O not charge most innocent Nature,

Do

As if she would her children should be riotous

With her abundance. She, good cateress,

Means her provision only to the good,
That live according to her sober laws,
And holy dictate of spare Temperance.
If every just man that now pines with want
Had but a moderate and beseeming share
Of that which lewdly-pamper'd Luxury
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed
In unsuperfluous even proportion,

And she no whit encumber'd with her store;
And then the Giver would be better thank'd,
His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony
Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,
But with besotted base ingratitude
Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder.

COMUS

AID Michael, "If thou well observe

SA

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.

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".

To whom our Ancestor :

"Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong

Life much, bent rather how I may be quit,
Fairest and easiest of this cumbrous charge,
Which I must keep till my appointed day
Of rendering up, and patiently attend
My dissolution." Michael replied:

"Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest Live well; how long or short permit to Heaven ".

PARADISE LOST, BOOK XI.

GOD of our fathers! what is Man,

That thou towards him with hand so various

(Or might I say contrarious ?)

Temper'st thy providence through his short course,
Not evenly, as thou rulest

The angelic orders, and inferior creatures mute,
Irrational and brute?

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

That wandering loose about

Grow up and perish as the summer fly,
Heads without name, no more remember'd;
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,

With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd,
To some great work, thy glory,

And people's safety, which in part they effect:
Yet toward these, thus dignified, thou oft,

Amidst their highth of noon,

Changest thy countenance and thy hand, with no

regard

Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Just or unjust alike seem miserable,

For oft alike both come to evil end.

So deal not with this once thy glorious champion, The image of thy strength, and mighty minister.

Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn
His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end.

SAMSON AGONISTES

ALL is best, though we oft doubt

What the unsearchable dispose

Of highest wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close.
Oft he seems to hide his face,

But unexpectedly returns,

And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns,

And all that band them to resist

His uncontrollable intent.

His servants he, with new acquist

Of true experience from this great event,
With peace and consolation hath dismiss'd,
And calm of mind, all passion spent.

SAMSON AGONISTES

F Man's first disobedience, and the fruit

OF

Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,
And madest it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Invocation, PARADISE LOST, Book I.