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Satan's dire dread; and in his hand the spear.
Adam how'd low; he, kingly, from his state
Inclined not, but his coming thus declared:

Adam! Heaven's high behest no preface needs.
Sufficient that thy prayers are heard; and Death,
Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress,
Defeated of his seizure many days

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Given thee of grace; wherein thou mayst repent, 255
And one bad act with many deeds well done
Mayst cover well may then thy Lord, appeased,
Redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim;
But longer in this Paradise to dwell

Permits not to remove thee I am come,
And send thee from the garden forth to till
The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil.
He added not; for Adam at the news
Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood,
That all his senses bound; Eve, who unscen
Yet all had heard, with audible lament
Discover'd soon the place of her retire.

O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death'
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave

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Thee, native soil! these happy walks and shades, 270 Fit haunt of Gods? where I had hope to spend,

Quiet though sad, the respite of that day

That must be mortal to us both.

That never will in other climate grow,

My carly visitation, and my last

At even, which I bred up with tender hand

O flowers,

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From the first opening bud, and gave ye names!
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank

Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
Thee lastly, nuptial bower! by me adorn'd
With what to sight or smell was sweet! from thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower world; to this obscure

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And wild? how shall we breathe in other air

ess pure, accustom'd to immortal fruits?

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Whom thus the Angel interrupted mild ·
Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign
What justly thou hast lost, nor set thy heart,
Thus overfond, on that which is not thine:
Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound;
Where he abides, think there thy native soil.
Adam, by this from the cold sudden damp
Recovering, and his scatter'd spirits return'd,
To Michaël thus his humble words address'd:

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Celestial, whether among the Thrones, or named

Of them the highest; for such of shape may seem
Prince above princes: gently hast thou teld
Thy message, which might else in telling wound,
And in performing end us; what besides

Of sorrow, and dejection, and despair,

Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring,

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Departure from this happy place, our sweet
Recess, and only consolation left

Familia to our eyes! all places clse

Inhospitable appear, and desolate;

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Nor knowing us, nor known: and, if by prayer

Incessant I could hope to change the will

Of Him who all things can, I would not cease

To weary him with my assiduous cries:

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But prayer against his absolute decree

No more avails than breath against the wind,

Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth:

Therefore to his great bidding I submit.

This most afflicts me, that, departing hence,

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As from his face I shall be hid, deprived

His blessed countenance: here I could frequent

With worship place by place where he vouchsafed
Presence Divine; and to my sous relate,

On this mount he appear'd; under this tree
Stood visible; among these pines his voice
I heard; here with him at this fountain talk'd
Smany grateful altars I would rear

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Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone

Of lustre from the brook, in memory,

Or monument to ages, and therecn

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Offer sweet-smelling gums, and truits, and flowers :
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or footstep trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet, recall'd
To life prolong'd and promised race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory; and far off his steps adore.

To whom thus Michaël with regard benign: Adam, thou know'st Heaven his, and all the Earth; Not this rock only; his Omnipresence fills Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives, Fomented by his virtual power and warm'd: All the earth he gave thee to possess and rule, No despicable gift; surmise not then

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His presence to these narrow bounds confined
Of Paradise, or Eden, this had been

Perhaps thy capital scat, from whence had spread
All generations; and had hither come

From all the ends of the earth, to celebrate

And reverence thee, their great progenitor.

But this preeminence thou hast lost, brought down
To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:
Yet doubt not but in vailey and on plain

God is, as here, and will be found alike

Present; and of his presence many a sign

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Still following thee, still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love, his face
Express, and of his steps the track divino.

Which that thou mayst believe, and be confirm'd 355
Ere thou from hence depart; know, I am sent
To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee and to thy offspring; good with bad
Expect to hear; supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
I'rue patience, and to temper joy with fear

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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 drench'd her eyes)
Here sleep below; while thou to foresight wakest,
As once thou slept'st, while she to life was form'd.
To whom thus Adam gratefully replied:
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 I 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 kan,

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Stretch'd 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

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City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destined wall
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne,

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To Paquin of Sincan 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 Kar
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
Moinbaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,

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And Sufala, thought Ophir, to the realm
Of Congo, and Angola furthest south;
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount
The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez and Sus,
Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen :

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On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway 405 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 unspoil'd
Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons
Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights
Michaël 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 instill'd.
So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,

That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes,

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Sunk down, and all his spirits became entranced; 420 But him the gentle Angel by the hand

Soon raised, and his attention thus recall'd:

Adam, now ope thine eyes; and first behold The effects which thy original crime hath wrougnt In some to spring from thee; who never touched 425 The excepted tree; nor with the snake conspired; Nor einned thy sin; yet from that sin derive Corruption, to bring forth more violent deeds. Ilis eyes he opened, and beheld a field,

Part arable and tilth, whereon were sheaves

New reap'd; 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

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First fruits, the green car, and the yellow sheaf, 438 Incull'd, as came to hand: a shepherd next

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