Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational,
Death introduced, through fierce antipathy.
Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving, 711
Devour'd each other; nor stood much in awe
Of man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glared on him passing. These were from without
The growing miseries, which Adam saw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To sorrow' abandon'd, but worse felt within ;
And in a troubled sea of passion tost,
Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint:
O miserable of happy'! Is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now, become
Accursed of blessed, hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness? Yet well, if here would end
The misery. I deserved it, and would bear
My own deservings; but this will not serve;
All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,
Is propagated curse! O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increase and multiply,'
Now death to hear! For what can I increase
Or multiply, but curses on my head!
Who, of all ages to succeed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will curse
My head! Ill fare our ancestor impure!
For this we may thank Adam! but his thanks
Shall be the execration! So besides
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound;
On me, as on their natural centre, light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurr'd not to my being, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust;
740. Bentley proposes to cut out the following ten lines as unworthy of Milton's genius and a detriment to the poem.
Desirous to resign and render back
All I received, unable to perform
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I sought not. To the loss of that,
Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added
The sense of endless woes! Inexplicable
Thy justice seems; yet, to say truth, too late
I thus contest: then should have been refused
Those terms whatever, when they were proposed.
Thou didst accept them. Wilt thou' enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? And though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son 760
Prove disobedient, and reproved, retort,
Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not.
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee
That proud excuse? yet him not thy election,
But natural necessity begot.
God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own
To serve him: thy reward was of his grace;
Thy punishment then, justly', is at his will.
Be' it so, for I submit: his doom is fair,
That dust I am, and shall to dust return.
O welcome hour whenever! Why delays
His band to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? Why do I overlive,
Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet
Mortality, my sentence, and be earth
Insensible! How glad would lay me down,
As in my mother's lap! There I should rest,
And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears! No fear of worse
To me and to my offspring would torment me
With cruel expectation! Yet one doubt
Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die ;
Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man
Which God inspired, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod! then in the grave,
Or in some other dismal place, who knows
But I shall die a living death! O thought
Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath
Of life that sinn'd. What dies but what had life 790 And sin? the body, properly, hath neither.
All of me then shall die. Let this appease
The doubt, since human reach no further knows; For though the Lord of all be infinite,
Is his wrath also? Be it, Man is not so,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise
Wrath without end on Man whom death must end?
Can he make deathless death? That were to make Strange contradiction, which to God himself Impossible is held; as argument
Of weakness, not of pow'r. Will he draw out,
For anger's sake, finite to infinite
In punish'd Man, to satisfy his rigour,
Satisfy'd never? That were to extend
His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law,
By which all causes else, according still
To the reception of their matter, act;
Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But say
That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery
From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me and without me, and so last
To perpetuity! Ah me! that fear
Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head! Both Death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both!
Nor I on my part single: in me all
Posterity stands cursed! Fair Patrimony
That I must leave ye, Sons! O were I able
To waste it all myself, and leave ye none !
So disinherited, how would ye bless
Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,
If guiltless? But from me what can proceed
But all corrupt, both mind and will depraved;
Not to do only, but to will the same
With me! How can they then acquitted stand
In sight of God? Him, after all disputes
Forced, I absolve. All my evasions vain,
And reasonings, tho' through mazes, lead me still 830 But to my own conviction. First and last
On me, me only, as the source and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due :
805. Just is proposed instead of dust, in this line.
806. An incessant affectati. of school learning may be re marked in every part of this passage.
So might the wrath. Fond wish! couldst thou support
That burden, heavier than the earth to bear,
Than all the world much heavier, though divided
With that bad Woman! Thus, what thou desirest
And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable
Beyond all past example and future:
To Satan only like, both crime and doom.
O Conscience! into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driven ine! out of which
I find no way! from deep to deeper plunged!
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Through the still night, not now, as ere Man fell,
Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air
Accompany'd, with damps and dreadful gloom,
Which to his evil conscience represented
All things with double terror. On the ground
Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft
Cursed his creation; Death as oft accused
Of tardy execution, since denounced
The day of his offence. Why comes not Death,
Said he, with one thrice-acceptable stroke,
To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word!
Justice divine not hasten to be just!
But Death comes not at call; Justice divine
Mends not her slowest pace for pray'rs or cries!
O woods, O fountains, hillocs, dales, and bow'rs, 860
With other echo, late I taught your shades
To answer, and resound far other song!
Whom thus afflicted, when sad Eve beheld, Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd: But her with stern regard he thus repell'd: Out of my sight, thou Serpent! that name best Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false And hateful! nothing wants, but that thy shape Like his, and colour serpentine, may shew Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee Henceforth, lest that too heav'nly form, pretended To hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee I had persisted happy', had not thy pride And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe,
872. Pretended; in the Latin sense, held before.
Rejected my forewarning, and disdain'd
Not to be trusted, longing to be seen
Though by the Devil himself, him overweening
To o'er-reach, but with the Serpent meeting
Fool'd and beguiled, by him thou, I by thee,
To trust thee from my side, imagined wise,
Constant, mature, proof against all assaults,
And understood not all was but a show
Rather than solid virtue'; all but a rib
Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,
More to the part sinister, from me drawn,
Well if thrown out, as supernumerary
To my just number found. O why did God
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heav'n
With Spirits masculine, create at last
This novelty on earth, this fair defect
Of nature, and not fill the world at once
With Men, as Angels, without feminine,
Or find some other way to generate
Mankind? This mischief had not then befall'n,
And more that shall befall, innumerable
Disturbances on earth, through female snares,
And straight conjunction with this sex: for either
He never shall find out fit mate, but such
As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain,
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse; or if she love, withheld
By parents; or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound
To a fell adversary', his hate or shame :
Which infinite calamity shall cause
To human life, and household-peace confound.
He added not, and from her turn'd. But Eve,
Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing,
And tresses all disorder'd, at his feet
Fell humble, and embracing them, besought
His peace; and thus proceeded in her plaint:
Forsake me not thus, Adam! Witness, Hear'n,
What love sincere, and rev'rence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant
beg, and clasp thy knees. Bereave me not,
|