BOOK XII.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE angel Michael continues from the flood to relate what shall succeed; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees to explain who that seed of the woman shall be which was promised Adam and Eve in the fall. His incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; the state of the church till his second coming. Adam, greatly satisfied and recomforted by these relations and promises, ascends the hill with Michael; wakens Eve, who all this while had siept, but with gentle dreams composed to quietness of mind and submission. Michael in either hand leads them out of Paradise, the fiery sword waving behind them, and the Cherubim taking their stations to guard the place.

As one who in his journey baits at noon,
Though bent on speed, so here the Archangel paused
Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;

Then with transition sweet new speech resumes:

“Thus thou hast seen one world begin and end; And man as from a second stock proceed. Much thou hast yet to see, but I perceive Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine Must needs impair and weary human sense. Henceforth what is to come I will relate; Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.

"This second source of men, while yet but few, And while the dread of judgment past remains 1. baits, rests for refreshment. 12. audience, hearing.

5

10

Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,
With some regard to what is just and right
Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace,
Laboring the soil and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn, wine, and oil; and from the herd or flock
Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,
With large wine-offerings poured and sacred feast,
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed, and dwell
Long time in peace, by families and tribes,
Under paternal rule: till one shall rise

Of proud ambitious heart, who, not content
With fair equality, fraternal state,

Will arrogate dominion undeserved
Over his brethren, and quite dispossess
Concord and law of nature from the earth;

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20

25

Hunting (and men, not beasts, shall be his game) 30
With war and hostile snare such as refuse
Subjection to his empire tyrannous.

A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled
Before the Lord, as in despite of Heaven,
Or from Heaven claiming second sovranty;
And from rebellion shall derive his name,
Though of rebellion others he accuse.
He, with a crew whom like ambition joins
With him or under him to tyrannize,
Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find
The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge
Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell:

18. Laboring, tilling; cultivating.

24. one, Nimrod. "He began to be a mighty one in the earth." Genesis x. S.

27. undeserved, not gained by right or merit.

30. Hunting. "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord." Genesis x. 9.

34. as, as if.

35

40

36. name, Nimrod, translated by some, rebel.

41. The plain. "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, -in the land of Shinar." "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there." Genesis x. 10 and xi. 2.- black bituminous gurge. In the Baby

ལ.

Of brick and of that stuff they cast to build

A city and tower whose top may reach to Heaven,

And get themselves a name, lest far dispersed
In foreign lands their memory be lost,
Regardless whether good or evil fame.
But God, who oft descends to visit men
Unseen and through their habitations walks
To mark their doings, them beholding soon
Comes down to see their city, ere the tower
Obstruct Heaven-towers, and in derision sets
Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase
Quite out their native language, and instead
To sow a jangling noise of words unknown.
Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud
Among the builders; each to other calls
Not understood, till hoarse and all in rage

45

50

55

As mocked they storm: great laughter was in
Heaven

And looking down, to see the hubbub strange
And hear the din; thus was the building left
Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named."

Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeased: "O execrable son, so to aspire

lonian plain, "plain of Shinar,"
are still found wells of naphtha
or bitumen. In the neighbor-
hood of Babylon (Babel) was an
inexhaustible supply of clay, of
which were made the bricks,
that, together with the bitumen,
formed the walls of the city,
whose remains may still be seen
on the banks of the Euphrates.
-gurge means whirlpool; gulf.
43. Of brick. See Genesis xi.
3, 4.-that stuff, slime or bitu-
men. This was used in the walls
of Babylon as mortar or cement.
-cast, plan; devise.

48-62. See Genesis xi. 5-9.

60

Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority usurped, from God not given:
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.
But this usurper his encroachment proud
Stays not on man; to God his tower intends
Siege and defiance. Wretched man! what food
Will he convey up thither to sustain
Himself and his rash army, where thin air
Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross,
And famish him of breath, if not of bread?"

To whom thus Michael: "
: "Justly thou abhorr'st
That son, who on the quiet state of men

Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue
Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapse true liberty

Is lost, which always with right reason dwells
Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being.
Reason in man obscured or not obeyed,

Immediately inordinate desires

And upstart passions catch the government

From reason, and to servitude reduce

Man till then free. Therefore since he permits
Within himself unworthy powers to reign
Over free reason, God in judgment just
Subjects him from without to violent lords,
Who oft as undeservedly enthrall

Twinned, as a twin. dividual, separate. See VII. 382. 86. obscured, being or having been obscured.

88. catch, snatch away.
94. undeservedly. See line 27.

scripture

His outward freedom: tyranny must be,
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
But justice, and some fatal curse annexed,
Deprives them of their outward liberty,

Their inward lost: witness the irreverent son
Of him who built the ark, who for the shame
Done to his father heard his heavy curse,
Servant of servants, on his vicious race.
Thus will this latter as the former world
Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last,
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
His presence from among them, and avert
His holy eyes; resolving from thenceforth
To leave them to their own polluted ways,
And one peculiar nation to select

115

From all the rest of whom to be invoked,
A nation from one faithful man to spring:
Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up
in idol-worship, O that men
(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,
While yet the patriarch lived who scaped the flood,
As to forsake the living God, and fall

To worship their own work in wood and stone
For gods! - yet him God the Most High vouchsafes
To call by vision from his father's house,
His kindred and false gods, into a land

95. must be. "Woe unto the
world because of offences! for
it must needs be that offences
come; but woe to that man by
whom the offence cometh "!
Matthew xviii. 7. See IV. 393,
394.

101. inward lost, inward lib-
erty being lost. See John viii.
81-36. the irreverent son. See
Genesis ix. 20-27.
112. of, by.

121

113. one faithful man, Abram or Abraham.

114. this side Euphrates, the eastern side, on which was Eden. 115. idol-worship. "Your fa

thers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods." Joshua χχίν. 2.

121-127. See Genesis xii. 1-3.