Paradise Lost quotes

what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great argument I may assert the Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Say first (for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell) say first what cause Moved our grand parents in that happy state, Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, …

At once, as far as angels ken, he views The dismal situation waste and wild: A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames

No light, but rather darkness visible

Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all; but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.

… the Mightiest raised me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along Innumerable force of Spirits armed, That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, And shook his throne.

What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield:

And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me.

Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied: “Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,

To do aught good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight,

As being the contrary to his high will Whom we resist. If then his providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil;

Farewell happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells! Hail horrors! hail, Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell Receive thy new possessor, one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here at least We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, The associates and co-partners of our loss Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool, And call them not to share with us their part In this unhappy mansion, or once more With rallied arms to try what …

… conqueror, who now beholds Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern The advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf?

Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!

”

He now prepared To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend From wing to wing, and half enclose him round With all his peers: attention held them mute.

Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth

: at last Words interwove with sighs found out their way:

Let us not then pursue, By force impossible, by leave obtained, Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state Of splendid vassalage; but rather seek Our own good from ourselves, and from our own Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,

Free, and to none accountable, preferring Hard liberty before the easy yoke Of servile pomp.

Our greatness will appear Then most conspicuous, when great things of small, Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, We can create, and in what place soe’er Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain Through labour and endurance.

If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

O shame to men! Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds, men only disagree

Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace; and, God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy:

what seemed his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast, With horrid strides;

Hell trembled as he strode.

The undaunted Fiend what this might be admired, Admired, not feared—God and his Son except, Created thing naught valued he nor shunned— And with disdainful look thus first began:

“I know thee, stranger, who thou art, That mighty leading Angel, who of late Made head against Heaven’s King, though overthrown. I saw and heard; for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded;

and Heaven-gates Poured out by millions her victorious bands, Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Keep residence; if all I can will serve That little which is left so to defend, Encroached on still through our intestine broils Weakening the sceptre of old Night:

Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell. If that way be your walk, you have not far; So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed!

Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.

”

alights first on Mount Niphates.

Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born!

Or of the Eternal coeternal beam May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate!

Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me All he could have; I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the ethereal powers And Spirits, both them who stood and them who failed:

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, Where only what they needs must do appeared, Not what they would?

So spake the false dissembler unperceived; For neither man nor Angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth;

And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps At Wisdom’s gate

, and to Simplicity Resigns her charge, while Goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems: which now for once beguiled Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;

So spake the false dissembler unperceived; For neither man nor Angel can discern

Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone

, By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth; And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps At Wisdom’s gate, and to Simplicity Resigns her charge, while Goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems:

Be then his love accursed, since, love or hate, To me alike it deals eternal woe. Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will Chose freely what it now so justly rues. Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath and infinite despair?

Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;

And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. O, then, at last relent! Is there no place Left for repentance—none for pardon left? None left but by submission;

This knows my Punisher; therefore as far From granting he, as I from begging, peace. All hope excluded thus, behold, instead Of us, outcast, exiled, his new delight, Mankind created, and for him this World!

So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse!

All good to me is lost; 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 shall know.”

And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold; and next to life, Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by—

Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.

Southward through Eden went a river large, Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill Passed underneath engulfed;

he who requires From us no other service than to keep This one, this easy charge—of all the trees In Paradise that bear delicious fruit So various, not to taste that only Tree Of Knowledge, planted by the Tree of Life;

So near grows death to life, whate’er death is;

Some dreadful thing no doubt;

These then, though unbeheld in deep of night, Shine not in vain.

Nor think, though men were none, That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep: All these with ceaseless praise his works behold, Both day and night.

These then, though unbeheld in deep of night, Shine not in vain. Nor think, though men were none, That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep

: All these with ceaseless praise his works behold, Both day and night. How often, from the steep Of echoing hill or thicket, have we heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive each to other’s note, Singing their great Creator!

