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Book X
Mean while the heinous and despiteful act
Of
Satan, done in Paradise; and how
He, in the serpent,
had perverted Eve,
Her husband she, to taste the
fatal fruit,
Was known in Heaven; for what can
'scape the eye
Of God all-seeing, or deceive his
heart
Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just,
Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind
Of Man,
with strength entire and free will armed,
Complete
to have discovered and repulsed
Whatever wiles of
foe or seeming friend.
For still they knew, and
ought to have still remembered,
The high injunction,
not to taste that fruit,
Whoever tempted; which they
not obeying,
(Incurred what could they less?) the
penalty;
And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall.
Up into Heaven from Paradise in haste
The angelick
guards ascended, mute, and sad,
For Man; for of his
state by this they knew,
Much wondering how the
subtle Fiend had stolen
Entrance unseen. Soon as the
unwelcome news
From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate,
displeased
All were who heard; dim sadness did not
spare
That time celestial visages, yet, mixed
With pity, violated not their bliss.
About the
new-arrived, in multitudes
The ethereal people ran,
to hear and know
How all befel: They towards the
throne supreme,
Accountable, made haste, to make
appear,
With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance
And easily approved; when the Most High
Eternal
Father, from his secret cloud,
Amidst in thunder
uttered thus his voice.
Assembled Angels, and ye
Powers returned
From unsuccessful charge; be not
dismayed,
Nor troubled at these tidings from the
earth,
Which your sincerest care could not prevent;
Foretold so lately what would come to pass,
When
first this tempter crossed the gulf from Hell.
I
told ye then he should prevail, and speed
On his bad
errand; Man should be seduced,
And flattered out of
all, believing lies
Against his Maker; no decree of
mine
Concurring to necessitate his fall,
Or
touch with lightest moment of impulse
His free will,
to her own inclining left
In even scale. But fallen
he is; and now
What rests, but that the mortal
sentence pass
On his transgression,--death denounced
that day?
Which he presumes already vain and void,
Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,
By some
immediate stroke; but soon shall find
Forbearance no
acquittance, ere day end.
Justice shall not return
as bounty scorned.
But whom send I to judge them?
whom but thee,
Vicegerent Son? To thee I have
transferred
All judgement, whether in Heaven, or
Earth, or Hell.
Easy it may be seen that I intend
Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee
Man's
friend, his Mediator, his designed
Both ransom and
Redeemer voluntary,
And destined Man himself to
judge Man fallen.
So spake the Father; and,
unfolding bright
Toward the right hand his glory, on
the Son
Blazed forth unclouded Deity: He full
Resplendent all his Father manifest
Expressed, and
thus divinely answered mild.
Father Eternal, thine
is to decree;
Mine, both in Heaven and Earth, to do
thy will
Supreme; that thou in me, thy Son beloved,
Mayest ever rest well pleased. I go to judge
On
earth these thy transgressours; but thou knowest,
Whoever judged, the worst on me must light,
When
time shall be; for so I undertook
Before thee; and,
not repenting, this obtain
Of right, that I may
mitigate their doom
On me derived; yet I shall
temper so
Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most
Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.
Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none
Are to behold the judgement, but the judged,
Those
two; the third best absent is condemned,
Convict by
flight, and rebel to all law:
Conviction to the
serpent none belongs.
Thus saying, from his radiant
seat he rose
Of high collateral glory: Him Thrones,
and Powers,
Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant,
Accompanied to Heaven-gate; from whence
Eden,
and all the coast, in prospect lay.
Down he
descended straight; the speed of Gods
Time counts
not, though with swiftest minutes winged.
Now was
the sun in western cadence low
From noon, and gentle
airs, due at their hour,
To fan the earth now waked,
and usher in
The evening cool; when he, from wrath
more cool,
Came the mild Judge, and Intercessour
both,
To sentence Man: The voice of God they heard
Now walking in the garden, by soft winds
Brought
to their ears, while day declined; they heard,
And
from his presence hid themselves among
The thickest
trees, both man and wife; till God,
Approaching,
thus to Adam called aloud.
Where art thou, Adam,
wont with joy to meet
My coming seen far off? I miss
thee here,
Not pleased, thus entertained with
solitude,
Where obvious duty ere while appeared
unsought:
Or come I less conspicuous, or what change
Absents thee, or what chance detains?--Come forth!
He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first
To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed;
Love was not in their looks, either to God,
Or
to each other; but apparent guilt,
And shame, and
perturbation, and despair,
Anger, and obstinacy, and
hate, and guile.
Whence Adam, faltering long, thus
answered brief.
I heard thee in the garden, and of
thy voice
Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom
The gracious Judge without revile replied.
