"O Heaven! in evil strait this day I stand Before my Judge—either to undergo Myself the total crime, or to accuse My other self, the partner of my life, Whose failing, while her faith to me remains, I should conceal, and not expose to blame By my complaint. But strict necessity Subdues me, and calamitous constraint, Lest on my head both sin and punishment, However insupportable, be all
Devolved; though, should I hold my peace, yet thou
Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.
This Woman, whom thou mad'st to be my help, And gav'st me as thy perfect gift, so good, So fit, so acceptable, so divine,
That from her hand I could suspect no ill, And what she did, whatever in itself, Her doing seemed to justify the deed- She gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied :— "Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey Before his voice? or was she made thy guide, Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place Wherein God set thee above her, made of thee And for thee, whose perfection far excelled Hers in all real dignity? Adorned She was indeed, and lovely, to attract Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts Were such as under government well seemed— Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part And person, hadst thou known thyself aright."
So having said, he thus to Eve in few :
Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?" To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed, Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied :"The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.”
Which when the Lord God heard, without delay To judgment he proceeded on the accused Serpent, though brute, unable to transfer The guilt on him who made him instrument Of mischief, and polluted from the end Of his creation-justly then accursed, As vitiated in nature. More to know Concerned not Man (since he no further knew), Nor altered his offence; yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied,
Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best; And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall :- "Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed Above all cattle, each beast of the field; Upon thy belly grovelling thou shalt go, And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life. Between thee and the Woman I will put Enmity, and between thine and her seed;
Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel." So spake this oracle-then verified
When Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve,
Saw Satan fall like lightning down from Heaven, Prince of the Air; then, rising from his grave, Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed In open show, and, with ascension bright, Captivity led captive through the Air, The realm itself of Satan, long usurped, Whom he shall tread at last under our feet, Even he who now foretold his fatal bruise, And to the Woman thus his sentence turned :- "Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply
By thy conception; children thou shalt bring In sorrow forth, and to thy husband's will Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule."
On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced:"Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, And eaten of the tree concerning which
I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof, 200 Curs'd is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow
Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field ; In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, Till thou return unto the ground; for thou Out of the ground wast taken : know thy birth, For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return."
So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent, And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood Before him naked to the air, that now
Must suffer change, disdained not to begin Thenceforth the form of servant to assume. As when he washed his servants' feet, so now, As father of his family, he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, Or, as the snake, with youthful coat repaid; And thought not much to clothe his enemies. Nor he their outward only with the skins Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness Arraying, covered from his Father's sight. To him with swift ascent he up returned, Into his blissful bosom reassumed In glory as of old; to him, appeased,
All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.
Meanwhile, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,
Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death, In counterview within the gates, that now Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed through, Sin opening; who thus now to Death began :- "O Son, why sit we here, each other viewing Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives In other worlds, and happier seat provides For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be
But that success attends him; if mishap, Ere this he had returned, with fury driven
By his avengers, since no place like this Can fit his punishment, or their revenge. Methinks I feel new strength within me rise, Wings growing, and dominion given me large Beyond this Deep-whatever draws me on, Or sympathy, or some connatural force, Powerful at greatest distance to unite With secret amity things of like kind By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade Inseparable, must with me along ;
For Death from Sin no power can separate. But, lest the difficulty of passing back Stay his return perhaps over this gulf Impassable, impervious, let us try
(Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine Not unagreeable !) to found a path
Over this main from Hell to that new World Where Satan now prevails-a monument Of merit high to all the infernal host, Easing their passage hence, for intercourse Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn By this new-felt attraction and instinct."
Whom thus the meagre Shadow answered soon:- "Go whither fate and inclination strong Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err The way, thou leading: such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste
The savour of death from all things there that live. Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid."
So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell Of mortal change on Earth. As when a flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, Against the day of battle, to a field
Where armies lie encamped come flying, lured With scent of living carcases designed For death the following day in bloody fight; So scented the grim Feature, and upturned
His nostril wide into the murky air, Sagacious of his quarry from so far.
Then both, from out Hell-gates, into the waste Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,
Flew diverse, and, with power (their power was great) Hovering upon the waters, what they met
Solid or slimy, as in raging sea
Tossed up and down, together crowded drove,
From each side shoaling, towards the mouth of Hell; As when two polar winds, blowing adverse Upon the Cronian sea, together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way Beyond Petsora eastward to the rich
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry, As with a trident smote, and fixed as firm As Delos, floating once; the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move, And with asphaltic slime; broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on 300 Over the foaming Deep high-arched, a bridge Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenceless World, Forfeit to Death-from hence a passage broad, Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell. So, if great things to small may be compared, Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea, and, over Hellespont
Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,
And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.
Now had they brought the work by wondrous art Pontifical-a ridge of pendent rock
Over the vexed Abyss, following the track Of Satan, to the self-same place where he First lighted from his wing and landed safe From out of Chaos-to the outside bare
Of this round World. With pins of adamant
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