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Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand

Silence, and, with these words, attention won :

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,

For in poffeffion fuch, not only of right,

I call ye, and declare ye now, return'd
Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth

Triumphant out of this infernal pit
Abominable, accurs'd, the house of woe,

And dungeon of our tyrant: now poflefs,

As lords, a fpacious world, to our native heav'n

Little inferior, by my adventure hard

With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell

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What I have done, what fuffer'd, with what pain 470 Voyag'd th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep

Of horrible confufion, over which

By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toil'd out my uncouth paffage, forc'd to ride
Th' untractable abyfs, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal night and chaos wild,
That, jealous of their fecrets, fiercely oppos'd
My journey ftrange, with clamorous uproar
Protefting fate fupreme; thence how I found
The new-created world, which fame in heav'n
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful,
Of abfolute perfection, therein man
Plac'd in a paradise, by our exile

Made happy: him by fraud I have seduc'd

From his Creator, and, the more to increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up
Both his beloved man, and all his world
To fin and death a prey, and so to us,
Without our hazard, labour, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me alfo he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute ferpent, in whose shape
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs
Is enmity, which he will put between

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Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruise my head:
A world who would not purchase with a bruife,
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account

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Of my performance: what remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full blifs?

So having faid, a while he stood, expecting
Their univerfal fhout and high applause
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all fides, from innumerable tongues,
A difmal univerfal hifs, the found

Of public fcorn: he wonder'd, but not long
Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now more ;
His vifage drawn he felt to fharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining
Each other, till fupplanted, down he fell
A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power
Now rul'd him, punish'd in the shape he finn'd
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue

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To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike to ferpents, all as acceffories

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To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming now

With complicated monsters head and tail,

Scorpion, and afp, and amphisbæna dire,

Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,

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And Dipfas; (not fo thick fwarm'd once the foil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, on the isle
Ophiufa ;) but ftill greateft he in the midft,
Now dragon grown, larger than whom the fun
Engender'd in the Pythian vale on flime,
Huge Python, and his power no lefs he feem'd
Above the reft ftill to retain: they all
Him follow'd iffuing forth to th' open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout
Heav'n-fallen, in station stood or just array,
Sublime with expectation when to fee

In triumph iffuing forth their glorious chief :

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They faw, but other fight instead, a crowd

Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell,

And horrid fympathy; for what they faw,

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They felt themfelves now changing: down their arms,

Down fell both fpear and fhield, down they as falt,
And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire forin

Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,

As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame

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Caft on themselves from their own mouths. There ftood

A grove hard by, fprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that
Which grew in paradife, the bait of Eve
Us'd by the tempter: on that prospect frange
Their earneft eyes they fix'd, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude

Now ris'n, to work them further woe or shame;
Yet, parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them fent, could not abitain,
But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees
Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks
That curl'd Megæra: greedily they pluck'd
The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;
This, more delusive, not the touch, but taste,
Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit
Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended tafte
With fpattering noise rejected: oft they aflay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefulleft difrelifh writh'd their jaws,
With foot and cinders fill'd, so oft they fell
Into the fame illufion, not as man

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[plagu'd

Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they
And worn with famine, long and ceafeleis hifs,
Till their loft fhape, permitted, they refum'd,
Yearly enjoin'd, fome fay, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc’d.

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However, fome tradition they difpers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the ferpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.

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Meanwhile in paradife the hellish pair
Too foon arriv'd,' Sin there in power before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began:
Second of Satan fprung, all conq'ring Death,
What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd
With travel difficult, not better far

Than ftill at hell's dark threshold to have fat watch
Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyself half starv'd?

Whom thus the fin-born monfter answer'd foon:
To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike is hell, or paradise, or heav'n,

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There beft, where most with ravin I may meet; Which here, though plenteous, all too little feems 600 To ftuff this maw, this vaft unhide-bound corps.

To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd : Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers, Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl, No homely morfels; and whatever thing

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The fcythe of Time mows down, devour unfpar'd;
Till I in man refiding through the race,

His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect,
And feafon him thy last and sweetest prey.

This faid, they both betook them several ways, 610 Both to deftroy, or unimmortal make

All kinds, and for destruction to mature
Sooner or later; which th' Almighty feeing,
From his tranfcendant feat the faints among,
To those bright orders.utter'd thus his voice:
See with what heat these dogs of hell advance
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I

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So fair and good created, and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly of man
Let in these wafteful furies, who impute
Folly to me; fo doth the prince of hell
And his adherents, that with so much ease
I fuffer them to enter and poffefs

A place so heav'nly, and conniving seem
To gratify my fcornful enemies,

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That laugh, as if, transported with fome fit

Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,

At random yielded up to their misrule:

And know not that I call'd and drew them thither

My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth

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Which man's polluting fin with taint hath shed

On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd,' nigh burst With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one fling

Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,

Both Sin and Death, and yawning Grave at laft,
Through Chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of hell

For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.

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Then heav'n and earth renew'd, fhall be made pure
To fanctity that shall receive no ftain:

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Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both precedes.
He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud

Sung hallelujah, as the found of feas,

Through multitude that fung: just are thy ways,

Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,

Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works:

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Deftin'd restorer of mankind, by whom

New heav'n and earth fhall to the ages rife,

Or down from heav'n defcend. Such was their fong,

While the Creator, calling forth by name

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His mighty angels, gave them feveral charge,
As forted beft with prefent things. The fun
Had first his precept fo to move, so shine,
As might affect the earth with cold and heat
Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call
Decrepit Winter, from the fouth to bring
Solftitial Summer's heat. To the blank moon
Her office they prefcrib'd, to th' other five

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