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PARADISE LOST.

BOOK XII.

As one who in his journey bates at noon,
Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused
Betwixt the world destroy'd and world restored,
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;

Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes:
Thus thou hast seen one world begin and end;
And man, as from a second stock, proceed.
Much thou hast yet to see; but I perceive
Thy mortal sight to fail; object divine
Must needs impair and weary human sense:
Henceforth what is to come I will relate;
Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.
This second source of men, while yet but few.
And while the dread of judgment past remains
Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,
With someregard to what is just and right
Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace;'
Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn, wine, and oil; and, from the herd or flock,
Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,
With large wine-offerings pour'd, and sacred feast.
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed; and dwell
Long time in peace, by families and tribes,
Under paternal rule: till one shall rise
Of proud ambitious heart; who, not content
With fair equality, fraternal state,
Will arrogate dominion undeserved

Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

Concord and law of nature from the Earth ;
Hunting (and men not beasts shall be his game)
With war and hostile snare such as refuse
Subjection to his empire tyrannous:

A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled
Before the Lord; as in despite of Heaven,
Or from Heaven claiming second sovereignity;
And from rebellion shall derive his name,
Though of rebellion others he accuse.
He with a crew, whom like ambition joins
With him or under him to tyrannize,

Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find
The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge
Boils out rom under ground, the mouth of Hell:
Of brick and of that stuff, they cast to build

A city and tower, whose top may reach to Heaven: And get themselves a name; lest, far dispersed In foreign lands, their memory be lost; Regardless whether good or evil fame. But God, who oft descends to visit men Unseen, and through their habitions walks To mark their doings, them beholding soon, Comes down to see their city, ere the tower Obstruct Heaven-towers and in derision sets Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase Quite out their native language; and, instead, To sow a jangling noise of words unknown: Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud, Among the builders; each to other calls Not understood, till hoarse, and all in rage, As mock'd they storm: great laughter was in Heaven! And looking down, to see the hubbub strange, And hear the din: thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named. Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeased; Q execrable son! so to aspire

Above his brethren; to himself assuming
Authority usurp'd, from God not given:
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but men over men
He made not lord: such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.
But this usurper his encroachment proud
Stays not on man: to God his tower intends
Siege and defiance; wretched man! what food
Will he convey up thither, to sustain

Himself and his rash army: where thin air
Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross,
And famished him of breath, if not of bread?
To whom thus Michael: Just by thou abborr'st
That son, who on the quiet state of men
Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue
Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapse, true liberty

Is lost, which always with right reason dwells
Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being :
Reason in man obscured or not obey'd,

Immediatly inordinate desires

And upstart passion catch the government
From reason; and to servitude reduce

Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits
Within himself unworthy powers to reign
Over free reason, God, in judgment just,
Subjects him from without to violent lords;
Who oft as undeservedly enthral

His outward freedom: tyranny must be;
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
But justice and some fatal curse annex'd,
Deprives them of their outward liberty;
Their inward lost; witness the irreverent son

Of him who built the ark; who, for the shame
Done to his father, heard this heavy curse,
Servant of servants, on his vicious race.
Thus will this latter, as the former world,
Still tend from bad to worse: till God at last,
Wearied with there iniquities, withdraw
His presence from among them, to avert
His holy eyes; resolving from thenceforth
To leave them to their own polluted ways;
And one peculiar nation to select
From all the rest, of whom to be invoked,
A nation from one faithful man to spring:
Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in idol-worship: O, that men

(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, While yet the patriarch lived who scaped the flood, As to forsake the living God, and fall

To worship their own work in wood and stone
For gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes
To call by vision, from his father's house,

His kindred, and false gods, into a land

Which he will show him; and trom him will raise A mighty nation: and upon him shower

His benediction so that in his seed

All nations shall be bless'd: he strait obeys;
Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes :
I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith
He leaves his gods his friends, and native soil,
Ur of Chaldea, passing now the ford
To Haran: after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude;
Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canan he now attains; I see his tents
Pitch'd about Secem, and the neigbouring plain
Of Moreh; there by promise he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,

From Hamath northward to the Desert south

(Things by their names I call, thou yet unnamed ;
From Hermon, east to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder sea; each place behold
In prospect, as I point them; on the shore
Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted stream,
Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons
Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the Earth
Shall in his seed be blessed by that seed
Is meant that great Deliverer, who shall bruise
The serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch bless'd
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
A son, and of his son a grandchild, leaves;
Like him in faith, wisdom, and renown:

The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd

Egypt, divided by the river Nile ;

See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
Into the sea to sojourn in that land

He comes, invited by a younger son

In time of dearth; a son, whose worthy deeds
Raise him to be the second in that realm

Of Paraoh there he dies, and leaves his race

:

Growing into a nation, and now grown

Suspected to scquent king, who seeks
To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests

Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves
Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:

Till by two brethern (these two brethren call'd
Moses and Aaron )sent from God to claim
His people from enthralment, they return,
With-glory and spoil, back to their promised land
But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or message to regard,
Must be compell'd by signs and judgements dir

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