by John Milton
585
The Soul of Man, or passion in him move.
What higher in her societie thou findst
Attractive, human, rational, love still;
In loving thou dost well, in passion not,
Wherein true Love consists not; love refines
590
The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat
In Reason, and is judicious, is the scale
By which to heav’nly Love thou maist ascend,
Not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause
Among the Beasts no Mate for thee was found.
595
To whom thus half abash’t Adam repli’d.
Neither her out-side formd so fair, nor aught
In procreation common to all kinds
(Though higher of the genial37 Bed by far,
And with mysterious reverence I deem)
600
So much delights me as those graceful acts,
Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions mixt with Love
And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign’d
Union of Mind, or in us both one Soul;
605
Harmonie to behold in wedded pair
More grateful then harmonious sound to th’ ear.
Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose
What inward thence I feel, not therefore foild,
Who meet with various objects, from the sense
610
Variously representing; yet still free
Approve the best, and follow what I approve.
To love thou blam’st me not, for love thou saist
Leads up to Heav’n, is both the way and guide;
Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask;
615
Love not the heav’nly Spirits, and how thir Love
Express they, by looks onely, or do they mix
Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?
To whom the Angel with a smile that glow’d
Celestial rosie red, Loves proper hue,
620
Answer’d. Let it suffice thee that thou know’st
Us happie, 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
625
Of membrane, joynt, or limb, exclusive barrs:
Easier then 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.
630
But I can now no more; the parting Sun
Beyond the Earths green Cape and verdant Isles38
Hesperean39 sets, my Signal to depart.
Be strong, live happie, and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
635
His great command; take heed least Passion sway
Thy Judgement to do aught, which else free Will
Would not admit; thine and of all thy Sons
The weal or woe in thee is plac’t; beware.
I in thy persevering shall rejoyce,
640
And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fall
Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies.
Perfet within, no outward aid require;
And all temptation to transgress repel.
So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus
645
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 honour’d ever
650
With grateful Memorie: 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 Bowr.
* * *
1 Compare Milton’s rendering of Ps. 8, 9–11.
2 carry out their duty (of supplying); see also “officious,” l. 99.
3 dark.
4 small and fixed in space (like a point).
5 regard with wonder.
6 immeasurable.
7 procession.
8 mild of manner.
9 far from the truth.
10 invent theories to explain astronomical phenomena, such as the rotation of a sphere with the earth as center or not as center of the universe, moving in full orbit of itself or in a small circle whose center lay on the circumference of a large circle (orbit within an orbit).
11 magnetic attraction.
12 imperceptibly; the three motions are rotation, revolution around the sun, and polar rotation around the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun).
13 the angles between the planes of the planets’ equators and their orbits; each sphere’s obliquity intersects another sphere’s. That is, the movements of the spheres are transverse.
14 the primum mobile.
15 of the sun (direct) and of the moon (reflected).
16 evidently disputable (since there are so many and they give off so little light).
17 unimpeded.
18 (which come) as a result of.
19 unknown.
20 make (obedience) a habit.
21 walked.
22 The description of Eden (through l. 499) is drawn from Gen. ii. 8–9, 15–24.
23 had shown a vision which seemed real.
24 submissive.
25 agency.
26 explained by ll. 331–32.
27 be in harmony, be suitable.
28 the one deeply concerned (taut), the other always careless (slack).
29 discriminating.
30 in all things perfect.
31 (nature).
32 spirits of the heart.
33 compliant.
34 the nightingale.
35 perfect.
36 self-esteem.
37 procreative.
38 Cape Verde (“green”) and the islands of the same name.
39 in the West.
BOOK IX
THE ARGUMENT
Satan having compast 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 thir labours, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each labouring apart: Adam consents not, alledging the danger, lest that Enemy, of whom they were forewarn’d, should attempt her found alone: Eve loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make tryal 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 wondring to hear the Serpent speak, asks how he attain’d to human speech and such understanding not till now; the Serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain Tree in the Garden he attain’d 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 pleas’d with the taste deliberates awhile whether to impart thereof to Adam or not, at last brings him of the Fruit, relates what perswaded her to eat thereof: Adam at first amaz’d, 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 thir 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
5
Venial1 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,
10
Anger and just rebuke, and judgement giv’n,
That brought into this World a world of woe,
Sin and her shadow Death, and Miserie
Deaths Harbinger: Sad task, yet argument
Not less but more Heroic then the wrauth
15
Of stern Achilles on his Foe pursu’d2
Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous’d,
Or Neptun’s ire or Juno’s, that so long
Perplex’d the Greek and Cytherea’s Son;
20
If answerable style I can obtain
Of my Celestial Patroness,3 who deignes
Her nightly visitation unimplor’d,
And dictates to me slumbring, or inspires
Easie my unpremeditated Verse:
25
Since first this Subject for Heroic Song
Pleas’d me long choosing, and beginning late;
Not sedulous by Nature to indite
Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument
Heroic deem’d, chief maistrie to dissect
30
With long and tedious havoc fabl’d Knights
In Battels feign’d; the better fortitude
Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom
Unsung; or to describe Races and Games,
Or tilting Furniture,4 emblazon’d Shields,
35
Impreses5 quaint, Caparisons and Steeds;
Bases6 and tinsel Trappings, gorgious Knights
At Joust and Torneament; then marshal’d Feast
Serv’d up in Hall with Sewers,7 and Seneshals;
The skill of Artifice or Office mean,
40
Not that which justly gives Heroic name
To Person or to Poem. Mee of these
Nor skill’d nor studious, higher Argument
Remains, sufficient of it self to raise
That name, unless an age too late,8 or cold
45
Climat,9 or Years damp my intended wing
Deprest, and much they may, if all be mine,
Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear.
