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Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
And love with fear the only God; to walk
As in his presence; ever to observe
His providence; and on him sole depend,
Merciful over all his works, with good

Still overcoming evil, and by small

Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise

565

Accomplishing great things; by things, deem'd weak,

By simply meek: that suffering for truth's sake
Is fortitude to highest victory,

And to the faithful, death the gate of life;
Taught this by his example, whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever bless'd.

570

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To whom thus also the Angel last replied: This having learn'd, thou hast attain'd the sum Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars Thou knew'st by name, and all the ethereal powers, All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,

Or works of God in Heaven, air, earth or sea,
And all the riches of this world enjoy'st,

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And all the rule, one empire; only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith,

Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
By name to come call'd charity, the soul
Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath

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To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess

A Paradise within thee, happier far.

Let us descend now therefore from this top
Of speculation; for the hour precise,

Exacts our parting hence; and see! the guards,
By me encamp'd on yonder hill, expect
Their motion; at whose front a flaming sword,
In signal of remove, waves fiercely round:
We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve;
Her also I with gentle dreams have calm'd,
Portending good, and all her spirits composed

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To meek submission: thou, at season fit,

Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard;
Chiefly what may concern her faith to know,
The great deliverance by her seed to come
(For by the Woman's seed) on all mankind:
That ye may live, which will be many days,
Both in one faith unanimous, though sad,

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With cause, for evils past; yet much more cheer'd With meditation on the happy end.

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He ended, and they both descend the hill; Descended, Adam to the bower, where Eve Lay sleeping, ran before; but found her waked; And thus with words not sad she him received: Whence thou return'st, and whither went'st, I know; For God is also in sleep; and dreams advise, Which he hath sent propitious, some great good

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Presaging, since with sorrow and heart's distress
Wearied I fell asleep: but now lead on;

In me is no delay; with thee to go,

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Is to stay here; without thee here to stay
Is to go hence unwilling; thou to me
Art all things under Heaven, all places thou,
Who for my wilful crime art banish'd hence.
This further consolation yet secure

I carry hence; though all by me is lost,
Such favor I unworthy am vouchsafed,
By me the Promised Seed shall all restore.

So spake our mother Eve; and Adam heard

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Well pleased, but answer'd not; for now too nigh 625
The archangel stood; and, from the other hill

To their fix'd station, all in bright array
The Cherubim descended; on the ground
Gliding meteorous, as evening mist
Risen from a river o'er the marish glides,
And gathers ground fast at the laborer's heel
Homeward returning. High in front advanced,

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The brandish'd sword of God before them blazed,
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat

And vapor, as the Libyan air adust,

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Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
In either hand the hastening Angel caught

Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappeared.

They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld

Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,

Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms:

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Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose 646
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.

THE END.

BOOK I.

11. Siloa was a fountain flowing near the temple of Jerusalem.

15. Th' Aonian mount; the classical seat of the Muses.

82. Satan in Hebrew means an enemy. 543. Reign, used like the Latin regnum, for kingdom 678. Mammon is a Syrian word, and means riches. 728. Cresset, any great light. 797. Frequent, like the Latin frequens, meaning full.

BOOK II.

89. Exercised, this word is here used in the sense of the Latin exerceo, that is, to vex or trouble. 104. Fatal, that is, upheld by fate. 124. Fact of arms; from the Italian fatto d'arme; a battle. 278. The sensible of pain. Sensible is used as a substantive; a Grecian mode of expression. 406. Palpable obscure; this is another instance of Milton's using adjectives in the sense of substantives. 409. The earth is here called an island, in allusion to its hanging in the air, which surrounds it like a sea. The word arrive, was formerly frequently used without a preposition following. 439. Unessential; that is, void of substance. 513. Horrent; rough and sharp.

517. Sounding alchemy, a very fine metonymy for the trumpets.

592. Serbonis was a lake two hundred furlongs long, and one thousand round, between Mount Casius and Damiata, a city in Eygpt. It was sometimes so covered with the loose sand of the neighboring hills, as not to be distinguished from the land. See Herod. 1. 3. and Lucan. 8. 539. 595. Frore, frosty. See Virgil, Georg. i. 93. Ecclus. xlii. 20, 21. Ps. cxxi. 6. 693. Conjured, from the Latin conjurare, to conspire or league together.

933. Pennons, commonly spelt pinions.

943. A gryphon, (or griffin,) is a fabulous creature said to guard gold mines, in its upper part it was like an eagle, in its lower like a lion. The Arimaspians were a one-eyed people of Scythia. BOOK III.

49. Rased, from the Latin radere, to rub out, in allusion to the manner in which the ancients, who wrote on waxen tablets, obliterated writing.

471. Empedocles was a Pythagorean philosopher, who threw himself into the crater of mount Etna. Cleombrotus was a young man, who, having been deeply interested with Plato's reflec tions on the immortality of the soul, leaped into the sea that he might at once enjoy the felicity mentioned.

603. Hermes, or Mercury; Proteus was a sea-god, celebrated as is well known for the variety of shapes he had the power of taking; the ancients meant to express, under the name of this fabulous being, the first principle of things. The stone alluded to, is that by which philosophers hoped to turn all things into gold.

627. Fledge, instead of fledged, for softness. 643. Succinct; (girded up,) ready or prepared. 644. Decent; used in the Latin sense, graceful and beautiful.

730. Triform, (three-shaped,) crescent, full, and waning.

BOOK IV.

555. Through th' even, or that part of the heavens now becoming dark with the approaching evening. 567. Describ'd, that is, observed attentively.

756. The charities; the affections called forth by the different relations of life.

962. Arreed, to declare or award. 980. Ported spears; borne pointed towards him.

BOOK V.

249. Ardors, Seraphim, which has the same meaning in Hebrew. 345. Meaths, sweet drinks. 440. Empyric, making many experiments.

BOOK VI.

19. War in procinct, in allusion to the soldiers girding themselves up before the battle. 84. Boastful argument, in allusion to the designs painted on the shields of knights. 599. Serried, from the Italian serrato; close, compact.

868. Ruining, from the Latin ruo, to rush or fall headlong.

BOOK VII.

323. Hair, coma is the same in Latin, small leaves, twigs, &c. implicit, entangled.

402. Sculls, a Saxon word, signifying an assembly.

421. Summ'd their pens. Pens, from the Latin penna, a feather. Summ'd, a term in faiconry, meaning full grown. 467. The libbard, the leopard; the word is used by Spenser and others. 597. The divisions on the finger board of a violin are called frets.

BOOK IX.

85. Impresses quaint; witty devices on the shields-Bases, or housings.Sewers, servants who placed the dishes on the table. -Seneschal, a principal servant, or steward.

BOOK X.

156. Person, here used in the sense of the Latin persona, character.

312. Art pontifical. The art of raising bridges was among the most wonderful in antiquity; and the high-priest of the Romans derived his name Pontifex, from pons, a bridge, and facere, to make. 872. Pretended to; in the Latin sense, held before.

BOOK XI.

86. Defended, (and defends, b. xii. 207.) like the French defendre, to forbid.

BOOK XII.

310. Jesus and Joshua are the same name, the former being the Greek, and the latter the Hebrew form. Jesus is used for Joshua, Acts vii. 45. Heb. iv. 8.

540. Of respiration; in Scripture, the times of refreshing. Acts iii. 19

630. Marish; from the French Marais, a marsh.

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