My
voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not feared,
But
still rejoiced; how is it now become
So dreadful to
thee? That thou art naked, who
Hath told thee? Hast
thou eaten of the tree,
Whereof I gave thee charge
thou shouldst not eat?
To whom thus Adam sore beset
replied.
O Heaven! in evil strait this day I stand
Before my Judge; either to undergo
Myself the
total crime, or to accuse
My other self, the partner
of my life;
Whose failing, while her faith to me
remains,
I should conceal, and not expose to blame
By my complaint: but strict necessity
Subdues
me, and calamitous constraint;
Lest on my head both
sin and punishment,
However insupportable, be all
Devolved; though should I hold my peace, yet thou
Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.--
This
Woman, whom thou madest to be my help,
And gavest me
as thy perfect gift, so good,
So fit, so acceptable,
so divine,
That from her hand I could suspect no
ill,
And what she did, whatever in itself,
Her
doing seemed to justify the deed;
She gave me of the
tree, and I did eat.
To whom the Sovran Presence
thus replied.
Was she thy God, that her thou didst
obey
Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,
Superiour, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst
resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set
thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whose
perfection far excelled
Hers in all real dignity?
Adorned
She was indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts
Were
such, as under government well seemed;
Unseemly to
bear rule; which was thy part
And person, hadst thou
known thyself aright.
So having said, he thus to Eve
in few.
Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast
done?
To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed,
Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge
Bold
or loquacious, thus abashed replied.
The Serpent me
beguiled, and I did eat.
Which when the Lord God
heard, without delay
To judgement he proceeded on
the accused
Serpent, though brute; unable to
transfer
The guilt on him, who made him instrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his
creation; justly then accursed,
As vitiated in
nature: More to know
Concerned not Man, (since he no
further knew)
Nor altered his offence; yet God at
last
To Satan first in sin his doom applied,
Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:
And
on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.
Because thou
hast done this, thou art accursed
Above all cattle,
each beast of the field;
Upon thy belly groveling
thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all the days of
thy life.
Between thee and the woman I will put
Enmity, and between thine and her seed;
Her seed
shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.
So
spake this oracle, then verified
When Jesus, Son of
Mary, second Eve,
Saw Satan fall, like lightning,
down from Heaven,
Prince of the air; then, rising
from his grave
Spoiled Principalities and Powers,
triumphed
In open show; and, with ascension bright,
Captivity led captive through the air,
The realm
itself of Satan, long usurped;
Whom he shall tread
at last under our feet;
Even he, who now foretold
his fatal bruise;
And to the Woman thus his sentence
turned.
Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply
By
thy conception; children thou shalt bring
In sorrow
forth; and to thy husband's will
Thine shall submit;
he over thee shall rule.
On Adam last thus judgement
he pronounced.
Because thou hast hearkened to the
voice of thy wife,
And eaten of the tree, concerning
which
I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat
thereof:
Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in
sorrow
Shalt eat thereof, all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth
Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
Till
thou return unto the ground; for thou
Out of the
ground wast taken, know thy birth,
For dust thou
art, and shalt to dust return.
So judged he Man,
both Judge and Saviour sent;
And the instant stroke
of death, denounced that day,
Removed far off; then,
pitying how they stood
Before him naked to the air,
that now
Must suffer change, disdained not to begin
Thenceforth the form of servant to assume;
As
when he washed his servants feet; so now,
As father
of his family, he clad
Their nakedness with skins of
beasts, or slain,
Or as the snake with youthful coat
repaid;
And thought not much to clothe his enemies;
Nor he their outward only with the skins
Of
beasts, but inward nakedness, much more.
Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness,
Arraying, covered from his Father's sight.
To him
with swift ascent he up returned,
Into his blissful
bosom reassumed
In glory, as of old; to him appeased
All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man
Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.
Mean
while, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,
Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death,
In
counterview within the gates, that now
Stood open
wide, belching outrageous flame
Far into Chaos,
since the Fiend passed through,
Sin opening; who
thus now to Death began.
O Son, why sit we here each
other viewing
Idly, while Satan, our great author,
thrives
In other worlds, and happier seat provides
For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be
But
that success attends him; if mishap,
Ere this he had
returned, with fury driven
By his avengers; since no
place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their
revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me
rise,
Wings growing, and dominion given me large
Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or sympathy,
or some connatural force,
Powerful at greatest
distance to unite,
With secret amity, things of like
kind,
By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade
Inseparable, must with me along;
For Death from Sin
no power can separate.
But, lest the difficulty of
passing back
Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
Impassable, impervious; let us try
Adventurous
work, yet to thy power and mine
Not unagreeable, to
found a path
Over this main from Hell to that new
world,
Where Satan now prevails; a monument
Of
merit high to all the infernal host,
Easing their
passage hence, for intercourse,
Or transmigration,
as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I miss the way, so
strongly drawn
By this new-felt attraction and
instinct.
