Pansies, and violets, and asphodel, And hyacinth; Earth's freshest softest lap. 1040 1045 About their spirits had play'd, and inmost powers Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone : Just confidence, and native righteousness, 1055 And honour, from about them, naked left To guilty Shame; he cover'd, but his robe Herculean Samson, from the harlot lap Of Philistéan Dalilah, and waked Of all their virtue: Silent, and in face Shorn of his strength, They destitute and bare 1060 1066 Confounded, long they sat, as stricken mute : 1070 Our wonted ornaments now soil'd and stain'd, 1075 1080 Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store; 1085 Hide me, where I may never see them more !— 1090 The parts of each from other, that seem most To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen; Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sew'd, 1095 So counsel'd he, and both together went 1100 1105 Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose 1110 Columbus found the American, so girt With feather'd cincture; naked else, and wild Among the trees on isles and woody shores. 1115 Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part They sat them down to weep; nor only tears Speech intermitted thus to Eve renew'd : 1120 1125 1130 Would thou hadst hearken'd to my words, and staid With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn, 1135 I know not whence possess'd thee; we had then [Eve: To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus What words have pass'd thy lips, Adam, severe ! Imputest thou that to my default, or will Of wandering as thou call'st it, which who knows 1145 1150 As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. 1155 Going into such danger, as thou saidst ? Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay; 1160 To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied: Is this the love, is this the recompense Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve! express'd Who might have lived, and joy'd immortal bliss, 1165 It seems, in thy restraint; What could I more? 1170 That lay in wait; beyond this had been force; And force upon free will hath here no place. But confidence then bore thee on; secure 1175 Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps 1 also err'd, in overmuch admiring What seem'd in thee so perfect, that I thought The error now, which is become my crime, 1180 And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befal Him, who, to worth in women overtrusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; She first his weak indulgence will accuse. 1185 The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning; PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. Man's transgression known, the guardian Angels forsake Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the transgressors, who descends and gives sentence accordingly; then in pity clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new world, and the sin by Man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan their sire up to the place of Man: To make the way easier from Hell to this world to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the tract that Satan first made; then, preparing for Earth, they meet him, proud of his success, return ing to Hell; their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pande monium, in full assembly relates with boasting his success against Man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed with himself also suddenly into serpents, according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the forbidden tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death: God foretels the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but, for the present, commands his Angels to make several alterations in the Heavens and elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails, rejects the condclement of Eve; she persists, and at length appeases him: then, to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways, which he approves not; but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made then, that her seed should be revenged on the Serpent; and exhorts her with him to seek peace of the offended Deity, by repentance and supplication. MEANWHILE the heinous and despiteful act |