Were fuch as under government well feem'd,
Unfeemly to bear rule, which was thy part
And perfon, hadft thou known thyfelf aright.
So having faid, he thus to Eve in few.
Jay, Woman, what is this which thou haft done?
To whom fad Eve, with fhame nigh over-
whelm'd,

Confeffing foon, yet not before her Judge
Bold or loquacious, thus abafh'd reply'd :
The ferpent me beguil'd, and I did eat.

Which when the Lord God heard, without delay
Te judgement he proceeded on th' accus'd
Serpent though brute, unable to transfer
The guilt on him who made him inftrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his creation; juftly then accurs'd,
As vitiated in nature: more to know
Concern'd not man (fince he no further knew)
Nor alter'd his offence; yet God at last
To Satan firft in fin his doom apply'd,
Though in myfterious terms, judg'd as then beft?
And on the ferpent thus his curfe let fall.
Because thou haft done this, thou art accurs'd
Above all cattle, each beast of the field;
Upon thy belly groveling thou fhalt go,
And duft shalt eat all the days of thy life.
Between thee and the woman I will put
Enmity, and between thine and her feed;

Their nakedness with fkins of beafts, or flain,
Or as the fake with youthful coat repaid;
And thought not much to clothe his enemies:
Nor he their outward only with the skins
Of beafts, but inward nakedness, much more
Opprobrious, with his robe of righteoufness
Arraying, cover'd from his Father's fight.
To him with fwift afcent he up return'd,
Into his blifsful bofom reaffum'd
In glory as of old; to him appeas'd
All, though all-knowing, what had pass'd with man
Recounted, mixing interceflion fweet.

Mean while c'er thus was finn'd and judg'd on
Earth,

Within the gates of Hell, fat Sin and Death
In counterview within the gates, that now
Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame
Far into Chaos, fince the Fiend pafs'd through,
Sin opening, who thus now to Death began:

O Sou, why fit we here each other viewing
Idly, while Satan our great author thrives
In other worlds, and happier feat provides
For us his offspring dear? It cannot be
But that fuccefs attends him; if mishap,
E'er this he had return'd, with fury driven
By his avengers, fince no place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new ftrength within me rife,

When Jefus fon of Mary, fecond Eve,

Saw Satan fall like lightning down from Heav'n,
Prince of the Air; then rifing from his grave
Spoil'd principalities and powers, triumph'd
In open fhew, and with afcenfion bright
Captivity led captive through the air,
The realm itfelf of Satan long ufurp'd,
Whom he fhall tread at laft under our feet;
Ev'n he who now foretold his fatal bruife,
And to the woman thus his fentence turn'd.
Thy forrow I will greatly multiply
By thy conception; children thou shall bring
In forrow forth; and to thy husband's will
Thine fhall fubmit; he over thee fhall rule.

On Adam laft thus judgment he pronounc'd. Because thou haft hearken'dto th' voice of thy wife, And eaten of the tree, concerning which

I charg'd thee, faying, Thou shalt not eat thereof:
Curs'd is the ground for thy fake; thou in forrow
Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life;
Thorns alfo and thiftles it fhall bring thee forth
Unbid, and thou fhalt eat th' herb of the field,
In the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread
Till thou return unto the ground; for thou
Out of the ground waft taken; know thy birth,
J'or dust thou art, and fhalt to duft return.

So judg'd he Man, both Judge and Saviour fent, And th' inftant ftroke of death denounc'd that day

Remov'd far off; then pitying how they flood
Before him naked to the air, that now
Muft fuffer change, difdain'd not to begin
Thenceforth the form of fervant to affume,
As when he wash'd his fervants feet, fo now
As father of his family he clad

Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or fympathy, or fome connatural force
Powerful at greatest distance to unite
With fecret amity things of like kind
By fecreteft conveyance. Thou my shade
Infeperable muft with me along :

For Death from Sin no power can feparate.
But left the difficulty of paling back
Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
Impaffable, impervious, let us try,
Adventrous work, yet to thy power and mine
Not unagreeable, to found a path
Over this main from Hell to that new world
Where Satan now prevails, a monument
Of merit high to all th infernal hoft,
Eafing their paffage hence, for intercourse,
Or tranfimigration, as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I mifs the way, fo ftrongly drawn
By this new felt attraction and instinct.

