And in a troubled fea of paffion toft, 720 725 All that I eat or drink, or fhall beget, Is propagated curfe. O voice once heard Delightfully, Increafe and multiply, 730 Now death to hear! for what can I increase Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling The evil on him brought by me; will curfe My head I fare our ancestor impure, 735 For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks Mine.own that bide upon me, all from me 740 From darkness to promote me, or here place 745 In this delicious garden? As my will Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold 759 The The good I fought not. To the loss of that Thy juftice feems; yet, to fay truth, too late. 755 765 God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own welcome hour whenever! why delays His hand to execute what his decree Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive? A 770 775 780 Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd' out i Or in fome other difmal place, who knows 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 Is his wrath alfo? be it, man is not fo, 795 Wrath without end on man whom death muft end? Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out, 800 Ia punith'd man, to fatisfy his rigour His fentence beyond duft, and nature's law, 805 To the reception of their matter act, Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But fay Bereaving fenfe, but endless mifery 810 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 815 Am found eternal, and incorporate both; Nor I on my part fingle, in me all 820 So So difinherited, how would ye blefs Me, now your curfe! Ah, why fhould all mankind- But all corrupt both mind and will deprav'd, 825- With me? how can they then acquitted stand- 8314 835 So might the wrath. Fond with couldst thou fupport: To Satan only like both crime and doom. Thus Adam to himself lamented loud 845 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, 855 Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke But Death comes not at call, Justice divine Mends not her flowest pace for pray'rs or cries. 861 O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers, 865 875 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, 880 885 Creator |