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; fo doth the prince of hell,
And his adherents, that with so much ease
I fuffer them to enter and poffefs
A place fo heavenly, and conniving feem
To gratify my scornful enemies,
That laugh, as if transported with fome fit
Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither,
My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which man's polluting fin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorge'd, nigh burst
With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one fling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at laft 635 Thro' Choas hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of hell
For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.
Then heaven and earth renew'd fhall be made pure
To fanctity that shall receive no stain :
Till then the curfe pronounce'd on both precedes. 640
He ended, and the heavenly audience loud
Sung Halleluiah, as the found of feas,
Through multitude that fung: Juft are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Deftin'd restorer of mankind, by whom
New heaven and earth fhall to the ages rife,
Or down from heaven defcend. Such was their fong, While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty angels, gave them feveral charge,
As forted beft with present things. The fun
Had first his precept fo 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 fouth to bring
Solftitial fummer's heat. To the blank moon
Her office they prescrib'd; to th' other five
Their planetary motions and afpécts,
In fextile, fquare, and trine, and oppofite
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In fynod unbenign; and taught the fix'd
Their influence malignant when to shower;
Which of them rifing with the fun, or falling,
Should prove tempeftuous: to the winds they fet
Their corners, when with blufter to confound
Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll
With terrour through the dark aëreal hall.
Some fay he bid his angels turn ascanse
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the fun's axle; they with labour push'd
Oblique the centric globe: fome fay the fun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like diftant breadth to Taurus with the feven
Atlantic Sifters, and the Spartan Twins,
Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain
By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales,
As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change
Of feafons to each clime; elfe had the fpring
Perpetual fmil'd on earth with vernant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to thofe
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted fhone, while the low fun
To recompenfe his distance, in their fight
Had rounded still th' horizon, and not known
Or eaft or weft, which had forbid the fnow
From cold Eftotiland, and south as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
The Sun, as from Thyéftean banquet, turn'd
His courfe intended; elfe how had the world
Inhabited, though finless, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat ?
These changes in the heavens, tho' flow, produce'd
Like change on fea and land, fideral blast,
Vapour, and mift, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and peftilent: now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,
Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice
And fnow, and hail, and ftormy guft and flaw,
Boreas, and Cæcias, and Argeftes loud,
And Thracias, rend the woods, and feas upturn; 700
With adverse blast upturns them from the fouth
Notus and Afer black with thundrous clouds
From Sierraleon; thwart of thefe as fierce
Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds,
Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,
Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began
Outrage from lifelefs things: but Discord firft,
Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational
Death introduce'd through fierce antipathy:
Beast now with beast 'gan war,, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each other; nor stood much in awe
Of man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him paffing. These were from without
The growing miferies, which Adam faw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomieft fhade,
To forrow' abandon'd; but worse felt within,
And in a troubled fea of paffion toft,
Thus to difburden fought with fad complaint.
O miferable of happy'! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me fo late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of bleffed? hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness! yet well, if here would end.
The mifery; I deferv'd it, and would bear
My own defervings: but this will not ferve
All that I eat or drink, or fhall beget,
Is propagated curfe. O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increafe and multiply,
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply, but curfes on my head?
Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will curfe
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,
For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks
Shall be the execration: fo befides
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,
On me as on their natural centre light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradife, dear bought with lasting woes!
Did I requelt thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? did I folicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurr'd not to my be'ing, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,
Defireous to refign and render back
All I receiv'd, unable to perform
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I fought not. To the loss of that,
Sufficient penalty, why haft thou added
The fenfe of endless woes? inexplicable
Thy juftice feems; yet, to say truth, too late,
I thus conteft; then should have been refus'd.
Thofe terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou didst accept them; wilt thou' enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? And though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy fon
Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didst thou beget me'? I fought it not :
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee
That proud excufe? yet him not thy election,
But natural neceflity, begot.
God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own
To ferve him; thy reward was of his grace;
Thy punishment then juftly' is at his will.
Be' it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,
That duft I am, and fhall to dust return.
O welcome hour whenever! why delays.
His hand to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive?
Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet
Mortality my fentence, and be earth
Infenfible how glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap there I fhould reft
And fleep fecure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worfe
To me and to my offspring would torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
Purfues me ftill, left all I cannot die ;
Left that pure breath of life, the spi'rit of man,
Which God infpir'd, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,
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