Among the Spi'rits beneath, whom I feduc'd
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
Th' Omnipotent. Ay 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 scepter 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 state; how foon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how foon u
What feign'd fubmiffion fwore? ease would recal
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 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 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 least
Divided empire with Heav'n's king I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
As Man ere long, and this new world shall know.
Thus while he spake, each paffion dimm'd his face`;
Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envy, and defpair; 115
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 smooth'd with outward calm, 120
Artificer of fraud; and was the first
That practis'd falshood under faintly show,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge:
Yet not enough had practis'd to deceive
Uriel once warn'd; whofe eye purfued him down 125
The way
he went, and on th' Affyrian mount
Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall
Spirit of happy fort: his geftures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone,
'As he fuppos'd, all unobserv'd, unfeen.
So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
Now nearer, crowns with her inclosure green,
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whofe hairy fides
With thicket overgrown, grottefque and wild,
*Accefs deny'd; and over head up grew
Infuperable highth of loftieft fhade,
Cedar, and pine, `and fir, and branching palm,
`A fylvan scene, and as the ranks afcend
Shade above fhade, a woody theatre
Of tatelieft view. Yet higher than their tops
The verd'rous wall of Paradise up sprung :
Which to our general fire gave prospect 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 enamel'd colors mix'd:
On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beam
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath show'r'd the earth; fo lovely fe
That landskip: And of pure now purer
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All fadness but defpair: now gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings difpenfe
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Thofe balmy fpoils. As when to them who fail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow Sabean odors from the spicy fhore
Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay
Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a
Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean fmiles
So entertain'd those odorous sweets the Fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better
Than Afmodeus with the fishy fume
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the fj
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Media poft to Egypt, there faft bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep savage hill
Satan had journey'd on, pensive and flow;
But further way found none, so thick intwin'd,
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd
All path of man or beast 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 shepherds pen their flocks at eve 185
In hurdled cotes amid the field fecure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold
Or as a thief bent to unhord 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 devising 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 best things
To worst 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: för blissful Paradife
Of God the garden was, by him in th' east
Of Eden planted; Eden stretch'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 fertil ground he caus'd to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, 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 fast by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill
Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd, for God had thrown 225:
That mountain as his garden mold high rais'd
Upon the rapid current, which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,
Rofe 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,
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