The rigid212 satisfaction, death for death.
Say Heav’nly powers, where shall we find such love,
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem
Man’s mortal crime, and just215 th’ unjust to save,
Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?”
He asked, but all the Heav’nly choir stood mute,
And silence was in Heav’n: on man’s behalf
Patron or intercessor none appeared,
Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set221.
And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudged to death and Hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fullness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation226 thus renewed.
“Father, thy word is past, man shall find grace;
And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,
The speediest of thy wingèd messengers,
To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented231, unimplored, unsought,
Happy for man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins233 and lost;
Atonement for himself or offering meet234,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:
Behold me236 then, me for him, life for life
I offer, on me let thine anger fall;
Account me man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well pleased, on me241 let Death wreck all his rage;
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquished; thou hast giv’n me to possess
244 Life in244 myself forever, by thee I live,
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due
All that of me can die, yet that debt paid,
Thou247 wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
Forever with corruption there to dwell;
But I shall rise victorious, and subdue
My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil;
Death his death’s wound shall then receive, and stoop
Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed253.
I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive maugre255 Hell, and show
The powers of darkness bound. Thou at the sight
Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,
While by thee raised I ruin258 all my foes,
Death last259, and with his carcass glut the grave:
Then with the multitude of my redeemed
Shall enter Heaven long absent, and return,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assured,
And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.”
His words here ended, but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: as a sacrifice
Glad to be offered, he attends270 the will
Of his great Father. Admiration271 seized
All Heav’n, what this might mean, and whither tend
Wond’ring; but soon th’ Almighty thus replied:
“O thou in Heav’n and Earth the only peace
Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou
My sole complacence276! Well thou know’st how dear
To me are all my works, nor man the least
Though last created, that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,
By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.
Thou therefore281 whom thou only canst redeem,
Their nature also to thy nature join;
And be thyself man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam’s room285
The head of all mankind, though Adam’s son.
As in287 him perish all men, so in thee
As from a second root shall be restored,
As many as are restored, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons, thy merit290
Imputed shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die,
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
So Heav’nly love shall outdo Hellish hate,
Giving299 to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly300 to redeem what Hellish hate
So easily destroyed, and still301 destroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor shalt thou by descending to assume
Man’s nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss
Equal to God306, and equally enjoying
God-like fruition307, quitted all to save
A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,
Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne;
Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign
Both God and man, Son both of God and man,
Anointed universal King; all power317
I give thee, reign forever, and assume318
Thy merits; under thee as Head Supreme
Thrones, Princedoms,320 Powers, Dominions I reduce:
All knees321 to thee shall bow, of them that bide
In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell;
When thou attended gloriously from Heav’n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning Archangels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal: forthwith from all winds326
The living, and forthwith the cited327 dead
Of all past ages to the general doom328
Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their sleep.329
Then all thy saints330 assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels, they arraigned331 shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn334, and from her ashes spring
New Heav’n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
And after all their tribulations long
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.
Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,
For regal scepter then no more shall need340,
God shall be all in all341. But all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass342 all this dies,
Adore the Son, and honor him as me343.”
No sooner had th’ Almighty ceased, but all
The multitude of angels with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav’n rung
With jubilee348, and loud hosannas filled
Th’ eternal regions: lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold,
Immortal amarant353, a flow’r which once
In Paradise, fa
st by the Tree of Life
Began to bloom, but soon for man’s offense
To Heav’n removed where first it grew, there grows,
And flow’rs aloft shading the fount of life357,
And where the river of bliss through midst of Heav’n
Rolls o’er Elysian flow’rs her amber359 stream;
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams,
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement that like a sea of jasper363 shone
Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.
Then crowned again their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung, and with preamble367 sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce
Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt370, no voice but well could join
Melodious part, such concord is in Heav’n.
Thee Father first they sung omnipotent,
Immutable, immortal, infinite,
Eternal King; thee Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt’st
Throned inaccessible, but377 when thou shad’st
The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine,
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
Yet dazzle Heav’n, that381 brightest Seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes382.
Thee next they sang of all creation first383,
Begotten Son, divine similitude,
In whose conspicuous count’nance, without cloud
Made visible, th’ Almighty Father shines,
Whom else no creature can behold387; on thee
Impressed the effulgence388 of his glory abides,
Transfused on thee his ample spirit rests.
He Heav’n of Heav’ns and all the Powers therein
By thee created, and by thee threw down
Th’ aspiring Dominations392: thou that day
Thy Father’s dreadful thunder didst not spare,
Nor stop thy flaming chariot wheels, that shook
Heav’n’s everlasting frame, while o’er the necks
Thou drov’st of warring angels disarrayed.
