Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained

by John Milton

But pain is perfet miserie, the worst Of evils, and excessive, overturnes All patience.

In future dayes, if Malice should abound, Some one intent on mischief, or inspir’d With dev’lish machination might devise Like instrument to plague the Sons of men For sin, on warr and mutual slaughter bent.

Th’ originals of Nature in thir crude Conception; Sulphurous and Nitrous Foame They found, they mingl’d, and with suttle Art, Concocted and adusted they reduc’d To blackest grain, and into store conveyd:

Now when fair Morn Orient in Heav’n appeerd Up rose the Victor Angels, and to Arms The matin Trumpet Sung: in Arms they stood Of Golden Panoplie, refulgent Host, Soon banded;

At interview both stood A while, but suddenly at head appeerd SATAN: And thus was heard Commanding loud.

Foule dissipation follow’d and forc’t rout; Nor serv’d it to relax thir serried files.

That under ground they fought in dismal shade; Infernal noise; Warr seem’d a civil Game To this uproar; horrid confusion heapt Upon confusion rose: and now all Heav’n Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspred,

Son belov’d, Son in whose face invisible is beheld Visibly,

Two dayes are therefore past, the third is thine; For thee I have ordain’d it, and thus farr Have sufferd, that the Glorie may be thine Of ending this great Warr, since none but Thou Can end it.

Armd with thy might, rid heav’n of these rebell’d, To thir prepar’d ill Mansion driven down To chains of Darkness, and th’ undying Worm, That from thy just obedience could revolt, Whom to obey is happiness entire.

At his command the uprooted Hills retir’d Each to his place, they heard his voice and went Obsequious, Heav’n his wonted face renewd, And with fresh Flourets Hill and Valley smil’d. This saw his hapless Foes, but stood obdur’d, And to rebellious fight rallied thir Powers Insensate, hope conceiving from despair.

So spake the Son, and into terrour chang’d His count’nance too severe to be beheld And full of wrauth bent on his Enemies.

Nor less on either side tempestuous fell His arrows, from the fourfold-visag’d Foure, Distinct with eyes, and from the living Wheels, Distinct alike with multitude of eyes, One Spirit in them rul’d, and every eye Glar’d lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire Among th’ accurst, that witherd all thir strength, And of thir wonted vigour left them draind, Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall’n.

he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of Heav’n: The overthrown he rais’d, and as a Heard Of Goats or timerous flock together throngd Drove them before him Thunder-struck, pursu’d With terrors and with furies to the bounds And Chrystall wall of Heav’n, which op’ning wide, Rowld inward, and a spacious Gap disclos’d Into the wastful Deep; the monstrous sight Strook them with horror backward, but far worse Urg’d them behind; headlong themselvs they threw Down from the verge of Heav’n, Eternal wrauth Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.

Sole Victor from th’ expulsion of his Foes MESSIAH his triumphal Chariot turnd: To meet him all his Saints, who silent stood Eye witnesses of his Almightie Acts, With Jubilie advanc’d; and as they went, Shaded with branching Palme, each order bright, Sung Triumph, and him sung Victorious King, Son, Heire, and Lord, to him Dominion giv’n, Worthiest to Reign:

let it profit thee to have heard By terrible Example the reward Of disobedience; firm they might have stood, Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.

above th’ OLYMPIAN Hill I soare, Above the flight of PEGASEAN wing.

Standing on Earth, not rapt above the Pole, More safe I Sing with mortal voice, unchang’d To hoarce or mute, though fall’n on evil dayes, On evil dayes though fall’n, and evil tongues;

where Woods and Rocks had Eares To rapture, till the savage clamor dround Both Harp and Voice; nor could the Muse defend Her Son.

If they transgress, and slight that sole command, So easily obeyd amid the choice Of all tasts else to please thir appetite, Though wandring.

but the evil soon Driv’n back redounded as a flood on those From whom it sprung, impossible to mix With Blessedness.

Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know What neerer might concern him,

But Knowledge is as food, and needs no less Her Temperance over Appetite, to know In measure what the mind may well contain, Oppresses else with Surfet, and soon turns Wisdom to Folly, as Nourishment to Winde.

to have dispeopl’d Heav’n,

Immediate are the Acts of God, more swift Then time or motion, but to human ears Cannot without process of speech be told, So told as earthly notion can receave.

When such was heard declar’d the Almightie’s will; Glorie they sung to the most High, good will To future men, and in thir dwellings peace: Glorie to him whose just avenging ire Had driven out th’ ungodly from his sight And th’ habitations of the just;

Heav’n op’nd wide Her ever during Gates, Harmonious sound On golden Hinges moving, to let forth The King of Glorie in his powerful Word And Spirit coming to create new Worlds.

