Of refuge, and concludes thee miferable
Beyond all paft example and future,
To Satan only like both crime and doom.
O Conscience, into what Abyss of fears
And horrors haft thou driv'n me; out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Through the ftill Night, not now, as ere man fell,
Wholfom and cool, and mild, but with black Air
Accompany'd, with damps and dreadful gloom,
Which to his evil Confcience reprefented
All things with double terror: on the Ground
Outftretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft
Curs'd his Creation, Death as oft accus'd
Oftardy execution, fince denounc'd
The day of his Offence. Why comes not Death,
Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke
To end me? fhall Truth fail to keep her word,
Juftice Divine not haften to be just ?
But Death comes not at call, Justice Divine
Mends not her floweft pace for prayers or cries.
O Woods, O Fountains, Hillocks, Dales and Bow'rs, With other echo late I taught your Shades
To answer, and refound far other Song,
Whom thus afflicted when fad Eve beheld,
Defolate where she fate, approaching nigh,
Soft words to his fierce Paffion she affay'd:
But her with ftern regard he thus repell'd.
Out of my fight, thou Serpent! that name beft
Befits thee, with him leagu'd, thy felf as falfe
And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,
Like his, and colour Serpentine may shew
Thy inward fraud, to warn all Creatures from thee
Henceforth; left that too heav'nly form pretended
To hellish falfhood fnare them. But for thee
I had perfifted happy, had not thy pride
And wandring vanity, when leaft was safe,
Rejected my forewarning, and difdain'd
Not to be trufted, longing to be seen
Though by the Devil himself, him overweening
To over-reach, but with the Serpent meeting
Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee
To truft thee from my fide, imagin'd wife,
Conftant, mature, proof against all assaults,
And understood not all was but a Shew
Rather than folid Virtue, all but a Rib
Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,
More to the part finifter from me drawn,
Well if thrown out, as fupernumerary
To my juft number found. O why did God,
Creator wife, that peopl'd highest Heav'n
With Spirits Masculine, create at last
This Novelty on Earth, this fair Defect
Of Nature, and not fill the World at once
With Men as Angels without Feminine,
Or find fome other way to generate
Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n,
And more that fhall befal, innumerable
Disturbances on Earth through Female fnares,
And ftrait conjunction with this Sex, for either
He never shall find out fit Mate, but fuch
As fome misfortune brings him, or mistake;
Or, whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
Through her perverfeness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse, or if the love, with-held
By Parents, or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet, already link'd and Wedlock-bound
To a fell adverfary, his hate or shame:
Which infinite calamity shall caufe
To human Life, and houshold peace confound.
He added not, and from her turn'd; but Eve Not fo repulft, with Tears that ceas'd not flowing, And treffes all disorder'd, at his feet
Fell humble, and embracing them, befaught
His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.
Forfake me not thus, Adam; witness Heav'n'
What love fincere, and reverence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceiv'd; thy fuppliant
Ibeg, and clafp thy knees; bereave me not,
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel in this uttermoft diftress,
My only ftrength and stay: forlorn of thee,
Whither fhall I betake me, where fubfift
While yet we live, fcarce one fhort hour perhaps,
Between us two let there be Peace, both joining,
As join'd in injuries, one enmity
Against a Foe by doom exprefs affign'd us,
That cruel Serpent: on me exercife not
Thy hatred for this misery befall'n,
On me already loft, me than thy felf
More miserable; both have finn'd, but thou
Against God only, I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will return,
There with my cries importune Heav'n, that all
The sentence from thy Head remov'd may light
On me, fole cause to thee of all this woe,
Me, me only just Object of his Ire.
She ended weeping, and her lowly plight,
Immoveable till peace obtain'd from fault
Acknowledg'd and deplor'd, in Adam wraught
Commiferation; foon his heart relented
Towards her, his life fo late and fole delight,
Now at his feet fubmiffive in diftrefs,
Creature fo fair his reconcilement seeking,
His counsel, whom she had displeas'd, his aid.
As one difarm'd, his anger all he loft,
And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her foon.
Unwary, and too defirous, as before immo
So now of what thou know'ft not, who defir'ft
The punishment all on thy felf; alas,
Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain
His Full wrath whose thou feel'ft as yet leaft part,
And My difpleasure bear'st so ill. If Prayers
Could alter high Decrees, Ito that place
Would speed before thee, and be louder heard, 1
That on my head all might be visited,
Thy frailty and infirmer Sex forgiv❜n,
To me committed and by me expos'd.
But rife, let us no more contend, norblameb Djwo
Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere, but strive
In offices of Love how we may light'n
Each others burthen, in our fhare of woe;
Since this day's Death denounc'd, if ought I fee, de
Will prove no fudden, but a low-pac'devil,
A long day's dying to augment our pain, asɔsh mani
And to our Seed (O hapless Seed) deriv’d. tw»zno (965
galzer
To whom thus Eve recovering heart, reply'd.
Adam, by fad experiment 1 know
How little weight my words with thee can find, MDOG
Found fo erroneous, thence by just event
Found fo unfortunate; nevertheless,
Reftor❜d by thee, vile as I am, to place
Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain
Thy Love, the fole contentment of my heart
Living or dying, from thee I will not hide
What thoughts in my unquiet breast are ris❜n,
Tending to fome relief of our extreams,
Or end, though fharp and fad, yet tolerable, o
As in our evils, and of eafier choice.
If care of our defcent perplex us most,
Which must be born to certain woe, devour'd
By Death at last, and miferable it is
To be to others caufe of mifery,
Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring
Into this curfed World a woful Race,
That after wretched Life must be at laft
Food for fo foul a Monster, in thy Power
It lies, yet ere Conception, to prevent
The Race unbleft, to being yèt unbegot.
Childless thou art, Childless remain: So Death
Shall be deceiv'd his glut, and with us two
Be forc'd to fatisfie his Rav'nous Maw.
But if thou judge it hard and difficult,
Converfing, looking, loving, to abstain
From Love's due Rites, Nuptial embraces sweet,^
And with defire to languish without hope,
Before the prefent object languishing
With like defire, which would be misery
And torment lefs than none of what we dread;
Then both our felves and Seed at once to free:
From what we fear for let both,us make short,
Let us feek Deaths or he not found, supply
With our own hands his office on our selves.-
Why ftand we longer shivering under fears,
That fhew no end but Death, and have the power,
Of many ways to die the shortest chusing,
Deftruction with deftruction to destroy
She ended here, or vehement despair
Broke of the reft; fo much of Death her thoughts
Had entertain'd, as dy'd her Cheeks with pale.
But Adam with fuch counsel nothing fway'd,
To better hopes his more attentive mind
Labouring had rais'd, and thus to Eve reply'd:
Eve, thy contempt of life, and pleasure seems
To argue in thee something more fublime
And excellent than what thy mind contemns
But felf-destruction therefore fought, refutes
That excellence thought in thee, and implies,
Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret
For lofs of life and pleasure over-lov'd..
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