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

In triumph iffuing forth their glorious chief:
They faw, but other fight instead, a crowd
Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid fympathy; for what they saw,

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They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,

Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast,
And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire form
Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,

As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant Turn'd to exploding hifs, triumph to shame

Caft on themfelves from their own mouths. There ftood
A grove hard by, fprung 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

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Now ris'n, to work them further woe or fhame; 555
Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though 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;

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This more delufive, not the touch, but tafte
Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit
Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended tafte
With spattering noise rejected: oft they' assay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefulleft difrelish writh'd their jaws
With foot and cinders fill'd: so oft they fell
Into the fame illufion, not as Man
Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they
And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hifs,
Till their loft shape, permitted, they refum'd,
Yearly injoin'd, fome fay, to undergo

This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc'd.
However fome tradition they dispers'd

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[plagu'd

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Among the Heathen of their purchase got,

And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd

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Ophion with Eurynome, the wide

Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule

Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradife the hellish pair
Too foon arriv'd, Sin there in pow'r 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 horse: to whom Sin thus began.

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Second of Satan fprung, all conqu'ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd

With travel difficult, not better far

Than still at Hell's dark threshold to' have fat watch, Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyfelf half starv'd? 595

Whom thus the Sin-born monster anfwer'd foon.
To me, who with eternal famin pine,
Alike is Hell, or Paradife, or Heaven,

There beft, where moft with ravin I may meet;
Which here, though plenteous, all too little feems 600
To ftuff this maw, this vaft unhide-bound corps.

To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd.
Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers
Feed first, on each beaft next, and fish, and fowl,
No homely morfels; and whatever thing
The fithe of Time mowes down, devour unfpar'd;
Till I in Man refiding through the race,

His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect,
And feafon him thy laft and sweetest prey.

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This said, they both betook them feveral ways, 610 Both to deftroy, or unimmortal make

All kinds, and for deftruction to mature
Sooner or later; which th' Almighty seeing,
From his tranfcendent feat the Saints among,
To thofe 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 still
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
VOL. II.

F

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I fuffer

I fuffer them to enter and poffefs

A place fo heav'nly, and conniving seem
To gratify my scornful enemies,

That laugh, as if, transported with some fit
Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,

At random yielded up to their misrule;

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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 sling

Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,

Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last 635
Through Chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.

Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd shall be made pure
To fanctity that shall receive no stain :

Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both precedes. 640
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 shall to the ages rife,

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Or down from Heav'n descend. Such was their song, While the Creator calling forth by name

His mighty Angels gave them several charge

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As forted beft with present things. The fun

Had first his precept so to move, so shine,

As

As might affect the earth with cold and heat
Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call
Decrepit winter, from the south to bring
Solstitial fummer's heat. To the blanc moon
Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five
Their planetary motions and aspects
In fextile, fquare, and trine, and oppofit
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In fynod unbenign; and taught the fix'd
Their influence malignant when to shower,
Which of them rifing with the fun, or falling,
Should prove tempeftuous: To the winds they fet
Their corners, when with blufter to confound
Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aereal hall.
Some fay he bid his angels turn afcanfe

The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the fun's axle, they with labor push'd
Oblique the centric globe: Some fay the fun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like diftant breadth to Taurus with the feven
Atlantic Sifters, and the Spartan Twins
Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain
By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales,
As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change
Of feasons to each clime; elfe had the spring
Perpetual fmil'd on earth with vernant flowers,

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· Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted fhone, while the low fun

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