Silence, ye troubl’d waves, and thou Deep, peace, Said then th’ Omnific Word, your discord end:

He took the golden Compasses, prepar’d In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe This Universe, and all created things: One foot he center’d, and the other turn’d Round through the vast profunditie obscure, And said, thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds, This be thy just Circumference, O World. Thus God the Heav’n created, thus the Earth, Matter unform’d and void:

Let ther be Light, said God, and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure Sprung from the Deep, and from her Native East To journie through the airie gloom began,

God saw the Light was good; And light from darkness by the Hemisphere Divided: Light the Day, and Darkness Night He nam’d. Thus was the first Day Eev’n and Morn: Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung By the Celestial Quires, when Orient Light Exhaling first from Darkness they beheld; Birth-day of Heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout The hollow Universal Orb they fill’d, And touch’t thir Golden Harps, & hymning prais’d God and his works, Creatour him they sung, Both when first Eevning was, and when first Morn.

Crystallin Ocean, and the loud misrule Of CHAOS farr remov’d, least fierce extreames Contiguous might distemper the whole frame: And Heav’n he nam’d the Firmament: So Eev’n And Morning CHORUS sung the second Day.

let dry Land appeer. Immediately the Mountains huge appeer Emergent, and thir broad bare backs upheave Into the Clouds, thir tops ascend the Skie: So high as heav’d the tumid Hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of Waters: thither they Hasted with glad precipitance,

But they, or under ground, or circuit wide With Serpent errour wandring, found thir way, And on the washie Oose deep Channels wore; Easie, e’re God had bid the ground be drie,

He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn’d, Brought forth the tender Grass, whose verdure clad Her Universal Face with pleasant green, Then Herbs of every leaf, that sudden flour’d Op’ning thir various colours,

God saw, Surveying his great Work, that it was good: For of Celestial Bodies first the Sun A mightie Spheare he fram’d, unlightsom first, Though of Ethereal Mould: then form’d the Moon Globose, and everie magnitude of Starrs, And sowd with Starrs the Heav’n thick as a field: Of Light by farr the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudie Shrine, and plac’d In the Suns Orb, made porous to receive And drink the liquid Light, firm to retaine Her gather’d beams, great Palace now of Light.

First in his East the glorious Lamp was seen, Regent of Day, and all th’ Horizon round Invested with bright Rayes, jocond to run His Longitude through Heav’ns high rode:

there Leviathan Hugest of living Creatures, on the Deep Stretcht like a Promontorie sleeps or swimmes,

They summ’d thir Penns, and soaring th’ air sublime With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud In prospect; there the Eagle and the Stork On Cliffs and Cedar tops thir Eyries build:

The Sixt, and of Creation last arose With Eevning Harps and Mattin, when God said, Let th’ Earth bring forth Fowle living in her kinde, Cattel and Creeping things, and Beast of the Earth, Each in their kinde. The Earth obey’d, and strait Op’ning her fertil Woomb teem’d at a Birth Innumerous living Creatures, perfet formes, Limb’d and full grown: out of the ground up-rose As from his Laire the wilde Beast where he wonns In Forrest wilde, in Thicket, Brake, or Den; Among the Trees in Pairs they rose, they walk’d:

ambiguous between Sea and Land The River Horse and scalie Crocodile. At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, Insect or Worme; those wav’d thir limber fans For wings, and smallest Lineaments exact In all the Liveries dect of Summers pride With spots of Gold and Purple, azure and green: These as a line thir long dimension drew, Streaking the ground with sinuous trace;

The Serpent suttl’st Beast of all the field, Of huge extent somtimes, with brazen Eyes And hairie Main terrific, though to thee Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

There wanted yet the Master work, the end Of all yet don; a Creature who not prone And Brute as other Creatures, but endu’d With Sanctitie of Reason, might erect His Stature, and upright with Front serene Govern the rest,

therefore the Omnipotent Eternal Father (For where is not hee Present) thus to his Son audibly spake. Let us make now Man in our image, Man In our similitude,

but of the Tree Which tasted works knowledge of Good and Evil, Thou mai’st not; in the day thou eat’st, thou di’st; Death is the penaltie impos’d, beware, And govern well thy appetite, least sin Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

The great Creator from his work returnd Magnificent, his Six days work, a World; Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deigne To visit oft the dwellings of just Men Delighted, and with frequent intercourse Thither will send his winged Messengers On errands of supernal Grace.

The Filial Power arriv’d, and sate him down With his great Father (for he also went Invisible, yet staid (such priviledge Hath Omnipresence)

Then from the Giant Angels; thee that day Thy Thunders magnifi’d; but to create Is greater then created to destroy. Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound Thy Empire? easily the proud attempt Of Spirits apostat and thir Counsels vaine Thou hast repeld, while impiously they thought Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw The number of thy worshippers.

From Heaven Gate not farr, founded in view On the cleer HYALINE, the Glassie Sea; Of amplitude almost immense, with Starr’s Numerous, and every Starr perhaps a World Of destind habitation;

multiply a Race of Worshippers Holy and just: thrice happie if they know Thir happiness, and persevere upright.