From Heaven acceptance; but the bloody fact Will be avenged; and the other's faith, approved, Lose no reward, though here thou see him die, Rolling in dust and gore." To which our sire: "Alas! both for the deed, and for the cause ! But have I now seen death?
I must return to native dust?
Of terror, foul and ugly to behold!
Horrid to think, how horrible to feel!"
To whom thus Michael: "Death thou hast seen
In his first shape on man; but many shapes
Of death, and many are the ways that lead
To his grim cave; all dismal, yet to sense
More terrible at the entrance than within.
Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die; By fire, flood, famine; by intemperance more
In meats and drinks, which on the earth shall bring Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew Before thee shall appear, that thou may'st know What misery the inabstinence of Eve
Shall bring on men." Immediately a place Before his eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark; A lazar-house it seem'd, wherein were laid Numbers of all diseased; all maladies Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. Dire was the tossing, deep the groans: Despair Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invoked With vows, as their chief good, and final hope. Sight so deform what heart of rock could long, Dry-eyed, behold? Adam could not, but wept, Though not of woman born; compassion quell'd His best of man, and gave him up to tears A space, till firmer thoughts restrain'd excess And, scarce recovering words, his plaint renew'd: "O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Better end here unborn. Why is life given To be thus wrested from us? rather, why
Obtruded on us thus? who, if we knew What we receive, would either not accept Life offer'd, or soon beg to lay it down, Glad to be so dismiss'd in peace. Can thus The image of God in man, created once So goodly and erect, though faulty since, To such unsightly sufferings be debased Under inhuman pains? Why should not man, Retaining still divine similitude
In part, from such deformities be free,
And, for his Maker's image sake, exempt?"
"Their Maker's image," answer'd Michael, “then Forsook them, when themselves they vilified To serve ungovern'd appetite, and took
His image whom they served, a brutish vice, Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. Therefore so abject is their punishment, Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own; Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced; While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they God's image did not reverence in themselves."
"I yield it just," said Adam, "and submit: But is there yet no other way, besides These painful passages, how we may come To death, and mix with our connatural dust?"
"There is," said Michael," if thou well observe The rule of Not too much,' by temperance taught, In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight;
Till many years over thy head return,
So may'st thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease
Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd, for death mature:
This is old age; but, then, thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change To wither'd, weak, and grey; thy senses then, Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego,
To what thou hast; and for the air of youth, Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign A melancholy damp of cold and dry, To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume The balm of life." To whom our ancestor :
"Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong Life much; bent, rather, how I may be quit, Fairest and easiest, of this cumbrous charge, Which I must keep till my appointed day Of rendering up, and patiently attend My dissolution." Michael replied:
"Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven: And now prepare thee for another sight."
He look'd, and saw a spacious plain, whereon Were tents of various hue; by some were herds Of cattle grazing; others, whence the sound Of instruments, that made melodious chime, Was heard, of harp and organ, and who moved Their stops and chords was seen; his volant touch, Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue. In other part stood one who, at the forge Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass Had melted (whether found where casual fire Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale, Down to the veins of earth, thence gliding hot To some cave's mouth, or whether wash'd by stream From under ground); the liquid ore he drain'd Into fit moulds prepared, from which he form'd,
First, his own tools; then, what might else be wrought Fusil or graven in metal. After these,
But on the hither side, a different sort,
From the high neighbouring hills, which was their seat, Down to the plain descended; by their guise Just men they seem'd, and all their study bent To worship God aright, and know his works
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