O FOR that warning voice, which he, who saw The Apocalypse, heard cry in heaven aloud ; Then when the Dragon, put to second rout, Came furious down, to be revenged on men, "Woe to the inhabitants on earth!' that now, While time was, our first parents had been warn'd The coming of their secret foe, and 'scapedHaply so 'scaped his mortal snare. For now Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down, The tempter ere the accuser of mankind, To wreak on innocent frail man, his loss Of that first battle, and his flight to hell: Yet, not rejoicing in his speed, though bold, Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast, Begins his dire attempt; which, nigh the birth, Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast, And, like a devilish engine, back recoils Upon himself. Horror and doubt distract His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom, stir The hell within him; for within him hell He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell One step, no more than from himself, can fly By change of place. Now conscience wakes despair, That slumber'd, wakes the bitter memory Of what he was, what is, and what must be, Worse; of worse deeds, worse sufferings must ensue, Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad; Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun, Which now sat high in his meridian tower: Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began.
"O thou! that, with surpassing glory crown'd Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the God Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance, from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and, worse, ambition, threw me down,
Warring in Heaven, against Heaven's matchless King:
Ah wherefore! he deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what I was,
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks?
How due! yet all his good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice: lifted up so high
I'sdain'd subjection, and though one step higher
Would set me highest, and, in a moment, quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome, still paying, still to owe;
Forgetful what from him I still received;
And understood not, that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharged: what burden then?
O had his powerful destiny ordain'd
Me some inferior angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised
Ambition. Yet why not? some other power
As great might have aspir'd, & me, though mean,
Drawn to his part: but other powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within,
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.
Hadst thou the same free will & power to stand?
Thou hadst : whom hast thou then, or what to accuse,
But heaven's free love, dealt equally to all?
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; and that word
Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame,
Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduced,
With other promises, and other vaunts,
Than to submit; boasting, I could subdue
The Omnipotent. Ah 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 sceptre high advanced,
The lower still I fall, only supreme
In misery; such joy ambition finds!
But say, I could repent, and could obtain,
By act of grace, my former state; how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feign'd submission swore? Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void
For, never can true reconcilement grow,
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse,
And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
Short intermission, bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher, therefore, as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace:
All hope excluded thus, beheld, in stead
Of us out-cast, 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."
Thus while he spake, each passion dimm'd his face, Thrice changed with pale ire, envy, and despair; Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld:
For heavenly minds from such distempers foul,
Are ever clear. Whereof, he soon aware,
Each perturbation smooth'd, with outward calm,
Artificer of fraud; and was the first
That practised falsehood, under saintly show,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge:
Yet, not enough had practised to deceive
Uriel, once warn'd; whose eye pursued him down
The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount
Saw him disfigured, more than could befall
Spirit of happy sort: his gestures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone
As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen.
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, whose hairy sides,
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and over-head, up grew
Insuperable highth of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene; and, as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops,
The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung;
Which, to our general sire, gave prospect large,
Into his nether empire, neighbouring round:
And, higher than that wall, a circling row
Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
Blossoms and fruits at once, of golden hue,
Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colours mix'd:
On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams,
Than on fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd
That landscape: and of pure, now purer air,
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair. Now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them, who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at sea, north-east winds blow
Sabean odours, from the spicy shore
Of Araby the bless'd; with such delay [a league,
Well pleased, they slack their course, and many
Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.
So entertain'd those odorous sweets the fiend,
Who came their bane; though with them better
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume, [pleased
That drove him, tho' enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent
From Media, post to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now, to the ascent of that steep savage hill, Satan had journey'd on, pensive and slow; But further way found none; so thick entwined, 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 the other side: which when the arch-felon saw,
Due entrance he disdain'd; and in contempt,
At one slight 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 seek new haunt for prey,
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve,
In hurdled cots, amid the field secure,
Leaps o'er the fence, with ease into the fold:
Or, as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash
Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault,
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles :
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
So since 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 sat devising death,
To them who lived; nor, on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only used
For prospect, what well used, had been the pledge
Of immortality. So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts best things
To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.
Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views,
To all delight of human sense exposed,
In narrow room, nature's whole wealth; yea more,
A Heaven on Earth: for blissful Paradise,
Of God the garden, was by him, in the 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 sons of Eden, long before
Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil,
His far more pleasant garden, God ordain'd
Out of the fertile ground, he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind, for sight, smell, taste;
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
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