These, lulled by nightingales, embracing slept, And on their naked limbs the flowery roof Showered roses, which the morn repaired.

Sleep on, Blest pair! and, O! yet happiest, if ye seek No happier state, and know to know no more!

Now had night measured with her shadowy cone Half-way up-hill this vast sublunar vault; And from their ivory port the Cherubim Forth issuing, at the accustomed hour, stood armed To their night-watches in warlike parade; When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake:

So saying, on he led his radiant files, Dazzling the moon; these to the bower direct In search of whom they sought. Him there they found

Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,

Assaying by his devilish art to reach The organs of her fancy, and with them forge Illusions as he list, phantasms and dreams;

So spake the Cherub; and his grave rebuke, Severe in youthful beauty, added grace Invincible. Abashed the Devil stood,

And felt how awful goodness is, and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely

; saw, and pined His loss; but chiefly to find here observed His lustre visibly impaired; yet seemed Undaunted. “If I must contend,” said he, “Best with the best—the sender, not the sent; Or all at once;

To whom thus Satan, with contemptuous brow: “Gabriel, thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise, And such I held thee; but this question asked Puts me in doubt.

Lives there who loves his pain?

Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell, Though thither doomed? Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt, And boldly venture to whatever place Farthest from pain, where thou mightst hope to change Torment with ease, and soonest recompense Dole with delight;

To whom the warrior Angel soon replied: “To say and straight unsay, pretending first Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy,

Argues no leader, but a liar traced,

Satan; and couldst thou ‘faithful’ add? O name, O sacred name of faithfulness profaned! Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?

“

Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know’st mine; Neither our own, but given

; what folly then To boast what arms can do! since thine no more Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now To trample thee as mire.

To whom the Angel: “Son of Heaven and Earth, Attend! That thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continuest such, owe to thyself, That is, to thy obedience; therein stand: This was that caution given thee; be advised.

God made thee perfect, not immutable;

And good he made thee, but to persevere He left it in thy power—ordained thy will By nature free, not over-ruled by fate Inextricable, or strict necessity. Our voluntary service he requires, Not our necessitated; such with him Finds no acceptance, nor can find;

“So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found;

Among the faithless, faithful only he;

Among innumerable false, unmoved, Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal; Nor number nor example with him wrought To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, Though single.

But thou seest All are not of thy train; there be who faith Prefer, and piety to God, though then To thee not visible when I alone Seemed in thy world erroneous to dissent From all: my sect thou seest; now learn too late

How few sometimes may know, when thousands err.

’

for what avails Valour or strength, though matchless, quelled with pain, Which all subdues, and makes remiss the hands Of mightiest? Sense of pleasure we may well Spare out of life perhaps, and not repine, But live content, which is the calmest life;

But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and, excessive, overturns All patience.

He who, therefore, can invent With what more forcible we may offend Our yet unwounded enemies, or arm Ourselves with like defence, to me deserves No less than for deliverance what we owe.’

The rest, in imitation, to like arms Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore; So hills amid the air encountered hills, Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire, That underground they fought in dismal shade;

Infernal noise! war seemed a civil game To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped Upon confusion rose.

And now all Heaven Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread, Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure, Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen This tumult, and permitted all, advised, That his great purpose he might …

“

Hell heard the unsufferable noise; Hell saw Heaven ruining from Heaven

, and would have fled Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roared, And felt tenfold confusion in their fall Through his wild anarchy;

“Hell heard the unsufferable noise; Hell saw Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.

Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roared, And felt tenfold confusion in their fall Through his wild anarchy

; so huge a rout Encumbered him with ruin. Hell at last, Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed; Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.

But listen not to his temptations; warn Thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard, By terrible example, the reward Of disobedience.

Firm they might have stood, Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.

”

In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, And solitude; yet not alone, while thou Visit’st my slumbers nightly, or when morn Purples the east.

