66 Prosperous or advérse: so shalt thou lead 365 "Safest thy life, and best prepar'd endure "Thy mortal passage when it comes. 370 66 Ascend "This hill: let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes) "Ascend; I follow thee, safe guide! the path "Thou lead'st me; and to the hand of Heaven submit, "However chastening; to the evil turn My obvious breast; arming to overcome 375"By suffering, and earn rest from labour won, "If so I may attain.” In the visions of God. So both ascend, It was a hill, Of Paradise the highest; from whose top The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken, To show him all earth's kingdoms, and their glory. Of mightiest empire, from the destin'd walls And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, 400 And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm Of Congo, and Angola, farthest south; Or thence, from Niger flood to Atlas mount, 405 On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway The world in spirit perhaps he also saw Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume, And from the well of life three drops instill'd. 425 Soon rais'd, and his attention thus recall'd: "Adam, now ope thine eyes; and first behold "The effects, which thy original crime hath wrought "In some to spring from thee; who never touch'd "The excepted tree; nor with the snake conspir'd; "Nor sinn'd thy sin; yet from that sin derive 66 Corruption, to bring forth more violent deeds." 430 Part arable and tilth, whereon were sheaves A sweaty reaper from his tillage brought 435 First-fruits-the green ear, and the yellow sheaf, The inwards and their fat, with incense strew'd, 440 On the cleft wood, and all due rites perform'd: His offering soon propitious fire from heaven Consum'd with nimble glance, and grateful steam; The other's not, for his was not sincere; Whereat he inly rag'd, and, as they talk'd, 445 Smote him into the midriff with a stone 450 460 465 That beat out life: he fell; and, deadly pale, To whom Michael thus, he also mov'd, replied: To which our sire: "Alas! both for the deed, and for the cause! "Horrid to think! how horrible to feel!" To whom thus Michaël: "Death thou hast seen "In his first shape on man: but many shapes "Of death, and many are the ways that lead "To his grim cave; all dismal! yet to sense 470"More terrible at the entrance, than within. 66 "Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die; 475 "Before thee shall appear, that thou mayst know "What misery the inabstinence of Eve "Shall bring on men." Immediately a place Before his eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark; A lazar-house it seem'd; wherein were laid 480 Numbers of all diseas'd; all maladies Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone, and ulcer, colic pangs, 485 Demoniac phrensy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. Dire was the tossing, deep the groans! Despair 490 Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; 500 And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invok'd With vows, as their chief good, and final hope. Sight so deform what heart of rock could long 495 Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept, Though not of woman born; compassion quell'd His best of man, and gave him up to tears A space, till firmer thoughts restrain'd excess; And, scarce recovering words, his plaint renew'd : "O miserable mankind! to what fall "Degraded-to what wretched state reserv'd! "Better end here unborn. Why is life given "To be thus wrested from us? rather, why "Obtruded on us thus? who, if we knew "What we receive, would either not accept "Life offer'd, or, soon beg to lay it down; "Glad to be so dismiss'd in peace. Can thus "The image of God in man, created once "So goodly and erect, though faulty since, 510 "To such unsightly sufferings be debas'd "Under inhuman pains? Why should not man, "Retaining still divine similitude 505 "In part, from such deformities be free, 66 And, for his Maker's image' sake, exempt?" 515 "Their Maker's image," answer'd Michael, "then "Forsook them, when themselves they vilified "To serve ungovern'd appetite; and took "His image whom they served-a brutish vice; "Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. 520 "Therefore so abject is their punishment, "Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own; "While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules 530 "There is," said Michael, "if thou well observe “The rule of Not too much;' by temperance taught, "In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from thence "Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight, "Till many years over thy head return: 535 So mayst thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop "Into thy mother's lap; or be with ease "Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd, for death mature. "This is Old Age; but then, thou must outlive 66 Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change 540"To wither'd, weak, and gray; thy senses, then "Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego, "To what thou hast; and, for the air of youth 66 Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign "A melancholy damp of cold and dry, 545 "To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume To whom our ancestor : |