 Beneath th ‘Azores;  whither the prime Orb,

 Incredible how swift, had thither rowl’d

 Diurnal, or this less fickle Earth

 By shorter flight to th ‘East, had left him there [595]

 Arraying with reflected Purple and Gold

 The Clouds that on his Western Throne by him attend:

 Now came still Eevning on, and Twilight gray

 Had in her sober Liverie de ella all things clad;

 Silence accompanied, for Beast and Bird, [600]

 They to thir grassie Couch, these to thir Nests

 Were slunk, all but the wakeful Nightingale;

 She all night long her de ella amorous descant de ella sung;

 Silence was pleas’d: now glow’d the Firmament

 With living Saphirs: Hesperus that led [605]

 The starrie Host, rode brightest, till the Moon

 Rising in clouded Majestie, at length

 Apparent Queen unvaild her peerless light of her,

 And o’re the dark her Silver Mantle threw.

 When Adam thus to Eve: Fair Consort, th ‘hour [610]

 Of night, and all things now retir’d to rest

 Mind us of like repose, since God hath set

 Labor and rest, as day and night to men

 Successive, and the timely dew of sleep

 Now falling with soft slumbrous weight inclines [615]

 Our eye-lids;  other Creatures all day long

 Rove idle unimploid, and less need rest;

 Man hath his daily work of body or mind

 Appointed, which declares his Dignitie de el,

 And the regard of Heav’n on all his waies;  [620]

 While other Animals unactive range,

 And of thir doings God takes no account.

 To morrow ere fresh Morning streak the East

 With first approach of light, we must be ris’n,

 And at our pleasant labor, to reform [625]

 Yon flourie Arbors, yonder Allies green,

 Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown,

 That mock our scant manuring, and require

 More hands then ours to lop thir wanton growth:

 Those Blossoms also, and those dropping Gumms, [630]

 That lie bestrowne 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 perfet beauty adornd.

 My Author and Disposer, what thou bidst [635]

 Unargu’d I obey;  so God ordains,

 God is thy Law, thou mine: to know no more

 Is womans happiest knowledge and her praise of her.

 With thee conversing I forget all time,

 All seasons and thir change, all please alike.  [640]

 Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet of her,

 With charm of earliest Birds;  pleasant the Sun

 When first on this delightful Land he spreads

 His de l orient Beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flour,

 Glistring with dew;  fragrant the fertil earth [645]

 After soft showers;  and sweet the coming on

 Of grateful Eevning milde, then silent Night

 With this her solemn Bird and this fair Moon,

 And these the Gemms of Heav’n, her starrie train de ella:

 But neither breath of Morn when she ascends [650]

 With charm of earliest Birds, nor rising Sun

 On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, floure,

 Glistring with dew, nor fragrance after showers,

 Nor grateful Eevning mild, nor silent Night

 With this her solemn Bird, nor walk by Moon, [ 655 ]

 Or glittering Starr-light without thee is sweet.

 But wherfore all night long shine these, for whom

 This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes?

 To whom our general Ancestor repli’d.

 Daughter of God and Man, accomplisht Eve, [ 660 ]

 Those have thir course to finish, round the Earth,

 By morrow Eevning, and from Land to Land

 In order, though to Nations yet unborn,

 Ministring light prepar’d, they set and rise;

 Least total darkness should by Night regaine [ 665 ]

 Her old possession, and extinguish life

 In Nature and all things, which these soft fires

 Not only enlighten, but with kindly heate

 Of various influence foment and warme,

 Temper or nourish, or in part shed down [ 670 ]

 Thir stellar vertue on all kinds that grow

 On Earth, made hereby apter to receive

 Perfection from the Suns more potent Ray.

 These then, though unbeheld in deep of night,

 Shine not in vain, nor think, though men were none, [ 675 ]

 That heav’n 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 ceasless praise his works behold

 Both day and night: how often from the steep [ 680 ]

 Of echoing Hill or Thicket have we heard

 Celestial voices to the midnight air,

 Sole, or responsive each to others note

 Singing thir great Creator: oft in bands

 While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk, [ 685 ]

 With Heav’nly touch of instrumental sounds

 In full harmonic number joind, thir songs

 Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to Heaven.