Still govern thou my song, Urania, and fit audience find, though few;

But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned Both harp and voice;

beyond abstain To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope Things not revealed, which the invisible King, Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night, To none communicable in Earth or Heaven: Enough is left besides to search and know.

But knowledge is as food, and needs no less Her temperance over appetite, to know In measure what the mind may well contain; Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

“Know then that after Lucifer from Heaven (So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of Angels than that star the stars among) Fell with his flaming legions through the Deep Into his place, and the great Son returned Victorious with his Saints, the omnipotent …

ride forth, and bid the Deep Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth; Boundless the Deep, because I am who fill Infinitude; nor vacuous the space, Though I uncircumscribed myself retire, And put not forth my goodness, which is free To act or not:

Necessity and Chance Approach not me, and what I will is Fate.

’

“

‘Silence, ye troubled waves, and, thou Deep, peace!’ Said then the omnific Word: ‘your discord end!’

Nor stayed; but, on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos and the World unborn; For Chaos heard his voice. Him all his train Followed in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might.

For Chaos heard his voice. Him all his train Followed in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then stayed the fervid wheels and in his hand

He took the golden compasses, prepared In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe This Universe, and all created things, One foot he centred, and the other turned Round through the vast profundity obscure, And said, ‘Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds; This be thy just circumference, O World!’

Thus God the heaven created, thus the Earth, Matter unformed and void. Darkness profound Covered the Abyss;

Creation and the six days’ acts they sung: ‘Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue Relate thee? greater now in thy return Than from the Giant-angels: thee that day

Thy thunders magnified; but to create Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt Of Spirits apostate and their counsels vain Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw The number of thy worshippers.

Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt Of Spirits apostate and their counsels vain Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw The number of thy worshippers.

Who seeks To lessen thee, against his purpose serves To manifest the more thy might; his evil Thou usest, and from thence creat’st more good.

Witness this new-made World, another Heaven From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea; Of amplitude almost immense, with stars Numerous, and every star perhaps a world Of destined habitation; but thou know’st Their seasons;

God, to remove his ways from human sense, Placed heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight, If it presume, might err in things too high, And no advantage gain.

What if the sun Be centre to the World, and other stars, By his attractive virtue and their own Incited, dance about him various rounds?

Their wandering course, now high, now low, then hid, Progressive, retrograde, or standing still, In six thou seest; and what if seventh to these The planet Earth, so steadfast though she seem, Insensibly three different motions move?

Leave them to God above; him serve and fear. Of other creatures, as him pleases best, Wherever placed, let him dispose; joy thou In what he gives to thee, this Paradise And thy fair Eve;

Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise;

Think only what concerns thee and thy being; Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there Live, in what state, condition, or degree; Contented that thus far hath been revealed Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.”

now hear me relate My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard. And day is yet not spent; till then thou seest How subtly to detain thee I devise, Inviting thee to hear while I relate— Fond, were it not in hope of thy reply.

For while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven; And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear Than fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst And hunger both

, from labour, at the hour Of sweet repast: they satiate, and soon fill, Though pleasant; but thy words, with grace divine Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety.”

But apt the mind or fancy is to rove Unchecked; and of her roving is no end, Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn

That not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and subtle, but to know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom: what is more is fume, Or emptiness, or fond impertinence

, And renders us in things that most concern Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek. Therefore from this high pitch let us descend A lower flight, and speak of things at hand Useful;

On she came, Led by her Heavenly Maker, though unseen, And guided by his voice, nor uninformed Of nuptial sanctity and marriage rites.

Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love.

I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud:

“O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built With second thoughts, reforming what was old!

For what God, after better, worse would build?

Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, In thee concentring all their precious beams Of sacred influence!

Of these the vigilance I dread, and, to elude, thus wrapt in mist Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry In every bush and brake, where hap may find The serpent sleeping, in whose mazy folds To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.

