360

a hill of wide prospect

To show thee what shall come in future days Adam
To thee and to thy offspring. Good with bad ascends
Expect to hear, supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men-thereby to learn
True patience, and to temper joy with fear
And pious sorrow, equally inured
By moderation either state to bear,
Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead
Safest thy life, and best prepared endure
Thy mortal passage when it comes.

Ascend

This hill; let Eve (for I have drenched her
eyes)

Here sleep below while thou to foresight wak'st,
As once thou slept'st while she to life was formed.'
To whom thus Adam gratefully replied:- 370
Ascend; I follow thee, safe guide, the path
Thou lead'st me, and to the hand of Heaven
submit,

However chastening-to the evil turn

My obvious breast, arming to overcome
By suffering, and earn rest from labour won,
If so
may attain.' So both ascend

In the visions of God. It was a hill,
Of Paradise the highest, from whose top
The hemisphere of Earth in clearest ken
Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect
lay.

380

Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round,
Whereon for different cause the Tempter set
Our second Adam, in the wilderness,

To show him all Earth's kingdoms and their
glory.

His eye might there command wherever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat

The Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
view Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,

from the mount

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne,
To Paquin, of Sinean kings, and thence
To Agra and Lahor of Great Mogul,
Down to the golden Chersonese, or where
The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since
In Hispahan, or where the Russian Ksar
In Mosco, or the Sultan in Bizance,
Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken
The empire of Negus to his utmost port
Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,
Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,

390

And Sofala (thought Ophir), to the realm 400
Of Congo, and Angola farthest south,
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount,
The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez and Sus,
Marocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen ;

On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway
The world in spirit perhaps he also saw
Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume,
And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat
Of Atabalipa, and yet unspoiled

410

Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons
Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight
Had bred; then purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see,
And from the well of life three drops instilled.
So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,
That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes,
Sunk down, and all his spirits became entranced.

421 A vision of the

:

But him the gentle Angel by the hand
Soon raised, and his attention thus recalled :-
•Adam, now ope
thine eyes, and first behold
The effects which thy original crime hath
wrought

In some to spring from thee, who never touched
The excepted tree, nor with the Snake conspired,
Nor sinned thy sin, yet from that sin derive
Corruption to bring forth more violent deeds.'

His eyes he opened, and beheld a field,

Part arable and tilth, whereon were sheaves 430
New-reaped, the other part sheep-walks and
folds;

I' the midst an altar as the landmark stood,
Rustic, of grassy sord. Thither anon
A sweaty reaper from his tillage brought
First-fruits, the green ear and the yellow sheaf,
Unculled, as came to hand. A shepherd next,
More meek, came with the firstlings of his flock,
Choicest and best; then, sacrificing, laid

The inwards and their fat, with incense strewed,
On the cleft wood, and all due rites performed. 440
His offering soon propitious fire from heaven
Consumed, with nimble glance and grateful

steam;

The other's not, for his was not sincere :
Whereat he inly raged, and, as they talked,
Smote him into the midriff with a stone
That beat out life; he fell, and, deadly pale,
Groaned out his soul, with gushing blood effused.
Much at that sight was Adam in his heart
Dismayed, and thus in haste to the Angel cried.—
'O Teacher, some great mischief hath be-
fallen

450

first

murder

The To that meek man, who well had sacrificed. many Is piety thus and pure devotion paid?' shapes of Death To whom Michael thus, he also moved, replied

These two are brethren, Adam, and to come
Out of thy loins. The unjust the just hath slain,
For envy
that his brother's offering found
From Heaven acceptance; but the bloody fact
Will be avenged, and the other's faith approved
Lose no reward, though here thou see him die,
Rolling in dust and gore.' To which our

Sire: :

460

'Alas, both for the deed and for the cause!
But have I now seen Death? Is this the way
I must return to native dust?
O sight
Of terror, foul and ugly to behold!

Horrid to think, how horrible to feel!'

To whom thus Michael :- Death thou hast

seen

470

In his first shape on Man; but many shapes
Of Death, and many are the ways that lead
To his grim cave-all dismal, yet to sense
More terrible at the entrance than within.
Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die,
By fire, flood, famine; by intemperance more
In meats and drinks, which on the Earth shall
bring

Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew
Before thee shall appear, that thou may'st know
What misery the inabstinence of Eve
Shall bring on men.' Immediately a place
Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark ;
A lazar-house it seemed, wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased-all maladies

480

Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms
Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs,
Demoniac phrenzy, moping melancholy,
And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy,
Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence,
Dropsies and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums.
Dire was the tossing, deep the groans; Despair
Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; 490
And over them triumphant Death his dart

Shook, but delayed to strike, though oft invoked
With vows, as their chief good and final hope.
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept,
Though not of woman born: compassion quelled
His best of man, and gave him up to tears

A space, till firmer thoughts restrained excess,
And, scarce recovering words, his plaint re-

500

'O miserable Mankind, to what fall
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
Better end here unboru. Why is life given
To be thus wrested from us? rather why
Obtruded on us thus? who, if we knew
What we receive, would either not accept
Life offered, or soon beg to lay it down,
Glad to be so dismissed in peace.
The image of God in Man, created once
So goodly and erect, though faulty since,
To such unsightly sufferings be debased
Under inhuman pains? Why should not Man,
Retaining still divine similitude

Can thus

In part, from such deformities be free,

510

The ills that flesh is heir to