Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/364

358 From what we fear for both, let us make short, Let us seek Death, or, he not found, supply With our own hands his office on ourselves. Why stand we longer shivering under fears, That shew no end but death, and have the power, Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, Destruction with destruction to destroy?"
 * She ended here, or vehement despair

Broke off the rest; so much of death her thoughts Had entertained as dyed her cheeks with pale. But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed, To better hopes his more attentive mind Laboring had raised, and thus to Eve replied:
 * "Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems

To argue in thee something more sublime And excellent than what thy mind contemns; But self-destruction therefore sought refutes That excellence thought in thee, and implies Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret For loss of life and pleasure overloved. Or if thou covet death, as utmost end Of misery, so thinking to evade The penalty pronounced, doubt not but God Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire than so To be forestalled; much more I fear lest death, So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain We are by doom to pay; rather such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest