As might affect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call Decrepit winter; from the south to bring 655 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 Of noxious efficacy, and when to join In synod unbenign; and taught the fix'd Their influence malignant when to show'r, Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they set Their corners, when with bluster to confound Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll With terror through the dark aereal 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 Oblique the centric globe. Some say, the sun Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the sev'n 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 vernant flow'rs, Equal in days and nights, except to those 680 Beyond the polar circles. To them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun,
To recompense his distance, in their sight Had rounded still th' horizon, and not known Or east or west, which had forbid the snow 685 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, 690 Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat? These changes in the Heav'ns, tho'slow, produc'd Like change on sea and land; sideral blast, 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 Trascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn. With adverse blast upturns them from the south Notus and Afer black, with thund'rous clouds From Sierra Leona. Thwart of these as fierce Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds, Eurus and Zephyr, with their lat'ral noise, 705 Sirocco and Libecchio. Thus began
Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord, first Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational,
Death introduc'd, through fierce antipathy. Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with
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, tho' hid in gloomiest shade, To sorrow' abandon'd, but worse felt within; And in a troubl'd sea of passion tost, Thus to disburden, sought with sad complaint : O mis'rable of happy'! Is this the end 720 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 mis'ry. 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 encrease
Or multiply, but curses on my head!
Who, of all ages to succeed, but feeling The evil on him brought by me, will curse
My head! Ill fare our ancestor impure ! 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 nat'ral 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 mould 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
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 acceptthem. Wiltthou 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, 761 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.
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 so, for I submit: his doom is fair,
That dust I am, and shall to dust 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 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 sp'rit of Man Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish 785 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 Of life that sinn'd. What dies but what had life And sin? the body, properly, hath neither. 791 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, 795 But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise Wrath without end on Man whom death must
Can he make deathless death? That were to make Strange contradiction, which to God himself Impossible is held; as argument
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