Of that bright star to Satan paragon'd.
There kept their watch the legions, while the grand
In council sat, solicitous what chance
Might intercept their emperor sent; so he,
Departing, gave command, and they observ'd. 430
As when the Tartar from his Russian foe
By Astracan over the snowy plains
Retires; or Bactrian Sophi from the horns
Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
To Tauris or Casbeen: so these, the late
Heaven banish'd host, left desert utmost hell
Many a dark league, reduc'd in careful watch
Round their metropolis, and now expecting
Each hour their great adventurer from the search
Of foreign worlds. He through the midst, un-
In show plebeian angel militant
[mark'd,

435

439

Of lowest order, pass'd; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible,
Ascended his high throne, which under state 445
Of richest texture spread, at th' upper end
Was plac'd in regal lustre. Down awhile

He sat, and round about him saw unseen:
At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter

clad,

450

With what permissive glory since his fall
Was left him, or false glitter. All amaz'd
At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect, and whom they wish'd beheld,
Their mighty chief return'd: loud was th' acclaim;
Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting peers, 456
Rais'd from their dark divan, and with like joy
Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand
Silence, and with these words, attention won:

"Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers!

For in possession such, not only' of right,
I call ye and declare ye now, return'd,
Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth
Triumphant out of this infernal pit

460

465

Abominable, accurs'd, the house of wo,
And dungeon of our tyrant: now possess,
As lords, a spacious world, to' our native heaven
Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell 469
What I have done, what suffer'd, with what pain
Voyag'd the unreal, vast, unbounded deep
Of horrible confusion, over which,

By Sin and Death, a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I

Toil'd out my uncouth passage, forc'd to ride 475
Th' untractable abyss, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That jealous of their secrets fiercely' oppos'd
My journey strange, with clamorous uproar
Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found 480
The new-created world, which fame in heaven
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful,
Of absolute perfection! therein man,
Plac'd in a Paradise, by our exile

490

Made happy. Him by fraud I have seduc'd 485
From his Creator, and, the more to' increase
Your wonder, with an apple! he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath given up
Both his beloved man, and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,
Without our hazard, labour, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me also he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute serpent, in whose shape 495
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head.
A world who would not purchase with a bruise, 500
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account
Of my performance: what remains, ye gods,-
But up and enter now into full bliss!"

So having said, awhile he stood expecting
Their universal shout and high applause
To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears
On all sides, from innumerable tongues,
A dismal universal hiss, the sound

505

Of public scorn; he wonder'd, but not long
Had leisure, wond'ring at himself now more; 510
His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs; his legs intwining
Each other, still supplanted, down he fell
A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power
Now rul'd him, punish'd in the shape he sinn'd
According to his doom. He would have spoke,
But hiss for hiss return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike, to serpents all as accessories

515

520

525

530

To his bold riot; dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the ball, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters head and tail,
Scorpion, and Esp, and amphisbæna dire,
Cerastes horn'd, hydrus, and elops drear,
And dipsas (not so thick swarm'd once the soil
Bedropp'd with blood of Gorgon, or the isle
Ophiusa ;) but still greatest, he the midst,
Now dragon grown, larger than whom the sun
Engender'd in the Pythian vale on slime,
Huge Python, and his power no less he seem'd
Above the rest still to retain. They all
Him follow'd, issuing forth to th' open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout,
Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array,
Sublime with expectation when to see
In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief.
They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd
Of ugly serpents: horror on them fell,
And horrid sympathy; for what they saw
They felt themselves now changing; down their

arms,

535

540

A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate

Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that 550
Which grew in Paradise, 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

560

565

Now risen, to work them further wo or shame : 555
Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,
But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees.
Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks
That curl'd Magæra: greedily they pluck'd
The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd:
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they' assay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drugg'd as oft,
With hatefullest disrelish writh'd their jaws
With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion, not as man
Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they
And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,
Till their lost shape, permitted, they resum'd,
Yearly enjoin'd, some say, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days
To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc'd.
However some tradition they dispers'd
Among the heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the serpent, whom they call'da 580
Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide

Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair Too soon arriv'd, Sin there in power before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began: 590

"Second of Satan sprung, all-conqu❜ring Death! What think'st thou of our empire now, tho' earn'd With travel difficult, not better far [watch, Than still at hell's dark threshold to have sat Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyself half-starv'd ?"

