Who then offended God; from whence he said Prone on thy belly serpent thou shalt creep!

Alas too clearly saying,

Quit every hope! O ye that now abide

By the infernal streams!

Quit every hope of heav'n!

And when between this woman and the serpent.

His word denounc'd alas! eternal war,

Ah then he comprehended human nature,
Which bears a female name.

What then are now our direst enemies?
Inhabitants of heav'n!

So that our most tormenting adversary

Is now no other but this human nature
Made an eternal denizen of heav'n !

What more! alas! have I the force to speak it?
The saying that the woman

Shall one day bruise his head

With mystery severe

Shews us the incarnation of the Word:

Saying to man his bread

He now by sweat must earn, is it not saying

After hard toil thou shalt to heav'n ascend?

Alas! perhaps it means

That bread may life denote,

Since man is destin'd to have life in heav'n:

If for the apple God was pleas'd to say

That man transgressing shall be doom'd to death,

He of the body spake ;
The spirit is immortal.

When in his speech to Eve

He doom'd her to bring forth, that indicates
Eternity assign'd to human nature.

The guard of cherubim that wheel around
Their fiery swords, forbidding

All feet to tread on that delicious garden,

I would declare to mean

But to cold marble turns my fault'ring tongue.

Briar. Shall it be said, that Briar checks his tongue ?

Believe not thou, our Lord,

That man to heav'n shall soar !

Too feeble are his wings;

Had he no other bar,

I am alone prepar'd to give him death:

Arm'd with a mighty club, or with a stone,

Tho' sure to be condemn'd

Myself alone to all the pains of hell!

Since I can well discern,

That in continual thinking of my glory,
Infernal pain will turn to heavenly joy.
Lucifer. O noble generous ardour!
Trust me not less avails

A heart magnanimous for glory panting,
Than a decided triumph!

Let us remain in hell!

Since there is more content

To live in liberty, tho' all condemn'd,
Than, as his vassals, blest.

Up from these filthy dregs!

A hideous mass sulphurious, rough, and round,
Let there be rais'd to light;

So wills the mighty chieftain of damnation.

SCENE THE THIRD.

The Infernal Cyclops arm'd with hammers, and

all those of the preceding scene.

That worn with toil, and smoke,

To heav'n are raising this enormous ball
Now fashion'd in Avernus.

Lucifer. Now as a perfect rival

Of God, I will, that Lucifer be seen.
He highly seated, on his throne in heav'n,
To us reveal'd the world, and thence arose
Our banishment from heav'n, and I this day,
Raising Vain Glory to a throne of splendor
Have now contriv'd to exterminate mankind:
If he from nothing, made the ample world

I too a nothing will now make of worlds,
Or of the world a nothing!

Now let this dark and misty mass dissolve,
And in the place of elements, and heav'ns,
Of all the stars, the moon, and radiant suns,
Let there come forth a strange unfinish'd monster!
Ondoso. O what a stormy burst, what monsters
rise,

All horrible and hissing,

With forms enormous howling,

And breathing blasts of fire!

Lucifer. Thou, that now seem'st a dark, and

hideous monster,

I will array thee in a human semblance,

Though but of vapour form'd;

Thou shalt be call'd the world.

Instead of shags, and vestments wild,

Sweat thou beneath a load of gems and gold,
For well I know how hence forth in my service,
Gold may be us'd in tempting man to sin.
Such thou shalt have around thee;

On thee I will bestow voice, gesture, snares,
In strictest tie to catch

The human foot of clay that walks incautious,
And all that thou canst wish

To overwhelm this man, all thou shalt have!
Thou beast of monstrous shape,

Thou like a lovely damsel shalt appear

Thou shalt be call'd the flesh,

With wiles, deceits, and ardours in thy train,
Whence man may fall in unbecoming errors;
And monster! thou, that art

So hideous and so meagre, death be call'd!
Be thou all human bone,

All ice, all madness, all a mass of horror,
To th' unhappy sinner.

Ye four terrific forms, of wildest semblance,
For horrid deeds I chuse you,

Ill omen'd words, and acts of cruel nature,
Your fashion to display!

Up, up, let each return

To his own element, his proper sphere,

Come! why delay to fire?

Haste all with me

And hence in silence glide,
Abandoning the light.

SCENE THE FOURTH.

Adam. Wretch that thou art! now cast thine

eyes around

No longer shalt thou see

Ought to console thy pain!