As Man ere long, and this new world shall know.
Thus while he spake, each paffion dimm'd his face;
Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envy, and despair; 115
Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.
For heav'nly minds from fuch distempers foul
Are ever clear. Whereof he foon aware,
Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm, 120
Artificer of fraud; and was the first
That practis'd falshood under faintly show,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge:
Yet not enough had practis'd to deceive
Uriel once warn'd; whofe eye purfued him down 125
The way he went, and on th' Affyrian mount
Saw him disfigur'd, more than could befall
Spirit of happy fort: his geftures fierce
He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone,
As he fuppos'd, all unobferv'd, unfeen.
So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
Now nearer, crowns with her inclosure green,
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy fides
With thicket overgrown, grottefque and wild,
Accefs deny'd; and over head up grew
Infuperable highth of loftieft shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A fylvan fcene, and as the ranks afcend
Shade above fhade, a woody theatre
Of statelieft view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdrous wall of Paradife up fprung:
Which to our general fire gave profpect large
Into his nether empire neighb'ring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodlieft trees loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden huc,
Appear'd, with gay
enamel'd colors mix'd:
On which the fun more glad impress'd his beams 150 Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath show'r'd the earth; fo lovely seem'd That landskip And of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All fadness but defpair: now gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at fea north-east winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy fhore
Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay
Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a league Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean fmiles: 165 So entertain'd those odorous fweets the Fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd Than Afmodeus with the fishy fume
That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Mcdia poft to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep favage hill
Satan had journey'd on, penfive and flow;
But further way found none, fo thick intwin'd,
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of fhrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd
All path of man or beast that pafs'd that way:
One gate there only was, and that look'd east
On th' other fide: which when th' arch-felon faw,
Due entrance he difdain'd, and in contempt,
At one flight bound high over leap'd all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within
Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,
Whom hunger drives to feek new haunt for prey,
Watching where fhepherds pen their flocks at eve 185
In hurdled cotes amid the field fecure,
Leaps o'er the fence with eafe into the fold:
Or as a thief bent to unhord the cash
Of fome rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
Crofs-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no affault,
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles:
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
So fince into his church lewd hirelings climb.
Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,
Sat like a cormorant ; yet not true life
Thereby regain'd, but fat devifing death
To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd
For profpect, what well us'd had been the pledge 200
Of immortality. So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
The good before him, but perverts best things.
To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.
Beneath him with new wonder now he views
To all delight of human sense expos'd
In narrow room Nature's whole wealth; yea more,
A Heav'n on Earth: for blifsful Paradife
Of God the garden was, by him in th' east
Of Eden planted ; Eden ftretch'd her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
Or where the fons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telaffar: in this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd ;
Out of the fertil ground he caus'd to grow
All trees of nobleft kind for fight, fmell, tafte;
And all amid them ftood the tree of life,
High eminent, blooming ambrofial fruit-
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death the trec of knowledge grew faft by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor chang'd his courfe, but through the shaggy hill
Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd, for God had thrown 225
That mountain as his garden mold high rais'd
Upon the rapid current, which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill ·
Water'd the garden; thence united fell
Down the fteep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darkfome paffage now appears,
And now divided into four main streams,
Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account.;
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,
How from that faphir fount the crifped brooks,
Rolling on orient, pearl and fands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent fades
Ran nectar, vifiting each plant, and fed
Flow'rs, worthy' of Paradife, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,
Both where the morning fun firft warmly finote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade
Inbrown'd the noontide bow'rs: Thus was this place
A happy rural feat of various view;
Groves whofe rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,
Others whofe fruit burnish'd with golden rind
Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,
If true, here only', and of delicious taste :
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap
Of fome irriguous valley spread her store,
Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rofe:
Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; mean while murm'ring waters fall
Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
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