O foul descent! that I, who erst contended With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained Into a beast

, and, mixed with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute, That to the highth of deity aspired! But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to? Who aspires must down as low As high he soared, obnoxious first or last To basest things.

that I, who erst contended With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained Into a beast, and, mixed with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute, That to the highth of deity aspired! But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to?

Who aspires must down as low As high he soared, obnoxious first or last To basest things.

Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils. Let it;

But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to? Who aspires must down as low As high he soared, obnoxious first or last To basest things.

Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.

Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed (Since higher I fall short) on him who next Provokes my envy, this new favourite Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite, Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker raised From dust:

These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide As we need walk, till younger hands ere long Assist us. But if much converse perhaps Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield;

For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return.

But other doubt possesses me, lest harm Befall thee severed from me; for thou know’st What hath been warned us, what malicious foe, Envying our happiness, and of his own Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame By sly assault;

And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed Alone, without exterior help sustained? Let us not then suspect our happy state Left so imperfect by the Maker wise, As not secure to single or combined.

Frail is our happiness, if this be so, And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed.

”

But if thou think trial unsought may find Us both securer than thus warned thou seem’st, Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more; Go in thy native innocence, rely On what thou hast of virtue, summon all;

For God towards thee hath done his part; do thine.

”

Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine, Her graceful innocence, her every air Of gesture or least action, overawed His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought:

That space the Evil One abstracted stood From his own evil, and for the time remained Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed, Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge.

But the hot hell that always in him burns, Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight, And tortures him now more, the more he sees Of pleasure not for him ordained;

them she upstays Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while

Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.

Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve:

Of good, how just! of evil—if what is evil Be real, why not known, since easier shunned? God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed: Your fear itself of death removes the fear.

Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe, Why but to keep ye low and ignorant, His worshippers?

He knows that in the day Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear, Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods, Knowing both good and evil, as they know.

Of good, how just! of evil—if what is evil Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?

God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed:

Your fear itself of death removes the fear. Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe, Why but to keep ye low and ignorant, His worshippers?

but his forbidding Commends thee more, while it infers the good By thee communicated, and our want; For good unknown sure is not had, or had, And yet unknown, is as not had at all. In plain then, what forbids he but to know?

Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise!

Such prohibitions bind not. But if death Bind us with after-bands, what profits then Our inward freedom? In the day we eat Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die! How dies the Serpent?

Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine, Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?”

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat. Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost.

Back to the thicket slunk The guilty Serpent, and well might, for Eve, Intent now only on her taste, naught else Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed, In fruit she never tasted, whether true, Or fancied so through expectation high Of knowledge;

False in our promised rising; since our eyes Opened we find indeed, and find we know Both good and evil, good lost and evil got:

Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know, Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity,

Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, And in our faces evident the signs Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store, Even shame, the last of evils; of the first Be sure then.

we had then Remained still happy, not, as now, despoiled Of all our good, shamed, naked, miserable!

Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.

”

Thus it shall befall Him who, to worth in women overtrusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue, She first his weak indulgence will accuse.”

Thus they in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;

And of their vain contest appeared no end.

As when he washed his servants’ feet, so now, As father of his family, he clad Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid;

And thought not much to clothe his enemies.

Nor he their outward only with the skins Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness Arraying, covered from his Father’s sight. To him with swift ascent he up returned, Into his blissful bosom reassumed In glory as of old;

for what they saw They felt themselves now changing: down their arms, Down fell both spear and shield; down they as fast, And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form Catched by contagion, like in punishment, As in their crime.

Thus was the applause they meant Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame Cast on themselves from their own mouths.

There stood A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change, His will who reigns above, to aggravate Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve Used by the Tempter.

“

O miserable of happy! is this the end Of this new glorious World, and me so late The glory of that glory?

who now, become Accursed of blessed, hide me from the face Of God, whom to behold was then my highth Of happiness! Yet well, if here would end The misery; I deserved it, and would bear My own deservings; but this will not serve:

Thy punishment then justly is at his will. Be it so, for I submit; his doom is fair, That dust I am, and shall to dust return. O welcome hour whenever! Why delays His hand to execute what his decree Fixed on this day?

