Side 208 af 239

Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined

By faith and faithful works, to second life,

Waked in the renovation of the just,

Resigns him up with heaven and earth renewed.

But let us call to synod all the blest

Through heaven's wide bounds; from them I will not hide

My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,

As how with peccant Angels late they saw,

And in their state, though firm, stood more confirmed.

PARADISE LOST.

He ended, and the Son gave signal high

To the bright minister that watched. He blew

His trumpet, heard in Oreb since, perhaps,

When God descended, and, perhaps, once more

To sound a general doom. The angelic blast

Filled all the regions. From their blissful bowers

Of amaranthine shade, fountain or spring,

By the waters of life, where'er they sat

In fellowships of joy, the Sons of Light

Hasted, resorting to the summons high,

And took their seats, till, from his throne supreme,

The Almighty thus pronounced his sovereign will:

O Sons, like one of us Man is become,

To know both good and evil, since his taste

Of that defended fruit; but let him boast

His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;

Happier, had it sufficed him to have known

Good by itself, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,

My motions in him; longer than they move,

His heart I know how variable and vain,

Self-left. Lest, therefore, his now bolder hand

Reach also of the tree of life, and eat,

And live for ever,—dream at least to live

For ever—to remove him I decree,

And send him from the garden forth to till

1 Defended .- Forbidden.

The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil. Michael, this my behest have thou in charge; Take to thee from among the cherubim Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the Fiend, Or in behalf of man, or to invade Vacant possession, some new trouble raise. Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God, Without remorse, drive out the sinful pair; From hallowed ground the unholy; and denounce To them, and to their progeny, from thence Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint At the sad sentence rigorously urged-For I behold them softened, and with tears Bewailing their excess-all terror hide. If patiently thy bidding they obey, Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal To Adam what shall come in future days, As I shall thee enlighten; intermix My covenant in the woman's seed renewed. So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace. And, on the east side of the garden, place, Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs, Cherubic watch; and of a sword the flame Wide-waving, all approach far off to fright, And guard all passage to the tree of life, Lest Paradise a receptacle prove To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey, With whose stolen fruit Man once more to delude.

PARADISE LOST.

He ceased; and the archangelic Power prepared

For swift descent; with him the cohort bright

Of watchful Cherubim. Four faces each

Had, like a double Janus; all their shape

Spangled with eyes more numerous than those

Of Argus and more wakeful than to drowse,

Double Janus.—A favourite Roman deity, described as having two faces.

Argus.—Son of Jupiter, who had a hundred eyes; but being hushed to sleep by the pipe of Hermes (Mercury), that deity cut off his head.