Would not admit: thine, and of all thy fons,
The weal or woe in thee is plac'd; beware!
I in, thy perfevering fhall rejoyce,

And all the bleft. Stand faft! to ftand or fall
Free in thine own arbitrement it lies:
Perfect within, no outward aid requires,
And all temptation to trangrefs repel.

So faying, he arofe: whom ADAM thus
Follow'd with benediction. Since to part!
Go heav'nly gueft, ethereal meffenger,
Sent from whofe fov'reign goodness I adore!
Gentle to me, and affable, hath been
Thy condefcenfion, and shall be honor'd ever
With grateful memory: thou to mankind,
Be good, and friendly ftill, and oft return!

640

So parted they, the Angel up to Heav'n
From the thick fhade, and ADAM to his bow'r.

IX.

645

650

PARADISE LOST.

THE

ARGUMENT.

Satan having compaft the earth, with meditated guile returns as a mift by night into Paradife, and enters into the ferpent fleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labors, which Eve proposes to divide in feveral places, each laboring apart: Adam confents not, alleging the danger left that enemy, of whom they

were

were forewarn'd, Should attempt her found alone: Eve, (loth to be thought not circumspect or firm enough) urges her going apart, the rather defirous to make tryal of her ftrength; Adam at last yields: the ferpent finds her alone; his fubtile approach, firft gazing, then Speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other Creatures. Eve, wond'ring to hear the ferpent fpeak, asks how he attain'd to human speech, and fuch understanding not 'till now; the ferpent answers, that by tafting of a certain tree in the garden he attain'd both to fpeech and reafon, 'till then void of both: Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the Tree of Knowledge forbidden: the ferpent, now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments 'induces her at length to eat; fhe, pleas'd with the tafle, deliberates a-while whether to impart thereof to Adam, or not: at last brings him of the fruit, relates what perfuaded her to eat thereof: Adam at first amaz'd, but perceiving her loft, refolves (through vehemence of love) to perifh with her, extenuating the trefpafs eats alfo of the fruit: the effects thereof in them both they feek to cover their nakedness: then fall to variance, and accufation of one another.

O more of talk where Gob, of Angelgueft,

With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd

To fit indulgent, and with him partake Rural repaft; permitting him the while Venial difcourfe un-blam'd. I now muft change Thofe notes to tragic! Foul diftruft, and breach Disloyal on the part of man, revolt, And difobedience: on the part of Heav'n (Now alienated!) diftance, and diftaste, Anger, and juft rebuke, and judgement giv'n, That brought into this world a world of woe; Sin, and her fhadow Death, and mifery

5

Death's