The Complete Poetry of John Milton

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by John Milton


  10

  Must needs impair and wearie human sense:

  Henceforth what is to com I will relate,

  Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.

  This second sours of Men, while yet but few;

  And while the dread of judgement past remains

  15

  Fresh in thir minds, fearing the Deitie,

  With some regard to what is just and right

  Shall lead thir lives, and multiplie apace,

  Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,

  Corn wine and oyl; and from the herd or flock,

  20

  Oft sacrificing Bullock, Lamb, or Kid,

  With large Wine-offerings pour’d, and sacred Feast,

  Shall spend thir dayes in joy unblam’d, and dwell

  Long time in peace by Families and Tribes

  Under paternal rule; till one2 shall rise

  25

  Of proud ambitious heart, who not content

  With fair equalitie, fraternal state,

  Will arrogate Dominion undeserv’d

  Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

  Concord and law of Nature from the Earth,

  30

  Hunting (and Men not Beasts shall be his game)

  With Warr and hostile snare such as refuse

  Subjection to his Empire tyrannous:

  A mightie Hunter thence he shall be styl’d

  Before the Lord, as in despite of Heav’n,

  35

  Or from Heav’n claming second Sovrantie;

  And from Rebellion shall derive his name,

  Though of Rebellion others he accuse.

  Hee with a crew, whom like Ambition joyns

  With him or under him to tyrannize,

  40

  Marching from Eden towards the West, shall find

  The Plain,3 wherein a black bituminous gurge

  Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell;

  Of Brick, and of that stuff they cast to build

  A Citie and Towr, whose top may reach to Heav’n;

  45

  And get themselves a name, least far disperst

  In foraign Lands thir memorie be lost,

  Regardless whether good or evil fame.

  But God who oft descends to visit men

  Unseen, and through thir habitations walks

  50

  To mark thir doings, them beholding soon,

  Comes down to see thir Citie, ere the Tower

  Obstruct Heav’n Towrs, and in derision sets

  Upon thir Tongues a various4 Spirit to rase

  Quite out thir Native Language, and instead

  55

  To sow a jangling noise of words unknown:

  Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud

  Among the Builders; each to other calls

  Not understood, till hoarse, and all in rage,

  As mockt they storm; great laughter was in Heav’n

  60

  And looking down, to see the hubbub strange

  And hear the din; thus was the building left

  Ridiculous, and the work Confusion nam’d.5

  Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeas’d.

  O execrable Son so to aspire

  65

  Above his Brethren, to himself assuming

  Authoritie usurpt, from God not giv’n:

  He gave us onely over Beast, Fish, Fowl

  Dominion absolute; that right we hold

  By his donation; but Man over men

  70

  He made not Lord; such title to himself

  Reserving, human left from human free.

  But this Usurper his encroachment proud

  Stayes not on Man; to God his Tower intends

  Siege and defiance: Wretched man! what food

  75

  Will he convey up thither to sustain

  Himself and his rash Armie, where thin Air

  Above the Clouds will pine his entrails gross,

  And famish him of Breath, if not of Bread?

  To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorr’st

  80

  That Son, who on the quiet state of men

  Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue

  Rational Libertie; yet know withall,

  Since thy original lapse, true Libertie

  Is lost, which alwayes with right Reason dwells

  85

  Twinn’d, and from her hath no dividual being:

  Reason in man obscur’d, or not obeyd,

  Immediately inordinate desires

  And upstart Passions catch the Government

  From Reason, and to servitude reduce

  90

  Man till then free. Therefore since hee permits

  Within himself unworthie Powers to reign

  Over free Reason, God in Judgement just

  Subjects him from without to violent Lords;

  Who oft as undeservedly enthrall

  95

  His outward freedom: Tyrannie must be,

  Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse.

  Yet somtimes Nations will decline so low

  From vertue, which is reason, that no wrong,

  But Justice, and some fatal curse annext

  100

  Deprives them of thir outward libertie,

  Thir inward lost: Witness th’ irreverent Son6

  Of him who built the Ark, who for the shame

  Don to his Father, heard this heavie curse,

  Servant of Servants, on his vitious Race.7

  105

  Thus will this latter, as the former World,

  Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last

  Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw

  His presence from among them, and avert

  His holy Eyes; resolving from thenceforth

  110

  To leave them to thir own polluted wayes;

  And one peculiar Nation to select

  From all the rest, of whom to be invok’d,

  A Nation from one faithful man8 to spring:

  Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,

  115

  Bred up in Idol-worship; O that men

  (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,

  While yet the Patriark liv’d, who scap’d the Flood,

  As to forsake the living God, and fall

  To worship thir own work in Wood and Stone

  120

  For Gods! yet him God the most High voutsafes

  To call by Vision from his Fathers house,

  His kindred and false Gods, into a Land

  Which he will shew him, and from him will raise

  A mightie Nation, and upon him showr

  125

  His benediction so, that in his Seed

  All Nations shall be blest; he straight obeys,

  Not knowing to what Land, yet firm believes:

  I see him, but thou canst not, with what Faith

  He leaves his Gods, his Friends, and native Soil9

  130

  Ur of Chaldæa, passing now the Ford

  To Haran, after him a cumbrous Train

  Of Herds and Flocks, and numerous servitude;

  Not wandring poor, but trusting all his wealth

  With God, who call’d him, in a land unknown.

  135

  Canaan he now attains, I see his Tents

  Pitcht about Sechem, and the neighbouring Plain

  Of Moreh; there by promise he receaves

  Gift to his Progenie of all that Land;

  From Hamath Northward to the Desert South

  140

  (Things by thir names I call, though yet unnam’d)

  From Hermon East to the great Western Sea,

  Mount Hermon, yonder Sea, each place behold

  In prospect, as I point them; on the shoar

  Mount Carmel; here the double-founted stream

  145

  Jordan, true limit Eastward; but his Son
s

  Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of Hills.

  This ponder, that all Nations of the Earth

  Shall in his Seed be blessed; by that Seed

  Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise

  150

  The Serpents head; whereof to thee anon

  Plainlier shall be reveald. This Patriarch blest,

  Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,

  A Son,10 and of his Son a Grand-child leaves,

  Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;

  155

  The Grandchild with twelve Sons increast, departs

  From Canaan, to a Land hereafter call’d

  Egypt, divided by the River Nile;

  See where it flows, disgorging at seaven mouths

  Into the Sea: to sojourn in that Land

  160

  He comes invited by a yonger Son11

  In time of dearth, a Son whose worthy deeds

  Raise him to be the second in that Realm

  Of Pharao: there he dies, and leaves his Race

  Growing into a Nation, and now grown

  165

  Suspected to a sequent King,12 who seeks

  To stop thir overgrowth, as inmate guests

  Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves

  Inhospitably, and kills thir infant Males:

  Till by two brethren (those two brethren call

  170

  Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim

  His people from enthralment, they return

  With glory and spoil back to thir promis’d Land.

  But first the lawless Tyrant, who denies

  To know thir God, or message to regard,

  175

  Must be compell’d by Signes and Judgements dire;

  To blood unshed the Rivers must be turnd,

  Frogs, Lice and Flies must all his Palace fill

  With loath’d intrusion, and fill all the land;

  His Cattel must of Rot and Murren die,

  180

  Botches and blains must all his flesh imboss,13

  And all his people; Thunder mixt with Hail,

  Hail mixt with fire must rend th’ Egyptian Skie

  And wheel on th’ Earth, devouring where it rouls;

  What it devours not, Herb, or Fruit, or Grain,

  185

  A darksom Cloud of Locusts swarming down

  Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green:

  Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,

  Palpable darkness, and blot out three dayes;

  Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born

  190

  Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds

  The River-dragon14 tam’d at length submits

  To let his sojourners depart, and oft

  Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as Ice

  More hard’n’d after thaw, till in his rage

  195

  Pursuing whom he late dismiss’d, the Sea

  Swallows him with his Host, but them lets pass

  As on drie land between two christal walls,

  Aw’d by the rod of Moses so to stand

  Divided, till his rescu’d gain thir shoar:

  200

  Such wondrous power God to his Saint will lend,

  Though present in his Angel, who shall goe

  Before them in a Cloud, and Pillar of Fire,

  By day a Cloud, by night a Pillar of Fire,

  To guide them in thir journey, and remove

  205

  Behind them, while th’ obdurat King pursues:

  All night he will pursue, but his approach

  Darkness defends15 between till morning Watch;

  Then through the Firey Pillar and the Cloud

  God looking forth will trouble all his Host

  210

  And craze16 thir Chariot wheels: when by command

  Moses once more his potent Rod extends

  Over the Sea; the Sea his Rod obeys;

  On thir imbattell’d ranks the Waves return,

  And overwhelm thir Warr: the Race elect

  215

  Safe towards Canaan from the shoar advance

  Through the wild Desert, not the readiest way,

  Least entring on the Canaanite allarmd

  Warr terrifie them inexpert, and fear

  Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather

  220

  Inglorious life with servitude; for life

  To noble and ignoble is more sweet

  Untraind in Armes, where rashness leads not on.

