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Humbly our faults, and pardon beg; with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek?
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn

From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
When angry most he seemed and most severe,
What else but favour, grace, and mercy shone?"
So spake our father penitent, nor Eve
Felt less remorse; they, forthwith to the place
Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell
Before him reverent; and both confessed
Humbly their faults, and pardon begged with tears
Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek.

BOOK XI.

THE ARGUMENT.

Sown with contrition in his heart than those
Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees
Of Paradise could have produced, ere fallen
From innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear
To supplication; hear his sighs, though mute;
Unskilful with what words to pray, let me
Interpret for him, me, his advocate
And propitiation; all his works on me,
Good or not good, ingraft; my merit those
Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.
Accept me; and in me, from these receive
The smell of peace toward mankind: let him live
Before thee reconciled, at least his days
Numbered, though sad, till death, his doom, (which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,)

To better life shall yield him; where with me
All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss;
Made one with me as I with thee am one."

To whom the Father, without cloud, serene: "All thy request for man, accepted Son, Obtain; all thy request was my decree: The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our But longer in that Paradise to dwell, first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them; God ac- The law I gave to nature him forbids: cepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Pa- Those pure immortal elements, that know radise; sends Michael with a band of cherubim to dispossess No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul, thern; but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's Eject him, tainted now; and purge him off he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him; the As a distemper, gross, to air as gross, angel denounces their departure. Eve's lamentation. Adam And mortal food; as may dispose him best pleads, but submits: the angel leads him up to a high hill; sets before him in vision what shall happen till the flood.

coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs;

THUS they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood
Praying; for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient grace descended had removed
The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead, that sighs now breathed
Unutterable; which the Spirit of prayer
Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier
flight

Than loudest oratory: yet their sport
Not of mean suitors, nor important less

For dissolution wrought by sin, that first
Distempered all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I, at first, with two fair gifts
Created him endowed; with happiness
And immortality: that fondly lost,
This other served but to eternize wo,
Till I provided death: so death becomes
His final remedy; and, after life

Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined
By faith and faithful works, to second life,
Waked in the renovatian of the just,

Resigns him up with Heaven and earth renewed.
But let us call to synod all the blest

Seemed their petition, than when the ancient pair Through Heaven's wide bounds; from them I will

In fables old, less ancient yet than these,
Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore
The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine
Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers
Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds
Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they passed
Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then, clad
With incense, where the golden altar fumed,
By their great Intercessor, came in sight
Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son
Presenting, thus to intercede began:

not hide

My judgments; how with mankind I proceed,
As how with peccant angels late they saw,
And in their state, though firm, stood more con-
firmed."

He ended, and the Son gave signal high
To the bright minister that watched; he blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps
When God descended, and perhaps once more
To sound at general doom. The angelic blast
Filled all the regions; from their blissful bowers

"See, Father, what first fruits on earth are Of amaranthine shade, fountain or spring,

sprung

From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs
And prayers, which in this golden censer mixed
With incense, I thy priest before thee bring:
Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed

By the waters of life, where'er they sat
In fellowships of joy, the sons of light
Hasted, resorting to the summons high
And took their seats; till from his throne supreme
Th' Almighty thus pronounced his sovereign will.

"O sons, like one of us man is become
To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that defended fruit; but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;
Happier! had it sufficed him to have known
Good by itself, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,
My motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know, how variable and vain,
Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand
Reach also of the tree of life, and eat,
And live for ever, dream at least to live
For ever, to remove him I decree,

And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.
Michael, this my behest have thou in charge;
Take to thee from among the cherubim
Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the fiend,
Or in behalf of man, or to invade
Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:
Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
Without revenge drive out the sinful pair;
From hallowed ground the unholy; and denounce
To them, and to their progeny, from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urged,
For I behold them softened and with tears
Bewailing their excess, all terror hide.
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal
To Adam what shall come in future days,
As I shall thee enlighten; intermix
My covenant in the woman's seed renewed,
So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace
And, on the east side of the garden, place,
Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
Cherubic watch; and of a sword the flame
Wide-waving; all approach far off to fright,
And guard all passage to the tree of life;
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey,
With whose stolen fruit man once more to delude."
He ceased; and the archangelic power prepared
For swift descent; with him the cohort bright
Of watchful cherubim: four faces each
Had, like a double Janus; all their shape
Spangled with eyes, more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse,
Charmed with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermus, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile,
To resalute the world with sacred light,
Leucothea waked, and with fresh dews embalmed
The earth; when Adam and first matron Eve
Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above, new hope to spring
Out of despair; joy, but with fear yet linked;
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewed.
"Eve, easily may faith admit, that all
The good which we enjoy from Heaven descends;

