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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