  This also shall they gain by thir delay

  In the wide Wilderness, there they shall found

  225

  Thir government, and thir great Senate17 choose

  Through the twelve Tribes, to rule by Laws ordaind:

  God from the Mount of Sinai, whose gray top

  Shall tremble, he descending, will himself

  In Thunder Lightning and loud Trumpets sound

  230

  Ordain them Laws; part such as appertain

  To civil Justice, part religious Rites

  Of sacrifice, informing them, by types

  And shadows, of that destind Seed to bruise

  The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve

  235

  Mankinds deliverance. But the voice of God

  To mortal ear is dreadful; they beseech

  That Moses might report to them his will,

  And terror cease; he grants what they besaught

  Instructed that to God is no access

  240

  Without Mediator, whose high Office now

  Moses in figure18 beares, to introduce

  One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,

  And all the Prophets in thir Age the times

  Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus Laws and Rites

  245

  Establisht, such delight hath God in Men

  Obedient to his will, that he voutsafes

  Among them to set up his Tabernacle,

  The holy One with mortal Men to dwell:

  By his prescript a Sanctuary is fram’d

  250

  Of Cedar, overlaid with Gold, therein

  An Ark, and in the Ark his Testimony,

  The Records of his Cov’nant, over these

  A Mercie-seat19 of Gold between the wings

  Of two bright Cherubim, before him burn

  255

  Seaven Lamps20 as in a Zodiac representing

  The Heav’nly fires; over the Tent a Cloud

  Shall rest by Day, a fiery gleam by Night,

  Save when they journie, and at length they come,

  Conducted by his Angel to the Land

  260

  Promis’d to Abraham and his Seed: the rest

  Were long to tell, how many Battels fought,

  How many Kings destroyd, and Kingdoms won,

  Or how the Sun shall in mid Heav’n stand still

  A day entire, and Nights due course adjourn,

  265

  Mans voice commanding,21 Sun in Gibeon stand,

  And thou Moon in the vale of Aialon,

  Till Israel overcome; so call the third

  From Abraham, Son of Isaac, and from him

  His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.

  270

  Here Adam interpos’d. O sent from Heav’n,

  Enlightner of my darkness, gracious things

  Thou hast reveald, those chiefly which concern

  Just Abraham and his Seed: now first I find

  Mine eyes true op’ning, and my heart much eas’d,

  275

  Erwhile perplext with thoughts what would becom

  Of mee and all Mankind; but now I see

  His day, in whom all Nations shall be blest,

  Favour unmerited by me, who sought

  Forbidd’n knowledge by forbidd’n means.

  280

&n
bsp; This yet I apprehend not, why to those

  Among whom God will deigne to dwell on Earth

  So many and so various Laws are giv’n;

  So many Laws argue so many sins

  Among them; how can God with such reside?

  285

  To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that sin

  Will reign among them, as of thee begot;

  And therefore was Law giv’n them to evince

  Thir natural pravitie,22 by stirring up

  Sin against Law to fight; that when they see

  290

  Law can discover sin, but not remove,

  Save by those shadowie23 expiations weak,

  The bloud of Bulls and Goats, they may conclude

  Some bloud more precious must be paid for Man,

  Just for unjust, that in such righteousness

  295

  To them by Faith imputed, they may find

  Justification towards God, and peace

  Of Conscience, which the Law by Ceremonies

  Cannot appease, nor Man the moral part

  Perform, and not performing cannot live.

  300

  So Law appears imperfet, and but giv’n

  With purpose to resign them in full time

  Up to a better Cov’nant, disciplin’d

  From shadowie Types to Truth, from Flesh to Spirit,

  From imposition of strict Laws, to free

  305

  Acceptance of large Grace, from servil fear

  To filial, works of Law to works of Faith.

  And therefore shall not Moses, though of God

  Highly belov’d, being but the Minister

  Of Law, his people into Canaan lead;

  310

  But Joshua whom the Gentiles Jesus call,24

  His Name and Office bearing, who shall quell

  The adversarie Serpent, and bring back

  Through the worlds wilderness long wanderd man

  Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.

  315

  Meanwhile they in thir earthly Canaan plac’t

  Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins

  National interrupt thir public peace,

 

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