Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/171

 BOOK THIRD

��129

��Heaped on him there, nor yet the main

Abyss

Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems On desperate revenge, that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head. And now, Through all restraint broke loose, he wings

his way Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of i

light,

Directly towards the new-created World, And Man there placed, with purpose to assay 90

If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, By some false guile pervert : and shall

pervert ;

For Man will hearken to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole command, Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault ? Whose but his own ? Ingrate, he had of me All he could have; I made him just and

right,

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the Ethereal Powers 100 And Spirits, both them who stood and them

who failed; Freely they stood who stood, and fell who

fell. Not free, what proof could they have given

sincere

Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, Where only what they needs must do ap- peared, Not what they would ? What praise could

they receive, What pleasure I, from such obedience

paid, When Will and Reason (Reason also is

Choice),

Useless and vain, of freedom both de- spoiled,

Made passive both, had served Necessity, Not Me ? They, therefore, as to right be- longed i" So were created, nor can justly accuse Their Maker, or their making, or their fate, As if Predestination overruled Their will, disposed by absolute decree Or high foreknowledge. They themselves

decreed

Their own revolt, not I. If I foreknew, Foreknowledge had no influence on their

fault,

Which had no less proved certain unfore- known.

��So without least impulse or shadow of fate, Or aught by me immutably foreseen, 121 They trespass, authors to themselves in

all, Both what they judge and what they choose ;

for so

I formed them free, and free they must re- main Till they enthrall themselves: I else must

change

Their nature, and revoke the high decree Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained Their freedom; they themselves ordained

their fall.

The first sort by their own suggestion fell, Self-tempted, self-depraved; Man falls, de- ceived 130 By the other first: Man, therefore, shall

find grace ; The other, none. In mercy and justice

both, Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my

glory excel; But mercy, first and last, shall brightest

shine."

Thus while God spake ambrosial fra- grance filled

All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits elect Sense of new joy ineffable diffused. Beyond compare the Son of God was seen Most glorious; in him all his Father shon Substantially expressed ; and in his face 14 Divine compassion visibly appeared, Love without end, and without measure

grace; Which uttering, thus He to his Father

spake : " O Father, gracious was that word which

closed Thy sovran sentence, that Man should find

grace; For which both Heaven and Earth shall

high extol

Thy praises, with the innumerable sound Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy

throne

Encompassed shall resound thee ever blest. For, should Man finally be lost should

Man, 15

Thy creature late so loved, thy youngest

son, Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though

joined With his own folly 1 That be from

thee far,

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