O more of talk where God or Angel guest With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd To fit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while
Venial difcourfe unblam'd: I now must change Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt,
And difobedience: on the part of Heaven Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given, That brought into this world a world of woe, Sin and her fhadow Death, and Mifery Death's harbinger: Sad talk, yet argument Not lefs but more heroic than the wrath Of stern Achilles on his foe purfu'd Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia difefpous'd, Or Neptune's ire or Juno's, that fo long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's fon; If anfwerable ftile I can obtain Of my celeftial patronefs, who deigns Her nightly vifitation unimplor'd B 2
And dictates to me flumb'ring, or inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse :
Since first this fubject for heroic fong
Not fedulous by nature to indite
Pleas'd me long choofing, and beginning late;
Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroic deem'd, chief mast'ry to diffect
With long and tedious havoc fabled knights In battels feign'd; the better fortitude Of patience and heroic martyrdom Unfung; or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd fhields, Impreffes quaint, caparifons and steeds; Bafes and tinfel trappings, gorgeous knights At jouft and torneament; then marshal'd feaft Serv'd up in hall with fewers, and fenefhals; The skill of artifice or office mean,
Not that which justly gives heroic name To perfon or to poem. Me of these Nor skill'd nor ftudious, higher argument Remains, fufficient of itself to raise
That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years damp my intended wing
Deprefs'd, and much they may, if all be mine,
Not hers who brings it nightly to my ear.
The fun was funk, and after him the star
Of Hefperus, whose office is to bring
Twilight upon the earth, fhort arbiter
'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end Night's hemifphere had veil'd th' horizon round:
When Satan who late fled before the threats Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd
In meditated fraud and malice, bent On Man's deftruction, maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd. By night he fled, and at midnight return'd From compaffing the earth, cautious of day, Since Uriel regent of the fun defcry'd
His entrance, and forewarn'd the Cherubim That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven, The space of fev'n continued nights he rode With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line He circled, four times crofs'd the car of night From pole to pole, travérsing each colúre; On th' eighth return'd, and on the coast averse From entrance or Cherubic watch, by stealth Found unfufpected way. There was a place, Now not, though fin, not time, firft 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 funk, and with it rose Satan involv'd in rifing mist, then fought Where to lie hid; fea he had fearch'd and land From Eden over Pontus, and the pool Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob; Downward as far antarctic; and in length Weft from Orontes to the ocean barr'd At Darien, thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd B 3
With narrow fearch, and with inspection deep
every creature, which of all
Moft opportune might serve his wiles, and found 85 The Serpent fubtlest beast of all the field.
Him after long debate, irresolute
Of thoughts revolv'd, his final fentence chofe Fit veffel, fitteft imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark fuggestions hide From sharpeft fight: for in the wily snake, Whatever fleights none would fufpicious mark, As from his wit and native subtlety Proceeding, which in other beafts obferv'd Doubt might beget of diabolic power Active within beyond the sense of brute. Thus he refolv'd, but first from inward grief His bursting paffion into plaints thus pour'd.
O Earth, how like to Heav'n, if not preferr'd More justly, feat worthier of Gods, as built With fecond thoughts, reforming what was old! For what God after better worfe would build? Terreftrial Heav'n, danc'd round by other Heavens That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone, as feems, In thee concentring all their precious beams Of facred influence! As God in Heaven Is center, yet extends to all, fo thou
Centring receiv'ft 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 fumm'd up in Man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round, If I could joy in ought, fweet interchange Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, Now land, now fea, and fhores with forest crown'd, Rocks, dens, and caves! but I in none of these Find place or refuge; and the more I fee Pleasures about me, fo much more I feel Torment within me', as from the hateful fiege Of contraries; all good to me becomes
Bane, and in Heav'n much worse would be my But neither here feek I, no nor in Heaven
To dwell, unless by maft'ring Heav'n's Supreme; 125 Nor hope to be myself less miferable
By what I feek, but others to make fuch As I, though thereby worfe to me redound: For only in destroying I find ease
To my relentless thoughts; and him deftroy'd, Or won to what may work his utter lofs, For whom all this was made, all this will foon Follow, as to him link'd in weal or woe; In woe then; that destruction wide may range: To me shall be the glory fole among
Th' infernal Pow'rs, in one day to have marr'd What he Almighty ftil'd, fix nights and days Continued making, and who knows how long Before had been contriving, though perhaps Not longer than fince I in one night freed From fervitude inglorious well nigh half Th' angelic name, and thinner left the throng
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