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"Night would invade; but there the neighbouring Moon, "(So call that opposite fair star,) her aid "Timely interposes; and her monthly round "Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven, "With borrowed light her countenance triform "Hence fills, and empties, to enlighten the Earth; "And in her pale dominion checks the night. "That spot to which I point is Paradise, "Adam's abode; those lofty shades his bower: "Thy way thou canst not miss,-me mine requires.” Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low, (As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, Where honour due, and reverence, none neglects,) Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath, Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel, Nor stayed, till on Niphates' top he lights.

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SATAN, now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against God and man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions,-fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil, journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described; overleaps the bounds; sits in the shape of a cormorant on the Tree of Life, as the highest in the garden, to look about him. The garden described; Satan's first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their discourse; thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden them to eat of under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his temptation, by seducing them to transgress: then leaves them awhile to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel, descending on a sunbeam, warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape of a good angel down to Paradise, discovered afterwards by his furious gestures on the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest; their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel, drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom questioned, he scornfully answers; prepares resistance; but, hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.

O, FOR that warning voice, which he who saw
The Apocalypse heard cry in Heaven aloud,
Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,
Came furious down to be revenged on men,
"Woe to the inhabitants on earth!" that now
While time was, our first parents had been warned
The coming of their sacred foe, and scaped,-

Haply so scaped his mortal snare! for now

Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,
The tempter, ere the accuser, of mankind,
To wreak on innocent frail man his loss
Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell:
Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold
Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,
Begins his dire attempt; which, nigh the birth
Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast,
And like a devilish engine back recoils
Upon himself: horror and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The Hell within him; for within him Hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly
By change of place: now conscience wakes despair
That slumbered; wakes the bitter memory

Of what he was, what is, and what must be,—

Worse;
of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.
Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;
Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing Sun,
Which now sat high in his meridian tower:
Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began:

"O thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned,
"Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god
"Of this new world! at whose sight all the stars
"Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
"But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
"O Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
"That bring to my remembrance from what state
"I fell,-how glorious once above thy sphere,
"Till pride, and, worse, ambition threw me down,
"Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King!
"Ah, wherefore! he deserved no such return
"From me, whom he created what I was
"In that bright eminence, and with his good
"Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
"What could be less than to afford him praise,
"The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,

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"How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me,
"And wrought but malice: lifted up so high,
"I sdained subjection, and thought one step higher
"Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
"The debt immense of endless gratitude,-
"So burdensome; still paying, still to owe,-
Forgetful what from him I still received;
"And understood not that a grateful mind

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By owing owes not, but still pays, at once "Indebted and discharged: what burden then? "O had his powerful destiny ordained

"Me some inferior angel, I had stood

"Then happy! no unbounded hope had raised
"Ambition. Yet why not? some other power
“As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
"Drawn to his part; but other powers as great
"Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
"Or from without, to all temptations armed.

"Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
"Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
"But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?

"Be then his love accursed! since, love or hate,
"To me alike it deals eternal woe.

Nay, cursed be thou! since, against this, thy will

"Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
"Me miserable! which way shall I fly
"Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
"Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
"And in the lowest deep a lower deep

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Still threatening to devour me opens wide, "To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. "O, then, at last relent: is there no place "Left for repentance? none for pardon left? "None left but by submission; and that word "Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame

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Among the Spirits beneath; whom I seduced "With other promises, and other vaunts "Than to submit; boasting I could subdue "The Omnipotent. Ah me! they little know "How dearly I abide that boast so vain;

“Under what torments inwardly I groan,
"While they adore me on the throne of Hell.
"With diadem and sceptre high advanced,
"The lower still I fall, only supreme
"In misery: such joy ambition finds.

66 But say

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I could repent, and could obtain,

By act of grace, my former state; how soon

"Would height recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
"What feigned submission swore! Ease would recant
"Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
"For never can true reconcilement grow
"Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep;
"Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
"And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
"Short intermission, bought with double smart.
"This knows my Punisher; therefore as far

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From granting he, as I from begging peace.
"All hope excluded thus; behold, instead
"Of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,

66 Mankind, created, and for him this world.
"So farewell, hope! and with hope, farewell, fear!
Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost :

"Evil, be thou my good! by thee at least

“Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,—

By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;—
"As man ere long, and this new world, shall know."
Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face
Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair:
Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld:

For heavenly minds from such distempers foul
Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware,
Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm,
Artificer of fraud; and was the first

That practised falsehood under saintly show,
Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge.
Yet not enough had practised to deceive

Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down
The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount
Saw him disfigured, more than could befall

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