 Thus talking hand in hand alone they pass’d

 On to thir blissful Bower; it was a place [ 690 ]

 Chos’n by the sovran Planter, when he fram’d

 All things to mans delightful use; the roofe

 Of thickest covert was inwoven shade

 Laurel and Mirtle, and what higher grew

 Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either side [ 695 ]

 Acanthus, and each odorous bushie shrub

 Fenc’d up the verdant wall; each beauteous flour,

 Iris all hues, Roses, and Gessamin

 Rear’d high thir flourisht heads between, and wrought

 Mosaic; underfoot the Violet, [ 700 ]

 Crocus, and Hyacinth with rich inlay

 Broiderd the ground, more colour’d then with stone

 Of costliest Emblem: other Creature here

 Beast, Bird, Insect, or Worm durst enter none;

 Such was thir awe of Man. In shadie Bower [ 705 ]

 More sacred and sequesterd, though but feignd,

 Pan or Silvanus never slept, nor Nymph,

 Nor Faunus haunted. Here in close recess

 With Flowers, Garlands, and sweet-smelling Herbs

 Espoused Eve deckt first her Nuptial Bed, [ 710 ]

 And heav’nlyly Quires the Hymenan sung,

 What day the genial Angel to our Sire

 Brought her in naked beauty more adorn’d

 More lovely then Pandora, whom the Gods

 Endowd with all thir gifts, and O too like [ 715 ]

 In sad event, when to the unwiser Son

 Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she ensnar’d

 Mankind with her faire looks, to be aveng’d

 On him who had stole Joves authentic fire.

 Thus at thir shadie Lodge arriv’d, both stood [ 720 ]

 Both turnd, and under op’n Skie ador’d

 The God that made both Skie, Air, Earth and Heav’n

 Which they beheld, the Moons resplendent Globe

 And starrie Pole: Thou also mad’st the Night,

 Maker Omnipotent, and thou the Day, [ 725 ]

 Which we in our appointed work imployd

 Have finisht happie in our mutual help

 And mutual love, the Crown of all our bliss

 Ordaind by thee, and this delicious place

 For us too large, where thy abundance wants [ 730 ]

 Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground.

 But thou hast promis’d from us two a Race

 To fill the Earth, who shall with us extoll

 Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake,

 And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep. [ 735 ]

 This said unanimous, and other Rites

 Observing none, but adoration pure

 Which God likes best, into thir inmost bowre

 Handed they went; and eas’d the putting off

 These troublesom disguises which wee wear, [ 740 ]

 Strait side by side were laid, nor turnd I weene

 Adam from his fair Spouse, nor Eve the Rites

 Mysterious of connubial Love refus’d:

 Whatever Hypocrites austerely talk

 Of puritie and place and innocence, [ 745 ]

 Defaming as impure what God declares

 Pure, and commands to som, leaves free to all.

 Our Maker bids increase, who bids abstain 

 But our Destroyer, foe to God and Man?

 Haile wedded Love, mysterious Law, true source [ 750 ]

 Of human ofspring, sole propriety,

 In Paradise of all things common else.

 By thee adulterous lust was driv’n from men

 Among the bestial herds to raunge, by thee

 Founded in Reason, Loyal, Just, and Pure, [ 755 ]

 Relations dear, and all the Charities

 Of Father, Son, and Brother first were known.

 Farr be it, that I should write thee sin or blame,

 Or think thee unbefitting holiest place,

 Perpetual Fountain of Domestic sweets, [ 760 ]

 Whose bed is undefil’d and chaste pronounc’t,

 Present, or past, as Saints and Patriarchs us’d.

 Here Love his golden shafts imploies, here lights

 His constant Lamp, and waves his purple wings,

 Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile [ 765 ]

 Of Harlots, loveless, joyless, unindeard,

 Casual fruition, nor in Court Amours

 Mixt Dance, or wanton Mask, or Midnight Bal,

 Or Serenate, which the starv’d Lover sings

 To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain. [ 770 ]

 These lulld by Nightingales imbraceing slept,

 And on thir naked limbs the flourie roof

 Showrd Roses, which the Morn repair’d. Sleep on

 Blest pair; and O yet happiest if ye seek

 No happier state, and know to know no more. [ 775 ]

 Now had night measur’d with her shaddowie Cone

 Half way up Hill this vast Sublunar Vault,

 And from thir Ivorie Port the Cherubim

 Forth issuing at th’ accustomd hour stood armd

 To thir night watches in warlike Parade, [ 780 ]

 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. [ 785 ]

 From these, two strong and suttle Spirits he calld

 That neer him stood, and gave them thus in charge.

 Ithuriel and Zephon, with wingd speed

 Search through this Garden, leave unsearcht no nook,

 But chiefly where those two fair Creatures Lodge, [ 790 ]

 Now laid perhaps asleep secure of harme.

 This Eevning from the Sun’s decline arriv’d

 Who tells of som infernal Spirit seen

 Hitherward bent (who could have thought?) escap’d

 The barrs of Hell, on errand bad no doubt: [ 795 ]

 Such where ye find, seise fast, and hither bring.