Whom thus the meagre fhadow anfwer'd foon:
Go whither Fate and inclination strong
Leads thee; I fhall not lag behind, nor err
The way, thou leading, fuch a scent I draw
Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste
The favor of death from all things there that live:
Nor fhall I to the work thou enterprifeft
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.
So faying, with delight he fnuff'd the smell
Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock
Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote.
Against a day of battle, to a field,

Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lur'd
With fcent of living carcafes defign'd
For death, the following day, in bloody fight
So fcented the grim feature, and upturn'd
His noftril wide into the murky air,

Sagacious of his quarry from fo far.

Then both from out Hell gates into the waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos damp and dark

Flew diverfe, and with power (their power was great)

Hovering upon the waters, what they met
Solid or flimy, as in raging fea

Toft up and down, together crouded drove

From each fide fhoaling tow'rds the mouth of
Hell:

As when two polar winds, blowing adverfe
Upon the Coronian fea, together drive
Mountains of ice, that ftop th' imagin'd way
Beyond Petfora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coaft. The aggregated foil
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident fmote, and fix'd as firm
As Delos floating once; the reft his look
Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;
And with Afphaltic flime, broad as the gate,
Deep to the roots of Hell the gather'd beach
They faften'd, and the mole immenfe wrought on
Over the foaming deep high arch'd, a bridge
Of length prodigious, joining to the wall
Immoveable of this now fenceless world
Fericit to Death; from hence a paffage broad,
Smooth, eafy, inoffenfive, down to Hell.
So, if great things to fmall may be compar'd,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From Sufa his Memnonian palace high
Came to the fea, and over Hellefpont
Bridging his way, Europe with Ala join'd,

And fcourg'd with many a stroke th' indignant

waves.

Now had they brought the work by wond'rous

art

Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock,
Over the vex'd abyfs, following the track
Of Satan to the felf fame place where he
First lighted from his wing, and landed fafe
From out of Chaos, to the outside bare
Of this round world: with pins of adamant
And chains they made all faft, too fait they made
And durable; and now in little space
The confines met of empyrean Heav'n
And of this world, and on the left hand Hell
With long reach interpos'd; three feveral ways
In fight, to each of these three places led.
And now their way to Earth they had defery'd,
To Paradife first tending, when behold
Satan in likenefs of an angel bright
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion ftecring
His zenith, while the fun in Aries rofe:
Dilguis'd he came, but thofe his children dear
Their parent foon difcesn'd; though in difguife.
He after Eve feduc'd, unminded fiunk
Into the wood faft by, and changing fhape
To obferve the fequel, faw his guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, feconded
Upon her husband, faw their shame that fought
Vain covertures; but when he faw defcend
The Son of God to judge them, tertify'd
He fled, not hoping to efcape, but fhun
The prefent, fearing guilty what his wrath
Might fuddenly inflict; that past, return'd

¡By night, and lift'ning where the hapless pair
Sat in their fad discourse, and various plaint,
Thence gather'd his own doom, which understood
Not inftant, but of future time, with joy
And tidings fraught, to Hell he now return'd,
And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot
Of this new wondrous pontifice, unhop'd,
Met who to meet him came, his offspring dear.
Great joy was at their meeting, and at fight
Of that ftupendous bridge his joy increas'd.
Long he admiring food, till Sin, his fair
Inchanting daughter, thus the filence broke:

O Parent, thefe are thy magnific deeds,
Thy trophies, which thou view'ft as not thine own;
Thou art their author and prime Architect:
For I no fooner in my heart divin'd,

My heart, which by a fecret harmony
Still moves with thine, join'd in connection fweet,
That thou on earth hadft profper'd, which thy looks
Now alfo evidence, but ftrait I felt,
Though diftant from thee worlds between, yet felt
That I must after thee with this thy son,
Such fatal confequence unites us three:
Hell could no longer hold us in her bounds,
Nor this unvoyageable gulf obfcure
Detain from following thy illuftrious track.
Thou haft achiev'd our liberty, confin'd
Within Hell gates till now, thou us impower'd
To fortify thus far, and overlay

With this portentous bridge the dark abyss.
Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath wor
What thy hands builded not, thy wisdom gain'd
With odds what war hath loft, and fully aveng’d
Our foil in Heav'n; here thou fhalt monarch reign,
There didst not; there let him still victor sway,
As battle hath adjudg'd, from his new world
Retiring, by his own doom alienated,

And henceforth monarchy with thee divide
Of all things parted by th' empyreal bounds,
His quadrature, from thy orbicular world,
Or try thee now more dang'rous to his throne.
Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answer'd
glad:

