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Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change,

Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise

Into a gulf shot under ground, till part

Rose up a fountain by the tree of life;

In with the river sunk, and with it rose

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Satan involv'd in rising mist, then sought

Where to lie hid; sea he had search'd and land
From Eden over Pontus, and the pool
Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob;
Downward as far antarctic: and in length
West from Orontes to the ocean barr'd
At Darien, thence to the land where flows
Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd
With narrow search, and with inspection deep
Consider'd every creature, which of all

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75. involv'd in rising mist,] agros the bear, the most conHomer, Iliad. i. 359.

πανίδα πολίης άλος ηὔτ ̓ ομιχλη. 77. From Eden over Pontus, &c.] As we had before an astronomical, so here we have a geographical, account of Satan's peregrinations. He searched both sea and land, northward from Eden over Pontus, Pontus Euxinus, the Euxine Sea, now the Black Sea, above Constantinople, and the pool Mæotis, Palus Mæotis above the Black Sea, up beyond the river Ob, Ob or Oby, a great river of Muscovy near the northern pole. Downward as far antarctic, as far southward; the northern hemisphere being elevated on our globes, the north is called up and the south downwards; antarctic south the contrary to arctic north from

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spicuous constellation near the north pole; but no particular place is mentioned near the south pole, there being all sea or land unknown. And in length, as north is up and south is down, so in length is east or west; west from Orontes, à river of Syria, westward of Eden, running into the Mediterranean, to the ocean barred at Darien, the isthmus of Darien in the WestIndies, a neck of land that joins North and South America together, and hinders the ocean as it were with a bar from flowing between them; and the metaphor of the ocean barred is an allusion to Job xxxviii. 10. and set bars to the sea. Thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus, thence to the East-Indies: thus the orb he roamed.

Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.

Him after long debate, irresolute

Of thoughts revolv'd, his final sentence chose

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Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom

To enter, and his dark suggestions hide
From sharpest sight: for in the wily snake,
Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark,
As from his wit and native subtlety

Proceeding, which in other beasts observ'd
Doubt might beget of diabolic power
Active within beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he resolv'd, but first from inward grief
His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd.
O earth, how like to heav'n, if not preferr'd

86. The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.] So Moses says, Gen. iii. 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field: the subtlety of the serpent is commended likewise by Aristotle and other naturalists: and therefore he was the fitter instrument for Satan, because (as Milton says agreeably with the doctrine of the best divines) any sleights in him might be thought to proceed from his native wit and subtlety, but observed in other creatures might the easier beget a suspicion of a diabolical power acting within them beyond their natural sense.

89. fittest imp of fraud,] Fittest stock to graft his devilish fraud upon. Imp of the Saxon impan, to put into, to graft upon. Thus children are called little imps, from their

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imitating all they see and hear.
Hume.

99. if not preferr'd
More justly, &c.]

I reckon this panegyric upon the earth among the less perfect parts of the poem. The beginning is extravagant, and what follows is not consistent with what the author had said before in his description of Satan's passage among the stars and planets, which are said then to appear to him as other worlds inhabited. See iii. 566. The imagination that all the heavenly bodies were created for the sake of the earth was natural to human ignorance, and human vanity might find its account in it: but neither of these could influence Satan. Heylin.

As it is common with people

More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built
With second thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God after better worse would build ?
Terrestrial heav'n, danc'd round by other heavens
That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as seems,
In thee concentring all their precious beams
Of sacred influence! As God in heaven
Is centre, yet extends to all, so thou

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Centring receiv'st from all those orbs; in thee,
Not in themselves, all their known virtue' appears 110
Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth

Of creatures animate with gradual life

Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in man.

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must be best, because it was created last;

For what God after better worse would build?

A sophistical argument worthy of Satan, and for the same reason man would be better than angels. But Satan was willing to insinuate imperfection in God, as if he had mended his hand by creation, and as if all the works of God were not perfect in their kinds, and in their degrees, and for the ends for which they were intended.

113. Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in man.] The three kinds of life rising as it were by steps, the vegetable, animal, and rational; of all which man partakes, and he only; he grows as plants, minerals, and all things inanimate;

With what delight could I have walk'd thee round,
If I could joy in ought, sweet interchange

Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,

Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crown'd,
Rocks, dens, and caves! but I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I see
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
Torment within me', as from the hateful siege
Of contraries; all good to me becomes

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Bane, and in heav'n much worse would be my state. But neither here seek I, no nor in heaven

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To dwell, unless by mast'ring heav'n's Supreme; 125
Nor hope to be myself less miserable
By what I seek, but others to make such

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As I, though thereby worse to me redound:
For only in destroying I find ease

To my relentless thoughts; and him destroyed,
Or won to what may work his utter loss,
For whom all this was made, all this will soon
Follow, as to him link'd in weal or woe,
In woe then; that destruction wide may range :
To me shall be the glory sole among

Th' infernal pow'rs, in one day to have marr'd
What he Almighty styl'd, six nights and days
Continued making, and who knows how long
Before had been contriving, though perhaps
Not longer than since I in one night freed
From servitude inglorious well nigh half
Th' angelic name, and thinner left the throng
Of his adorers: he to be aveng'd,

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And to repair his numbers thus impair'd,

Whether such virtue spent of old now fail'd
More angels to create, if they at least
Are his created, or to spite us more,
Determin'd to advance into our room

A creature form'd of earth, and him endow,
Exalted from so base original,

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With heav'nly spoils, our spoils: what he decreed
He' effected; man he made, and for him built

Magnificent this world, and earth his seat,

if they at least

146. Are his created,] He questions whether the angels were created by God; he had before asserted that they were not, to the angels themselves, v. 859.

We know no time when we were not as now;

Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais d

By our own quick'ning pow'r.

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