Whom thus the meager Shadow answered soon.
Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong,
Leads
thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err
The way, thou
leading; such a scent I draw
Of carnage, prey
innumerable, and taste
The savour of death from all
things there that live:
Nor shall I to the work thou
enterprisest
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.
So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell
Of
mortal change on earth. As when a flock
Of ravenous
fowl, though many a league remote,
Against the day
of battle, to a field,
Where armies lie encamped,
come flying, lured
With scent of living carcasses
designed
For death, the following day, in bloody
fight:
So scented the grim Feature, and upturned
His nostril wide into the murky air;
Sagacious of
his quarry from so far.
Then both from out
Hell-gates, into the waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos,
damp and dark,
Flew diverse; and with power (their
power was great)
Hovering upon the waters, what they
met
Solid or slimy, as in raging sea
Tost up and
down, together crouded drove,
From each side
shoaling towards the mouth of Hell;
As when two
polar winds, blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian sea,
together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop the
imagined way
Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil
Death with
his mace petrifick, cold and dry,
As with a trident,
smote; and fixed as firm
As Delos, floating once;
the rest his look
Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to
move;
And with Asphaltick slime, broad as the gate,
Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach
They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on
Over
the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge
Of length
prodigious, joining to the wall
Immoveable of this
now fenceless world,
Forfeit to Death; from hence a
passage broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to
Hell.
So, if great things to small may be compared,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From
Susa, his Memnonian palace high,
Came to the sea:
and, over Hellespont
Bridging his way, Europe with
Asia joined,
And scourged with many a stroke the
indignant waves.
Now had they brought the work by
wonderous art
Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock,
Over the vexed abyss, following the track
Of
Satan to the self-same place where he
First lighted
from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos, to
the outside bare
Of this round world: With pins of
adamant
And chains they made all fast, too fast they
made
And durable! And now in little space
The
confines met of empyrean Heaven,
And of this World;
and, on the left hand, Hell
With long reach
interposed; three several ways
In sight, to each of
these three places led.
And now their way to Earth
they had descried,
To Paradise first tending; when,
behold!
Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright,
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering
His
zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:
Disguised he
came; but those his children dear
Their parent soon
discerned, though in disguise.
He, after Eve
seduced, unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by; and,
changing shape,
To observe the sequel, saw his
guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded
Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought
Vain covertures; but when he saw descend
The Son of
God to judge them, terrified
He fled; not hoping to
escape, but shun
The present; fearing, guilty, what
his wrath
Might suddenly inflict; that past,
returned
By night, and listening where the hapless
pair
Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,
Thence gathered his own doom; which understood
Not instant, but of future time, with joy
And
tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned;
And at the
brink of Chaos, near the foot
Of this new wonderous
pontifice, unhoped
Met, who to meet him came, his
offspring dear.
Great joy was at their meeting, and
at sight
Of that stupendious bridge his joy
encreased.
Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his
fair
Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.
O Parent, these are thy magnifick deeds,
Thy
trophies! which thou viewest as not thine own;
Thou
art their author, and prime architect:
For I no
sooner in my heart divined,
My heart, which by a
secret harmony
Still moves with thine, joined in
connexion sweet,
That thou on earth hadst prospered,
which thy looks
Now also evidence, but straight I
felt,
Though distant from thee worlds between, yet
felt,
That I must after thee, with this thy son;
Such fatal consequence unites us three!
Hell could
no longer hold us in our bounds,
Nor this
unvoyageable gulf obscure
Detain from following thy
illustrious track.
Thou hast achieved our liberty,
confined
Within Hell-gates till now; thou us
impowered
To fortify thus far, and overlay,
With
this portentous bridge, the dark abyss.
Thine now is
all this world; thy virtue hath won
What thy hands
builded not; thy wisdom gained
With odds what war
hath lost, and fully avenged
Our foil in Heaven;
here thou shalt monarch reign,
There didst not;
there let him still victor sway,
As battle hath
adjudged; from this new world
Retiring, by his own
doom alienated;
And henceforth monarchy with thee
divide
Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds,
His quadrature, from thy orbicular world;
Or try
thee now more dangerous to his throne.
Whom thus the
Prince of darkness answered glad.
Fair Daughter, and
thou Son and Grandchild both;
High proof ye now have
given to be the race
Of Satan (for I glory in the
name,
Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty King,)
Amply have merited of me, of all
The infernal
empire, that so near Heaven's door
Triumphal with
triumphal act have met,
Mine, with this glorious
work; and made one realm,
Hell and this world, one
realm, one continent
Of easy thorough-fare.