605

Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl,
No homely morsels; and whatever thing
The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspar'd;
Till I in man residing through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect,
And season him thy last and sweetest prey."

611

This said, they both betook them several ways, Both to destroy, or unimmortal make All kinds, and for destruction to mature Sooner or later; which th' Almighty seeing, From his transcendent seat the saints among, To those bright orders utter'd thus his voice: 615

"See with what heat these 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, so doth the prince of hell And his adherents, that with so much ease I suffer them to enter and possess

A place so heavenly, and conniving seem To gratify my scornful enemies,

620

625

That laugh, as if transported with some fit
Of passion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither,
My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth 630
Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh
With suck'd and glutted offal, at one sling burst
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, 634
Both sin and death, and yawning grave, at last,
Through Chaos hurl'd obstruct the mouth of hell
For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.
Then heaven and earth renew'd shall be made pure
To sanctity that shall receive no stain:
639
Till then the curse pronounc'd on both precedes."

He ended, and the heavenly audience loud
Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas,
Through multitude that sung: "Just are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate thee?" Next to the Son, 645
"Destin'd restorer of mankind, by whom
New heaven and earth shall to the ages rise, [song,
Or down from heaven descend." Such was their
While the Creator, calling forth by name
His mighty angels, gave them several charge,
As sorted best with present things. The sun
Had first his precept so to move, so shine,
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 summer's heat. To the blank moon
Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five
Their planetary motions and aspects

In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite

650

685

690

699

Had rounded still th' horizon, and not known
Or east or west, which had forbid the snow
From cold Estotiland, and south as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turn'd
His course intended; else how had the world
Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
These changes in the heavens, though slow, pro-
Like change on sea and land, sideral blast, [duc'd
Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and pestilent. Now from the north 695
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,
Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice,
And snow and hail, and stormy gust and flaw,
Boreas and Cæcias, and Argestes loud,
And Thrasias, rend the woods and seas upturn;
With adverse blast upturn them from the south
Notus and Afer, black with thund'rous 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 lifeless things; but Discord first,
Daughter of Sin, among th' irrationa
Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy:
Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each other: nor stood much in awe
Of man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him passing. These were from without.
The growing miseries, which Adam saw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To sorrow' abandon'd, but worse felt within,
And in a troubled sea of passion toss'd,
Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint

"O miserable of happy! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of blessed, hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness! yet well, if here would end
The misery; I deserv'd it, and would bear
My own deservings: but this will not serve;
All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,
Is propagated curse. O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increase and multiply,'
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply, but curses on my head?
Who of all ages to succeed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by ine, will curse
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,

705

709

715

720

725

730

735

655

For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks
Shall be the execration; so besides
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,
On me, as on their natural centre, light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mod me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurr'd not to my being, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,
Desirous to resign and render back
All I receiv'd, unable to perform

710

745

750

660

Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fix'd
Their influence malignant when to shower,
Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,
Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they set
Their corners, when with bluster to confound 665
Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aerial hall.
Some say he bid his angels turn askance
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the sun's axle; they with labour push'd 670
Oblique the centric globe: some say the sun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven
Atlantic Sisters, 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 seasons to each clime; else had the spring
Perpetual smil'd on earth with verdant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted shone, with the low sun.

755

Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I sought not. To the loss of that,
Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added
The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable
Thy justice seems: yet to say truth, too late,
I thus contest; then should 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 son
Prove disobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not:
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee
That proud excuse? Yet him not thy election,
But natural necessity begot,

780

Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet 775
Mortality my sentence, and be earth
Insensible! How glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap! There I should rest
And sleep secure; 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
Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die,
Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man
Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,
Or in some other dismal place, who knows
But I shall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath

785

Of life that sinn'd: what dies but what had life 790
And sin? The body properly hath neither.
All of me then shall die: let this appease
The doubt, since human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,
Is his wrath also? Be it, man is not so,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise
Wrath without end on man whom death must end?
Can he make deathless death? that were to
make

Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impossible is held, as argument

795

"Out of my sight, thou serpent; that name best Befits thee with him leagu'd, thyself as false And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape, Like his, and colour serpentine, may show Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee

