And dictates to me slumb'ring; or inspires 25 Since first this subject for heroic song Pleas'd me, long choosing, and beginning late; 40 Not that which justly gives heroic name That name, unless an age too late, or cold The sun was sunk, and, after him, the star Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring 50 Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter 'Twixt day and night: and now, from end to end, 55 In meditated fraud and malice,-bent On man's destruction, maugre what might hap 60 Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried That kept their watch; thence, full of anguish, driv'n, On the eighth return'd; and, on the coast averse 70 Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change, Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise, Where to lie hid: sea he had search'd, and land, Downward as far antarctic; and in length, 80 West from Orontes to the ocean barr'd At Darien; thence to the land where flows 85 Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found Of thoughts revolv'd, his final sentence chose 95 Doubt might beget of diabolic power P Thus he resolv'd, but first from inward grief 66 "O earth, how like to heaven! if not preferr'd 100 "More justly-seat worthier of gods, as built 105 "With second thoughts, reforming what was old! "For what God, after better, worse would build? "Terrestrial heaven, danc'd round by other heavens "That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone as seems— "In thee concentring all their precious beams "Of sacred influence! As God in heaven "Is centre, yet extends to all; so thou, "Centring, receiv'st from all these orbs: in thee, 110"Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears "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, 115 "If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange 120 66 “Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, 66 Bane; see and in heaven much worse would be my state. "But neither here seek I, no, nor in heaven, 125" To dwell, unless by mastering heaven's Supreme; "Nor hope to be myself less miserable "By what I seek, but others to make such 130To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroy'd, "In woe then, that destruction wide may range! 135 "To me shall be the glory sole among "The infernal Powers, in one day to have marr'd "What he, Almighty styl'd, six nights and days "Continued making; and who knows how long "Before had been contriving? though perhaps 140"Not longer than since I, in one night, freed "From servitude inglorious well nigh half "The angelic name, and thinner left the throng "Of his adorers. He, to be aveng'd, "And to repair his numbers thus impair'd, 145"(Whether such virtue spent of old now fail'd "More angels to create, if they at least "Are his created, or to spite us more,) "Determin'd to advance into our room "A creature form'd of earth; and him endow, 150"Exalted from so base original, 155 "With heavenly spoils-our spoils! What he decreed, "He effected: man he made, and for him built Magnificent this world, and earth his seat; "Him lord pronounc'd; and, O indignity! 66 Subjected to his service angel-wings, "And flaming ministers, to watch and tend "Their earthly charge. Of these the vigilance "I dread; and, to elude, thus wrapt in mist "Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry 160"In every bush and brake, where hap may find "The serpent sleeping; in whose mazy folds "To hide me, and the dark intent I bring. "O foul descent! that I, who erst contended "With gods to sit the highest, am now constrain'd 165 "Into a beast; and, mix'd with bestial slime, "This essence to incarnate and imbrute, "That to the height of deity aspir'd: "But what will not ambition and revenge "Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low 170" As high he soar'd; obnoxious, first or last, "To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet, "Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils : "Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim'd 66 (Since, higher, I fall short,) on him who next 175 "Provokes my envy-this new favourite 66 "Of heaven-this man of clay-son of despite, Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker rais'd "From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid." So saying, through each thicket, dank or dry, 180 Like a black mist low-creeping, he held on His midnight search where soonest he might find His head the midst, well stor'd with subtle wiles; 185 Not yet in horrid shade, or dismal den; Nor nocent yet; but, on the grassy herb, Disturb'd not, waiting close the approach of morn. Now, when as sacred light began to dawn In Eden on the humid flowers, that breath'd Their morning incense, when all things that breathe, 195 From the earth's great altar send up silent praise To the Creator, and his nostrils fill With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, And join'd their vocal worship to the quire Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake 200 The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs: Then commune, how that day they best may ply Their growing work; for much their work outgrew The hands' dispatch of two gard'ning so wide: And Eve first to her husband thus began: 205 "Adam, well may we labour still to dress "This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower- |