But that from us aught should ascend to Heaven
So prevalent as to concern the mind

Of God high-blest, or to incline his will,
Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer,
Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne
Even to the seat of God. For since I sought
By prayer the offended Deity to appease,
Kneeled, and before him humbled all my heart,
Methought I saw him placable and mild,
Bending his ear; persuasion in me grew
That I was heard with favour; peace returned
Home to my breast, and to my memory

His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe:
Which, then not minded in dismay, yet now
Assures me that the bitterness of death
Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee,
Eve rightly called, mother of all mankind,
Mother of all things living, since by thee
Man is to live, and all things live for man."

To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek.
"Ill worthy I such title should belong
To me transgressor, who, for thee ordained
A help, became thy snare; to me reproach
Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise :
But infinite in pardon was my Judge,
That I, who first brought death on all, am graced
The source of life; next unfavourable thou,
Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf'st
Far other name deserving. But the field
To labour calls us, now with sweat imposed,
Though after sleepless night; for see! the morn,
All unconcerned with our unrest, begins
Her rosy progress smiling; let us forth;
I never from thy side henceforth to stray.
Where'er our day's work lies, though now en-
joined

Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
Here let us live, though in fallen state, content."
So spake, so wished much humbled Eve; but
fate

Subscribed not; Nature first gave signs, impressed
On bird, beast, air; air suddenly eclipsed
After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight
The bird of Jove, stooped from his aery-tour,
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove;
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace,
Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind;
Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight.
Adam observed, and, with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve thus spake.
"O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh,
Which Heaven, by these mute signs in nature,
shows

Forerunners of his purpose; or to warn
Us, haply too secure, of our discharge
From penalty, because from death released
Some days: how long, and what till then our life,

Who knows? or more than this, that we are dust, | May'st cover: well may then thy Lord, appeased,
And thither must return, and be no more?
Why else this double object in our sight

Of flight pursued in the air, and o'er the ground, One way the self-same hour? why in the east Darkness ere day's mid course, and morning light More orient in yon western cloud, that draws O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,

And slow descends, with something Heavenly fraught?"

He erred not; for by this the heavenly bands Down from a sky of jasper lighted now In Paradise, and on a hill made halt: A glorious apparition, had not doubt And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam's eye. Not that more glorious, when the angels met Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw

The field pavilioned with his guardians bright; Nor that, which on the flaming mount appeared In Dothan, covered with a camp of fire, Against the Syrian king, who to surprise One man, assassin-like, had levied war, War unproclaimed. The princely Hierarch In their bright stand there left his powers, to seize Posssession of the garden; he alone, To find where Adam sheltered, took his way, Not unperceived of Adam; who to Eve, While the great visitant approached, thus spake. "Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps, Of us will soon determine, or impose New laws to be observed; for I descry, From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill, One of the Heavenly host, and, by his gait, None of the meanest; some great potentate, Or of the thrones above, such majesty Invests him coming! yet not terrible, That I should fear, nor sociably mild, As Raphael, that I should much confide; But solemn and sublime, whom not to offend, With reverence I must meet, and thou retire." He ended; and the archangel soon drew nigh, Not in his shape celestial, but as man Clad to meet man; over his lucid arms A military vest of purple flowed, Livelier than Melibaan, or the grain Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old In time of truce; Iris had dipped the woof; His starry helm unbuckled showed him prime In manhood where youth ended; by his side, As in a glistering zodiac hung the sword, Satan's dire dread, and in his hand the spear. Adam bowed low; he, kingly, from his state Inclined not, but his coming thus declared. "Adam, Heaven's high behest no preface needs: Sufficient that thy prayers are heard; and Death, Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress, Defeated of his seizure many days

Given thee of grace; wherein thou may'st repent, And one bad act with many deeds well done

Redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim;
But longer in this Paradise to dwell
Permits not; to remove thee I ain come,
And send thee from the garden forth to till
The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil.'
He added not, for Adam at the news
Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood,
That all his senses bound: Eve, who unseen,
Yet all had heard, with audible lament
Discovered soon the place of her retire.

