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So that no room is here for writers left,
But to detect their ignorance or theft.

That majesty which thro' thy work doth reign,
Draws the devout, deterring the profane.
And things divine thou treat'st of in such state
As them preserves, and thee, inviolate.

At once delight and horror on us seize,
Thou sing'st with so much gravity and ease;
And above human flight dost soar aloft
With plume so strong, so equal, and so soft.
The bird nam'd from that Paradise

you sing So never flags, but always keeps on wing. Where couldst thou words of such a compass

find?

Whence furnish such a vast expanse of mind? Just Heav'n thee, like Tiresias, to requite, -Rewards with prophecy thy loss of sight.

Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure With tinkling rhyme, of thy own sense secure ; While the Town Bays writes all the while and spells,

And, like a pack-horse, tires without his bells:
Their fancies like our bushy points appear;

The poets tag them, we for fashion wear.
I too, transported by the mode, offend,
And while I mean to praise thee, must commend.
Thy verse, created like thy theme, sublime,
In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhyme.
ANDREW MARVEL.

THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

PARADISE LOS T.

B

the

This First Book proposes, first, in brief, the whole subject, Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the ferpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of Angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of Heaven, with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action passed over, poem bastens into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, described here, not in the centre (for Heaven and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunder-struck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him; they confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded: They rise, their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of the deep: The infernal peers there sit in council.

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK THE FIRST.

OF

Man's first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning, how the heav'ns and earth
Rose out of Chaos. Or if Sion hill

5

IO

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet, in prose or rhime.
And chiefly Thou, O Sp'rit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,

15

Instruct me, for Thou know'st: Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, 21
And mad'st it pregnant. What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument

I

may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to Men.

25

30

Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell; say first what cause Mov'd our grand parents, in that happy state, Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides ? Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt? Th' infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceiv'd The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his host Of rebel Angels; by whose aid aspiring

To set himself in glory 'bove his peers,

35

He trusted to have equall'd the Most High, 40
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Rais'd impious war in Heav'n, and battle proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,45
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition; there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,

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