By change of place: now conscience wakes despair
That flumber'd, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worfe; of worse deeds worse sufferings must enfue.
Sometimes tow'ards Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleafant, his griev'd look he fixes fad;
Sometimes tow'ards Heav'n and the full-blazing fun,
Which now fat high in his meridian tower :
Then much revolving, thus in fighs began.
O thou that with furpaffing glory crown'd,
Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God
Of this new world; at whose fight 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 Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless king:
Ah wherefore! he deserv'd 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 eafieft recompenfe, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up fo high
I fdeind subjection, and thought one step higher
Would fet me hig`heft, and in a moment quit
The debt immenfe of endless gratitude,
So burdenfome ftill paying, still to owe,
Forgetful what from him I still receiv'd,
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd; what burden then?
O had his pow'rful destiny ordain'd
Me fome inferior Angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had rais'd
Ambition. Yet why not? fome other Power
As great might have aspir'd, and me though mean
Drawn to his part; but other Pow'rs as great
Fell not, but ftand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm’d.
Hadft thou the fame free will and pow'r to stand?
Thou hadft: whom haft thou then or what t' accuse,
But Heav'n's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then his love accurs'd, fince love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
Nay curs'd be thou; since against his thy will
Chofe freely what it now fo juftly rues.
Me miferable! which way fhall 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 threatning to devour me opens wide,
To which the Hell I fuffer feems a Heaven.
O then at last relent: is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
None left but by fubmiffion; and that word
Difdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
H 4
Among the Spirits beneath, whom I feduc'd
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting I could fubdue
Th' Omnipotent. Ay 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 scepter high advanc'd,
The lower still I fall, only fupreme
In mifery; fuch joy ambition finds.
But fay I could repent, and could obtain
By act of grace my former state; how foon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how foon unfay
What feign'd fubmiffion swore? cafe would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow,
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd fo deep:
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
And heavier fall: fo fhould I purchase dear
Short intermiffion bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace:
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead
Of us out-caft, exil'd, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this world.
So farewel hope, and with hope farewel fear,
Farewel remorse: all good to me is loft;
Evil be thou my good; by thee at least
Divided empire with Heav'n's king I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
As Man ere long, and this new world shall know.
Thus while he spake, each passion dimm'd his face; Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envy, and despair; 115 Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd
Him counterfeit, if any eye
For heav'nly minds from fuch diftempers foul
Are ever clear. Whereof he foon aware,
Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm,
Artificer of fraud; and was the first
That practis'd falshood under faintly fhow,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge:
Yet not enough had practis'd to deceive
Uriel once warn'd; whofe 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 unobserv'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, whose hairy fides
With thicket overgrown, grottefque and wild,
Access deny'd; and over head up grew
Infuperable highth of loftieft shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A fylvan fcene, and as the ranks afcend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of statelieft view. Yot higher than their tops
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 goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden huc,
Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd:
On which the fun more glad impress'd his beams 150
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath show'r'd the earth; fo lovely feem'd
That landíkip: And of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All fadness but defpair: now gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at fea north-east winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy fhore
Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay
Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a league Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles: 165 So entertain'd those odorous fweets the Fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd
Than Afmodeus with the fishy fume
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spousfe
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Media poft to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep favage hill
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