Fair daughter, and thou fon and grandchild both;
High proof ye now have giv'n to be the race
Of Satan, (for I glory in the name,
Antagonist of Heav'n's almighty King)
Amply have merited of me, of all

Th' infernal empire, that fo near Heav'n's door
Triumphal with triumphal act have met,
Mine with this glorious work, and made one realm
Hell and this world, one realm, one continent
Of eafy thorough-fare. Therefore while I
Defcend through darknefs, on your road with ease,
To my affociate powers, them to acquaint
With thefe fuccefles, and with them rejoice,
You two this way, among thefe numerous orbs
All yours, right down to Paradife defcend;
There dwell and reign in blifs, thence on the earth
Dominion exercife, and in the air,
Chiefly on man, fole lord of all declar'd,
Him firft make fure your thrall, and lastly kill
My fubfitutes I fend ye, and create
Plenipotent on earth, of matchlefs might
Iffuing from me: ou your joint vigour now

My hold of this new kingdom all depends,
Through fin to death expos'd by my exploit.
If your joint power prevail, th' affairs of Hell
No detriment need fear; go and be ftrong.

So faying, he difmifs'd them; they with speed
Their courfe through thickeft conftellations held,
Spreading their bane; the blafted ftars look'd wan,
And planets, planet-ftruck, real eclipse
Then fuffer'd. The other way Satan went down
The caufeway to Hell gate; on either fide
Difparted Chaos over built exclaim'd,
And with rebounding furge the bars affail'd
That fcorn'd his indignation: through the gate,
Wide open and unguarded, Satan pass'd,
And all about found defolate; for those
Appointed to fit there had left their charge,
Flown to the upper world; the reft were all
Far to th' inland retir'd, about the walls
Of Pandemonium, city and proud feat
Of Lucifer, fo by allufion call'd

Of that bright star to Satan paragon'd.

There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand

In council fat, folicitous what chance

Might intercept their emp'ror fent; fo he
Departing gave command, and they obferv'd,
As when the Tartar from his Ruflian foc
By Aftracan over the fnowy plains
Retires, or Bactrian Sophi from the horns
Of Turkish crefcent, leaves all wafte beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
To Tauris or Cafbeen: So these the late
Heav'n-banifh'd hoft left defert utmost Heil
Many a dark league, reduc'd in careful watch
Round their metropolis, and now expecting
Each hour their great adventurer from the search
Of foreign worlds: he through the midst un-
In fhew plebian angel militant
[mark'd,

Of lowest order, país'd; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invifible

Afcended his high throne, which under state
Of richest texture fpread, at the upper end
Was plac'd in regal luftre. Down a white
He fat, and round about him faw unfeen:
At last as from a cloud his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter, clad
With what permiflive glory fince his fall
Was left him, or falfe glitter: all amaz'd
At that fo fudden blaze the Stygian throng
Bent their afpect, and whom they wish'd beheld,
Their mighty Chief return'd: loud was the ac-
claim:

Forth rush'd in hafte the great confulting peers,
Rais'd from their dark divan, and with like joy
Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand
Silence, and with thefe words attention won.
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues,
Powers,

ye

For in poffeffion fuch, not only of right,
I call ye and declare ye now, return'd
Successful beyond hope, to lead forth
Triumphant out of this infernal pit
Abominable, accurs'd, the houfe of woe,
And dungeon of our Tyrant: now poflefs,
As lords, a fpacious world, to our native Heav'n

Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell
What I have done, what fuffer'd, with what pain
Voyag'd th' unreal, vaft, unbounded deep

Of horrible confufion, over which

By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toil'd out my uncouth paffage, forc'd to ride
Th' untractable aby's, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,

That jealous of their fecrets fiercely oppos'd
My journey ftrange, with clamorous uproar
Protefting fate fupreme; thence how I found
The new-created world, which fame in Heav'n
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful,
Of abfolute perfection, therein Man
Plac'd in a Paradife, by our exile

Made happy him by fraud I have feduc'd
From his Creator, and the more to increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up
Both his beloved man and all his world
To Sin and Death a prey, and fo to us,
Without our hazard, labour, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over man
To rule, as over all he fhould have rul'd.
True is, me alfo he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute ferpent in whose shape
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruife his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruife my head:
A world who would not purchase with a bruife,
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account
Of my performance: what remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full blifs?

