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 so 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 heighth
Of happines! 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,
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 I fare our ancestor impure,
For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks
Shall be the execration: fo befiles
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, tho' in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradife, dear bought with lafting woes!
Did I request 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,
Defirous 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 sense of endlefs woes? inexplicable
Thy juftice feems; yet, to fay truth, too late. 755
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 fen 60
Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didft 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 justly' is at his will.
Be' it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,
That dust I am, and shall to dust return.
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 i
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 should 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 fpi'rit of man,
Which God infpir'd, cannot together perish · 785
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,
Or in fome other difmal place, who knows
But I fhall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath
of life that finn'd; what dies but what had life 790 And fin? the body properly hath neither.
All of me then fhall die: let this appeale
The doubt, fince human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,
Is his wrath alfo? be it, man is not fo,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise
Wrath without end on man whom death muft end?
Can he make deathlefs death? that were to make
Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impoffible is held, as argument
Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,
For anger's fake, finite to infinite
Ia punith'd man, to fatisfy his rigour
Satisfy'd never that were to extend
His fentence beyond duft, and nature's law,
By which all caufes elfe according ftill
To the reception of their matter act,
Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But fay
That death be not one ftroke, as I fuppos'd,
Bereaving fenfe, but endless mifery
From this day onward, which I feel begun.
Both in me and without me, and fo last
To perpetuity: Ay me, that fear
Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head; both death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both;
Nor I on my part fingle, in me all
Pofterity stands curs'd: fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, fons; were I able
To walte it all myfelf, and leave ye none !
So difinherited, how would ye blefs
Me, now your curfe! Ah, why fhould all mankind-
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,
If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,
But all corrupt both mind and will deprav'd, 825-
Not to do only, but to will the fame
With me? how can they then acquitted stand-
In fight of God? Him after all disputes
Forc'd I abfolve: all my evafions vain,
And reasonings, tho' thro' mazes, lead me ftill
But to my own conviction: first and last
On me, me only, as the fource and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;
So might the wrath. Fond with couldst thou fupport:
That burden heavier than the earth to bear,
Than all the world much heavier, tho' divided
With that bad woman? Thus what thou defir'st,
And what thou fear'ft, allke deftroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miferable
Beyond all paft example and futúre,
To Satan only like both crime and doom.
O confcience, into what abyfs of fears
And horrors haft thou driv'n me; out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Thro' the ftill night; not now, as cre man fell, Wholefome, and cool, and mild, but with black air Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom, Which to his evil confcience reprefented
All things with double terror: on the ground 830 Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft Curs'd his creation, death as oft accus'd
Of tardy execution, fince denounc'd'
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,
Juftice Divine not haften to be just ?
But Death comes not at call, Justice divine
Mends not her flowest pace for pray'rs or cries.
O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers,
With other echo late I taught your fhades
To answer, and refound far other fong.
Whom thus afflicted when fad Eve beheld,
Defolate where fhe fat, approaching nigh,
Soft words to his fierce paflion fhe affay'd:
But her with ftern regard he thus repell'd.
Out of my fight, thou ferpent; that name beft Befits thee with him leagu'd, thyfelf as falfe And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy fhape, Like his, and colour ferpentine, may fhow 870 Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee Henceforth; left that too heav'nly form, pretended To hellish falfehood, fnare them. But for thee I had perfifted happy', had not thy pride And wand'ring vanity, when leaft was fafe, Rejected my forewarning, and difdain'd Not to be trusted; longing to be seen, Tho' by the dev'il himfelf, him overweening To over-reach; but with the ferpent meeting, Fool'd and beguil'd; by him thou, I by thee, To trust thee from my fide, imagin'd wife, Conftant, mature, proof against all affaults, And understood not all was but a fhow Rather than folid virtue'; all but a rib, Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears, More to the part finifter, from me drawn, Well if thrown out, as fupernumerary To my just number found. O why did God,
|