Paradise Lost

by John Milton

For though the Lord of all be infinite, 795 Is his wrath also? be it, man is not so,260 But mortal doomed. 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 800 Impossible is held, as argument Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out, For anger’s sake, finite to infinite In punished man, to satisfy his rigour Satisfied never? that were to extend261 805 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 their own sphere. But say That death be not one stroke, as I supposed, 810 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 Comes thund’ring back with dreadful revolution262 815 On my defenceless head; both Death and I263 Am found eternal, and incorporate both, Nor I on my part single; in me all Posterity stands cursed.