His image whom they served, a brutish vice,
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
Therefore so abject is their punishment,
Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own;
Or, if his likeness, by themselves defaced,
While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules
To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they
God's image did not reverence in themselves."

"I yield it just," said Adam, "and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To death, and mix with our connatural dust?"

520

"There is," said Michael, "if thou well observe

530

The rule of not too much, by temperance taught,

In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence

Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight.

Till many years over thy head return:

So mayst thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop

Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease

Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature:

This is old age; but then thou must outlive

Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change

To withered, weak, and gray; thy senses then

540

Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego,
To what thou hast; and for the air of youth,
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry

To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume
The balm of life." To whom our ancestor:

"Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong

Life much, bent rather how I may be quit,

Fairest and easiest, of this cumbrous charge,

Which I must keep till my appointed day

Of rendering up, and patiently attend

My dissolution." Michaël replied:

"Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st, Live well; how long or short, permit to Heaven:

And now prepare thee for another sight."

He looked, and saw a spacious plain, whereon
Were tents of various hue; by some were herds
Of cattle grazing; others, whence the sound
Of instruments that made melodious chime
Was heard, of harp and organ; and who moved
Their stops and chords was seen his volant touch,
Instinct through all proportions low and high,
Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue.
In other part stood one who at the forge
Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass
Had melted (whether found where casual fire
Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale,

550

560