pleads, but submits: the angels leads him up to a high hill, set before him in vision what shall happen till the flood.
THE ARGUMENT OF THE TWELFTH BOOK.
HE angel Michael continues from the flood to relate what shall succeed; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees to explain, who that seed of the woman should be, which was promised Adam and Eve in the fall; his incarnation, death, refurrection, and ascension; the state of the church till This fecond coming. Adam greatly fatisfied and recomforted by these relations and promises descends the hill with Michael; wakens Eve, who all this while had flept, but with gentle dreams compos'd to quietness of mind and fubmiffion. Michael in either hand leads them out of Paradise; the fiery fword waving behind them, and the cherubim taking their stations to guard the place,
F man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blisful feat,
,Sing heav'nly muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen feed,
In the beginning how the heav'ns and earth
Rofe out of chaos: or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to foar
Above th'Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that doft prefer
Before all temples th'upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great argument
I may affert eternal providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
Say first, for heav'n hides nothing from thy view,
Nor the deep tract of hell, say first what cause
Mov'd our grand parents in that happy state,
Favour'd of heav'n so highly, to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress his will
For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt ?
Th'infernal ferpent; he it was whose guile
Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceiv'd
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from heav'n, with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
To fet himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equall'd the Most High,
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Rais'd impious war in heav'n and battle proud
With vain attempt. Him the almighty power
Hurl'd headlong flaming from th'ethereal sky-
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durft defy th'Omnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery gulph
Confounded though immortal: but his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of loft happiness and lasting pain
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes,
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay,
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as angels ken he views
The dismal situation waste and wild,
A dungeon horrible, on all fides round
As one great furnace flam'd. yet from those flames.
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd only to discover fights of woe,
Regions of forrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever-burning fulphur unconfum'd:
Such place eternal justice had prepar'd
For those rebellious, here their prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and their portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of heav'n
As from the center thrice to the utmost pole.
O how unlike the place from whence they fell!
There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon difcerns, and welt'ring by his fide
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd
Beelzebub. To whom th'arch enemy,
And thence in heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid filence thus began.
If thou beeft he; but O how fall'n! how chang'd From him, who in the happy realms of light Cloth'd with transcendent brightness didst outshine Myriads though bright: if he whom mutual league, United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise,
Join'd with me once, now misery hath join'd
In equal ruin: into what pit thou seest
From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger prov'd
He with his thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms? yet not for those,
Nor what the potent victor in his rage
Can else inflict, do I repent or change,
Though chang'd in outward luftre; that fix'd mind,
And high disdain from fenfe of injur'd merit,
That with the Mightiest rais'd me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along
Innumerable force of spirits arm'd,
That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,
His utmost pow'r with adverse pow'r oppos'd
In dubious battel on the plains of heaven,
And shook his throne. What though the field be loft?
All is not loft; th' unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and fue for grace
With fuppliant knee, and deify his power,
Who from the terror of this arm fo late
Doubted his empire; that were low indeed,
"That were an ignominy, and shame beneath
This downfal; fince by fate the strength of Gods
And this empyreal substance cannot fail,
Since through experience of this great event
In arms not worse, in forefight much advanc'd,
We may with more fuccefsful hope refolve
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