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The good which we enjoy from Heaven descends:
But, that from us aught should ascend to Heaven,
So prevalent as to concern the mind

Of God high-blest, or to incline his will,
Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer,
Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne
Even to the seat of God. For since I sought
By prayer the offended Deity to appease,
Kneeled, and before him humbled all my heart,
Methought I saw him placable, and mild,
Bending his ear: persuasion in me grew
That I was heard with favour; peace returned
Home to my breast; and to my memory
His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe;
Which, then not minded in dismay, yet now
Assures me that the bitterness of death

Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee,
Eve rightly called, mother of all mankind!
Mother of all things living, since by thee
Man is to live; and all things live for man.'

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To whom thus Eve, with sad demeanour meek:
Ill-worthy I, such title should belong

To me transgressor! who, for thee ordained
A help, became thy snare: to me reproach
Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise.
But infinite in pardon was my Judge,

That I, who first brought death on all, am graced
The source of life: next favourable thou,
Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf'st,
Far other name deserving. But the field
To labour calls us, now with sweat imposed,
Though after sleepless night; for see! the morn,
All unconcerned with our unrest, begins
Her rosy progress smiling: let us forth;
I never from thy side henceforth to stray,
Where'er our day's work lies, though now enjoined
Laborious till day droop: while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
Here let us live, though in fallen state, content!"

So spake, so wished, much-humbled Eve; but fate Subscribed1 not: nature first gave signs, impressed 1 Consented. So in Measure for Measure, act ii. :—

"Admit no other way to save his life,

As I subscribe not."

On bird, beast, air: air suddenly eclipsed,
After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight
The bird of Jove, stooped from his airy tour,
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove;
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace,
Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind;
Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight.
Adam observed, and with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve thus spake:

"O Eve! some further change awaits us nigh, Which Heaven, by these mute signs of nature, shows Forerunners of his purpose: or to warn

Us, haply too secure of our discharge

From penalty, because from death released

Some days: how long, and what till then our life,
Who knows? or more than this, that we are dust,
And thither must return, and be no more?
Why else this double object in our sight

Of flight pursued in the air, and o'er the ground,
One way the self-same hour? why in the east
Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning-light
More orient in yon western cloud, that draws
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,

And slow descends with something heavenly fraught?"
He erred not; for by this the heavenly bands
Down from the sky of jasper lighted now

In Paradise, and on a hill made halt,

A glorious apparition, had not doubt

And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam's eye.
Not that more glorious, when the angels met
Jacob in Mahanaim,1 where he saw

The field pavilioned with his guardians bright;
Nor that, which on the flaming mount appeared
In Dothan,2 covered with a camp of fire,
Against the Syrian king; who, to surprise
One man, assassin like, had levied war,3
War unproclaimed. The princely hierarch

In their bright stand there left his powers, to seize

1 Gen. xxxii. 1.

2 2 Kings, vi. 13, sqq.

3 Warburton thinks that Milton hints at the war with Holland, which broke out in 1664, when the fleet of the Dutch was surprised and captured before war had been proclaimed-a transaction which gave great scandal to the Whigs.

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