To recompenfe his distance, in their fight
Had rounded still th' horizon, and not known
Or east or weft, which had forbid the fnow
From cold Eftotiland, and fouth as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
The fun, as from Thyéftean banquet, turn'd
His courfe intended; elfe how had the world
Inhabited, though finless, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
Thefe changes in the Heav'ns, though flow, produc'd
Like change on fea and land, fideral blaft,
Vapor, and mift, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and peftilent: Now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,
Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice
And fnow and hail and ftormy guft and flaw,
Boreas and Cacias and Argeftes loud
And Thrafcias rend the woods and feas upturn; 700
With adverfe blaft upturns them from the fouth
Notus and Afer black with thundrous clouds
From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce
Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds
Eurus and Zephyr with their lateral noise,
Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began
Outrage from lifelefs things; but Discord first
Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational,
Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy :
Beast now with beaft 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, 710
And fish with fifh; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each other; nor ftood much in awe
Of Man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him paffing. These were from without
The growing miseries which Adam faw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To forrow' abandon'd, but worse felt within,
And in a troubled fea of paffion toft,
Thus to disburden fought with sad complaint.
O miferable of happy! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me fo late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of bleffed, hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my highth
Of happiness! yet well, if here would end
The mifery; I deferv'd it, and would bear
My own defervings; but this will not ferve;
All that I eat or drink, or fhall beget,
Is propagated curfe. O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increase and multiply,
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply, but curfes on my head?
Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will curfe
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,
For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks
Shall be the execration; fo befides
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,
On me as on their natural center light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradife, dear bought with lafting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mold me Man, did I folicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? as my will
Concur'd not to my be'ing, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my duft,
Defirous to refign and render back
All I receiv'd, unable to perform
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I fought not. To the lofs of that,
Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added
The fenfe of endless woes? inexplicable
Thy juftice feems; yet to fay truth, too late
I thus conteft; then fhould have been refus'd
Those terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou didst accept them: wilt thou' enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy fon 760 Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didft thou beget me? I fought it not:
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee
That proud excufe? yet him not thy election,
But natural necessity begot.
God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own
To serve him; thy reward was of his grace,
Thy punishment then justly' is at his will.
Be' it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,
That duft I am, and fhall to duft return;
O welcome hour whenever! why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive,
Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet
Mortality my sentence, and be earth
Infenfible, how glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap? there I should rest
And fleep fecure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worse
To me and to my offspring would torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
Purfues me ftill, left all I cannot die,
Left that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man
Which God infpir'd, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,
Or in fome other difinal place, who knows
But I fhall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath
Of life that inn'd; what dies but what had life
And fin the body properly hath neither.
All of me then shall die: let this appeafe
The doubt, fince human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,
Is his wrath alfo ? be it, Man is not fo,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercife
Wrath without end on Man whom death muft end?
Can he make deathlefs death? that were to make
Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impoffible is held, as argument
Of weakness, not of pow'r. Will he draw out,
For anger's fake, finite to infinite
In punish'd Man, to fatisfy his rigor
Satisfy'd never? that were to extend
His fentence beyond dust and nature's law,
By which all causes else according still
To the reception of their matter act,
Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But say
That death be not one ftroke, as I fuppos'd,
Bereaving fenfe, but endless mifery
From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and fo last
To perpetuity; Ay me, that fear
Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution
On my defenfelefs head; both Death and I
Are found eternal, and incorporate both,
Nor I on my part single, in me all
Pofterity ftands curs'd: Fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able
To wafte it all myself, and leave ye none !
So difinherited how would you blefs
Me now your curfe! Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltlefs be condemn'd,
If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,
But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd
Not to do only, but to will the fame
With me? how can they then acquitted stand
In fight of God? Him after all disputes
Forc'd I abfolve: all my evafions vain,
And reafonings, though through mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction: first and last
On me, me only, as the fource and spring
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