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Like change on sea and land, sideral blast,

Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and pestilent: Now from the north
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,

Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice
And snow and hail and stormy gust and flaw,
Boreas and Cæcias and Argestes loud

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And Thrascias rend the woods and seas upturn;
With adverse blast upturns them from the south
Notus and Afer black with thund'rous clouds
From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce

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Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each other; nor stood much in awe
Of Man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim
Glar'd on him passing. These were from without
The growing miseries, which Adam saw
Already' in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
To sorrow' abandon'd, but worse felt within,
And in a troubled sea of passion tost,
Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.

O MISERABLE of happy! is this the end
Of this new glorious world, and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now become

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Accurs'd of blessed, hide me from the face

Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness! yet well if here would end

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The misery; I deserv'd it, and would bear

My own deservings; but this will not serve;
All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,

Is propagated curse. O voice once heard
Delightfully, "Increase and multiply,"
Now death to hear! for what can I increase
Or multiply, but curses on my head?

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Who of all ages to succeed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will curse
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,

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For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks
Shall be the execration; so besides

Mine own that bide upon me, all from me

Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,

On me as on their natural centre light

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Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys

Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould me Man, did I solicit thee,

From darkness to promote me, or here place

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In this delicious garden? as my will

Concurr'd not to my be'ing, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,

Desirous to resign and render back

All I receiv'd, unable to perform

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Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold

The good I sought not. To the loss of that,

Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added
The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable
Thy justice seems; yet to say truth, too late
I thus contest; then should have been refus'd

Those terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son
Prove disobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not:
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee

That proud excuse? yet him not thy election,
But natural necessity begot.

God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own
To serve him; thy reward was of his grace,
Thy punishment then justly' is at his will.
Be' it so, for I submit; his doom is fair,
That dust I am, and shall to dust return:

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O welcome hour whenever! Why delays

His hand to execute what his decree

Fix'd on this day? Why do I overlive,

Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet

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Mortality my sentence, and be earth

Insensible, how glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap ? There I should rest
And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worse
To me and to my offspring would torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt

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Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die,

Lest 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 body properly hath neither.

All of me then shall die: let this appease

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The doubt, since human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite,

Is his wrath also? Be it, Man is not so,

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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

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Of weakness not of pow'r. Will he draw out,
For anger's sake, finite to infinite

In punish'd Man, to satisfy his rigour
Satisfy'd never? That were to extend

His sentence beyond dust and nature's law,
By which all causes else according still

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To the reception of their matter act,

Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But say
That death be not one stroke, as I suppos'd,

Bereaving sense, but endless misery

From this day onward, which I feel begun Both in me, and without me, and so last

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To perpetuity; Ay me, that fear

Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution

On my defenceless head; both Death and I

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Am found eternal, and incorporate both,

Nor I on my part single, in me all

Posterity stands curs'd: Fair patrimony

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

To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!
So disinherited how would ye bless

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Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,
If guiltless? But from me what can proceed
But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd,
Not to do only, but to will the same

With me? How can they then acquitted stand
In sight of God? Him after all disputes
Forc'd I absolve: all my evasions vain,

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And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction: first and last
On me, me only, as the source and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;
So might the wrath. Fond wish! could'st thou
That burden heavier than the earth to bear,
Than all the world much heavier, though divided
With that bad Woman? Thus what thou desir'st
And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable
Beyond all past example and futúre,
To Satan only like both crime and doom.
O conscience, into what abyss of fears

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