Therefore, while I
Descend through darkness, on your
road with ease,
To my associate Powers, them to
acquaint
With these successes, and with them
rejoice;
You two this way, among these numerous
orbs,
All yours, right down to Paradise descend;
There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth
Dominion exercise and in the air,
Chiefly on Man,
sole lord of all declared;
Him first make sure your
thrall, and lastly kill.
My substitutes I send ye,
and create
Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might
Issuing from me: on your joint vigour now
My
hold of this new kingdom all depends,
Through Sin to
Death exposed by my exploit.
If your joint power
prevail, the affairs of Hell
No detriment need fear;
go, and be strong!
So saying he dismissed them; they
with speed
Their course through thickest
constellations held,
Spreading their bane; the
blasted stars looked wan,
And planets,
planet-struck, real eclipse
Then suffered. The other
way Satan went down
The causey to Hell-gate: On
either side
Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,
And with rebounding surge the bars assailed,
That
scorned his indignation: Through the gate,
Wide open
and unguarded, Satan passed,
And all about found
desolate; for those,
Appointed to sit there, had
left their charge,
Flown to the upper world; the
rest were all
Far to the inland retired, about the
walls
Of Pandemonium; city and proud seat
Of
Lucifer, so by allusion called
Of that bright star
to Satan paragoned;
There kept their watch the
legions, while the Grand
In council sat, solicitous
what chance
Might intercept their emperour sent; so
he
Departing gave command, and they observed.
As
when the Tartar from his Russian foe,
By Astracan,
over the snowy plains,
Retires; or Bactrin Sophi,
from the horns
Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste
beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
To
Tauris or Casbeen: So these, the late
Heaven-banished host, left desart utmost Hell
Many a
dark league, reduced in careful watch
Round their
metropolis; and now expecting
Each hour their great
adventurer, from the search
Of foreign worlds: He
through the midst unmarked,
In show plebeian Angel
militant
Of lowest order, passed; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
Ascended his
high throne; which, under state
Of richest texture
spread, at the upper end
Was placed in regal lustre.
Down a while
He sat, and round about him saw unseen:
At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head
And
shape star-bright appeared, or brighter; clad
With
what permissive glory since his fall
Was left him,
or false glitter: All amazed
At that so sudden blaze
the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect, and whom they
wished beheld,
Their mighty Chief returned: loud was
the acclaim:
Forth rushed in haste the great
consulting peers,
Raised from their dark Divan, and
with like joy
Congratulant approached him; who with
hand
Silence, and with these words attention, won.
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;
For in possession such, not only of right,
I
call ye, and declare ye now; returned
Successful
beyond hope, to lead ye forth
Triumphant out of this
infernal pit
Abominable, accursed, the house of woe,
And dungeon of our tyrant: Now possess,
As
Lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven
Little
inferiour, by my adventure hard
With peril great
achieved. Long were to tell
What I have done; what
suffered;with what pain
Voyaged th' unreal, vast,
unbounded deep
Of horrible confusion; over which
By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved,
To
expedite your glorious march; but I
Toiled out my
uncouth passage, forced to ride
The untractable
abyss, plunged in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and
Chaos wild;
That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely
opposed
My journey strange, with clamorous uproar
Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found
The
new created world, which fame in Heaven
Long had
foretold, a fabrick wonderful
Of absolute
perfection! therein Man
Placed in a Paradise, by our
exile
Made happy: Him by fraud I have seduced
From his Creator; and, the more to encrease
Your
wonder, with an apple; he, thereat
Offended, worth
your laughter! hath given up
Both his beloved Man,
and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and so
to us,
Without our hazard, labour, or alarm;
To
range in, and to dwell, and over Man
To rule, as
over all he should have ruled.
True is, me also he
hath judged, or rather
Me not, but the brute serpent
in whose shape
Man I deceived: that which to me
belongs,
Is enmity which he will put between
Me
and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His seed, when
is not set, shall bruise my head:
A world who would
not purchase with a bruise,
Or much more grievous
pain?--Ye have the account
Of my performance: What
remains, ye Gods,
But up, and enter now into full
bliss?