870

875

880

Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form pretended
To hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee
I had persisted happy', had not thy pride
And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe,
Rejected my forewarning, and disdain'd
Not to be trusted, longing to be seen,
Though by the Devil himself, him overweening
To over-reach, but with the serpent meeting
Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee,"
To trust thee from my side, imagin'd wise,
Constant, mature, proof against all assaults,
And understood not all was but a show
Rather than solid virtue', all but a rib
Crook'd by nature, bent, as now appears,
More to the part sinister, from me drawn,
Well if thrown out as supernumerary
To my just number found. O why did God,
Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
With spirits masculine, create at last
This novelty on earth, this fair defect

With men as angels without feminine,
Or find some other way to generate

885

Mankind? This mischief had not then befallen, 895 And more that shall befall, innumerable

800

Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,

For anger's sake, finite to infinite

890

In punish d man, to satisfy his rigour

Satisfied never? That were to extend

Of nature, and not fill the world at once

His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law,

805

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 stroke, as I suppos'd, Bereaving sense, but endless misery

Disturbances on earth through female snares,

810

From this day onward, which I feel begun

He never shall find out fit mate, but such

Both in me, and without me, and so last

To perpetuity; ay me, that fear

Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head; both Death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both;

815

820

Nor I on my part single, in me all
Posterity stands curs'd: fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, sons; O were I able
To waste it all myself, and leave ye none !
So disinherited how would ye bless
Me, now your curse! Ah! why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,
If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,
But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd, 825
Not to do only, but to will the same
With me? How can they then acquitted stand
In sight of God? Him after all disputes
Forc'd I absolve: all my evasions vain,

[still

831

And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me
But to my own conviction: first and last
On me, me only, as the source and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;
So might the wrath. Fond wish! couldst thou
support

That burden, heavier than the earth to bear, 835
Than all the world much heavier, though divided
With that bad woman? Thus what thou desir'st,
And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable
Beyond all past example and future,
To Satan only like both crime and doom.

And strait conjunction with this sex: for either

900

As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse, or if she love, withheld
By parents; or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound 905
To a fell adversary', his late or shame :
Which infinite calamity shall cause

To human life, and household peace confound."

840

Against a foe by doom express assign'd us, That cruel serpent. On me exercise not

Thy hatred for this misery befallen,

925

Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Through the still night, not now, as ere man fell,
Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black air
Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom,
Which to his evil conscience represented

All things with double terror on the ground 850
Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft
Curs'd his creation, death as oft accus'd
Of tardy execution, since denounc'd

On me already lost, me than thyself

More miserable; both have sinn'd, but thou, 930
Against God only', I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will return,
There with my cries importune heaven, that all
The sentence from thy head remov'd may light
On me, sole cause to thee of all this wo,
Me, me only, just object of his ire."

935

861

"Unwary', and too desirous, as before, So now of what thou know'st not, whe desir'st

Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain

From love's due rites, nuptial embraces sweet,
And with desire to languish without hope,
Before the present object languishing
With like desire, which would be misery
And torment less than none of what we dread;
Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free
From what we fear for both, let us make short,
Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply
With our own hands his office on ourselves.
Why stand we longer shivering under fears,
That show no end but death, and have the power,
Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,
Destruction with destruction to destroy ?""

995

1001

1005

She ended here, or vehement despair Broke off the rest; so much of death her thoughts Had entertain'd, as dy'd her cheeks with pale. But Adam, with such counsel nothing sway'd, 1010 To better hopes his more attentive mind Lab'ring had rais'd, and thus to Eve replied:

"Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems To argue in thee something more sublime And excellent than what thy mind contemns: 1015 But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes That excellence thought in thee, and implies, Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret For loss of life and pleasure overlov'd. Or if thou covet death, as utmost end

Of misery, so thinking to evade

1020

The penalty pronounc'd, doubt not but God
Hath wiselier arm'd his vengeful ire than so
To be forestall'd: much more I fear lest death
So snatch'd will not exempt us from the pain 1025
We are by doom to pay; rather such acts

