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PARADISE LOST

BOOK IV.

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 escaped—
Haply so escaped 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 night the birth
Now rolling broils 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 fixed sad;

Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing Snu.

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 disdain' d subjection, and thought 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 aspired, and me though mean
Drawn to his part; but other powers as great
Fell not but stand unshaken, from wherein
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.

Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand;

Thou hadst: whom hadst 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. Oh 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,

how soon

By act of grace, my former state;
Would height recal 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

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From granting he, as I from begging, peace;
All hope excluded thus, behold, instead
Of us outcast, exiled his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this World.
So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell,
Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost;
Evil, be thou my good; by these at least
Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign'd;
As Man, ere long, and this new World shall know."
Thus while he spake, each passion dimn'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 his disfigured, more than could betal
Spirit of happy sort: His gestures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanor, 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 enclosure 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 overhead up grew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A silvan scene; and as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verduous wall of Paradise up sprung:
Which to our general sire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighboring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
Blossoms and fruits a once of golden hue
Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colors mix'd;
On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams
Than on fair evening cloud or human 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 pass'd
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy shore

Of Araby the bless'd; with such delay

Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league 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 pleased
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume

That drove him, through enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's Son, and with a vengeance sent
From Media post to Egypt, their 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

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