So having said, a while he stood, expecting
Their universal shout, and high applause,
To
fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears
On all sides,
from innumerable tongues,
A dismal universal hiss,
the sound
Of publick scorn; he wondered, but not
long
Had leisure, wondering at himself now more,
His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare;
His
arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining
Each
other, till supplanted down he fell
A monstrous
serpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain;
a greater power
Now ruled him, punished in the shape
he sinned,
According to his doom: he would have
spoke,
But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue
To forked tongue; for now were all transformed
Alike, to serpents all, as accessories
To his bold
riot: Dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the
hall, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters
head and tail,
Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbaena
dire,
Cerastes horned, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
And Dipsas; (not so thick swarmed once the soil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle
Ophiusa,)
but still greatest he the midst,
Now Dragon grown,
larger than whom the sun
Ingendered in the Pythian
vale or slime,
Huge Python, and his power no less he
seemed
Above the rest still to retain; they all
Him followed, issuing forth to the open field,
Where
all yet left of that revolted rout,
Heaven-fallen,
in station stood or just array;
Sublime with
expectation when to see
In triumph issuing forth
their glorious Chief;
They saw, but other sight
instead! a croud
Of ugly serpents; horrour on them
fell,
And horrid sympathy; for, what they saw,
They felt themselves, now changing; down their arms,
Down fell both spear and shield; down they as fast;
And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form
Catched,
by contagion; like in punishment,
As in their crime.
Thus was the applause they meant,
Turned to
exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Cast on themselves
from their own mouths. There stood
A grove hard by,
sprung up with this their change,
His will who
reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with
fair fruit, like that
Which grew in Paradise, the
bait of Eve
Used by the Tempter: on that prospect
strange
Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now risen, to
work them further woe or shame;
Yet, parched with
scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude
them sent, could not abstain;
But on they rolled in
heaps, and, up the trees
Climbing, sat thicker than
the snaky locks
That curled Megaera: greedily they
plucked
The fruitage fair to sight, like that which
grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay
Their
appetite with gust, instead of fruit
Chewed bitter
ashes, which the offended taste
With spattering
noise rejected: oft they assayed,
Hunger and thirst
constraining; drugged as oft,
With hatefullest
disrelish writhed their jaws,
With soot and cinders
filled; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion, not
as Man
Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were
they plagued
And worn with famine, long and
ceaseless hiss,
Till their lost shape, permitted,
they resumed;
Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo,
This annual humbling certain numbered days,
To
dash their pride, and joy, for Man seduced.
However,
some tradition they dispersed
Among the Heathen, of
their purchase got,
And fabled how the Serpent, whom
they called
Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide--
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high
Olympus; thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet
Dictaean Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradise the
hellish pair
Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power
before,
Once actual; now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death,
Close following
pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse: to
whom Sin thus began.
Second of Satan sprung,
all-conquering Death!
What thinkest thou of our
empire now, though earned
With travel difficult, not
better far
Than still at Hell's dark threshold to
have sat watch,
Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half
starved?
Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered
soon.
To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike
is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven;
There best, where
most with ravine I may meet;
Which here, though
plenteous, all too little seems
To stuff this maw,
this vast unhide-bound corps.
To whom the incestuous
mother thus replied.
Thou therefore on these herbs,
and fruits, and flowers,
Feed first; on each beast
next, and fish, and fowl;
No homely morsels! and,
whatever thing
The sithe of Time mows down, devour
unspared;
Till I, in Man residing, through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect;
And season him thy last and sweetest prey.
This
said, they both betook them several ways,
Both to
destroy, or unimmortal make
All kinds, and for
destruction to mature
Sooner or later; which the
Almighty seeing,
From his transcendent seat the
Saints among,
To those bright Orders uttered thus
his voice.
See, with what heat these dogs of Hell
advance
To waste and havock yonder world, which I
So fair and good created; and had still
Kept in
that state, had not the folly of Man
Let in these
wasteful furies, who impute
Folly to me; so doth the
Prince of Hell
And his adherents, that with so much
ease
I suffer them to enter and possess
A place
so heavenly; and, conniving, seem
To gratify my
scornful enemies,
That laugh, as if, transported
with some fit
Of passion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know
not that I called, and drew them thither,
My
Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which
Man's polluting sin with taint hath shed
On what was
pure; til, crammed and gorged, nigh burst
With
sucked and glutted offal, at one sling
Of thy
victorious arm, well-pleasing Son,
Both Sin, and
Death, and yawning Grave, at last,
Through Chaos
hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and
seal up his ravenous jaws.
Then Heaven and Earth
renewed shall be made pure
To sanctity, that shall
receive no stain:
Till then, the curse pronounced on
both precedes.
He ended, and the heavenly audience
loud
Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas,
Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can
extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Destined Restorer
of mankind, by whom
New Heaven and Earth shall to
the ages rise,
Or down from Heaven descend.--Such
was their song;
While the Creator, calling forth by
name
His mighty Angels, gave them several charge,
As sorted best with present things. The sun
Had
first his precept so to move, so shine,
As might
affect the earth with cold and heat
Scarce
tolerable; and from the north to call
Decrepit
winter; from the south to bring
Solstitial summer's
heat. To the blanc moon
Her office they prescribed;
to the other five
Their planetary motions, and
aspects,
In sextile, square, and trine, and
opposite,
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed
Their
influence malignant when to shower,
Which of them
rising with the sun, or falling,
Should prove
tempestuous: To the winds they set
Their corners,
when with bluster to confound
Sea, air, and shore;
the thunder when to roll
With terrour through the
dark aereal hall.
