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 780 To me and to my offspring would torment me With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die,
Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish With this corporeal clod; then 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 sinn'd; what dies but what had life And sin? the body properly hath neither. 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 doom'd. How can he exercise Wrath without end on man whom death must end? Can he make 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 punish'd man, to satisfy his rigor Satisfy'd 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. That death be not one stroke, as I suppos'd, Bereaving sense, but endless misery From this day onward, which I 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 my defenceless head; both death and I Am found eternal, and incorporate both, Nor I in my part single, in me all
Posterity stands curs'd: fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! 829 So disinherited how would you Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd, If guiltless? but from me what can proceed, But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd, 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 Forc'd I absolve: all my evasions vain, And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still But to my own conviction: 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 sup That burden heavier than the earth to bear, [port Than all the world much heavier, though divided With that bad woman? thus what thou desir'st
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 Conscience! into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driv'n me; out of which I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd! Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Through the still night, nct 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 represented
All things with double terror: on the ground 850 Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft Curs'd his creation, Death as oft accus'd
Of tardy execution, since denounc'd
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 pray'rs or cries.
woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers,
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 assay'd: But her with stern regard he thus repell’d: Out of my sight, thou serpent; that name best
Befits thee with him leagu'd, thyself as false And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape, Like his, and color serpentine may show 870 Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee Henceforth; lest that too heav'nly form, pretended To 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 disdain'd Not to be trusted, longing to be seen Though by the devil himself, him overweening To over-reach, but with the serpent meeting Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee, 880 To trust thee from my side, imagin'd 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 sinister, from me drawn, Well if thrown out as supernumerary To my just number found. O why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest Heav'n With spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect
Of Nature, 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 befal, 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; 900 Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd By a far worse, or if she love, withheld By parents; or his happiest choice too late Shall meet already link'd 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 turn'd; but Eve Not so repuls'd, with tears that ceas'd not flowing, And tresses all disorder'd, 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 deceiv'd; 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 join'd in injuries, one enmity
Against a foe by doom express'd assign'd us,
That cruel serpent: on me exercise not
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