1030

1035

1040

Of contumacy' will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live. Then let us seek
Some safer resolution, which methinks
I have in view, calling to mind with heed
Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise
The serpent's head; piteous amends, unless
Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe
Satan, who in the serpent hath contriv'd
Against us this deceit: to crush his head
Would be revenge indeed; which will be lost
By death brought on ourselves, or childless days
Resolv'd as thou proposest; so our foe
Shall scape his punishment ordain'd, and we
Instead shall double ours upon our heads.
No more be mention'd then of violence
Against ourselves, and wilful barrenness,
That cuts us off from hope, and savours only
Rancour and pride, impatience and despite,
Reluctance against God and his just yoke
Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild
And gracious temper he both heard and judg'd,
Without wrath or reviling; we expected
Immediate dissolution, which we thought
Was meant by death that day, when lo, to thee
Pains only in child-bearing were foretold, 1051
And bringing forth, soon recompens'd with joy,
Fruit of thy womb: on me the curse aslope
Glanc'd on the ground; with labour I must earn
My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;
My labour will sustain me; and lest cold
Or heat should injure us, his timely care
Hath unbesought provided, and his hands
Cloth'd us unworthy, pitying while he judg'd;
How much more, if we pray him, will his ear 1060
Be open, and his heart to pity' incline,

1045

1056

And teach us further by what means to shun
Th' inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow?
Which now the sky with various face begins

To show us in this mountain, while the winds 1065
Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful

locks

driven down,

1075

1081

Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine,
And sends a comfortable heat from far,
Which might supply the sun: such fire to use,
And what may else be remedy or cure
To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
He will instruct us praying, and of grace
Beseeching him, so as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustain'd
By him with many comforts, till we end
In dust, our final rest and native home.
What better can we do, than to the place
Repairing where he judg'd us prostrate fall
Before him reverent, and there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow' unfeign'd, and humiliation meek? 1092
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn

1085

THUS they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Praying, for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient grace descending had remov'd
The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead, that sighs now breath'd
Unutterable, which the spirit of prayer

6

11

Inspir'd, and wing'd for heaven with speedier flight
Than loudest oratory: yet their port
Not of mean suitors, nor important less
Seem'd their petition, than when th' ancient pair
In fables old, less ancient yet than these,
Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore
The race of mankind drown'd, before the shrine
Of Themis stood devout. To heaven their prayers
Flew up, nor miss'd the way by envious winds
Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they pass'd
Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then clad
With incense, where the golden altar fum'd,
By their great intercessor, came in sight
Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son 20
Presenting, thus to intercede began:

15

"See, Father, what first fruits on earth are sprung

From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs
And prayers, which in this golden censer, mix'd
With incense, I, thy priest, before thee bring,
Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed
Sown with contrition in his heart, than those
Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees
Of Paradise could have produc'd, ere fallen
From innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear
To supplication, hear his sighs though mute;
Unskilful with what words to pray, let me
Interpret for him, me his advocate

25

55

60

Eject him tainted now and purge him off
As a distemper, gross to air as gross,
And mortal food, as may dispose him best
For dissolution wrought by sin, that first
Distemper'd all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I at first, with two fair gifts,
Created him endow'd, with happiness
And immortality: that fondly lost,
This other serv'd but to eternize wo;
Till I provided death; so death becomes
His final remedy, and after life
Tried in sharp tribulation, and refin'd
By faith and faithful works, to second life,
Wak'd in the renovation of the just,
Resigns him up with heaven and earth renew'd.
But let us call to synod all the bless'd
Through heaven's wide bounds; from them I will
not hide

65

31

Hasted, resorting to the summons high,
And took their seats; till from his throne supreme
Th' Almighty thus pronounc'd his sov'reign will:

35

45

"O sons, like one of us man is become To know both good and evil, since his taste Of that defended fruit; but let him boast His knowledge of good lost, and evil got; Happier had it suffic'd him to have known Good by itself, and evil not at all. He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite, My motions in him; longer than they move, His heart I know, how variable and vain Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand Reach also of the tree of life, and eat, And live for ever, dream at least to live For ever, to remove him I decree,

85

90

95

And send him from the garden forth to till The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.

And propitiation; all his works on me,
Good or not good, ingraft, my merit those
Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.
Accept me, and in me from these receive
The smell of peace tow'rd mankind; let him live
Before thee reconcil'd, at least his days
Number'd, though sad, till death, his doom,(which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse)
To better life shall yield him, where with me
All my redeem'd may dwell in joy and bliss,
Made one with me, as I with thee am one."

To whom the Father, without cloud, serene:
"All thy request for man, accepted Son,
Obtain; all thy request was my decree:
But longer in that Paradise to dwell,
The law I gave to nature him forbids:
Those pure immortal elements that know
No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul,

41