Some say, he bid his Angels turn
ascanse
The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and
more,
From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed
Oblique the centrick globe: Some say, the sun
Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road
Like
distant breadth to Taurus with the seven
Atlantick
Sisters, and the Spartan Twins,
Up to the Tropick
Crab: thence down amain
By Leo, and the Virgin, and
the Scales,
As deep as Capricorn; to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring
Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the
polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted shone,
while the low sun,
To recompense his distance, in
their sight
Had rounded still the horizon, and not
known
Or east or west; which had forbid the snow
From cold Estotiland, and south as far
Beneath
Magellan. At that tasted fruit
The sun, as from
Thyestean banquet, turned
His course intended; else,
how had the world
Inhabited, though sinless, more
than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
These changes in the Heavens, though slow, produced
Like change on sea and land; sideral blast,
Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and
pestilent: Now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the
Samoed shore,
Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed
with ice,
And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and
flaw,
Boreas, and Caecias, and Argestes loud,
And Thrascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn;
With
adverse blast upturns them from the south
Notus, and
Afer black with thunderous clouds
From Serraliona;
thwart of these, as fierce,
Forth rush the Levant
and the Ponent winds,
Eurus and Zephyr, with their
lateral noise,
Sirocco and Libecchio. Thus began
Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,
Daughter of Sin, among the irrational
Death
introduced, through fierce antipathy:
Beast now with
beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with
fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devoured each
other; nor stood much in awe
Of Man, but fled him;
or, with countenance grim,
Glared on him passing.
These were from without
The growing miseries, which
Adam saw
Already in part, though hid in gloomiest
shade,
To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within;
And, in a troubled sea of passion tost,
Thus to
disburden sought with sad complaint.
O miserable of
happy! Is this the end
Of this new glorious world,
and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now
become
Accursed, of blessed? hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my highth
Of
happiness!--Yet well, if here would end
The misery;
I deserved it, and would bear
My own deservings; but
this will not serve:
All that I eat or drink, or
shall beget,
Is propagated curse. O voice, once
heard
Delightfully, Encrease and multiply;
Now
death to hear! for what can I encrease,
Or multiply,
but curses on my head?
Who of all ages to succeed,
but, feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will
curse
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,
For
this we may thank Adam! but his thanks
Shall be the
execration: so, besides
Mine own that bide upon me,
all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me
rebound;
On me, as on their natural center, light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of
Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
Did I
request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me Man?
did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or
here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurred not to my being, it were but right
And
equal to reduce me to my dust;
Desirous to resign
and render back
All I received; unable to perform
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The
good I sought not. To the loss of that,
Sufficient
penalty, why hast thou added
The sense of endless
woes? Inexplicable
Why am I mocked with death, and
lengthened out
To deathless pain? How gladly would I
meet
Mortality my sentence, and be earth
Insensible! How glad would lay me down
As in my
mother's lap! There I should rest,
And sleep secure;
his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears;
no fear of worse
To me, and to my offspring, would
torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;
Lest that
pure breath of life, the spirit of Man
Which God
inspired, cannot together perish
With this corporeal
clod; then, in the grave,
Or in some other dismal
place, who knows
But I shall die a living death? O
thought
Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath
Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life
And sin? The body properly had neither,
All of me
then shall die: let this appease
The doubt, since
human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of
all be infinite,
Is his wrath also? Be it, Man is
not so,
But mortal doomed. How can he exercise
Wrath without end on Man, whom death must end?
Can
he make deathless death? That were to make
Strange
contradiction, which to God himself
Impossible is
held; as argument
Of weakness, not of power. Will he
draw out,
For anger's sake, finite to infinite,
In punished Man, to satisfy his rigour,
Satisfied
never? That were to extend
His sentence beyond dust
and Nature's law;
By which all causes else,
according still
To the reception of their matter,
act;
Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say
That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery
From this day
onward; which I feel begun
Both in me, and without
me; and so last
To perpetuity;--Ay me!that fear
Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
On my
defenceless head; both Death and I
Am found eternal,
and incorporate both;
Nor I on my part single; in me
all
Posterity stands cursed: Fair patrimony
That
I must leave ye, Sons! O, were I able
To waste it
all myself, and leave ye none!
