With incense, where the golden altar fumed
By their great Intercessor, came in sight
Before the father's throne: them the glad Son
Presenting, thus to intercede began:

See, Father, what first-fruits on earth are sprung
From thy implanted grace in man; these sighs
And prayers, which in the golden censer, mix'd
With incense I thy priest before thee bring:
Fruits of more pleasing savour, from thy seed
Sown with contrition in his heart, than those
Which his own hand manuring, all the trees
Of Paradise could have produced, ere fallen
From innocence. Now, therefore, bend thine ear
To supplication; hear his sighs though mute;
Unskilful with what words to pray, let me
Interpret for him; me his advocate

And propitiation; all his works on me,

Good or not good, ingraft; my merit those

Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay, Accept me; and, in me, from these receive

The smell of peace toward mankind; let him live Before thee reconciled, at least his days

Number'd, though sad; till death, his doom (which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,)

To better life shall yield him; where with me
All my redeem'd may dwell in joy and bliss
Made one with me, as I with thee am one.

To whom the Father, without cloud serene ;
All thy request for man, accepted Son,
Obtain; all thy request was my decree :
But, longer in that Paradise to dwell,
The law I gave to nature him forbids:

hose pure immortal elements, that know o gross, no unharmonious mixture foul, ject him, tainted now; and purge him off, s a distemper, gross, to air as gross, nd mortal food; as may dispose him best or dissolution wrought by sin, that first Distemper'd all things, and of incorrupt Corrupted. I, at first, with too fair gifts Created him endow'd with happiness And immortality: that fondly lost, This other served but to enternize wo; Fill I provided death: so death becomes His final remedy; and, after life, Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined By faith and faithful works, to second life, Waked in the renovation of the just, Resigns him up with heaven and earth renew'd. But let us call to synod all the bless'd

Through heaven's wide bounds: from them I will not hide

My judgments; how with mankind I proceed,
As how with peccant angels late they saw,

And in their state, though firm, stood more confirm'd.

He ended and the son gave signal high To the bright minister that watch'd; he blew His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps When God descended, and perhaps once more To sound at general doom. The angelic blast Fill'd all the regions: from their blissful bowers Of amarantine shade, fountain or spring,

By the waters of life, where'er they sat

In fellowships of joy, the sons of light
Hasted, resorting to the summons high;

And took their seats: till from his throne supreme
The Almighty thus pronounced his sov'reign will:
O sons, like one of us Man is become

To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that defended fruit; but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;
Happier had it sufficed him to have known
Good by itself, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents and prays contrite,
By motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know, how variable and vain,
Self-left.

Lest therefore his now bolder hand
Reach a so of the tree of life, and eat,
And live for ever, dream at least to live
For ever, to remove him I decree,

And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitted soil.
Michael, this my behest have thou in charge;
Take to thee from among the Cherubim
Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the fiend,
Or in behalf of Man, or to invade

Vacant possession, some new trouble raise;
Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
Without remorse drive out the sinful pair;
From hallow'd ground the unholy; and denounce
To them, and to their progeny, from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urged
(For I behold them soften'd, and with tears
Bewailing their excess,) all terror hide.

f patiently thy bidding they obey, Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal;

lo Adam what shall come in future days, As I shall thee enlighten; intermix

My covenant in the woman's seed renew'd;

So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace:
And on the east side of the garden place,
Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
Cherubic watch; and of a sword the flame
Wide-waving; all approach far off to fright,
And guard all passage to the tree of life:
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey :
With whose stolen fruit Man once more to delude.
He ceased and the archangelic power prepared
For swift descent; with him the cohort bright
Of watchful Cherubim: four faces each
Had like a double Janus; all their shape
Spangled with eyes more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse,
Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile,
To resalute the world with sacred light,

Leucothea waked; and with fresh dews embalm'd
The earth when Adam and first matron Eve
Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above; new hope to spring
Out of despair; joy, but with fear yet link'd;
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd:
Eve, easily may faith admit, that all

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 bless'd, or to incline his will,
Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer
Or one short sight to human breath, upborne
Even to the seat of God. For since I sought
By prayer the offended deity to appease;
Kneel'd, 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 return'd
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 pass'd, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee,
Eve rightly call'd, mother of all mankind,
Mother of all things living, since by thee

Man is to live; and all things live for man.

To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek:

Ill worthy I such title should belong

To me transgressor; who, for thee ordain'd
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 vouchsafest,
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;