Why do I overlive? Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out To deathless pain?

How gladly would I meet Mortality, my sentence, and be earth Insensible! how glad would lay me down As in my mother’s lap! There I should rest And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more Would thunder in my ears;

Than all the World much heavier, though divided With that bad woman? Thus, what thou desir’st, And what thou fear’st, alike destroys all hope Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable Beyond all past example and future; To Satan only like, both crime and doom.

O Conscience! into what abyss of fears And horrors hast thou driven me; out of which I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!

”

so, besides Mine own that bide upon me, all from me Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound, On me, as on their natural centre, light Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man? did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me, or here place In this delicious garden?

As my will Concurred not to my being, it were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust, Desirous to resign and render back All I received, unable to perform Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold The good I …

Death as oft accused Of tardy execution, since denounced The day of his offence. “Why comes not Death,” Said he, “with one thrice-acceptable stroke To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word, Justice divine not hasten to be just?

But Death comes not at call; Justice divine Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries.

O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers! With other echo late I taught your shades To answer, and resound far other song.”

But rise; let us no more contend, nor blame Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive In offices of love, how we may lighten Each other’s burden, in our share of woe; Since this day’s death denounced, if aught I see,

Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil, A long day’s dying, to augment our pain,

And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.”

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave Thee, native soil? these happy walks and shades, 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.

O flowers, That never will in other climate grow, My early visitation, and my last At even, which I bred up with tender hand 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?

Whom thus the Angel interrupted mild: “Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign What justly thou hast lost; nor set thy heart, Thus over-fond, 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.

”

all places else Inhospitable appear, and desolate, 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;

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, As from his face I shall be hid, deprived His blessed countenance.

“

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest Live well; how long or short, permit to Heaven.

And now prepare thee for another sight.”

To overcome in battle, and subdue Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch Of human glory, and for glory done Of triumph, to be styled great conquerors, Patrons of mankind, gods, and sons of gods—

Destroyers rightlier called, and plagues of men.

Thus fame shall be achieved, renown on Earth, And what most merits fame in silence hid.

Thus fame shall be achieved, renown on Earth,

And what most merits fame in silence hid.

But he, the seventh from thee, whom thou beheld’st The only righteous in a world perverse, And therefore hated, therefore so beset With foes, for daring single to be just, And utter odious truth, that God would come To judge them with his Saints—him the …

those few escaped Famine and anguish will at last consume, Wandering that watery desert. I had hope, When violence was ceased and war on Earth, All would have then gone well, peace would have crowned With length of happy days the race of Man;

But I was far deceived, for now I see Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste.

How comes it thus? Unfold, Celestial Guide, And whether here the race of Man will end.”

Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud Among the builders; each to other calls, Not understood, till hoarse, and all in rage, As mocked they storm.

Great laughter was in Heaven, And looking down, to see the hubbub strange And hear the din;

thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named.”

To whom thus Michael: “Justly thou abhorr’st That son, who on the quiet state of men Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational liberty; yet know withal,

Since thy original lapse, true liberty Is lost, which always with right reason dwells Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being.

Reason in Man obscured, or not obeyed, Immediately inordinate desires And upstart passions catch the government From reason, and to servitude reduce Man, till then free.

“Justly thou abhorr’st That son, who on the quiet state of men Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational liberty; yet know withal, Since thy original lapse, true liberty Is lost, which always with right reason dwells Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being.

Reason in Man obscured, or not obeyed, Immediately inordinate desires And upstart passions catch the government From reason, and to servitude reduce Man, till then free.

Therefore, since he permits Within himself unworthy powers to reign Over free reason, God, in judgment just, Subjects him from without to violent lords, Who oft as undeservedly enthral His outward freedom: tyranny must be, Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.