So disinherited, how
would you bless
Me, now your curse! Ah, why should
all mankind,
For one man's fault, thus guiltless be
condemned,
It guiltless? But from me what can
proceed,
But all corrupt; both mind and will
depraved
Not to do only, but to will the same
With me? How can they then acquitted stand
In sight
of God? Him, after all disputes,
Forced I absolve:
all my evasions vain,
And reasonings, though through
mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction: first
and last
On me, me only, as the source and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;
So
might the wrath! Fond wish!couldst thou support
That
burden, heavier than the earth to bear;
Than all the
world much heavier, though divided
With that bad
Woman? Thus, what thou desirest,
And what thou
fearest, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and
concludes thee miserable
Beyond all past example and
future;
To Satan only like both crime and doom.
O Conscience! into what abyss of fears
And horrours
hast thou driven me; out of which
I find no way,
from deep to deeper plunged!
Thus Adam to himself
lamented loud,
Through the still night; not now, as
ere Man fell,
Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but
with black air
Accompanied; with damps, and dreadful
gloom;
Which to his evil conscience represented
All things with double terrour: On the ground
Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground; and oft
Cursed his creation; Death as oft accused
Of tardy
execution, since denounced
The day of his offence.
Why comes not Death,
Said he, with one
thrice-acceptable stroke
To end me? Shall Truth fail
to keep her word,
Justice Divine not hasten to be
just?
But Death comes not at call; Justice Divine
Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries,
O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers!
With other echo late I taught your shades
To answer,
and resound far other song.--
Whom thus afflicted
when sad Eve beheld,
Desolate where she sat,
approaching nigh,
Soft words to his fierce passion
she assayed:
But her with stern regard he thus
repelled.
Out of my sight, thou Serpent! That name
best
Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false
And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,
Like his, and colour serpentine, may show
Thy inward
fraud; to warn all creatures from thee
Henceforth;
lest that too heavenly form, pretended
To hellish
falshood, snare them! But for thee
I had persisted
happy; had not thy pride
And wandering vanity, when
least was safe,
Rejected my forewarning, and
disdained
Not to be trusted; longing to be seen,
Though by the Devil himself; him overweening
To
over-reach; but, with the serpent meeting,
Fooled
and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee
To trust thee
from my side; imagined wise,
Constant, mature, proof
against all assaults;
And understood not all was but
a show,
Rather than solid virtue; all but a rib
Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,
More to the
part sinister, from me drawn;
Well if thrown out, as
supernumerary
To my just number found. O! why did
God,
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven
With Spirits masculine, create at last
This novelty
on earth, this fair defect
Of nature, and not fill
the world at once
With Men, as Angels, without
feminine;
Or find some other way to generate
Mankind? This mischief had not been befallen,
And
more that shall befall; innumerable
Disturbances on
earth through female snares,
And strait conjunction
with this sex: for either
He never shall find out
fit mate, but such
As some misfortune brings him, or
mistake;
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained
By a far worse; or, if she love, withheld
By
parents; or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet,
already linked and wedlock-bound
To a fell
adversary, his hate or shame:
Which infinite
calamity shall cause
To human life, and houshold
peace confound.
He added not, and from her turned;
but Eve,
Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not
flowing
And tresses all disordered, at his feet
Fell humble; and, embracing them, besought
His
peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.
Forsake me
not thus, Adam! witness Heaven
What love sincere,
and reverence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting
have offended,
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant
I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,
Whereon
I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel, in
this uttermost distress,
My only strength and stay:
Forlorn of thee,
Whither shall I betake me, where
subsist?
While yet we live, scarce one short hour
perhaps,
Between us two let there be peace; both
joining,
As joined in injuries, one enmity
Against a foe by doom express assigned us,
That
cruel Serpent: On me exercise not
Thy hatred for
this misery befallen;
On me already lost, me than
thyself
More miserable! Both have sinned;but thou
Against God only; I against God and thee;
And to
the place of judgement will return,
There with my
cries importune Heaven; that all
The sentence, from
thy head removed, may light
On me, sole cause to
thee of all this woe;
Me, me only, just object of
his ire!
She ended weeping; and her lowly plight,
Immoveable, till peace obtained from fault
Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought
Commiseration: Soon his heart relented
Towards her,
his life so late, and sole delight,
Now at his feet
submissive in distress;
Creature so fair his
reconcilement seeking,
His counsel, whom she had
displeased, his aid:
As one disarmed, his anger all
he lost,
And thus with peaceful words upraised her
soon.
Unwary, and too desirous, as before,
So
now of what thou knowest not, who desirest
The
punishment all on thyself; alas!
Bear thine own
first, ill able to sustain
His full wrath, whose
thou feelest as yet least part,
And my displeasure
bearest so ill. If prayers
Could alter high decrees,
I to that place
Would speed before thee, and be
louder heard,
That on my head all might be visited;
Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven,
To me
committed, and by me exposed.
