Paradise Lost

by John Milton

  624. In eminence: in an elevated manner.

  625. exclusive: excluding.

  628. restrained conveyance: restraining transportation (such as the human body). Angels can apparently mix at a distance, uniting what Adam considered a disjunctive choice between virtual and immediate touch (l. 617).

  631. green cape: Cape Verde; verdant isles: the Cape Verde Islands off the west (Hesperean) coast of Africa.

  645. Since to part: since we must part.

  BOOK IX

  THE ARGUMENT

  Satan having compassed the Earth, with meditated guile returns as a mist by night into Paradise, enters into the serpent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labors, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each laboring apart. Adam consents not, alleging the danger, lest that enemy, of whom they were forewarned, should attempt her found alone. Eve, loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make trial of her strength. Adam at last yields: the serpent finds her alone; his subtle approach, first gazing, then speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, wondering to hear the serpent speak, asks how he attained to human speech and such understanding not till now. The serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden he attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both. Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the Tree of Knowledge forbidden. The serpent now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments induces her at length to eat. She, pleased with the taste, deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or not, at last brings him of the fruit, relates what persuaded her to eat thereof. Adam at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, resolves through vehemence of love to perish with her, and extenuating the trespass eats also of the fruit. The effects thereof in them both: they seek to cover their nakedness; then fall to variance and accusation of one another.

  No more1 of talk where God or angel guest

  With man, as with his friend, familiar2 used

  To sit indulgent, and with him partake

  Rural repast, permitting him the while

  Venial5 discourse unblamed: I now must change

  Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach

  Disloyal on the part of man, revolt,

  And disobedience; on the part of Heav’n,

  Now alienated, distance and distaste,

  Anger and just rebuke, and judgment giv’n,

  That brought into this world a world of woe,

  Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery,

  Death’s harbinger: sad task, yet13 argument

  Not less but more heroic than the wrath

  Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued

  Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage

  Of Turnus for Lavinia disespoused,

  Or Neptune’s ire or Juno’s, that so long

  Perplexed19 the Greek and Cytherea’s son;

  If answerable20 style I can obtain

  Of my celestial patroness, who deigns

  Her nightly visitation unimplored22,

  And dictates to me slumb’ring, or inspires

  Easy my unpremeditated24 verse:

  Since first this subject for heroic song

  Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late;

  Not sedulous by nature to indite27

  Wars, hitherto the only argument

  Heroic deemed, chief mast’ry to dissect

  With long and tedious havoc fabled knights

  In battles feigned; the better fortitude

  Of patience and heroic martyrdom

  Unsung; or to describe races and games,

  Or tilting furniture34, emblazoned shields,

  Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds;

  Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights

  At joust and tournament; then marshalled feast37

  Served up in hall with sewers and seneschals;

  The skill of artifice or office39 mean,

  Not that which justly gives heroic name

  To person or to poem. Me of these

  Nor skilled nor studious, higher argument

  Remains, sufficient of itself to raise

  That name44, unless an age too late, or cold

  Climate, or years45 damp my intended wing

  Depressed46, and much they may, if all be mine,

  Not hers who brings it nightly to my ear.

  The sun was sunk, and after him the star

  Of Hesperus49, whose office is to bring

  Twilight upon the Earth, short arbiter

  ’Twixt day and night, and now from end to end

  Night’s hemisphere had veiled the horizon round:

  When Satan who late fled before the threats

  Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improved

  In meditated fraud and malice, bent

  On man’s destruction, maugre56 what might hap

  Of heavier on himself, fearless returned.

  By night he fled58, and at midnight returned

  From compassing the Earth, cautious of day,

  Since Uriel, Regent of the Sun, descried

  His entrance, and forewarned the Cherubim

  That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driv’n,

  The space of seven continued nights he rode

  With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line

  He circled, four times crossed the car of night

  From pole to pole, traversing each colure;

  On the eighth returned, and on the coast averse67

  From entrance or Cherubic watch, by stealth

  Found unsuspected way. There was a place,

  Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change,

  Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise

  Into a gulf shot underground, till part

  Rose up a fountain by the Tree of Life;

  In with the river sunk, and with it rose

  Satan involved in rising mist, then sought

  Where to lie hid; sea he had searched and land

  From Eden77 over Pontus, and the pool

  Maeotis, up beyond the river Ob;

  Downward as far Antarctic; and in length

  West from Orontes to the ocean barred

  At Darien, thence to the land where flows

  Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roamed

  With narrow search; and with inspection deep

  Considered every creature, which of all

  Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found

  The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.

