Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/392

386 Who slew his brother. Studious they appear Of arts that polish life, inventors rare; Unmindful of their Maker, though his Spirit Taught them; but they his gifts acknowledge none. Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget; For that fair female troop thou sawest, that seemed Of goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay, Yet empty of all good, wherein consists Woman's domestic honor and chief praise; Bred only and completed to the taste Of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance, To dress, and troll the tongue, and roll the eye. . . To these that sober race of men, whose lives Religious titled them the sons of God, Shall yield up all their virtue, all thaisthis [sic] fame Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles Of these fair atheists, and now swim in joy —Erelong to swim at large—and laugh; for which The world erelong a world of tears must weep."
 * To which thus Adam, of short joy bereft:

"O pity and shame, that they, who to live well Entered so fair, should turn aside to tread Paths indirect, or in the midway faint! But still I see the tenor of Man's woe Holds on the same, from Woman to begin."
 * "From Man's effeminate slackness it begins,"