Convict by flight, and rebel to all law:

Conviction to the serpent none belongs.

Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose

Of high collateral glory; Him Thrones, and Powers,
Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant,
Accompanied to Heaven-gate; from whence
Eden and all the coast in prospect lay.

Down he descended straight; the speed of Gods

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Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes wing'd.
Now was the sun in western cadence low

From noon,
and gentle airs, due at their hour,
To fan the earth now waked, and usher in

The evening cool; when he, from wrath more cool, 95
Came the mild judge, and Intercessor both,

To sentence Man: The voice of God they heard
Now walking in the garden, by soft winds

Brought to their ears, while day declined; they heard,
And from his presence hid themselves among
The thickest trees, both man and wife; till God,
Approaching, thus to Adam call'd aloud:

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Where art thou, Adam wont with joy to meet
My coming seen far off? I miss thee here,
Not pleased, thus entertain'd with solitude,

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Where obvious duty ere while appear'd unsought: Or come I less conspicuous, or what change Absents thee, or what chance detains ?-Come forth! He came ; and with him Eve, more loath, though first To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed; Love was not in their looks, either to God, Or to each other; but apparent guilt, And shame, and perturbation, and despair, Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile. Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answer'd brief: I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom The gracious Judge without revile replied:

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My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not fear'd,

But still rejoiced; how is it now become
So dreadful to thee! That thou art naked, who
Hath told thee? Hast thou eaten of the tree
Whereof I
gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?
To whom thus Adam sore þeset replied:

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O Heaven! in evil strait this day I stand
Before my Judge; either to undergo
Myself the total crime, or to accuse
My other self, the partner of my life;
Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,
I should conceal, and not expose to blame

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By my complaint: but strict necessity
Subdues me, and calamitous constraint;
Lest on my head both sin and punishment

However insupportable, be all

Devolved; though should I hold my peace, yet thou

Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.

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This Woman, whom thou madest to be my help,

And gavest me as thy perfect gift, so good,

So fit, so acceptable, so divine,

That from her hand I could suspect nó ill,

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And what she did, whatever in itself,

Her doing seem'd to justify the deed;

She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

To whom the Sov'reign Presence thus replied:

Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey

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Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,

Superior, or but equal, that to her

Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whose perfection far excell'd
Hers in all real dignity? Adorn'd

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She was indeed, and lovely, to attract

Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts
Were such, as under government well seem'd;
Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright

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So having said, he thus to Eve in few:

Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?

To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelm'd, Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge

Bold or loquacious, thus abash'd replied:
The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.

Which when the Lord God heard, without delay
To judgment he proceeded on the accused
Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer
The guilt on him who made him instrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his creation; justly then accursed,
As vitiated in nature: More to know

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Concern'd not man (since he no further knew,)
Nor alter'd his offence; yet God at last
To Satan first in sin his doom applied,

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Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:
And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall:

Because thou hast done this thou art accursed 175
Above all cattle, each beast of the field;
Upon thy belly grovelling thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all. the days of thy life.
Between thee and the woman I will put
Enmity, and between thine and her seed;

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Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.

So spake this oracle, then verified

When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve,

Saw Satan fall like lightning down from Heaven,

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Prince of the air, then, rising from his grave,
Spoil'd Principalities and Powers, triumph'd
In open show; and, with ascension bright,
Captivity led captive through the air,
The realm itself of Satan, long usurp'd;
Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;
Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise;
And to the woman thus his sentence turn'd!
Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply

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By thy conception; children thou shalt bring
In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will
Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.

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On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced: Because thou hast hearken'd to the voice of thy wife, And eaten of the tree, concerning which

I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof: 200
Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow
Shalt eat thereof, all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth
Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
Till thou return unto the ground; for thou
Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.

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So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent; And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood Before him naked to the air, that now Must suffer change, disdain'd not to begin Thenceforth the form of servant to assume; As when he wash'd his servants' feet; so now As father of his family, he clad Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid; And thought not much to clothe his enemies: Nor he their outward only with the skins Of beasts, but inward nakedness much more Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness Arraying, cover'd from his Father's sight. To him with swift ascent he up return'd, Into his blissful bosom reassumed

In glory, as of old; to him appeased

All, though all-knowing, what had pass'd with Man Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.

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Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn'd and judged on Earth, Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death, In counterview within the gates, that now

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Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame
Far into Chaos, since the Fiend pass'd through,
Sin opening; who thus now to Death began:

O Son, why sit we here each other viewing
Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives
In other worlds, and happier seat provides
For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be
But that success attends him; if mishap,
Ere this he had return'd, with fury driven
By his avengers; since no place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
Wings growing, and dominion given me large
Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or sympathy, or some connatural force,
Powerful at greatest distance to unite,
With secret amity things of like kind,

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By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade
Inseparable, must with me along:

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Over this main from Hell to that new world,

Where Satan now prevails: a monument

Of merit high to all the infernal host,
Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,
Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.

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Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn

By this new-felt attraction and instinct.

Whom thus the meagre shadow answer'd soon:

Go, whither Fate and inclination strong

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Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err

The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw

Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste

The savour of death from all things there that live