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No homely morfels! and whatever thing 605 The fcithe of Time mowes down, devour unIpar'd:

Till I in man refiding, through the race, His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect;

And season him thy last and sweetest prey. This faid, they both betook them several ways,

610

Both to destroy, or unimmortal make.
All kinds; and for deftruction to mature
Sooner or later: which th' Almighty feeing,
From his tranfcendent feat the Saints amongs
To thofe bright Orders utter'd thus his

voice.

615

See, with what heat thefe dogs of hell

advance

To waste and havock yonder world, which I

So fair and good created; and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly of man
Let in these wafteful Furies; who impute 620
Folly to me: fo doth the prince of Hell
And his adherents, that with fo much ease
I fuffer them to enter and poffefs

A place fo heav'nly, and conniving feem
To gratify my fcornful enemies,

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That laugh, as if, transported with some fit,
Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule:

And know not, that I call'd and drew them

thither,

My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and

filth,

630

Which man's polluting fin with taint hath

shed

On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burft,

With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one fling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at

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To fanctity, that fhall receive no ftain:

Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both pre

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He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud Sung Hallelujah, as the found of feas, Through multitude that fung',,Juft are thy

ways,

,,Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; ,,Who can extenuate Thee?

Son,

next, to the

645

,,Deftind reftorer of mankind, by whom

,,New heav'n and earth fhall to the ages rife,

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,,Or down from Heav'n defcend." Such was their fong,

While the Creator calling forth by name

His mighty Angels, gave them feveral 650

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charge,

As forted beft with prefent things. The Sun
Had firft his precept so to move, so shine,
As might affect the earth with cold, and heat,
Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call

Decrepit Winter; from the fouth to bring, 655
Solftitial fummer's heat. To the blanc moon

Her office they prefcrib'd; to th' other five

Their planetary motions and aspects

In Sextile, Square, and Trine, and Oppofite, Of noxious efficacy; and when to join 660 In fynod unbenign: and thaught the fix'd Their influence malignant when to show'r, Which of them rifing with the Sun, or fal

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Sea, air, and fhore: the thunder when to

roll

With terror through the dark aereal hall.
Some fay, he bid his Angels turn afcanfe

The Poles of earth twice ten degrees and more

From the Sun's axlc; they with labor

pufh'd

670

Oblique the centric globe: fome say, the Sun
Was bid turn from th' equinoctial road
Like diftant breadth to Taurus with to fev'n
Atlantic fifters; and the Spartan Twins
Up to the Tropic Crab;

amain

thence down

By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales,

675

As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime: elfe had the spring
Perpetual fmil'd on earth with vernant
flowers,

Equal in days and nights, except to those 680
Beyond the Polar circles: to them day
Had unbenighted fhone, while the low Sun
To recompenfe his diftance, in their fight
Had rounded ftill th' horizon, and not known
Or east or weft; which had forbid the fnow 685
From cold Eftotiland; and fouth as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit
The fun, as from Thyestean banquet, 'turn'd
His course intended; else how had the world
Inhabited, though finlefs, more than now 690
Avoided pinching cold and fcorching heat?
These changes in the Heavn's, though flow,
produc'd

Like change on fea and land; fideral blaft,
Vapor, and mift, and exhalation hot;

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Corrupt and peftilent! Now from the

North

695

Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore, Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice And fnow and hail and stormy guft and flaw, Boreas and Caecias and Argeftes loud

And Thrafcias rend the woods and feas up

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With adverse blast upturns them from the fouth

Notus and Afer black with thundrous clouds
From Sierra Liona: thwart of these as fierce
Forth rufh the Levant and the Ponent winds
Eurus and Zephyr; with their lateral noise, 705
Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began

Outrage from lifelefs things: but Discordfirst,
Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational
Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy:
Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with

And fifh with fifh:

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· Devour'd each other;

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to graze the herb all leaving,

nor ftood much in awe

Of man, but fled him, or with count'nance

grim

Glar'd on him paffing. These were from

without

The growing miferies, which Adam faw 715 Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,

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