The Sun was sunk, and after him the Starr
Of Hesperus, whose Office is to bring
50
Twilight upon the Earth, short Arbiter
Twixt Day and Night, and now from end to end
Nights Hemisphere had veild th’ Horizon round:
When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv’d
55
In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On mans 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,
60
Since Uriel Regent of the Sun descri’d
His entrance, and forewarnd the Cherubim
That kept thir watch; thence full of anguish driv’n,
The space of seven continu’d Nights10 he rode
With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line
65
He circl’d, four times cross’d the Carr of Night
From Pole to Pole, traversing each Colure;
On th’ eighth return’d, and on the Coast averse
From entrance or Cherubic Watch, by stealth
Found unsuspected way. There was a place,
70
Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wraught the change,
Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise
Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part
Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life;
In with the River sunk, and with it rose
75
Satan involv’d in rising Mist, then sought
Where to lie hid; Sea he had searcht and Land
From Eden over Pontus,11 and the Pool
Mæotis, up beyond the River Ob;
Downward as farr Antartic; and in length
80
West from Orontes12 to the Ocean barr’d
At Darien,13 thence to the Land where flows
Ganges and Indus: thus the Orb he roam’d
With narrow search; and with inspection deep
Consider’d every Creature, which of all
85
Most opportune might serve his Wiles, and found
The Serpent suttlest Beast of all the Field.
Him after long debate, irresolute
Of thoughts revolv’d,14 his final sentence chose
Fit Vessel, fittest Imp of fraud, in whom
90
To enter, and his dark suggestions hide
From sharpest sight: for in the wilie Snake,
Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark,
As from his wit and native suttletie
Proceeding, which in other Beasts observ’d
95
Doubt might beget of Diabolic pow’r
Active within beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he resolv’d, but first from inward grief
His bursting passion into plaints thus pour’d:
O Earth, how like to Heav’n, if not preferr’d
100
More justly, Seat worthier of Gods, as built
With second thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God after better worse would build?
Terrestrial Heav’n, danc’t round by other Heav’ns
That shine, yet bear thir bright officious Lamps,
105
Light above Light, for thee alone, as seems,
In thee concentring all thir precious beams
Of sacred influence: As God in Heav’n
Is Center, yet extends to all, so thou
Centring receav’st from all those Orbs; in thee,
110
Not in themselves, all thir known vertue appeers
Productive in Herb, Plant, and nobler birth
Of Creatures animate with gradual15 life
Of Growth, Sense, Reason, all summ’d up in Man.
With what delight could I have walkt thee round,
115
If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange
Of Hill and Vallie, Rivers, Woods and Plains,
Now Land, now Sea, and Shores with Forrest crownd,
Rocks, Dens, and Caves; but I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I see
120
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
Torment within me, as from the hateful siege
Of contraries;16 all good to me becomes
Bane, and in Heav’n much worse would be my state.
But neither here seek I, no nor in Heav’n
125
To dwell, unless by maistring Heav’ns Supream;
Nor hope to be my self less miserable
By what I seek, but others to make such
As I, though thereby worse to me redound:
For onely in destroying I find ease
130
To my relentless thoughts; and him destroyd,
Or won to what may work his utter loss,
For whom all this was made, all this will soon
Follow, as to him linkt in weal or woe,
In wo then; that destruction wide may range:
135
To mee shall be the glorie sole among
Th’ infernal Powers, in one day to have marr’d
What he Almightie styl’d, six Nights and Days
Continu’d making, and who knows how long
Before had bin contriving, though perhaps
140
Not longer then since I in one Night freed
Th’ Angelic Name, and thinner left the throng
Of his adorers: hee to be aveng’d,
And to repair his numbers thus impair’d,
145
Whether such vertue spent of old now faild
More Angels to Create, if they at least
Are his Created, or to spite us more,
Determin’d to advance into our room
A Creature form’d of Earth, and him endow,
150
Exalted from so base original,
With Heav’nly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed
He effected; Man he made, and for him built
Magnificent this World, and Earth his seat,
Him Lord pronounc’d, and, O indignitie!
155
Subjected to his service Angel wings,
And flaming Ministers to watch and tend
Thir earthy Charge: Of these the vigilance
I dread, and to elude, thus wrapt in mist
Of midnight vapor glide obscure, and prie
160
In every Bush and Brake, where hap may find
The Serpent sleeping, in whose mazie foulds
To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.
O foul descent! that I who erst contended
With Gods to sit the highest, am now constraind17
165
Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial slime,
This essence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the hight of Deitie aspir’d;
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Descend to? who aspires must down as low
170
As high he soard, obnoxious18 first or last
To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on it self recoils;
Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim’d,
Since higher I fall short, on him who next
175
Provokes my envie, this new Favorite
Of Heav’n, this Man of Clay, Son of despite,
Whom us the more to spite his Maker rais’d
From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid.