The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall Spirit of happy sort: his gestures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone, As he suppos'd, all unobserv'd, unseen.
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 hairy sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Access deny'd; and overhead up grew Insuperable highth of loftiest shade, Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung: Which to our general sire gave prospect large. Into his nether empire neighbouring round, And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit, Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue
Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colours mix'd:
On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd That landscape and of pure now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair: now gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest; with such delay
Well pleas'd they slack their course, and many a league Cheer'd with the grateful smell old ocean smiles:
So entertain'd those odorous sweets the Fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume,
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent
From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill Satan had journied on, pensive and slow; But further way found none, so thick entwin'd, As one continued brake, the undergrowth Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd All path of man or beast that pass'd that way: One gate there only was, and that look'd east On the other side: which when the arch-felon saw, Due entrance he disdain'd, and in contempt, At one slight bound high overleap'd all bound Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold: Or as a thief bent to unhord the cash Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors, Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault, In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles; So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold: So since into his church lewd hirelings climb. Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life Thereby regain'd, but sat devising death
To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd
For prospect, what well us'd had been the pledge 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 their meanest use. Beneath him with new wonder now he views To all delight of human sense expos'd
In narrow room nature's 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 stretch'd her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, Or where the sons of Eden long before Dwelt in Telassar: in this pleasant soil His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd ; Out of the fertile 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,
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 shaggy hill Pass'd underneath ingulph'd; for God had thrown That mountain as his garden-mound 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 Water'd the garden; thence united fell Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood, Which from his darksome passage now appears, And now divided into four main streams, Runs divers, wandering many a famous realm And country, whereof here needs no account; But rather to tell how, if art could tell, How from that saphire fount the crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, With mazy error under pendent shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
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