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Satan What thou and thy gay legions dare against; to no Whose easier business were to serve their Lord threats High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne,

gives

heed

And practised distances to cringe, not fight.'

To whom the Warrior-Angel soon replied
"To say and straight unsay, pretending first
Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy,
Argues no leader, but a liar traced,
Satan; and couldst thou "faithful" add?

name,

O

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O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
Army of fiends, fit body to fit head!
Was this your discipline and faith engaged,
Your military obedience, to dissolve
Allegiance to the acknowledged Power Supreme:
And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou

Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful Monarch? wherefore, but in
hope

To dispossess him, and thyself to reign?

But mark what I areed thee now: Avaunt!
Fly thither whence thou fledd'st.

hour

960

If from this

Within these hallowed limits thou appear,
Back to the Infernal Pit I drag thee chained,
And seal thee so as henceforth not to scorn
The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred.'

So threatened he; but Satan to no threats
Gave heed, but waxing more in rage, replied:-
'Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains,
Proud limitary Cherub! but ere then

971

Dreadful deeds

had en

Far heavier load thyself expect to feel
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King
Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, sued
Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels
In progress through the road of Heaven star-

paved.'

While thus he spake, the angelic squadron
bright

Turned fiery red, sharpening in moonèd horns
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported spears, as thick as when a field 980
Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends

Her bearded grove of ears which way the wind
Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting
stands

Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeful sheaves
Prove chaff. On the other side, Satan, alarmed,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood,

Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved :

His stature reached the sky, and on his crest
Sat Horror plumed; nor wanted in his grasp
What seemed both spear and shield. Now
dreadful deeds

990

Might have ensued; nor only Paradise,
In this commotion, but the starry cope
Of Heaven perhaps, or all the Elements
At least, had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn
With violence of this conflict, had not soon
The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Betwixt Astræa and the Scorpion sign,
Wherein all things created first he weighed,
The pendulous round Earth with balanced air 1000
In counterpoise, now ponders all events,

but Battles and realms. In these he put two weights, Satan The sequel each of parting and of fight:

flees

The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam;
Which Gabriel spying thus bespake the Fiend:-
'Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st
mine,

Neither our own, but given; what folly then
To boast what arms can do! since thine no more
Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled

now

To trample thee as mire. For proof look up, 1010
And read thy lot in yon celestial sign,

Where thou art weighed, and shown how light,
how weak

If thou resist.' The Fiend looked up, and knew
His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled
Murmuring; and with him fled the shades of
Night.

THE END OF THE FOURTH BOOK

PARADISE LOST

BOOK V

THE ARGUMENT

MORNING approached, Eve relates to Adam her trouble- 'Tis
some dream; he likes it not, yet comforts her: they Morn
come forth to their day labours: their morning hymn at
the door of their bower. God, to render Man inexcusable,
sends Raphael to admonish him of his obedience, of his
free estate, of his enemy near at hand, who he is, and why
his enemy, and whatever else may avail Adam to know.
Raphael comes down to Paradise; his appearance described;
his coming discerned by Adam afar off, sitting at the door
of his bower; he goes out to meet him, brings him to his
lodge, entertains him with the choicest fruits of Paradise,
got together by Eve; their discourse at table. Raphael
performs his message, minds Adam of his state and of his
enemy; relates, at Adam's request, who that enemy is,
and how he came to be so, beginning from his first revolt
in Heaven, and the occasion thereof; how he drew his
legions after him to the parts of the North, and there
incited them to rebel with him, persuading all but only
Abdiel, a seraph, who in argument dissuades and opposes
him, then forsakes him.

Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,
When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep
Was aery light, from pure digestion bred,
And temperate vapours bland, which the only

sound

Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,
Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song

The At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold; sweet But he thus, overjoyed: "O fruit divine, Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt, Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit

fruit of know.

ledge

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For gods, yet able to make gods of men!
And why not gods of men, since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows,

The author not impaired, but honoured more?
Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve!
Partake thou also happy though thou art,
Happier thou may'st be, worthier canst not be.
Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods
Thyself a goddess; not to Earth confined,
But sometimes in the Air, as we; sometimes
Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine, and see 80
What life the gods live there, and such live thou."
So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,

Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part
Which he had plucked: the pleasant savoury
smell

So quickened appetite that I, methought,
Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds
With him I flew, and underneath beheld

The Earth outstretched immense, a prospect

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My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down,
And fell asleep; but O how glad I waked
To find this but a dream!' Thus Eve her night
Related, and thus Adam answered sad :-

Best image of myself, and dearer half,
The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep

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