And in our faces evident the signs

Of foul concupiscence.

"Oh, might I here

In solitude live savage, in some glade

Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable
To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad,
And brown as evening! Cover me, ye pines!
Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs

Hide me!"

both together went

Into the thickest wood.

From thus distempered breast

Adam, estranged in look and altered style,

Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed :

"Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
Desire of wandering this unhappy morn,

I know not whence possessed thee! We had then
Remained still happy-not, as now, despoiled

Of all our good, shamed, naked, miserable!"

To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve :

"What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe ?
Imput'st thou that to my default, or will

Of wandering, as thou call'st it, which who knows
But might as ill have happened thou being by,
Or to thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there

Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned

Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake;
No ground of enmity between us known
Why he should mean me ill or seek to harm.
Was I to have never parted from thy side?
As good have grown there still, a lifeless rib.
Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head,
Command me absolutely not to go,

Going into such danger as thou saidst?
Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay,
Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss.
Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent,
Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me."
To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied:-
"Is this the love, is this the recompense
Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, expressed
Immutable when thou wert lost, not I,-
Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss,
Yet willingly chose rather death with thee?
And am I now upbraided as the cause
Of thy transgressing? not enough severe,

It seems, in thy restraint! What could I more?
I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold
The danger, and the lurking enemy

That lay in wait;

and perhaps

I also erred in overmuch admiring

What seemed in thee so perfect that I thought
No evil durst attempt thee. But I rue
That error now, which is become my crime,
And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall
Him who, to worth in woman overtrusting,
Lets her will rule; restraint she will not brook;

And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue,
She first his weak indulgence will accuse."
Thus they in mutual accusation spent

The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;
And of their vain contest appeared no end.

According to Milton, no sooner is it known in Heaven that Satan has triumphed, and has accomplished the ruin of Man, than the Deity, in the Person of the Son, descends to Earth to pronounce sentence.

from his radiant seat he rose

Of high collateral glory. Him Thrones and Powers,
Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant,

Accompanied to Heaven-gate, from whence
Eden and all the coast in prospect lay.
Down he descended straight.

This, as we have already seen, does not occur in Cædmon until after the heart-felt contrition of Adam and his Spouse, and their daily striving for a renewal of that Communion with their Maker, the loss of which, had entailed a sense of utter solitude, wellnigh unbearable.

After the return of the dread Judge to the Empyrean, Milton describes a scene of earthly, madding passions which it is almost impossible to picture to the mind as the sequel of the visit of the King Immortal. It is a continuation of the wild battling of hell-born feelings when,