Or in some other dismal place, who knows
But I shall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath
Of life that sinn'd: what dies but what had life
And sin ? The body properly hath neither.
All of me then shall die: let this appease
The doubt, since human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,
Is his wrath also ? Be it, man is not so,
But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise
Wrath without end on man whom death must end?
Can he make deathless death? that were to make
Strange contradiction, which to God himself
Impossible is held, as argument
Of weakness, not of power.

Will he draw out,
For anger's sake, finite to infinite
In punish'd man, to satisfy his rigour,
Satisfied never ? That were to extend
His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law,
By which all causes else according still
To the reception of their matter act,
Not to th' extent of sheir own sphere. But say
That death be not one stroke, as I suppos’d,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery
From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and so last
To perpetuity; ay me! that fear
Coines thund'ring back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head; both Death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both;
Nor I on my part single, in me all
Posterity stands curs'd: fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, sons ! O were I able
To waste it all myself and leave ye

none! So disinherited, low would ye bless Me, now your curse! Ab! why should all mankind For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemn'd, If guiltless ? But from me what can proceed, But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd, Not to do only, but to will the same With me? How can they then acquitted stand

In sight of God ? Him after all disputes
Forc'd I absolve: all my evasions vain,
And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction : first and last
Ou me, ine only, as the source and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;
So might the wrath, Fond wish! couldst thou

support
That burden, heavier than the earth to bear,
Than all the world much heavier, though divided
With that bad woman? Thus what thou desir'st,
And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable
Beyond all past example and future,
To Satan only like both crime and doom,
O conscience, into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driven me! out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd !"

Thus Adam to bimself lamented loud Through the still night, not now, as ere man fell, Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black air Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom; Which to his evil conscience represented All things with double terror. On the ground Outstretcb'd be lay, on the cold ground, and oft Curs'd his creation, 'eath as oft accus'd Of tardy execution, since devounc'd The day of his offence. " Why comes not death," Said he,“ with one thrice-acceptable stroke To end me? Sball truth fail to keep her word, Justice divine not basted to be just ? But death comes not at all, justice divine Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries. O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers! With other echo late I taught your shades To answer, and resound far other song.” Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve bebeld, Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd; But her with stern regard be thus repellid:

Out of my sight, thou serpent! that name best

Befits thee, with him leagu'd, thyself as false
And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,
Like his, and colour serpentine, may show
'Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee
Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form, pretended
To hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee
I had persisted happy', had not thy pride
And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe,
Rejeeted my forewarning, and disdain'd
Not to be trusted, longing to be seen,
Though by the Devil himself; him overweening
To over-reach; but with the serpent meeting
Fool'd and beguild, by bim thou, I hy thee,
To trust thee from my side ; imagin'd wise,
Constant, mature, proof against all assaults,
And understood not all was but a show
Rather than solid virtue', all but a rib
Crook'd by nature, bent, as now appears,
More to the part sinister, from me drawn,
Well if thrown out as supernumerary
To my just number found. O! why did God,
Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
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 some other way to generate
Mankind? This mischief had not then befallen,
And more that shall befall; innumerable
Disturbances on earth through female snares,
And strait conjunction with this sex : for either
He never shall find out fit mate, but such
As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse; or if she love, withheld
By parents; or bis happiest choice too late
Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound
To a fell adversary', bis hate or shame:
Which infinite calamity shall cause
To buman life, and liousehold peace confound.

He added not, and from her turn'd; but Eve, Not so repuls’d, with tears that ceas'd not flowing, And tresses all disorder'd, at bis feet Fell bumble, and embracing them, besought His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint:

“ Forsake me not thus Adam ; witness heaven
What love sincere, and reverence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceiv’dd. Thy suppliant
I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel this uttermost distress,
My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee,
Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?
While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,
Between us two let there be peace; both joining,
As join'd in injuries, one enmity
Against a foe by doom express assign'd us,
That cruel serpent.

On me exercise not
Thy batred for this misery befallen,
On me already lost! me ihan thyself
More miserable! Both have sinn'd; but thou,
Against God only', I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will relurn,
There with my cries importune heaven, that all
The sentence from thy head remov'd, may light
On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe,
Me, me only, just object of his ire !"

She ended weeping, and her lowly plight,
Inmoveable till peace obtain'd from fault
Acknowledg’d, and deplorid, in Adam wrought
Cominiseration: soon his heart relented
Tow'rds her, his life so late and sole delight,
Now at his feet submissive in distress!
Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,
His counsel whom she had displeas'd, his aid.
As one disarm’d, his anger all be lost,
And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her soon :

“ Unwary', and too desirous, as before, So now of what thou know'st not, who desir'st The punishment all on thyself; alas !

Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain
His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet least part,
And my displeasure bear'st so ill.

If prayers
Could alter high decrees, I to that place
Would speed before thee, and be louder heara,
That on my head all miglit be visited,
Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven,
To me committed and by me espos'd.
But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere; but strive,
In offices of love, how we may lighten
Each other's burden, in our share of woe ;
Since this day's death denounc'd, if ought I see
Will prove no sudden, but a slow-pac'd evil,
A long day's dying to augment our pain,
And to our seed (O bapless seed!) deriv’d.”

To whom thus Eve, recovering heart replied ; “ Adam, by sad experiment I know How little weight my words with thee can find, Found so erroneous, thence by just event Found so unfortunate; nevertheless, Restor'd by thee, vile as I am, to place Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain Thy love, the sole contentinent of my heart Living or dying, from thee I will not hide What thoughts in iny unquiet breast are risen, Tending to some relief of our extremes, Or end, though sharp and sad, yet tolerable, As in our evils, and of easier choice. If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe, devour'd By death at last; and miserable it is To be to others cause of misery, Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring In:o this cursed world a woeful race, That after wretched life must be at last Food for so foul a monster; in thy power It lies, yet ere conception to prevent The race unbless'd, to being yet unbegot. Childless thou art, childless remain : so Death Shall be deceiv'd his glut, and with us two

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