 So saying, on he led his radiant Files,

 Daz’ling the Moon; these to the Bower direct

 In search of whom they sought: him there they found

 Squat like a Toad, close at the eare of Eve; [ 800 ]

 Assaying by his Devilish art to reach

 The Organs of her Fancie, and with them forge

 Illusions as he list, Phantasms and Dreams,

 Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint

 Th’ animal spirits that from pure blood arise [ 805 ]

 Like gentle breaths from Rivers pure, thence raise

 At least distemperd, discontented thoughts,

 Vaine hopes, vaine aimes, inordinate desires

 Blown up with high conceits ingendring pride.

 Him thus intent Ithuriel with his Spear [ 810 ]

 Touch’d lightly; for no falshood can endure

 Touch of Celestial temper, but returns

 Of force to its own likeness: up he starts

 Discoverd and surpriz’d. As when a spark

 Lights on a heap of nitrous Powder, laid [ 815 ]

 Fit for the Tun som Magazin to store

 Against a rumord Warr, the Smuttie graine

 With sudden blaze diffus’d, inflames the Aire:

 So started up in his own shape the Fiend.

 Back stept those two fair Angels half amaz’d [ 820 ]

 So sudden to behold the grieslie King;

 Yet thus, unmovd with fear, accost him soon.

 Which of those rebell Spirits adjudg’d to Hell

 Com’st thou, escap’d thy prison, and transform’d,

 Why satst thou like an enemie in waite [ 825 ]

 Here watching at the head of these that sleep?

 Know ye not then said Satan, fill’d with scorn

 Know ye not mee? ye knew me once no mate

 For you, there sitting where ye durst not soare;

 Not to know mee argues your selves unknown, [ 830 ]

 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, [ 835 ]

 Or undiminisht brightness, to be known

 As when thou stoodst in Heav’n upright and pure;

 That Glorie then, when thou no more wast good,

 Departed from thee, and thou resembl’st now

 Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foule. [ 840 ]

 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 Cherube, and his grave rebuke

 Severe in youthful beautie, added grace [ 845 ]

 Invincible: abasht the Devil stood,

 And felt how awful goodness is, and saw

 Vertue in her shape how lovly, saw, and pin’d

 His loss; but chiefly to find here observd

 His lustre visibly impair’d; yet seemd [ 850 ]

 Undaunted. If I must contend, said he,

 Best with the best, the Sender not the sent,

 Or all at once; more glorie will be wonn,

 Or less be lost. Thy fear, said Zephon bold,

 Will save us trial what the least can doe [ 855 ]

 Single against thee wicked, and thence weak.

 The Fiend repli’d not, overcome with rage;

 But like a proud Steed reind, went hautie on,

 Chaumping his iron curb: to strive or flie

 He held it vain; awe from above had quelld [ 860 ]

 His heart, not else dismai’d. Now drew they nigh

 The western Point, where those half-rounding guards

 Just met, and closing stood in squadron joind

 Awaiting next command. To whom thir Chief

 Gabriel from the Front thus calld aloud. [ 865 ]

 O friends, I hear the tread of nimble feet

 Hasting this way, and now by glimps discerne

 Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade,

 And with them comes a third of Regal port,

 But faded splendor wan; who by his gate [ 870 ]

 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 approachd

 And brief related whom they brought, where found, [ 875 ]

 How busied, in what form and posture coucht.

 To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake.

 Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescrib’d

 To thy transgressions, and disturbd the charge

 Of others, who approve not to transgress [ 880 ]

 By thy example, but have power and right

 To question thy bold entrance on this place;

 Imploi’d it seems to violate sleep, and those

 Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss?

 To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow. [ 885 ]

 Gabriel, thou hadst in Heav’n th’ esteem of wise,

 And such I held thee; but this question askt

 Puts me in doubt. Lives ther who loves his pain?

 Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell,

 Though thither doomd? Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt, [ 890 ]

 And boldly venture to whatever place

 Farthest from pain, where thou mightst hope to change

 Torment with ease, and; soonest recompence

 Dole with delight, which in this place I sought;

 To thee no reason; who knowst only good, [ 895 ]

 But evil hast not tri’d: and wilt object

 His will who bound us? let him surer barr

 His Iron Gates, if he intends our stay

 In that dark durance: thus much what was askt.

 The rest is true, they found me where they say; [ 900 ]

 But that implies not violence or harme.

 Thus he in scorn. The warlike Angel mov’d,

 Disdainfully half smiling thus repli’d.

 O loss of one in Heav’n to judge of wise,

 Since Satan fell, whom follie overthrew, [ 905 ]

 And now returns him from his prison scap’t,

 Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise

 Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither

 Unlicenc’t from his bounds in Hell prescrib’d;

 So wise he judges it to fly from pain [ 910 ]

 However, and to scape his punishment.

