Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask ; Love not the heav'nly Spirits, and how their love Express they, by looks only', or do they mix Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?
To whom the Angel with a smile that glow'd Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue,
Answer'd: Let it suffice thee that thou know'st Us happy', and without love no happiness. Whatever pure thou in the body' enjoy'st (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy In eminence, and obstacle find none
Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars; Easier than air with air, if Spirits embrace. Total they mix, union of pure with pure Desiring; nor restrain'd conveyance need As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul. But I can now no more; the parting sun 630 Beyond the Earth's green cape and verdant isles Hesperian sets, my signal to depart. Be strong, live happy', and love, but first of all Him whom to love is to obey, and keep His great command; take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught, which else free-will Would not admit; thine and of all thy sons The weal or woe in thee is plac'd; beware, I in thy persevering shall rejoice,
And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fall Free in thine own arbitrement it lies, Perfect within, no outward aid require; And all temptation to transgress repel.
So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus Follow'd with benediction: Since to part, Go heav'nly guest, ethereal messenger, Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore. Gentle to me and affable hath been Thy condescension, and shall be' honor'd ever With grateful memory: thou to mankind Be good and friendly still, and oft return. So parted they, the Angel up to Heav'n From the thick shade, and Adam to his bower.
THE END OF THE EIGHTH BOOK.
SATAN having compassed the Earth, with meditated guile returns as a mist by night into Paradise, enters into the serpent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labors, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each laboring apart: Adam consents not, alledging the danger, lest that enemy, of whom they were forewarned, should attempt her found alone: Eve, loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make trial of her strength; Adam at last yields. The serpent finds her alone; his subtle approach, first gazing, then speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve wondering to hear the serpent 'speak, asks how he attained to human speech and such understanding not till now? the serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden he attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the Tree of Knowledge forbidden. The serpent now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments induces her at length to eat: she, pleased with the taste, deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or not, at last brings him of the fruit, relates what persuaded her to eat thereof. Adam at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, resolves through vehemence of love to perish with her and extenuating the trespass eats also of the fruit: the effects thereof in them both; they seek to cover their nakedness; then fall to variance and accusation of one another.
No more of talk where God or Angel guest With man, as with his friend, familiar us'd` To sit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while
Venial discourse unblam'd; I now must change
Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach Disloyal on the part of man, revolt, And disobedience: on the part of Heav'n Now alienated, distance and distaste, Anger and just rebuke, and judgment giv❜n, That brought into this world, a world of woe, Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery, Death's harbinger: sad task, yet argument Not less but more heroic than the wrath Of stern Achilles on his foe pursu'd Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd, Or Neptune's ire or Juno's, that so long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's son ; If answerable style I can obtain
celestial Patroness, who deigns
Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
And dictates to me slumb'ring, or inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse:
Since first this subject for heroic song
Pleas'd me long chusing, and beginning late;
Not sedulous by nature to indite
-Wars, hitherto the only argument Heroic deem'd, chief mast'ry to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabled knights In battles feign'd; the better fortitude Of Patience and heroic Martyrdom Unsung; or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds;
Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights At joust and tournament; then marshal'd feast Serv'd up in hall with sewers, and seneschals; The skill of artifice or office mean, Not that which justly gives heroic name Το person or to poem. Me of these Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument Remains, sufficient of itself to raise
That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years damp my intended wing Depress'd, and much they may, if all be mine, Not her who brings it nightly to my ear. The sun was sunk, and after him the star Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring Twilight upon the Earth, short arbiter 'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end Night's hemisphere had veil'd th' horizon round: When Satan who late fled before the threats Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On man's destruction, maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd. By night he fled, and at midnight return'd From compassing the Earth, cautious of day, Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descry'd His entrance, and forewarn'd the cherubim That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven, The space of sev'n continued nights he rode With Darkness, thrice the equinoctial line He circled, four times cross'd the car of Night
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