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As Man ere long, and this new world shall know.

Thus while he spake, each paffion dimm'd his face;
Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envy, and defpair; 115
Which marr'd his borrow'd vifage, and betray'd
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.

For heav'nly minds from fuch distempers foul
Are ever clear. Whereof he foon aware,

Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm, 120
Artificer of fraud; and was the first

That practis'd falshood under faintly show,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge:

Yet not enough had practis'd to deceive

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Uriel once warn'd; whose eye pursued him down 125
The way he went, and on th' Affyrian mount
Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall
Spirit of happy fort: his geftures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone,
As he fuppos'd, all unobferv'd, 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, whofe hairy fides
With thicket overgrown, grotefque and wild,
Access deny'd; and over head up grew
Infuperable highth of loftiest shade,

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A fylvan scene, and as the ranks afcend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of itatelieft view. Yet higher than their tops

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The

The verd❜rous wall of Paradise up sprung:
Which to our general fire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighb'ring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodlieft trees loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd:

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On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams 150
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath fhow'r'd the earth; fo lovely feem'd
That landfkip: And of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

All fadnefs but defpair: now gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings difpenfe
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they ftole
Thofe balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are paft
Mozambic, off at fea north-eaft winds blow
Sabean odors from the fpicy fhore

Of Araby the bieft; with fuch delay

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Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a league Chear'd with the grateful fmell old Ocean smiles: 165 So entertain'd thofe odorous fweets the Fiend

Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd Than Afmodeus with the fifhy fume

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That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance sent
From Media poft to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep favage hill

Satan

Satan had journey'd on, penfive and flow;

way:

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But further way found none, so thick intwin'd,
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of fhrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd
All path of man or beast that pass'd that
One gate there only was, and that look'd east
On th' othar fide: which when th' arch-felon faw,
Due entrance he disdain'd, and in contempt,
At one flight 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 feek new haunt for
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve 185
In hurdled cotes amid the field fecure,

Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold:
Or as a thief bent to unhord the cafh

prey,

Of fome rich burgher, whofe fubftantial doors,
Crofs-barr'd and bolted faft, fear no affault,
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles :
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
So fince into his church lewd hirelings climb.
Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
The middle tree and highest there that
Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life
Thereby regain'd, but fat devifing death

grew,

To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd

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For profpect, what well us'd had been the pledge 200

Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

The

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 expos'd
In narrow room Nature's whole wealth, yea more,
A Heav'n on Earth: for blissful Paradife
Of God the garden was, by him in th' 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 fons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telaffar: in this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd;
Out of the fertil ground he caus'd to grow
All trees of nobleft kind for fight, fmell, tafte;
And all amid them ftood the tree of life,
High eminent, blooming ambrofial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,

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Our death the tree of knowledge grew faft by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill
Pass'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown 225
That mountain as his garden mound high rais'd
Upon the rapid current, which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Water'd the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darksome passage now appears,

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And

And now divided into four main streams,

Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm

And country, whereof here needs no account;

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But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,

How from that faphir fount the crifped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and fands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades
Ran nectar, vifiting each plant, and fed

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Flow'rs, worthy' of Paradise, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,
Both where the morning fun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade
Imbrown'd the noontide bow'rs: Thus was this place
A happy rural feat of various view;

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Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, Others whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind

Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,

If true, here only', and of delicious taste:
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks

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Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,

Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap

Of fome irriguous valley fpread her store,

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Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose:
Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recefs, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; mean while murm'ring waters fall
Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd

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Her

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