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Their planaetry motions and aspects
In fextile, fquare, and trine, and oppofite
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In fynod unbenign; and taught the fix'd
Their influence malignant when to shower,
Which of them rifing with the fun, or falling,
Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they fet
Their corners, when with blufter to confound
Sea, air, and fhore; the thunder when to roll,
With terror through the dark aeriel hall.
Some fay, he bid his angels turn ascanse
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the fun's Axle, they with labour push'd
Oblique the centric globe; fome fay the fun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like diftant breath to Taurus with the feven
Atlantic Sifters, 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 feafons to each clime; elfe had the spring
Perpetual fmil'd on earth with verdant flowers,
Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted fhone, while the low fun,
To recompenfe his distance, in their fight
Had rounded ftill th' horizon, and not known
Or east or weft, which had forbid the fnow
From cold Eftotiland, and fouth as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tafted fruit
The fun, as from Thyeftean banquet, turn'd
His courfe intended; else how had the world
Inhabited, though finless, more than now,
Avoided pinching cold and fcorching heat?
These changes in the heav'n's, though flow, produc'd
Like change on fea and land, fideral blast,
Vapour, and mift, and exhalation hot,

Corrupt and peftilent: now from the north
Of Norembega, and the Samoed shore,

Buriting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice,

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And fnow, and hail, and stormy guft, and flaw,
Boreas, and Cacias, and Argeftes loud,

And Thrafcias rend the woods, and feas upturn; 700
With adverse blast upturns them from the fouth
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

705

Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,
Daughter of Sin, among the irrational,

Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy:

Beaft now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each other; nor ftood much in awe
Of man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him paffing. Thele were from without
The growing miferies which Adam faw
Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To forrow abandon'd, but worse felt within,
And in a troubled fea of paffion toft,
Thus to difburden fought with fad complaint.
Omiferable of happy! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me fo late
The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of bleffed, hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness! yet, well, if here would end

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The mifery; I deferv'd it, and would bear
My own defervings; but this will not serve;
All that I eat or drink, or fhall beget,
Is propagated curfe, O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increase and multiply.
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply, but curfes on my head?

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Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling

The evil on him brought by me, will curse
My head? Il fare our ancestor impure,

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For this we may thank Adam; but his thinks
Shall be the execration; so befides

Mine own, that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,
On me as on their natural centre light

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Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradife, dear bought with lafting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man, did I folicit thee

From darkness to promote me, or here place

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In this delicious garden? As my will

Concurr'd not to my being, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,

Defirous to reign and render back

All I receiv'd, unable to perform

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Thy terms, too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I fought not. To the lofs of that,
Sufficient penalty, why halt thou added
The fenfe of endless woes? Inexplicable
Thy juftice feems; yet, to lay truth, too late
I thus conteft; then fhould have been refus'd
Thole terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou didit accept them: wilt thou enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God

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Made thee without thy leave, what it thy fon

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Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,

Wherefore didft thou beget me? I fought it not:

Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee

That proud excufe? yet him not thy election,
But natural neceffity, begot.

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God made thee of choice his own, and of his own

To ferve him; thy reward was of his grace,

Thy punishment then justly is at his will.

Be it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,

That duft I am, and fhall to dust return:

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O welcome hour whenever! Why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive,

Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathlefs pain? how gladly would I meet

Mortality, my fentence, and be earth

Infenfible, how glad would lay me down

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As in my mother's lap! there I fhould reft
And fleep fecure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worfe
To me and to my offspring would torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
Purfues me ftill, left all I cannot die,
Left that pure breath of life, the fpirit of man
Which God infpir'd, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then in the grave
Or in fome other difmal place, who knows
But I fhall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath
Of life that finn'd; what dies but what had life
And fin! the body properly hath neither.

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All of me then fhall die: let this appeale

The doubt, fince human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,

Is his wrath alio? be it, man is not fo,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercife

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Wrath without end on man whom death must end?

Can he make deathleis death? that were to make

Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impoffible is held, as argument

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Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,
For anger's fake, finite to infinite

In punish'd man, to fatisfy his rigor,

Satisfy'd never? that were to extend

His fentence beyond duft and Nature's law,

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By which all caufes elfe, according still

To the reception of their matter, act,

Not to th' extent of their own fphere. But fay

That death be not one stroke, as I fuppos'd

Bereaving fenle, but endless mifery

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From this day onward, which feel begun

Both in me, and without me, and fo last

To perpetuity? Ay me, that fear

Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution

On my defenceless head; both death and I
Are found eternal, and incorporate both;

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Nor I in my part fingle, in me all

VOL.II.

C

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Pofterity ftands curft: fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, fons; O were I able
To wafte it all myself, and leave ye none !

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So difinherited, how would you blefs

Me now your curfe! Ah, why fhould 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 fame

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With me? how can they then acquitted stand
In fight of God? him after all difputes
Forc'd I abfolve: all my evafions vain,

And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me ftill
But to my own conviction: first and laft

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On me, me only, as the fource and spring

Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;

So might the wrath. Fond wifh! couldst thou fupport
That burden heavier than the earth to bear,

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Than all the world much heavier, though divided

With that bad woman? thus what thou defir'ft,

And what thou fear'ft, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miferable

Beyond all paft example and future,

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To Satan only like both crime and doom.

O confcience, into what abyfs of fears

And horrors haft thou driven me: out of which

I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

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Through the ftill 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 confcience represented
All things with double terror: on the ground
Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft
Curs'd his creation, Death as oft accus'd
Of tardy execution, fince denounc'd

The day of his offence. Why comes not death,
Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke
To end me? fhall Truth fail to keep her word,
Justice divine not kasten to be just ?

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