  Him after long debate, irresolute

  Of thoughts revolved, his final sentence chose

  Fit vessel, fittest imp89 of fraud, in whom

  To enter, and his dark suggestions hide

  From sharpest sight: for in the wily snake,

  Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark,

  As from his wit and native subtlety93

  Proceeding, which in other beasts observed

  Doubt might beget of diabolic pow’r

  Active within beyond the sense of brute.

  Thus he resolved, but first from inward grief

  His bursting passion into plaints thus poured:

  “O Earth, how like to Heav’n, if not preferred

  More justly, seat worthier of gods, as built

  With second thoughts, reforming what was old!

  For what god after better worse would build?

  Terrestrial Heav’n,103 danced round by other heav’ns

  That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,

  Light above light, for thee alone, as seems,

  In thee concent’ring all their precious beams

  Of sacred influence: as God in Heav’n

  Is center, yet extends to all, so thou

  Cent’ring receiv’st from all those orbs; in thee,

  Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears

  Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth<
br />
  Of creatures animate with gradual life

  Of growth, sense, reason113, all summed up in man.

  With what delight could I have walked thee round,

  If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange

  Of hill and valley, rivers, woods and plains,

  Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crowned,

  Rocks, dens, and caves; but I in none of these

  Find place or refuge; and the more I see

  Pleasures about me, so much more I feel

  Torment within me, as from the hateful siege121

  Of contraries; all good to me becomes

  Bane, and in Heav’n much worse would be my state.

  But neither here seek I, no nor in Heav’n

  To dwell, unless by mast’ring Heav’n’s Supreme;

  Nor hope to be myself less miserable

  By what I seek, but others to make such

  As I, though thereby worse to me redound:

  For only in destroying I find ease

  To my relentless thoughts; and him destroyed,

  Or won to what may work his utter loss,

  For whom all this was made, all this will soon

  Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe;

  In woe then, that destruction wide may range:

  To me shall be the glory sole among

  The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred

  What he Almighty styled, six nights and days

  Continued making, and who knows how long

  Before had been contriving, though perhaps

  Not longer than since I in one night freed

  From servitude inglorious well nigh half

  Th’ angelic name142, and thinner left the throng

  Of his adorers: he to be avenged,

  And to repair his numbers144 thus impaired,

  Whether such virtue spent of old now failed

  More angels to create, if they at least

  Are his created, or to spite us more,

  Determined to advance into our room

  A creature formed of earth, and him endow,

  Exalted from so base original,

  With Heav’nly spoils, our spoils: what he decreed

  He effected; man he made, and for him built

  Magnificent this world, and Earth his seat,

  Him lord pronounced, and, O indignity!

  Subjected to his service angel wings,

  And flaming ministers to watch and tend

  Their earthy charge: of these the vigilance

  I dread, and to elude, thus wrapped in mist

  Of midnight vapor glide obscure, and pry

  In every bush and brake, where hap may find

  The serpent sleeping, in whose mazy folds

  To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.

  O foul descent! That I who erst contended

  With gods to sit the highest, am now constrained

  Into a beast, and mixed with bestial slime,

  This essence166 to incarnate and imbrute,

  That to the highth of deity aspired;

  But what will not ambition and revenge

  Descend to? Who aspires must down as low

  As high he soared, obnoxious170 first or last

  To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet171,

  Bitter ere long back on itself recoils172;

  Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed,

  Since higher174 I fall short, on him who next

  Provokes my envy, this new favorite

  Of Heav’n, this man of clay, son of despite176,

  Whom us the more to spite his Maker raised

  From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid.”

  So saying, through each thicket dank or dry,

  Like a black mist low creeping, he held on

  His midnight search, where soonest he might find

  The serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found

  In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled,

  His head the midst, well stored with subtle wiles:

  Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den,

  Nor nocent186 yet, but on the grassy herb

  Fearless unfeared he slept: in at his mouth

  The Devil entered, and his brutal sense,

  In heart or head, possessing soon inspired

  With act intelligential, but his sleep

  Disturbed not, waiting close191 th’ approach of morn.