"O unexpected stroke, worse than of death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave
Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods? where I had hope to spend,
Quiet though sad, the respite of that day
That must be mortal to us both. O flowers,
That never will in other climate grow,
My early visitation, and my last

At even, which I bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names!
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from th' ambrosial fount?
Thee, lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorned
With what to sight or smell was sweet! from thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower world, to this obscure

And wild? how shall we breathe in other air
Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?"

Whom thus the angel interrupted mild.
"Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign
What justly thou hast lost; nor set thy heart,
Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine:
Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound:
Where he abides, think there thy native soil."
Adam, by this from the cold sudden damp
Recovering, and his scattered spirits returned,
To Michael thus his humble words addressed.

"Celestial, whether among the thrones, or named
Of them the highest, for such of shape may seem
Prince above princes! gently hast thou told
Thy message, which might else in telling wound,
And in performing end us; what besides
Of sorrow, and dejection, and despair
Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring
Departure from this happy place, our sweet
Recess, and only consolation left
Familiar to our eyes! all happy else
Inhospitable appear, and desolate,

Nor knowing us, nor known: and, if by prayer
Incessant I could hope to change the will
Of Him who all things can, I would not cease
To weary him with my assiduous cries:
But prayer against his absolute decree
No more avails than breath against the wind,
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth;
Therefore to his great bidding I submit,
This most afflicts me, that, departing hence,

As from his face I shall be hid, deprived
His blessed countenance: here I could frequent
With worship place by place where he vouch-

safed

Presence divine; and to my sons relate,
'On this mount he appeared; under this tree
Stood visible; among these pines his voice
I heard; here with him at this fountain talked:
So many grateful altars I would rear
Of grassy turf, and pile up every stone
Of lustre from the brook, in memory,
Or monument to ages; and thereon
Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers:
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or footstep trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet, recalled
To life prolonged and promised race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory; and far off his steps adore."

To whom thus Michael with regard benign.
"Adam, thou knowest Heaven his, and all the
earth;

Not this rock only; his omnipresence fills
Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives,
Fomented by his virtual power and warmed:
All the earth he gave thee to possess and rule,
No despicable gift; surmise not then
His presence to these narrow bounds confined
Of Paradise or Eden: this had been

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
By suffering, and earn rest from labour won,
If so I may attain." So both ascend
In the visions of God: It was a hill,
Of Paradise the highest, from whose top
The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken,
Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect lay
Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round,
Whereon, for different cause, the tempter set
Our second Adam, in the wilderness,

To show him all earth's kingdoms, and their glory.
His eye might there command wherever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,
And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne,
To Paquin of Sinæan kings; and thence
To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul,
Down to the golden Chersonese; or where
The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since
In Hispahan; or where the Russian ksar
In Mosco; or the sultan in Bizance,
Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken
The empire of Negus to his utmost port
Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,

Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,

All generations, and had hither come
From all the ends of the earth, to celebrate
And reverence thee, their great progenitor.
But this pre-eminence thou hast lost, brought
down

To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:
Yet doubt not but in valley, and in plain,
God is, as here; and will found alike
Present; and of his presence many a sign
Still following thee, still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love, his face
Express, and of his steps the tract divine.
Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirmed
Ere thou from hence depart; know I am sent
To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee and to thy offspring; good with bad
Expect to hear; supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
True patience, and to temper joy with fear
And pious sorrow; equally innured
By moderation either state to bear,
Prosperous or adverse: so shalt thou lead
Safest thy life, and best prepared endure
Thy mortal passage when it comes. Ascend
This hill; let Eve (for I have drenched her eyes)
Here sleep below while thou to foresight wak'st;
As once thou sleep'st, while she to life was
formed."

To whom thus Adam gratefully replied.

