Which Gabriel spying, thus
bespake the Fiend.
Satan, I know thy strength,
and thou knowest mine;
Neither our own, but given:
What folly then
To boast what arms can do?
since thine no more
Than Heaven permits, nor mine,
though doubled now
IV, 1005-1009
In future days, if malice
should abound,
Some one intent on mischief,
or inspired
With devilish machination,
might devise
Like instrument to plague the
sons of men
For sin, on war and mutual
slaughter bent.
Forthwith from council to the
work they flew;
VI, 502-507
Greatness of mind and
Nobleness their seat
Build in her loveliest, and
create an awe
About her, as a guard angelick
placed.
To whom the Angel with
contracted brow.
Accuse not Nature, she hath
done her part;
Do thou but thine; and be not
diffident
VIII, 557-562
Replete with joy and wonder,
thus replied.
O Goodness infinite, Goodness
immense!
That all this good of evil
shall produce,
And evil turn to good; more
wonderful
Than that which by creation
first brought forth
XII, 468-472
Invisible else above all
stars, the wheel
Of day and night; which needs
not thy belief,
If earth, industrious of
herself, fetch day
Travelling east, and with her
part averse
From the sun's beam meet
night, her other part
VIII, 135-139
Their penance, laden with fair
fruit, like that
Which grew in Paradise, the
bait of Eve
Used by the Tempter: on that
prospect strange
Their earnest eyes they fixed,
imagining
For one forbidden tree a
multitude
X, 550-554
No evil durst attempt thee;
but I rue
The errour now, which is
become my crime,
And thou the accuser. Thus it
shall befall
Him, who, to worth in women
overtrusting,
Lets her will rule: restraint
she will not brook;
IX, 1180-1184
By me; not you, but me, they
have despised,
Yet envied; against me is all
their rage,
Because the Father, to whom in
Heaven s'preme
Kingdom, and power, and glory
appertains,
Hath honoured me, according to
his will.
VI, 812-816
Spangled with eyes more
numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful
than to drouse,
Charmed with Arcadian pipe,
the pastoral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod.
Mean while,
To re-salute the world with
sacred light,
XI, 130-134
United I beheld; no fair to
thine
Equivalent or second! which
compelled
Me thus, though importune
perhaps, to come
And gaze, and worship thee of
right declared
Sovran of creatures, universal
Dame!
So talked the spirited sly
Snake; and Eve,
IX, 608-613
With war, and hostile snare,
such as refuse
Subjection to his empire
tyrannous:
A mighty hunter thence he
shall be styled
Before the Lord; as in despite
of Heaven,
Or from Heaven, claiming
second sovranty;
And from rebellion shall
derive his name,
XII, 31-36
So judged he Man, both Judge
and Saviour sent;
And the instant stroke of
death, denounced that day,
Removed far off; then, pitying
how they stood
Before him naked to the air,
that now
Must suffer change, disdained
not to begin
X, 209-213
To whom our great progenitor.
Thy words
Attentive, and with more
delighted ear,
Divine instructer, I have
heard, than when
Cherubick songs by night from
neighbouring hills
Aereal musick send: Nor knew I
not
To be both will and deed
created free;
V, 544-549
Through all the empyreal road;
till, at the gate
Of Heaven arrived, the gate
self-opened wide
On golden hinges turning, as
by work
Divine the sovran Architect
had framed.
From hence no cloud, or, to
obstruct his sight,
V, 253-257
O fair foundation laid whereon
to build
Their ruin! hence I will
excite their minds
With more desire to know, and
to reject
Envious commands, invented
with design
To keep them low, whom
knowledge might exalt
Equal with Gods: aspiring to
be such,
IV, 521-526
And more that shall befall;
innumerable
Disturbances on earth through
female snares,
And strait conjunction with
this sex: for either
He never shall find out fit
mate, but such
As some misfortune brings him,
or mistake;
X, 896-900
Then suffered. The other way
Satan went down
The causey to Hell-gate: On
either side
Disparted Chaos overbuilt
exclaimed,
And with rebounding surge the
bars assailed,
That scorned his indignation:
Through the gate,
X, 414-418
To chains of darkness, and the
undying worm;
That from thy just obedience
could revolt,
Whom to obey is happiness
entire.
Then shall thy Saints unmixed,
and from the impure
Far separate, circling thy
holy mount,
Unfeigned Halleluiahs to thee
sing,
VI, 739-744
Created evil, for evil only
good;
Where all life dies, death
lives, and Nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all
prodigious things,
Obominable, inutterable, and
worse
Than fables yet have feigned
or fear conceived,
II, 623-627
Though of ethereal mould: then
formed the moon
Globose, and every magnitude
of stars,
And sowed with stars the
Heaven, thick as a field:
Of light by far the greater
part he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy
shrine, and placed
VII, 356-360
In these thy lowest works; yet
these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought,
and power divine.
Speak, ye who best can tell,
ye sons of light,
Angels; for ye behold him, and
with songs
And choral symphonies, day
without night,
V, 158-162
The strong rebuff of some
tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre,
hurried him
As many miles aloft. That fury
stayed--
Quenched in a boggy Syrtis,
neither sea,
Nor good dry land--nigh
foundered, on he fares,
II, 936-940
Satan; who, in the serpent,
hath contrived
Against us this deceit: To
crush his head
Would be revenge indeed! which
will be lost
By death brought on ourselves,
or childless days
Resolved, as thou proposest;
so our foe
X, 1034-1038
And of our good and of our
dignity
How provident he is; how far
from thought
To make us less, bent rather
to exalt
Our happy state, under one
head more near
United. But to grant it thee
unjust,
That equal over equals monarch
reign:
V, 827-832
Invincible, and vigour soon
returns,
Though all our glory extinct,
and happy state
Here swallowed up in endless
misery.
But what if he our Conqueror
(whom I now
Of force believe almighty,
since no less
I, 140-144
That drove him, though
enamoured, from the spouse
Of Tobit's son, and with a
vengeance sent
From Media post to Egypt,
there fast bound.
Now to the ascent of that
steep savage hill
Satan had journeyed on,
pensive and slow;
IV, 169-173
All taste of living wight, as
once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus
roving on
In confused march forlorn, th'
adventurous bands,
With shuddering horror pale,
and eyes aghast,
Viewed first their lamentable
lot, and found
II, 613-617
Out of the fertile ground he
caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for
sight, smell, taste;
And all amid them stood the
tree of life,
High eminent, blooming
ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to
life,
IV, 216-220
Made thee without thy leave,
what if thy son
Prove disobedient, and
reproved, 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,
X, 760-764
High in the expanse of Heaven,
to divide
The day from night; and let
them be for signs,
For seasons, and for days, and
circling years;
And let them be for lights, as
I ordain
Their office in the firmament
of Heaven,
VII, 340-344
