Paradise Lost - Milton John - Страница 54

As in my Mothers lap? there I should rest

And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more

Would Thunder in my ears, no fear of worse

To mee and to my ofspring would torment me

With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt

Pursues me still, least all I cannot die,

Least that pure breath of Life, the Spirit of Man

Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish

With this corporeal Clod; then in the Grave,

Or in some other dismal place, who knows

But I shall die a living Death? O thought

Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath

Of Life that sinn'd; what dies but what had life

And sin? the Bodie properly hath neither.

All of me then shall die: let this appease

The doubt, since humane reach no further knows.

For though the Lord of all be infinite,

Is his wrauth also? be it, man is not so,

But mortal doom'd. 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

Impossible is held, as Argument

Of weakness, not of Power. Will he, draw out,

For angers sake, finite to infinite

In punisht man, to satisfie his rigour

Satisfi'd never; that were to extend

His Sentence beyond dust and Natures Law,

By which all Causes else according still

To the reception of thir matter act,

Not to th' extent of thir own Spheare. But say

That Death be not one stroak, as I suppos'd,

Bereaving sense, but endless miserie

From this day onward, which I feel begun

Both in me, and without me, and so last

To perpetuitie; Ay me, that fear

Comes thundring back with dreadful revolution

On my defensless head; both Death and I

Am found Eternal, and incorporate both,

Nor I on my part single, in mee all

Posteritie stands curst: Fair Patrimonie

That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able

To waste it all my self, and leave ye none!

So disinherited how would ye bless

Me now your Curse! Ah, why should all mankind

For one mans fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,

If guiltless? But from mee what can proceed,

But all corrupt, both Mind and Will deprav'd,

Not to do onely, but to will the same

With me? how can they acquitted stand

In sight of God? Him after all Disputes

Forc't I absolve: all my evasions vain

And reasonings, though through Mazes, lead me still

But to my own conviction: first and last

On mee, mee onely, as the sourse and spring

Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;

So might the wrauth, Fond wish! couldst thou support

That burden heavier then the Earth to bear,

Then all the world much heavier, though divided

With that bad Woman? Thus what thou desir'st,

And what thou fearst, alike destroyes all hope

Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable

Beyond all past example and future,

To SATAN onely like both crime and doom.

O Conscience, into what Abyss of fears

And horrors hast thou driv'n me; out of which

I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!

Thus ADAM to himself lamented loud

Through the still Night, now now, as ere man fell,

Wholsom and cool, and mild, but with black Air

Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom,

Which to his evil Conscience represented

All things with double terror: On the ground

Outstretcht he lay, on the cold ground, and oft

Curs'd his Creation, Death as oft accus'd

Of tardie execution, since denounc't

The day of his offence. Why comes not Death,

Said hee, with one thrice acceptable stroke

To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word,

Justice Divine not hast'n to be just?

But Death comes not at call, Justice Divine

Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries.

O Woods, O Fountains, Hillocks, Dales and Bowrs,

VVith other echo farr I taught your Shades

To answer, and resound farr other Song.

VVhom thus afflicted when sad EVE beheld,

Desolate where she sate, approaching nigh,

Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd:

But her with stern regard he thus repell'd.

Out of my sight, thou Serpent, that name best

Befits thee with him leagu'd, thy self as false

And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,

Like his, and colour Serpentine may shew

Thy inward fraud, to warn all Creatures from thee

Henceforth; least that too heav'nly form, pretended

To hellish falshood, snare them. But for thee

I had persisted happie, had not thy pride

And wandring vanitie, when lest was safe,

Rejected my forewarning, and disdain'd

Not to be trusted, longing to be seen

Though by the Devil himself, him overweening

To over-reach, but with the Serpent meeting

Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee,

To trust thee from my side, imagin'd wise,

Constant, mature, proof against all assaults,

And understood not all was but a shew

Rather then solid vertu, all but a Rib

Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,

More to the part sinister from me drawn,

Well if thrown out, as supernumerarie

To my just number found. O why did God,

Creator wise, that peopl'd highest Heav'n

With Spirits Masculine, create at last

This noveltie on Earth, this fair defect

Of Nature, and not fill the World at once

With Men as Angels without Feminine,

Or find some other way to generate

Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n,

And more that shall befall, innumerable

Disturbances on Earth through Femal snares,

And straight conjunction with this Sex: for either

He never shall find out fit Mate, but such

As some misfortune brings him, or mistake,

Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain

Through her perverseness, but shall see her gaind

By a farr worse, or if she love, withheld

By Parents, or his happiest choice too late

Shall meet, alreadie linkt and Wedlock-bound

To a fell Adversarie, his hate or shame:

Which infinite calamitie shall cause

To humane life, and houshold peace confound.

He added not, and from her turn'd, but EVE

Not so repulst, with Tears that ceas'd not flowing,

And tresses all disorderd, at his feet

Fell humble, and imbracing them, besaught

His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.

Forsake me not thus, ADAM, witness Heav'n

What love sincere, and reverence in my heart

I beare thee, and unweeting have offended,

Unhappilie deceav'd; thy suppliant

I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,

Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,

Thy counsel in this uttermost distress,

My onely strength and stay: forlorn of thee,

Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?

While yet we live, scarse one short hour perhaps,

Between us two let there be peace, both joyning,

As joyn'd in injuries, one enmitie

Against a Foe by doom express assign'd us,

That cruel Serpent: On me exercise not

Thy hatred for this miserie befall'n,

On me already lost, mee then thy self

More miserable; both have sin'd, but thou

Against God onely, I against God and thee,

And to the place of judgement will return,

There with my cries importune Heaven, that all

The sentence from thy head remov'd may light

On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe,

Mee mee onely just object of his ire.

She ended weeping, and her lowlie plight,

Immoveable till peace obtain'd from fault

Acknowledg'd and deplor'd, in ADAM wraught

Commiseration; soon his heart relented

Towards her, his life so late and sole delight,

Now at his feet submissive in distress,