And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm
Of Congo, and Angola farthest south;
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas mount
The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez, and Sus,
Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen;

On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway
The world: in spirit perhaps he also saw

Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume,
And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat
Of Atabalipa; and yet unspoiled
Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons
Call El Dorado. But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight
Had bred; then purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see;
And from the well of life three drops instilled.
So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
Even to the inmost seat of mental sight,
That Adam now enforced to close his eyes,
Sunk down, and all his spirits became entranced;
But him the gentle angel by the hand
Soon raised, and his attention thus recalled.

"Adam, now ope thine eyes: and first behold
The effects which thy original crime hath wrought
In some to spring from thee; who never touched
The excepted tree; nor with the snake conspired
Nor sinned thy sin; yet from that sin derive
Corruption, to bring forth more violent deeds."

His eyes he opened, and beheld a field,
Part arable and tilth, whereon were sheaves
New reaped, the other part sheep-walks and folds;
I' th' midst an altar as the land-mark stood,
Rustic, of grassy sord; thither anon
A sweaty reaper from his tillage brought
First fruits, the green ear, and the yellow sheaf,
Unculled, as came to hand; a shepherd next,
More meek, came with the firstlings of his flock
Choicest and best; then, sacrificing, laid

The inwards and their fat, with incense strowed,
On the cleft wood, and all due rites performed.
His offering soon propitious fire from Heaven

And moonstruck madness, pining atrophy,
Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence,
Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint racking rheums.
Dire was the tossing, deep the groans; Despair
Tended the sick busiest from couch to couch;
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delayed to strike, though oft invoked
With vows, as their chief good, and final hope
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept,
Though not of woman born; compassion quelled
His best of man, and gave him up to tears
A space, till firmer thoughts restrained excess;

Consumed with nimble glance, and grateful steam; | And, scarce recovering words, his plaint renewed.

The other's not, for his was not sincere:
Whereat he inly raged, and, as they talked,
Smote him into the midriff with a stone
That beat out life; he fell; and, deadly pale,
Groaned out his soul with gushing flood effused.
Much at that sight was Adam in his heart
Dismayed, and thus in haste to th' angel cried.
"O teacher, some great mischief hath befallen:
To that meek man who well had sacrificed;
Is piety thus and pure devotion paid?”

To whom Michael thus, he also moved, replied:
"These two are brethren, Adam, and to come
Out of thy loins; th' unjust the just hath slain,
For envy that his brother's offering found
From Heaven acceptance; but the bloody fact
Will be avenged; and the other's faith approved,
Lose no reward; though here thou see him die,
Rolling in dust and gore." To which our sire:
"Alas! both for the deed and for the cause!
But have I now seen Death? Is this the way
I must return to native dust? O sight
Of terror, foul and ugly to behold,
Horrid to think, how horrible to feel!"

"O miserable mankind, to what fall
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
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 offered, or soon beg to lay it down;

| Glad to be so dismissed in peace. Can thus
The image of God in man, created once
So goodly and erect, though faulty since,
To such unsightly sufferings be debased
Under inhuman pains? Why should not man
Retaining still divine similitude

In part, from such deformities be free,
And, for his Maker's image sake, exempt?"
"Their Maker's image," answered Michael,
"then

Forsook them, when themselves they vilified
To serve ungoverned appetite, and took
His image whom they served, a brutish vice,
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
Therefore so abject is their punishment.
Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own;

To whom thus Michael. "Death thou hast Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced;

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
More terrible at th' entrance than within.
Some, as thou sawest, by violent stroke shall die;
By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more

In meats and drinks, which on the earth shall
bring

Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew

While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules
To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they
God's image did not reverence in themselves."

"I yield it just," said Adam, "and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To death, and mix with our connatural dust?"
"There is," said Michael, "if thou well ob-

serve

The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught,

Before thee shall appear; that thou mayest know In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from

What misery the inabstinence of Eve
Shall bring on men." Immediately a place
Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark
A lazar-house it seemed; wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased; 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,
Demoniac phrenzy moping melancholy,

thence

Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:

So may'st thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
Into thy mother's lap; or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature:
This is old age; but then thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty; which will
change

To withered, weak, and gray; thy senses then

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