For never can true reconcilement grow,
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd fo deep:
Which would but lead me to a worfe relapse
And heavier fall: fo fhould I purchase dear
Short intermiffion bought with double fmart.
This knows my Punisher: therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace:
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead
Of us outcast, exil'd, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this world.
So farewel hope, and with hope farewel fear,
Farewel remorse: all good to me is loft;
Evil be thou my good; by thee at least
Divided empire with heaven's King I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
As man ere long, and this new world, fhall know.-
Thus while he fpake, each paffion dimm'd his face
Thrice chang'd with pale ire, envy, and defpair; 115
Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.
For heav'nly minds from fuch diftempers foul
Are ever clear. Whereof he foon aware,
Each perturbation fmooth'd with outward calm, 120
Artificer of fraud; and was the first
That practis'd falfehood under faintly fhow;
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge:
Yet not enough had practis'd to deceive
Uriel once warn'd; whose eye purfu'd him down 125.
The way he went, and on th' Affyrian mount
Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall a
Spirit of happy fort; his geftures fierce
He mark'd, and mad demeanour, then alone,..
As he fuppos'd, all unobserv'd, unseen.
So on he fares, and to the border comes.>
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
Now nearer, crowns with her inclosure green a
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whofe hairy fides
With thicket overgrown, grotefque and wild,
Access deny'd; and over head up grew
Infuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A fylvan fcene, and as the ranks afcend,
Shade above fhade, a woody theatre
Of statelieft view. Yet higher than their tops
The verd'rous wall of Paradife up fprung:
Which to our general fire gave profpe& large
Into his nether empire neighb'ring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colours mix'd:
On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams 150
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath fhower'd the earth; fo lovely feem'd
That landfcape: and of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart infpires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
AH fadness but defpair: now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they ftole
Thofe balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambique, off at fea north-eaft winds blow
Sabéan odours from the spicy fhore
Of Araby the Blefs'd; with fuch delay
Well pleas'd they flack their courfe, and many a league
Cheer'd with the grateful fmell old Ocean fmiles: 165
So entertain'd thefe odorous fweets the fiend,
Who came their bane; though with them better
Than Afmodeus with the fifhy fume
[pleas'd
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Media poft to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep favage hill
Satan had journey'd on, penfive and flow;
But further way found none, fo thick intwin'd,
As one continu'd brake, the undergrowth
Of fhrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd
All path of man or beast that pafs'd that way.
One gate there only was, and that look'd east
On th' other fide: which when th' arch-felon faw,
Due entrance he difdain'd, and, in contempt,
At one flight 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 feek new haunt for prey,
Watching where fhepherds pen their flocks at eve 185
In hurdled cotes amid the field fecure,
Leaps o'er the fence with eafe into the fold:
Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash
Of fome rich burgher, whofe fubstantial doors,
Crofs-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no affault,
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles :
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
So fince 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 fat devifing death
To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd,
For profpect, what well us'd had been the pledge 200
Of immortality. So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts beft things
To worft abufe, 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 heav'n on earth: for blissful Paradife
Of God the garden was, by him in th' eaft
Of Eden planted; Eden ftretch'd her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
Or where the fons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telaffar: in this pleasant foil
His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd;
Out of the fertile ground he caus'd to grow
All trees of noblest kind for fight, smell, taste;
And all amid them ftood the tree of life,
High eminent, blooming ambrofial fruit
Of vegetable gold: and next to life,
Our death, the tree of knowledge, grew faft by ;
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor chang'd his course, but through the fhaggy hill
Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown 225
That mountain as his garden-mould high rais'd
Upon the rapid current, which, through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirft 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 darkfome paffage now appears;
And now divided into four main streams,
Runs diverfe, wand'ring many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account; 235
But rather to tell how, if art could tell,
How from that faphir fount the crifped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and fands of gold,
mazy error under pendent fhades
Ran nectar, vifiting each plant, and fed
240
Flowers, worthy' of Paradise, which not nice art
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Pour'd forth profufe on hill, and dale, and plain,
Both where the morning-fun firft warmly fmote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd fhade 245
Imbrown'd the noontide-bow'rs. Thus was this place
A happy rural feat of various view;
Groves whofe rich trees wept odorous gums and balm;
Others whofe fruit, burnish'd with golden rind,
Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,
If true, here only', and of delicious taste :
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grafing the tender herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy hillock; or the flow'ry lap
Of fome irriguous valley fpread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rofe:
Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recefs, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; meanwhile murm'ring waters fall
Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their fireams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the fmell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while univerfal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on th' eternal spring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proférpine gathering flowers,
Herfelf a fairer flow'r, by gloomy Dis
Was gather'd, which coft Ceres all that pain
To feek her through the world; nor that sweet
Of Daphne by Orontes, and th' infpir'd
Caftalian spring, might with this Paradise
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