Paradise Lost

by John Milton

  643. habit … succinct: refers to the wings he wore (l. 641); literally, tucked up.

  644. decent: becoming, proper.

  648. Uriel: Hebrew for “light of God.” The name is apocryphal (2 Esd. 4.1, 36). the sev’n: For the seven angels nearest God’s throne, see Rev. 1.5, 8.2.

  650–53. his … land: “Those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth” (Zech. 4.10). Cp. lines 533–34.

  656. authentic: authoritative.

  658. attend: wait upon; cp. line 270.

  664. favor: object of favor.

  670. “But instead can choose to dwell in any of these shining orbs.”

  709. mold: substance.

  715–16. The four elements are unwieldy compared with celestial ether, the agile fifth element or quíntessence, which Milton in the invocation identifies with light itself (l. 7).

  717. spirited with: animated by. The endowment of form triggers the animation of matter; cp. 7.464–66.

  718. orbicular: in circles. The natural motion of ether was thought to be circular; see Aristotle, On the Heavens 270b.

  721. “The ether left after the stars were formed enspheres the universe.”

  730. triform: waning, waxing, full. Cp. Horace, Odes 3.22.

  731. Hence: from here.

  740. ecliptic: the path of the sun.

  742. Niphates: mountain bordering ancient Assyria (4.126).

  BOOK IV

  THE ARGUMENT

  Satan now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against God and man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions: fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil; journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described; overleaps the bounds, sits in the shape of a cormorant on the Tree of Life, as highest in the Garden, to look about him. The Garden described; Satan’s first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their discourse, thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his temptation, by seducing them to transgress: then leaves them a while, to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel descending on a sunbeam warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape of a good angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his furious gestures in the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong angels to Adam’s bower, lest the evil spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom questioned, he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.

  O for that1 warning voice, which he who saw

  Th’ Apocalypse, heard cry in Heav’n aloud,

  Then when3 the Dragon, put to second rout,

  Came furious down to be revenged on men,

  “Woe to the inhabitants on Earth!” That now,

  While time was, our first parents had been warned

  The coming of their secret foe, and scaped

  Haply so scaped his mortal snare; for now

  Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,

  The Tempter ere th’ Accuser10 of mankind,

  To wreck11 on innocent frail man his loss

  Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell:

  Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold,

  Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,

  Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth

  Now rolling16, boils in his tumultuous breast,

  And like a devilish engine17 back recoils

  Upon himself; horror and doubt distract

  His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir

  The Hell20 within him, for within him Hell

  He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

  One step no more than from himself can fly

  By change of place: now conscience wakes despair

  That slumbered, wakes the bitter memory

  Of what he was, what is, and what must be25

  Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

  Sometimes towards Eden27 which now in his view

  Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad,

  Sometimes towards heav’n and the full-blazing sun,

  Which now sat high in his meridian30 tow’r:

  Then much revolving31, thus in sighs began.

  “O thou that32 with surpassing glory crowned,

  Look’st from thy sole dominion like the God

  Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars

  Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,

  But with no friendly voice, and add thy name

  O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams

  That bring to my remembrance from what state

  I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;

  Till pride and worse ambition threw me down

  Warring in Heav’n against Heav’n’s matchless King:

  Ah wherefore! He deserved no such return

  From me, whom he created what I was

  In that bright eminence, and with his good

  Upbraided45 none; nor was his service hard.

  What could be less than to afford him praise,

  The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,

  How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me,

  And wrought but malice; lifted up so high

  I ‘sdained50 subjection, and thought one step higher

  Would set me highest, and in a moment quit51

  The debt immense of endless gratitude,

  So burdensome still53 paying, still to owe;

  Forgetful what from him I still received,

  And understood not that a grateful mind

  By owing owes not56, but still pays, at once

  Indebted and discharged; what burden then?

  O had his powerful destiny ordained

  Me some inferior angel, I had stood

  Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised

  Ambition. Yet why not? Some other power61

  As great might have aspired, and me though mean

  Drawn to his part; but other powers as great

  Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within

  Or from without, to all temptations armed.

  Hadst thou66 the same free will and power to stand?

  Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,

  But Heav’n’s free love dealt equally to all?

  Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,

  To me alike, it deals eternal woe.

  Nay cursed be thou; since against his thy will

  Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

  Me miserable! Which way shall I fly

  Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?

  Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell75;

  And in the lowest deep a lower deep

  Still threat’ning to devour me opens wide,

  To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.

  O then at last relent: is there no place79

  Left for repentance, none for pardon left?

  None left but by submission; and that word

  Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame

  Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduced

  With other promises and other vaunts

  Than to submit, boasting I could subdue

  Th’ Omnipotent. Ay me, they little know

  How dearly I abide87 that boast so vain,

  Under what torments inwardly I groan;

  W
hile they adore me on the throne of Hell,

  With diadem and scepter high advanced90

  The lower still I fall, only supreme

  In misery; such joy ambition finds.

  But say I could repent and could obtain

  By act of grace94 my former state; how soon

  Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay

  What feigned submission swore: ease would recant

  Vows made in pain, as violent and void97.

  For never can true reconcilement grow

  Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

  Which would but lead me to a worse relapse

  And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

  Short intermission bought with double smart.

  This knows my punisher; therefore as far

  From granting he, as I from begging peace:

  All hope excluded thus, behold instead

  Of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,

  Mankind created, and for him this world.

  So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,

  Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;

  Evil be thou my good110; by thee at least

  Divided Empire with Heav’n’s King I hold

  By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;

  As man ere long, and this new world shall know.”

  Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face

  Thrice changed with pale115, ire, envy and despair,

  Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed

  Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.

  For Heav’nly minds from such distempers foul

  Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware,

  Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm,

  Artificer of fraud; and was the first

  That practiced falsehood under saintly show,

  Deep malice to conceal, couched123 with revenge:

  Yet not enough had practiced to deceive

  Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down

  The way he went, and on th’ Assyrian mount126

  Saw him disfigured, more than could befall

  Spirit of happy sort: his gestures fierce

  He marked and mad demeanor, then alone,

  As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen.

  So on he fares, and to the border comes,

  Of Eden132, where delicious Paradise,

  Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,

  As with a rural mound the champaign head

  Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides

  With thicket overgrown, grotesque136 and wild,

  Access denied; and overhead up grew

  Insuperable highth of loftiest shade,

  Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,

  A sylvan scene140, and as the ranks ascend

  Shade above shade, a woody theater

  Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops

  The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung:

  Which to our general sire gave prospect large

  Into his nether empire neighboring round.

  And higher than that wall a circling row

  Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit,

  Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue

  Appeared, with gay enameled149 colors mixed:

  On which the sun more glad impressed his beams

  Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow151,

  When God hath show’red the earth; so lovely seemed

  That lantskip153: and of pure now purer air

  Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires

  Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

  All sadness but despair: now gentle gales156

  Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense

  Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

  Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail

  Beyond the Cape of Hope160, and now are past

  Mozambique, off at sea northeast winds blow

  Sabean odors from the spicy shore

  Of Araby the Blest, with such delay

  Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league

  Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.

  So entertained those odorous sweets the fiend

  Who came their bane, though with them better pleased

  Than Asmodeus168 with the fishy fume,

  That drove him, though enamored, from the spouse

  Of Tobit’s son, and with a vengeance sent

  From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound.

  Now to th’ ascent of that steep savage172 hill

  Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow;

  But further way found none, so thick entwined,

  As one continued brake, the undergrowth

  Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed176

  All path of man or beast that passed that way:

  One gate there only was, and that looked east

  On th’ other side: which when th’ arch-felon saw

  Due entrance he disdained, and in contempt,

  At one slight bound181 high over leaped all bound

  Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within

  Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf183,

  Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,

  Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve

  In hurdled cotes186 amid the field secure,

  Leaps o’er the fence with ease into the fold:

  Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash188

  Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,

  Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no assault,

  In at the window climbs, or o’er the tiles;

  So clomb192 this first grand thief into God’s fold:

  So since into his Church lewd193 hirelings climb.

  Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life194,

  The middle tree and highest there that grew,

  Sat like a cormorant196; yet not true life

  Thereby regained, but sat devising death

  To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought

  Of that life-giving plant, but only used

  For prospect, what well used had been the pledge200

  Of immortality. So little knows

  Any, but God alone, to value right

  The good before him, but perverts best things

  To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.

  Beneath him with new wonder now he views

  To all delight of human sense exposed

  In narrow room Nature’s whole wealth207, yea more,

  A Heav’n on Earth, for blissful Paradise

  Of God the Garden was, by him in the east

  Of Eden planted; Eden stretched her line

  From Auran211 Eastward to the royal tow’rs

  Of great Seleucia212, built by Grecian kings,

  Or where the sons of Eden long before

  Dwelt in Telassar214: in this pleasant soil

  His far more pleasant Garden God ordained;

  Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow

  All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;

  And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,

  High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit

  Of vegetable gold; and next to life

  Our death the Tree of Knowledge grew fast by,

  Knowledge of222 good bought dear by knowing ill.

  Southward through Eden went a river large223,

  Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill

  Passed underneath engulfed, for God had thrown

  That mountain as his Garden mold high raised

  Upon the rapid current, which through veins

  Of porous earth with kindly228 thirst up drawn,

  Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill

  Watered the Garden; thence united fell

  Down the steep glade, and met the nether
flood,

  Which from his darksome passage now appears,

  And now divided into four main streams,

  Runs diverse, wand’ring many a famous realm

  And country whereof here needs no account,

  But rather to tell how, if art could tell,

  How from that sapphire fount the crispèd237 brooks,

  Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,

  With mazy error239 under pendant shades

  Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed

  Flow’rs worthy of Paradise which not nice241 art

  In beds and curious knots242, but Nature boon

  Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,

  Both where the morning sun first warmly smote

  The open field, and where the unpierced shade

  Embrowned246 the noontide bow’rs: thus was this place,

  A happy rural seat247 of various view;

  Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,

  Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind

  Hung amiable250, Hesperian fables true,

  If true, here only, and of delicious taste:

  Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks

  Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,

  Or palmy hillock, or the flow’ry lap254

  Of some irriguous255 valley spread her store,

  Flow’rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose256:

  Another side, umbrageous257 grots and caves

  Of cool recess, o’er which the mantling258 vine

  Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps

  Luxuriant; meanwhile murmuring waters fall

  Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,

  That to the fringèd bank with myrtle crowned,262

  Her crystal mirror262 holds, unite their streams.

  The birds their choir apply; airs264, vernal airs,

  Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune

  The trembling leaves, while universal Pan266

  Knit with the Graces and the Hours267 in dance

  Led on th’ eternal spring. Not that fair field268

  Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flow’rs268

  Herself a fairer flow’r by gloomy Dis268

  Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain268

  To seek her through the world268; nor that sweet grove

  Of Daphne by Orontes, and th’ inspired273

  Castalian spring273, might with this Paradise

  Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle275

  Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,275

  Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Lybian Jove,275

  Hid Amalthea and her florid son275

  Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea’s eye275;