Paradise Lost

by John Milton

If then his providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end, 165 And out of good still to find means of evil;

What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not, what resolution from despair.”

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

But, all ye Gods, Adore him, who to compass all this dies; Adore the Son, and honour him as me.

Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope To find who might direct his wandering flight To Paradise, the happy seat of Man, His journey’s end and our beginning woe.

Hail, Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful womb Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons, 390 Than with these various fruits the trees of God Have heaped this table!—Raised

O Father, O Supreme of heavenly Thrones, First, Highest, Holiest, Best; thou always seek’st 725 To glorify thy Son, I always thee, As is most just: This I my glory account, My exaltation, and my whole delight, That thou, in me well pleased, declarest thy will Fulfilled, which to fulfil is all my bliss.

Let there be light, said God; and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, 245 Sprung from the deep; and from her native east To journey through the aery gloom began, Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun Was not;