  Now whenas sacred light began to dawn

  In Eden on the humid flow’rs, that breathed

  Their morning incense, when all things that breathe,

  From th’ Earth’s great altar send up silent praise

  To the Creator, and his nostrils fill

  With grateful smell, forth came the human pair

  And joined their vocal worship to the choir

  Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake

  The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs;

  Then commune how that day they best may ply

  Their growing work: for much their work outgrew

  The hands’ dispatch of two gard’ning so wide.

  And Eve first to her husband thus began.

  “Adam, well may we labor still205 to dress

  This garden, still to tend plant, herb and flow’r,

  Our pleasant task enjoined, but till more hands

  Aid us, the work under our labor grows,

  Luxurious by restraint; what we by day

  Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,

  One night or two with wanton growth derides

  Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise

  Or hear213 what to my mind first thoughts present;

  Let us divide our labors, thou where choice

  Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind215

  The woodbine round this arbor, or direct

  The clasping ivy where to climb, while I

  In yonder spring218 of roses intermixed

  With myrtle, find what to redress219 till noon:

  For while so near each other thus all day

  Our task we choose, what wonder if so near

  Looks intervene and smiles, or object new

  Casual discourse draw on, which intermits

  Our day’s work brought to little, though begun

  Early, and th’ hour of supper comes unearned.”

  To whom mild answer Adam thus returned.

  “Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond

  Compare above all living creatures dear,

  Well hast thou motioned, well thy thoughts employed

  How we might best fulfill the work which here

  God hath assigned us, nor of me shalt pass

  Unpraised: for nothing lovelier can be found

  In woman than to study household good,

  And good works in her husband to promote.

  Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed

  Labor, as to debar us when we need

  Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,

  Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse

  Of looks and smiles, for smiles from reason flow,

  To brute denied, and are of love the food240,

  Love not the lowest end of human life.

  For not to irksome toil, but to delight

  He made us, and delight to reason joined.

  These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands

  Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide

  As we need walk, till younger hands ere long

  Assist us: but247 if much converse perhaps

  Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield.

  For solitude249 sometimes is best society,

  And short retirement urges sweet return.

  But other doubt possesses me, lest harm

  Befall thee severed from me; for thou know’st

  What hath been warned us, what malicious foe

  Envying our happiness, and of his own

>   Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame

  By sly assault; and somewhere nigh at hand

  Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find

  His wish and best advantage, us asunder,

  Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each

  To other speedy aid might lend at need;

  Whether his first design be to withdraw

  Our fealty from God, or to disturb

  Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss

  Enjoyed by us excites his envy more;

  Or265 this, or worse, leave not the faithful side

  That gave thee being, still shades thee and protects.

  The wife, where danger or dishonor lurks,

  Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,

  Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.”

  To whom the virgin majesty270 of Eve,

  As one who loves, and some unkindness meets,

  With sweet austere composure272 thus replied.

  “Offspring of Heav’n and Earth, and all Earth’s lord,

  That such an enemy we have, who seeks

  Our ruin, both by thee informed I learn,

  And from the parting angel overheard276

  As in a shady nook I stood behind,

  Just then returned at shut of evening flow’rs.

  But that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt

  To God or thee, because we have a foe

  May tempt it, I expected not to hear.

  His violence thou fear’st not, being such,

  As we, not capable of death or pain,

  Can either not receive, or can repel.

  His fraud is then thy fear, which plain infers

  Thy equal fear that my firm faith and love

  Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced;

  Thoughts, which how found they harbor in thy breast

  Adam, misthought of her to thee so dear?”

  To whom with healing words Adam replied.

  “Daughter of God and man, immortal Eve,

  For such thou art, from sin and blame entire292:

  Not diffident293 of thee do I dissuade

  Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid

  Th’ attempt itself, intended by our foe.

  For he296 who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses

  The tempted with dishonor foul, supposed

  Not incorruptible of faith, not proof

  Against temptation: thou thyself with scorn

  And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong,

  Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then,

  If such affront I labor to avert

  From thee alone, which on us both at once

  The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare,

  Or daring, first on me th’ assault shall light.