So having faid, a while he ftood, expecting
Their univerfal fhout and high applause
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all fides, from innumerable tongues,
A difmal univerfal hifs, the found
Of public fcorn; he wonder'd, but not long
Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now more
His vifage drawn be felt to fharp and fpare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining
Each other, till fupplanted down he fell
A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain, a greater Power
Now rul'd him, punish 'd in the fhape he finn'&
According to his doom: he would have fpoke,.
But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike to ferpents, all as accefsories

To his bold riot: dreadful was the din
Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming now
With complicated monster's head and tail,
Scorpion, and afp, and amphibana dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
And Dipfas (not fo thick fwarm'd once the fur
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the ille
Ophiufa) but still greatest he in the midft,
Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the fun
Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on flime,
Huge Python, and his power no lefs he feem'd
Above the rett fill to retain; they all

Him follow'd iffuing forth to th' open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout
Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood or just array,
Sublime with expectation when to fee

la triumph iffuing forth their glorious Chief;
They faw, but other fight inftead, a croud
Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid fympathy; for what they faw,
They felt themselves now changing; down their
[faft,
Down fell both fpear and fhield, down they as
And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire form
Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was th' applaufe they

arms,

meant

Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Caft on themselves from their own mouths. There
flood

A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that
Which grew in Paradife, the bait of Eve
Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange
Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude

Now ris'n, to work them further woe or fhame;
Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Tho' to delude them fent, could not abstain,
But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees
Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks
That curl'd Megara: greedily they pluck'd
The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake, where Sodom flam'd;
This more delufive, not the touch, but taste,
Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with guft, inftead of fruit,
Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended taste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they' affay'd,
Hunger and thirst conftraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefulleft difrelish writh'd their jaws
With foot and cinders fill'd; fo oft they fell
Into the fame illufion, not as man

Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they plagu'd

And worn with fantine, long and ceafelefs hifs,
Till their loft fhape, permitted, they refum'd,
Yearly injoin'd, fome fay, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dafh their pride, and joy for man seduc'd.
However, fome tradition they difpers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchafe got,
And fabled how the ferpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, e'er yet Didxan Jove was born.

Meanwhile in Paradife the hellish pair
Too foon arriv'd, Sin there in power before,
Once, actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Clofe following, pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horfe: to whom Sin thus began:
Second of Satan fprung, all conqu'ring Death,
at think'st thou of our empire now, though

carn'd

With travel difficult, not better far

Than ftill at Hell's dark threshold to' have fat watch

Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyfelf half starv'd?

Whom thus the fin-born monfter anfwer'd foon.
To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike is Hell, or Paradife, or Heav'n,
There beft, where moft with ravin 1 may meet;
Which here, though plenteous, all too little feems,
To fluff this maw, this vaft unhide-bound corps.
To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd:
Thou therefore on thefe herbs, and fruits, and
flowers

Feed first, on each beaft next, and fish and fowl,
No homely morfels; and whatever thing
The Tithe of time mows down, devour unfpar'd;
Till I in Man refiding through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect,
And feafon him thy last and sweetest prey.

This faid, they both betook them feveral ways,
Both to deftroy, or unimmortal make
All kinds, and for deftruction to mature
Sooner or later which th' Almighty feeing,
From his tranfcendent feat the faints among,
To those bright orders utter'd thus his voice :

See with what heat thefe dogs of Hell advance
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had ftill
Kept in that state, had not the folly' of man
Let in these wasteful furies, who impute
Folly to me; fo doth the Prince of Hell
And his adherents, that with so much ease
I fuffer them to enter and poffefs

A place fo heav'nly, and conniving seem
To gratify my fcornful enemies,
That laugh, as if tranfported with fome fit
Of paffion, to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up their mifrule;

And know not that I call'd, and drew them thither
My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which man's polluting fin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh
burst

With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one fling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,
Both Sin and Death, and yawning Grave at laft,
Thro' Chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.
Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd fhall be made pure
To fanctity that fhall receive no ftain:
Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both precedes.
He ended; and the Heav'nly audience loud
Sung halleluiah, as the found of feas,
Through multitude that fung: Juft are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Deftin'd Reftorer of mankind, by whom
New Heav'n and Earth fhall to the ages rife,
Or down from Heav'n defcend. Such was their fong
While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty Angels, gave them several charge
As forted beft with prefent things. The fun
Had first his precept fo to move, fo fhine,
As might affect the earth with cold and heat
Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call