But rise;--let us no
more contend, nor blame
Each other, blamed enough
elsewhere; but strive
In offices of love, how we may
lighten
Each other's burden, in our share of woe;
Since this day's death denounced, if aught I see,
Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil;
A
long day's dying, to augment our pain;
And to our
seed (O hapless seed!) derived.
To whom thus Eve,
recovering heart, replied.
Adam, by sad experiment I
know
How little weight my words with thee can find,
Found so erroneous; thence by just event
Found
so unfortunate: Nevertheless,
Restored by thee, vile
as I am, to place
Of new acceptance, hopeful to
regain
Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart
Living or dying, from thee I will not hide
What
thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen,
Tending to
some relief of our extremes,
Or end; though sharp
and sad, yet tolerable,
As in our evils, and of
easier choice.
If care of our descent perplex us
most,
Which must be born to certain woe, devoured
By Death at last; and miserable it is
To be to
others cause of misery,
Our own begotten, and of our
loins to bring
Into this cursed world a woeful race,
That after wretched life must be at last
Food
for so foul a monster; in thy power
It lies, yet ere
conception to prevent
The race unblest, to being yet
unbegot.
Childless thou art, childless remain: so
Death
Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two
Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw.
But if
thou judge it hard and difficult,
Conversing,
looking, loving, to abstain
From love's due rights,
nuptial embraces sweet;
And with desire to languish
without hope,
Before the present object languishing
With like desire; which would be misery
And
torment less than none of what we dread;
Then, both
ourselves and seed at once to free
From what we fear
for both, let us make short, --
Let us seek Death;
-- or, he not found, supply
With our own hands his
office on ourselves:
Why stand we longer shivering
under fears,
That show no end but death, and have
the power,
Of many ways to die the shortest
choosing,
Destruction with destruction to destroy?
--
She ended here, or vehement despair
Broke off
the rest: so much of death her thoughts
Had
entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.
But Adam,
with such counsel nothing swayed,
To better hopes
his more attentive mind
Labouring had raised; and
thus to Eve replied.
Eve, thy contempt of life and
pleasure seems
To argue in thee something more
sublime
And excellent, than what thy mind contemns;
But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes
That excellence thought in thee; and implies,
Not
thy contempt, but anguish and regret
For loss of
life and pleasure overloved.
Or if thou covet death,
as utmost end
Of misery, so thinking to evade
The penalty pronounced; doubt not but God
Hath
wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so
To be
forestalled; much more I fear lest death,
So
snatched, will not exempt us from the pain
We are by
doom to pay; rather, such acts
Of contumacy will
provoke the Highest
To make death in us live: Then
let us seek
Some safer resolution, which methinks
I have in view, calling to mind with heed
Part
of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise
The
Serpent's head; piteous amends! unless
Be meant,
whom I conjecture, our grand foe,
Satan; who, in the
serpent, hath contrived
Against us this deceit: To
crush his head
Would be revenge indeed! which will
be lost
By death brought on ourselves, or childless
days
Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe
Shal 'scape his punishment ordained, and we
Instead
shall double ours upon our heads.
No more be
mentioned then of violence
Against ourselves; and
wilful barrenness,
That cuts us off from hope; and
savours only
Rancour and pride, impatience and
despite,
Reluctance against God and his just yoke
Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild
And
gracious temper he both heard, and judged,
Without
wrath or reviling; we expected
Immediate
dissolution, which we thought
Was meant by death
that day; when lo!to thee
Pains only in
child-bearing were foretold,
And bringing forth;
soon recompensed with joy,
Fruit of thy womb: On me
the curse aslope
Glanced on the ground; with labour
I must earn
My bread; what harm? Idleness had been
worse;
My labour will sustain me; and, lest cold
Or heat should injure us, his timely care
Hath,
unbesought, provided; and his hands
Clothed us
unworthy, pitying while he judged;
How much more, if
we pray him, will his ear
Be open, and his heart to
pity incline,
And teach us further by what means to
shun
The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and
snow!
Which now the sky, with various face, begins
To show us in this mountain; while the winds
Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks
Of these fair spreading trees; which bids us seek
Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish
Our limbs benummed, ere this diurnal star
Leave cold
the night, how we his gathered beams
Reflected may
with matter sere foment;
Or, by collision of two
bodies, grind
The air attrite to fire; as late the
clouds
Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their
shock,
Tine the slant lightning; whose thwart flame,
driven down
Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine;
And sends a comfortable heat from far,
Which
might supply the sun: Such fire to use,
And what may
else be remedy or cure
To evils which our own
misdeeds have wrought,
He will instruct us praying,
and of grace
Beseeching him; so as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustained
By him
with many comforts, till we end
In dust, our final
rest and native home.
What better can we do, than,
to the place
Repairing where he judged us, prostrate
fall
Before him reverent; and there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg; with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of
sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek
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