more of talk where God or angel gueft With man, as with his friend, familiar us'd
To fit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while
Venial difcourfe unblam'd: I now must change
Thofe notes to tragic; foul diftruft, and breach
Difloyal on the part of man, revolt,
And disobedience; on the part of heaven
Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger and just rebuke, and judgement giv'n,
That brought into this world a world of woe,
Sin, and her fhadow Death, and Misery
Death's harbinger: Sad talk, yet argument
Not lefs, but more heroic than the wrath
Of ftern Achilles on his foe purfu'd
Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia difefpous'd;
(Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that fo long
Perplex'd the Greek, and Cytherea's fon;
If anfwerable style I`can obtain
Of my celestial patronefs, who deigns
Her nightly vifitation unimplor'd,
And dictates to me flumb'ring, or inspires
Eafy my unpremeditated verse :
Since first this fubject for heroic fong
Pleas'd me, long chufing, and beginning late;
Not fedulous by nature to indite
Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroic deem'd, chief maft'ry to diffect
With long and tedious havock fabled knights
In battles feign'd; the better fortitude
Of patience and heroic martyrdom
Unfung; or to defcribe races and games,
Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd fhields,
Impreffes quaint, caparifons, and steeds;
Bafes and tinfel trappings, gorgeous knights
At jouft and tournament; then marshall'd feast
Serv'd up in hall, with fewers, and fenefhals;
The fkill of artifice or office mean,
Not that which juftly gives heroic name
To perfon, or to poem. Me of these
Nor skill'd nor ftudious, higher argument
Remains, fufficient of itself to raise
That name, unlefs an age too late, or cold
Climate, or years, damp my intended wing
Deprefs'd; and much they may, if all be mine,
Not hers who brings it nightly to my ear.
The fun was funk, and after him the ftar
Of Hefperus, whofe office is to bring
Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter
'Twixt day and night, and now from end-to end
Night's hemifphere had veil'd th' horizon round:
When Satan, who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd
In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On man's deftruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himfelf, fearless return'd.
By night he fled, and at midnight return'd
From compaffing the earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel, regent of the fun, defcry'd
His entrance, and forewarn'd the Cherubim
That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driv'n,
The space of fev'n continu'd nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line
He circled, four times crofs'd the car of night
From pole to pole, travérfing each colure;
On th' eighth return'd, and on the coaft averse
From entrance or Cherubic watch, by stealth
Found unfufpected way. There was a place,
Now not, though fin, not time, first wrought the change, Where Tigris at the foot of Paradife
Into a gulf fhot under ground, till part
Rofe up a fountain by the tree of life:
In with the river funk, and with it rofe
Satan, involv'd in rifing mift; then fought
Where to lie hid: fea he had search'd, and land,
From Eden over Pontus, and the pool
Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob;
Downward as far antarctic; and in length
Weft from Orontes to the ocean barr'd
At Darien, thence to the land where flows
Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd
With narrow fearch, and with infpection deep
Confider'd ev'ry creature, which of all
Moft opportune might ferve his wiles, and found 85
The ferpent fubtleft beast of all the field.
Him after long debate, irrefolute
Of thoughts revolv'd, his final fentence chofe
Fit veffel, fitteft imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark fuggeftions hide
From sharpeft fight for in the wily fnake,
Whatever fleights none would fufpicious mark,
As from his wit and native fubtlety
Proceeding, which in other beafts obferv'd
B b
Doubt might beget of diabolic power
Active within beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he refolv'd, but first from inward grief
His bursting paffion into plaints thus pour'd.
O earth, how like to heav'n, if not preferr'd
More juftly, feat worthier of gods, as built
With fecond thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God after better worfe would build ?
Terrestrial heav'n, dance'd round by other heavens-
That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as feems,
In thee concent'ring all their precious beams
Of facred influence! As God in heav'n
Is centre, yet extends to all; fo thou
Cent'ring receiv'ft from all those orbs: in thee,
Not in themselves, all their known virtue'
Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in man.
With what delight could I have walk'd thee round,
If I could joy in aught, fweet interchange
Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now fea, and fhores with foreft crown'd,
Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I fee
Pleafures about me, fo much more I feel
Torment within me', as from the hateful fiege
Of contraries; all good to me becomes
Bane, and in heaven much worse would be my
But neither here feek I, no nor in heaven
To dwell, unless by maft'ring heaven's Supreme; 125 Nor hope to be myself lefs miferable
By what I feek, but others to make fuch
As I, though thereby worfe to me redound:
For only in deftroying I find eafe
|