 So judge thou still, presumptuous, till the wrauth,

 Which thou incurr’st by flying, meet thy flight

 Seavenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell,

 Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain [ 915 ]

 Can equal anger infinite provok’t.

 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 then they

 Less hardie to endure? courageous Chief, [ 920 ]

 The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleg’d

 To thy deserted host this cause of flight,

 Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.

 To which the Fiend thus answerd frowning stern.

 Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain, [ 925 ]

 Insulting Angel, well thou knowst I stood

 Thy fiercest, when in Battel to thy aide

 The blasting volied Thunder made all speed

 And seconded thy else not dreaded Spear.

 But still thy words at random, as before, [ 930 ]

 Argue thy inexperience what behooves

 From hard assaies and ill successes past

 A faithful Leader, not to hazard all

 Through wayes of danger by himself untri’d,

 I therefore, I alone first undertook [ 935 ]

 To wing the desolate Abyss, and spie

 This new created World, whereof in Hell

 Fame is not silent, here in hope to find

 Better abode, and my afflicted Powers

 To settle here on Earth, or in mid Aire; [ 940 ]

 Though for possession put to try once more

 What thou and thy gay Legions dare against;

 Whose easier business were to serve thir Lord

 High up in Heav’n, with songs to hymne his Throne,

 And practis’d distances to cringe, not fight. [ 945 ]

 To whom the warriour Angel, soon repli’d.

 To say and strait unsay, pretending first

 Wise to flie pain, professing next the Spie,

 Argues no Leader, but a lyar trac’t,

 Satan, and couldst thou faithful add? O name, [ 950 ]

 O sacred name of faithfulness profan’d!

 Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?

 Armie of Fiends, fit body to fit head;

 Was this your discipline and faith ingag’d,

 Your military obedience, to dissolve [ 955 ]

 Allegeance to th’ acknowledg’d Power supream?

 And thou sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem

 Patron of liberty, who more then thou

 Once fawn’d, and cring’d, and servilly ador’d

 Heav’ns awful Monarch? wherefore but in hope [ 960 ]

 To dispossess him, and thy self to reigne?

 But mark what I arreede thee now, avant;

 Flie thither whence thou fledst: if from this houre

 Within these hallowd limits thou appeer,

 Back to th’ infernal pit I drag thee chaind, [ 965 ]

 And Seale thee so, as henceforth not to scorne

 The facil gates of hell too slightly barrd.

 So threatn’d hee, but Satan to no threats

 Gave heed, but waxing more in rage repli’d.

 Then when I am thy captive talk of chaines, [ 970 ]

 Proud limitarie Cherube, but ere then

 Farr heavier load thy self expect to feel

 From my prevailing arme, though Heavens King

 Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy Compeers,

 Us’d to the yoak, draw’st his triumphant wheels [ 975 ]

 In progress through the rode of Heav’n Star-pav’d.

 While thus he spake, th’ Angelic Squadron bright

 Turnd fierie red, sharpning in mooned hornes

 Thir Phalanx, and began to hemm him round

 With ported Spears, as thick as when a field [ 980 ]

 Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends

 Her bearded Grove of ears, which way the wind

 Swayes them; the careful Plowman doubting stands

 Least on the threshing floore his hopeful sheaves

 Prove chaff. On th’ other side Satan allarm’d [ 985 ]

 Collecting all his might dilated stood,

 Like Teneriff or Atlas unremov’d:

 His stature reacht the Skie, and on his Crest

 Sat horror Plum’d; nor wanted in his graspe

 What seemd both Spear and Shield: now dreadful deeds [ 990 ]

 Might have ensu’d, nor onely Paradise

 In this commotion, but the Starrie Cope

 Of Heav’n perhaps, or all the Elements

 At least had gon to rack, disturbd and torne

 With violence of this conflict, had not soon [ 995 ]

 Th’ Eternal to prevent such horrid fray

 Hung forth in Heav’n his golden Scales, yet seen

 Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion signe,

 Wherein all things created first he weighd,

 The pendulous round Earth with balanc’t Aire [ 1000 ]

 In counterpoise, now ponders all events,

 Battels and Realms: in these he put two weights

 The sequel each of parting and of fight;

 The latter quick up flew, and kickt the beam;

 Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend. [ 1005 ]

 Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know’st mine,

 Neither our own but giv’n; what follie then

 To boast what Arms can doe, since thine no more

 Then Heav’n permits, nor mine, though doubld now

 To trample thee as mire: for proof look up, [ 1010 ]

 And read thy Lot in yon celestial Sign

 Where thou art weigh’d, and shown how light, how weak,

 If thou resist. The Fiend lookt up and knew

 His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled

 Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night. [ 1015 ]