Back from pursuit thy Powers397 with loud acclaim
Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father’s might,
To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,
Not so on man; him through their malice fall’n,
Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom
So strictly, but much more to pity incline:
No sooner did thy dear and only Son
Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail man
So strictly, but much more to pity inclined,
He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife
Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned,
Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat
Second to thee, offered himself to die
For man’s offense. O unexampled love,
Love nowhere to be found less than divine!
Hail Son412 of God, Savior of men, thy name
Shall be the copious matter of my song
Henceforth, and never shall my harp thy praise
Forget, nor from thy Father’s praise disjoin.
Thus they in Heav’n, above the starry sphere,
Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.
Meanwhile upon the firm opacous418 globe
Of this round world, whose first convex419 divides
The luminous inferior orbs, enclosed
From Chaos and th’ inroad of darkness old,
Satan alighted walks: a globe far off
It seemed, now seems a boundless continent
Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night
Starless exposed, and ever-threat’ning storms
Of Chaos blust’ring round, inclement sky;
Save on that side which from the wall of Heav’n
Though distant far some small reflection gains
Of glimmering air less vexed429 with tempest loud:
Here walked the fiend at large430 in spacious field.
As when a vulture on Imaüs431 bred,
Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar432 bounds,
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey
To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling434 kids
On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs435
Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;
But in his way lights on the barren plains
Of Sericana438, where Chineses drive
With sails and wind439 their cany wagons light:
So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend
Walked up and down alone bent on his prey,
Alone, for other creature in this place
Living or lifeless to be found was none,
None yet, but store444 hereafter from the earth
Up hither like aërial vapors flew
Of all things transitory and vain, when Sin
With vanity had filled the works of men:
Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
Built their fond449 hopes of glory or lasting fame,
Or happiness in this or th’ other life;
All who have their reward on Earth, the fruits
Of painful452 superstition and blind zeal,
Naught seeking but the praise of men, here find
Fit retribution, empty454 as their deeds;
All th’ unaccomplished455 works of Nature’s hand,
Abortive456, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,
Dissolved on Earth, fleet457 hither, and in vain,
Till final dissolution, wander here,
Not in the neighboring moon, as some459 have dreamed;
Those argent fields more likely habitants,
Translated saints461 or middle spirits hold
Betwixt th’ angelical and human kind:
Hither of ill-joined sons and daughters born
First from the ancient world those giants464 came
With many a vain exploit, though then renowned:
The builders next of Babel on the plain
Of Sennaär467, and still with vain design
New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build:
Others came single; he who to be deemed
A god, leaped fondly470 into Etna flames,
Empedocles471, and he who to enjoy
Plato’s Elysium, leaped into the sea,
Cleombrotus473, and many more too long,
Embryos474 and idiots, eremites and friars
White, black475 and gray, with all their trumpery.
Here pilgrims476 roam, that strayed so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heav’n;
And they478 who to be sure of Paradise
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;
They pass481 the planets seven, and pass the fixed,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talked, and that first moved;
And now Saint Peter at Heav’n’s wicket484 seems
To wait them with his keys485, and now at foot
Of Heav’n’s ascent they lift their feet, when lo
A violent crosswind from either coast
Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious489 air; then might ye see
Cowls, hoods and habits with their wearers tossed
And fluttered into rags, then relics, beads491,
Indulgences492, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds: all these upwhirled aloft
Fly o’er the backside of the world494 far of
f
Into a limbo495 large and broad, since called
The Paradise of Fools496, to few unknown
Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod;
All this dark globe the fiend found as he passed,
And long he wandered, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turned thitherward in haste
His traveled501 steps; far distant he descries
Ascending by degrees502 magnificent
Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high,
At top whereof, but far more rich appeared
The work as of a kingly palace gate
With frontispiece506 of diamond and gold
Embellished; thick with sparkling orient507 gems
The portal shone, inimitable on Earth
By model, or by shading pencil drawn.
The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw510
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram513, in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cried, “This is the gate of Heav’n.”
Each stair mysteriously516 was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heav’n sometimes
Viewless518, and underneath a bright sea flowed
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl518, whereon
Who after came from Earth, sailing arrived,
Wafted521 by angels, or flew o’er the lake
Rapt:522 in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss.
Direct against which opened from beneath,526
Just o’er the blissful seat of Paradise,526
A passage down to th’ Earth526, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of aftertimes
Over Mount530 Sion, and, though that were large,
Over the Promised Land to God so dear,
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his angels to and fro
Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard534
From Paneas535 the fount of Jordan’s flood
To Beërsaba536, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;
So wide538 the op’ning seemed, where bounds were set
To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
Satan from hence now on the lower stair
That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven gate
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this world543 at once. As when a scout
Through dark and desert ways with peril gone
All night; at last by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers547 unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land