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For anger's fake, finite to infinite

In punisht man to satisfie his rigour
Satisfi'd never; that were to extend
His fentence beyond duft and nature's law,
By which all caufes elfe according still
To the reception of their matter act,

Not to th'extent of their own fpheare. But fay
That death be not one ftroak, as I fuppos'd,
Bereaving fenfe, but endless miferie

From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and so last
To perpetuitie; ay me, that fear

Comes thundring back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head; both death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both,
Nor I on my part fingle, in me all
Pofteritie stands curft: faire patrimonie
That I must leave ye, fons; O were I able
To waste it all myself, and leave ye none !
So difinherited how would ye blefs

Me now your curfe! ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltlefs be condemn'd,
If guiltlefs? but from me what can proceed,
But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd
Not to do only, but to will the same

With me? how can they then acquitted stand
In fight of God? him after all disputes

Forc't I abfolve: all my evafions vain,

And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction: first and last
On me, me only, as the fource and spring

f all corruption, all the blame lights due; might the wrauth. Fond wish! couldst thou support hat burthen heavier than the earth to bear, han all the world much heavier, though divided With that bad woman? thus what thou defir'st, nd what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope f refuge, and concludes thee miserable eyond all past example and future,

o Satan onely like both crime and doom. confcience, into what abyss of fears

And horrours haft thou driv'n me: out of which
find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

Through the still night, not now, as ere man fell,
Wholsome and cool, and mild, but with black air
Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom,
Which to his evil conscience represented
All things with double terror: on the ground
Outstretcht he lay, on the cold ground, and oft
Curs'd his creation, death as oft accus'd
Of tardie execution, fince denounc't

The day of his offence. Why comes not death,
Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke
To end me? shall truth fail to keep her word,
Juftice divine not haften to be just ?
But death comes not at call, justice divine
Mends not her flowest pace for prayers or cries.
O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales and bowers,
With other echo late I taught your shades
To anfwer, and refound far other song.
Whom thus afflicted when fad Eve beheld,

N

Defolate where the fate, approaching nigh,
Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd:
But her with ftern regard he thus repell❜d.

Out of my fight, thou ferpent, that name beft
Befits thee with him leagu'd, thyself as false
And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,
Like his, and colour ferpentine may shew

Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee
Henceforth; leaft that too heav'nly form, pretended
To hellish falfhood, fnare them. But for thee
I had perfifted happie, had not thy pride
And wandring vanitie, when leaft was safe,
Rejected my forewarning, and difdain'd
Not to be trufted, longing to be seen
Though by the devil himself, him overweening
To over-reach, but with the ferpent meeting
Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee,
To truft thee from my side, imagin'd wise
Conftant, mature, proof against all affaults,
And understood not all was but a fhew
Rather than folid vertue, all but a rib
Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,
More to the part finifter from me drawn,
Well if thrown out, as fupernumerarie
To my juft number found. O why did God,
Creator wife, that peopl'd highest heaven
With fpirits masculine, create at last
This noveltie on earth, this fair defect
Of nature, and not fill the world at once
With men as angels without feminine,
Or find some other way to generate

Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n,
And more that shall befall, innumerable
Disturbances on earth through female fnares,
Änd ftraight conjunction with this fex: for either
He never shall find out fit mate, but fuch
As fome misfortune brings him or mistake,
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
- Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse, or if the love, withheld
By parents, or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet, alreadie linkt and wedlock-bound
To a fell adversarie, his hate or shame:
Which infinite calamitie fhall caufe

To human life, and houshold peace confound.
He added not, and from her turn'd, but Eve
Not fo repulft, with tears that ceas'd not flowing,
And treffes all diforder'd, at his feet-
Fell humble, and embracing them, besaught
His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.

Forfake me not thus, Adam, witness heav'a
What love fincere, and reverence in my heart
I beare thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappilie deceav'd; thy fuppliant
I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel in this uttermost distress,

My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee,
Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?
While yet we live, fcarce one short hour perhaps,
Between us two let there be peace, both joyning,
As join'd in injuries, one enmitie

Against a foe by doom express affign'd us.
That cruel ferpent: on me exercise not
Thy hatred for this miserie befall'n,
On me alreadie loft, me than thyself
More miferable; both have fin'd, but thou
Against God only, I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will return,
There with my cries importune heav'n, that all
The fentence from thy head remov'd may light
On me fole cause to thee of all this woe,
Me, me only just object of his ire.

She ended weeping, and her lowlie plight
Immoveable till peace obtain'd from fault
Acknowledg'd and deplor'd, in Adam wraught
Commiferation; foon his heart relented
Towards her, his life fo late and fole delight,
Now at his feet fubmiffive in distress,
Creature fo fair his reconcilement seeking,
His counfel whom she had difpleas'd, his aide:
As one difarm'd his anger all he loft,

And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her foon. Unwarie, and too defirous, as before,

So now of what thou knowest not, who defir'st The punishment all on thy felf; alas,

Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain

His full wrauth whose thou feelst as yet least part, And my displeasure bearft so ill. If prayers

Could altar high decrees, I to that place

Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,

That on my head all might be visited,

Thy frailtie and infirmer sex forgiv'n,

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