Sometimes tow'rds heav'n, and the full blazing fun,
Which now fat high in his meridian tow'r :
Then much revolving, thus in fighs began.
O thou! that, with furpaffing glory crown'd,
Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God
Of this new world; at whofe fight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell how glorious once above thy sphere!
'Till pride, and worse ambition, threw me down,
Warring in heav'n against heav'n's matchless King.
Ah wherefore! He deferv'd no fuch return
From me, whom He created what I was
In that bright eminence; and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
What could be less! than to afford him praise,
The eafieft recompenfe,) and pay him thanks;
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice: lifted up fo high
I 'fdein'd fubjection, and thought one step higher
Would fet me higheft; and in a moment quit
The debt immenfe of endless gratitude,
So burthenfome, ftill paying, ftill to owe;
Forgetful what from Him I ftill receiv'd ::
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd: what burden then?
O had His pow'rful destiny ordain'd
Me fome inferior Angel! I had flood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had rais'd
Ambition! Yet, why not? fome other Pow'r
As great might have aspir'd, and me though mean
Drawn to his part: but other Pow'rs as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken; from within,
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.
Hadft thou the fame free will and pow'r to stand?
Thou hadft! Whom haft thou then, or what, t'accuse,
But heav'n's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then His love accurft, fince love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe:
Nay, curst be thou! fince against His thy will
Chofe freely what it now fo juftly rues.
Me miferable! which way fhall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; my felf am hell;
And, in the loweft deep, a lower deep
Still threatning to devour me opens wide;
To which the hell I fuffer feems a heav'n.
O then at lait relent! Is there no place
Left for repentance? none for pardon left ?
None left, but by fubmiffion; and that word
Difdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the fpirits beneath, whom I feduc'd
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to fubmit, boafting I could subdue.
Th' Omnipotent. Ah me! they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain ;
Under what torments inwardly I groan,
While they adore me on the throne of hell,
With diadem and fceptre high advanc'd,
The lower ftill I fall, only fupreme
In mifery; fuch joy ambition finds!
But fay I could repent, and could obtain,
By act of grace, my former ftate; how foon
Would height recall high thoughts, how soon unfay
What feign'd fubmiffion swore! ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void;
(For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd fo deep)
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse,
And heavier fall: fo fhould I purchase dear
Short intermiffion, bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as far
From granting He, as I from begging peace.
All hope excluded thus, behold! in stead
Of us out-caft, exil'd, his new delight
Mankind created, and for him this world.
So farewel hope! and with hope, farewel fear!
Farewel remorfe! all-good to me is loft:
Evil, be thou my good! By thee at leaft
Divided empire with heav'n's King I hold:
By thee, and more than half perhaps, will reign:
As many 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 despair,
Which marr'd his borrow'd vifage, 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,
Artificer of fraud! and was the first
That practis'd falfhood under faintly fhew,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge.
Yet not enough had practis'd, to deceive
URIEL once warn'd; whofe eye purfu'd him down
The way he went, and on th' AsSYRIAN mount
Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall
Spirit of happy fort: his geftures fierce
He mark'd, and mad demeanor, then alone,
As he fuppos'd, all unobferv'd, unfeen.
So, on he fares; and to the border comes.
Of EDEN, where delicious Paradife,
Now nearer, crowns with her inclofure green,
As with a rural mound, the champain head
Of a fleep wilderness; whofe hairy fides
With thicket over-grown, grotefque and wild,
Access deny'd: and over head up grew
Infuperable height of loftieft fhade,
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 verdurous wall of Paradife up-sprung:
Which to our general fire gave profpect large
Into his neather empire, neighb'ring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodlieft trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colours mix'd:
On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams,
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath showr'd the earth; fo lovely feem'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 fadnefs but defpair: now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, difpenfe
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy fpoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the CAPE OF HOPE, and now are paft
MOZAMBIC, off at fea north-eaft winds blow
SABEAN odours from the spicy shore
Of ARABY THE BLEST, with fuch delay
Well-pleas'd they flack their courfe, and many a league
Chear'd with the grateful smell old OCEAN fmiles:
So entertain'd thofe odorous fweets 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 fon, and with a vengeance fent
From MEDIA poft to ÆGYPT, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep favage hill
SATAN had journied on, penfive and flow;
But further way found none, fo thick entwin'd,
As one continu'd brake, the undergrowth
Of fhrubs, and tangling bushes, had perplex'd
All path of man, or beaft that pass'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 over-leap'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
In hurdled cotes, amid the field fecure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold:
Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash
Of fome rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
Crofs-barr'd and bolted faft, 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
Of immortality. (So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts beft things
To worst abufe, or to their meanest use.)
Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views,
To all delight of human fenfe expos'd
In narrow room, nature's whole wealth, yea more,
A heav'n on earth! for blifsful 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 tow'rs
Of great SELEUCIA, built by GRECIAN Kings,
Or where the fons of EDEN long before
Dwelt in TELASSAR. 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 nobleft kind for fight, fmell, tafte;
And all amid them stood 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 changed his course, but through the fhaggy hill
Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd; for. Gon had thrown.
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