Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics)

by Milton, John

  Oblique the centric globe: some say the sun

  Was bid672 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 smiled on Earth with vernant flow’rs,

  Equal in days and nights, except to those

  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

  From cold Estotiland686, and south as far

  Beneath Magellan687. At that tasted fruit

  The sun, as from Thyestean banquet688, turned

  His course intended; else how had the world

  Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,

  Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?

  These changes in the heav’ns, though slow, produced

  Like change on sea and land, sideral blast693,

  Vapor, and mist, and exhalation hot,

  Corrupt and pestilent: now from the north

  Of Norumbega696, and the Samoed shore

  Bursting their brazen dungeon697, armed with ice

  And snow and hail and stormy gust and flaw,

  Boreas and699 Caecias and Argestes loud

  And Thrascias rend the woods and seas upturn;

  With adverse blast upturns them from the south

  Notus and Afer black with thund’rous clouds

  From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce

  Forth rush the Levant and the ponent winds

  Eurus and Zephyr with their lateral noise,

  Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began

  Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first

  Daughter of Sin, among th’ irrational,

  Death introduced through fierce antipathy:

  Beast now with beast gan war, and fowl with fowl,

  And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,

  Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe

  Of man, but fled him, or with count’nance grim

  Glared on him passing: these714 were from without

  The growing miseries, which Adam saw

  Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,

  To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within,

  And in a troubled sea of passion tossed,

  Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.

  “O miserable of happy! Is this the end

  Of this new glorious world, and me so late

  The glory of that glory? Who now become

  Accursed of blessed; hide me from the face

  Of God, whom to behold was then my highth

  Of happiness: yet well, if here would end

  The misery, I deserved it, and would bear

  My own deservings; but this will not serve;

  All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,

  Is propagated curse729. O voice once heard

  Delightfully, ‘Increase and multiply,’

  Now death to hear! For what can I increase

  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 me740 as on their natural center light

  Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys

  Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!

  Did I743 request thee, Maker, from my clay

  To mold me man, did I solicit thee

  From darkness to promote me, or here place

  In this delicious garden? As my will

  Concurred not to my being, it were but right

  And equal748 to reduce me to my dust,

  Desirous to resign, and render back

  All I received, 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 refused

  Those terms whatever, when they were proposed:

  Thou758 didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good,

  Then cavil the conditions? And though God

  Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son

  Prove disobedient, and reproved, retort,

  ‘Wherefore didst762 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

  Fixed on this day? Why do I overlive,

  Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened 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 doubt782

  Pursues me still, lest all783 I cannot die,

  Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man

  Which God inspired, cannot together perish

  With this corporeal clod; then786 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 sinned; what dies but what had life

  And sin? The body properly hath neither791.

  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,

  But mortal doomed. How can he exercise

  Wrath without end on man whom death must end?

  Can he make798 deathless death? That were to make

  Strange contradiction, which to God himself

  Impossible is held, as argument

  Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,

  For anger’s sake, finite to infinite

  In punished man, to satisfy his rigor

  Satisfied never? That were to extend

  His sentence beyond dust and nature’s law,

  By which all causes else according still

  To the reception of their matter act,

  Not to th’ extent of their own sphere. But say

  That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,

  Bereaving sense, but endless misery

  From this day onward, which l feel begun

  Both in me, and without me, and so last

  To perpetuity; ay me, that fear

  Comes thund’ring back with dreadful revolution

  On my815 defenseless head; both Death and I

  Am found eternal, an
d incorporate both,

  Nor I on my part single, in me all

  Posterity stands cursed: fair patrimony

  That I must leave ye, sons; O were I able

  To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!

  So disinherited how would ye bless

  Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind

  For one man’s fault thus guiltless be condemned,

  If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,

  But all corrupt, both mind and will depraved,

  Not to do only, but to will the same

  With me? How can they then acquitted stand

  In sight of God? Him after all disputes

  Forced I absolve: all my evasions vain,

  And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still

  But to my own conviction831: first and last

  On me, me only, as the source and spring

  Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;

  So might the wrath. Fond wish! Couldst thou support

  That burden heavier than the Earth to bear,

  Than all the world much heavier, though divided

  With that bad woman? Thus what thou desir’st837

  And what thou fear’st, alike destroys all hope

  Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable

  Beyond all past example and future,

  To Satan only like both crime and doom.

  O conscience842, into what abyss of fears

  And horrors hast thou driv’n me; out of which

  I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!”

  Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

  Through the still night, not now, as ere man fell,

  Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black air

  Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom,

  Which to his evil conscience represented849

  All things with double terror849: on the ground

  Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground, and oft

  Cursed his creation, Death as oft accused

  Of tardy execution, since denounced853

  The day of his offense853. “Why comes not Death,”

  Said he, “with one thrice acceptable stroke

  To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word,

  Justice Divine not hasten to be just?

  But Death comes not at call, Justice Divine

  Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries.

  O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales and bow’rs,

  With other echo late I taught your shades

  To answer, and resound far other song.”

  Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld,

  Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh,

  Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed:

  But her with stern regard he thus repell’d.

  “Out of my867 sight, thou serpent, that name best

  Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false

  And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,

  Like his, and color serpentine may show

  Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee

  Henceforth; lest that too Heav’nly form, pretended872

  To872 Hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee

  I had persisted happy, had not thy pride

  And wand’ring vanity, when least was safe,

  Rejected my forewarning, and disdained

  Not to be trusted, longing to be seen

  Though by the Devil himself, him overweening

  To overreach, but with the serpent meeting

  Fooled and beguiled, by him thou, I by thee,

  To trust thee from my side, imagined wise,

  Constant, mature, proof against all assaults,

  And understood not all was but a show

  Rather than solid virtue, all but a rib

  Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,

  More to the part sinister886 from me drawn,

  Well if887 thrown out, as supernumerary

  To my just number found. O why888 did God,

  Creator wise, that peopled highest Heav’n

  With spirits masculine890, create at last

  This novelty on Earth, this fair defect891

  Of nature891, and not fill the world at once

  With men as angels without feminine,

  Or find some other way to generate

  Mankind? This mischief had not then befall’n,

  And more that shall befall, innumerable

  Disturbances on Earth through female snares,

  And strait conjunction with this sex: for either

  He never shall find out fit mate, but such

  As some misfortune brings him, or mistake,

  Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain

  Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained

  By a far worse, or if she love, withheld

  By parents, or his happiest choice too late

  Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound

  To a fell adversary, his hate or shame:

  Which infinite calamity shall cause

  To human life, and household peace confound.”

  He added not, and from her turned, but Eve

  Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing,

  And tresses all disordered, at his feet

  Fell humble, and embracing them, besought

  His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.

  “Forsake me not thus, Adam, witness Heav’n

  What love sincere, and reverence in my heart

  I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,

  Unhappily deceived; thy suppliant

  I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,

  Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,

  Thy counsel in this uttermost distress,

  My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee,

  Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?

  While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,

  Between us two let there be peace, both joining,

  As joined925 in injuries, one enmity

  Against a foe by doom express assigned us,

  That cruel serpent: on me exercise not

  Thy hatred for this misery befall’n,

  On me already lost, me than thyself

  More miserable; both have sinned, but thou

  Against God only, I against God and thee,

  And to the place of judgment will return,

  There with my cries importune Heaven, that all

  The sentence from thy head removed may light

  On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe,

  Me me only just object of his ire.”

  She ended weeping, and her lowly plight,

  Immovable till peace obtained from fault

  Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought

  Commiseration940; soon his heart relented

  Towards her, his life so late and sole delight,

  Now at his feet submissive in distress,

  Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,

  His counsel whom she had displeased, his aid;

  As one disarmed, his anger all he lost,

  And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon.

  “Unwary, and too desirous, as before,

  So now of what thou know’st not, who desir’st

  The punishment all on thyself; alas,

  Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain

  His full wrath whose thou feel’st as yet least part,

  And my displeasure bear’st so ill. If prayers

  Could alter high decrees, I to that place

  Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,

  That on my head all might be visited,

  Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiv’n,

  To me committed and by me exposed.

  But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame

  Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive

  In of
fices of love, how we may light’n

  Each other’s burden in our share of woe;

  Since this day’s death denounced, if aught I see,

  Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil,

  A long day’s dying to augment our pain,

  And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived965.”

  To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied.

  “Adam, by sad experiment I know

  How little weight my words with thee can find,

  Found so erroneous, thence by just event969

  Found so unfortunate; nevertheless,

  Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place

  Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain

  Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart,

  Living or dying, from thee I will not hide

  What thoughts in my unquiet breast are ris’n,

  Tending to some relief of our extremes,

  Or end, though sharp and sad, yet tolerable,

  As in978 our evils, and of easier choice.

  If care979 of our descent perplex us most,

  Which must be born to certain woe, devoured

  By Death at last, and miserable it is

  To be to others cause of misery,

  Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring

  Into this cursèd world a woful race,

  That after wretched life must be at last

  Food for so foul a monster, in thy power

  It lies, yet ere conception to prevent

  The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.

  Childless thou989 art, childless remain: so Death

  Shall be deceived990 his glut, and with us two

  Be forced to satisfy his rav’nous maw.

  But if thou judge it hard and difficult,

  Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain

  From love’s due rites, nuptial embraces sweet994,

  And with desire to languish without hope,

  Before the present object languishing

  With like997 desire, which would be misery

  And torment less than none of what we dread,

  Then both ourselves and seed at once to free

  From what we fear for both, let us make short,

  Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply

  With our own hands his office on ourselves;

  Why stand we longer shivering under fears,

  That show no end but death, and have the power,

  Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,

  Destruction with destruction to destroy?”

  She ended here, or vehement despair

  Broke off the rest; so much of death her thoughts

  Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.

  But Adam with such counsel nothing swayed,

  To better hopes his more attentive mind

  Laboring had raised, and thus to Eve replied.

  “Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems

  To argue in thee something more sublime