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By men who there frequent, or therein dwell.

And now, what further shall ensue, behold.

He looked, and saw the ark hull on the flood,

Which now abated; for the clouds were fled,

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Driven by a keen north-wind, that, blowing dry,

Wrinkled the face of deluge, as decayed;

And the clear sun on his wide watery glass

Gazed hot, and of the fresh wave largely drew,

As after thirst; which made their flowing shrink

From standing lake to tripping ebb, that stole

With soft foot towards the deep; who now had stopt

His sluces, as the Heaven his windows shut.

The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground,

Fast on the top of some high mountain fixed.

And now the tops of hills, as rocks, appear;

With clamour thence the rapid currents drive,

Towards the retreating sea, their furious tide.

Forthwith from out the ark a raven flies,

And after him, the surer messenger,

A dove sent forth once and again to spy

Green tree or ground, whereon his foot may light:

The second time returning, in his bill

An olive-leaf he brings, pacifick sign:

Anon dry ground appears, and from his ark

The ancient sire descends, with all his train;

Then with uplifted hands, and eyes devout,

Grateful to Heaven, over his head beholds

A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow

Conspicuous with three lifted colours gay,

Betokening peace from God, and covenant new.

Whereat the heart of Adam, erst so sad,

Greatly rejoiced; and thus his joy broke forth.

O thou, who future things canst represent

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As present, heavenly Instructer! I revive

At this last sight; assured that Man shall live,

With all the creatures, and their seed preserve.

Far less I now lament for one whole world

Of wicked sons destroyed, than I rejoice

For one man found so perfect, and so just,

That God vouchsafes to raise another world

From him, and all his anger to forget.

But say, what mean those coloured streaks in Heaven

Distended, as the brow of God appeased?

Or serve they, as a flowery verge, to bind

The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud,

Lest it again dissolve, and shower the earth?

To whom the Arch-Angel. Dextrously thou aimest;

So willingly doth God remit his ire,

Though late repenting him of Man depraved;

Grieved at his heart, when looking down he saw

The whole earth filled with violence, and all flesh

Corrupting each their way; yet, those removed,

Such grace shall one just man find in his sight,

That he relents, not to blot out mankind;

And makes a covenant never to destroy

The earth again by flood; nor let the sea

Surpass his bounds; nor rain to drown the world,

With man therein or beast; but, when he brings

Over the earth a cloud, will therein set

His triple-coloured bow, whereon to look,

And call to mind his covenant: Day and night,

Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost,

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Shall hold their course; till fire purge all things new,

Both Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell.

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Book XII

As one who in his journey bates at noon,

Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused

Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,

If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;

Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes.

Thus thou hast seen one world begin, and end;

And Man, as from a second stock, proceed.

Much thou hast yet to see; but I perceive

Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine

Must needs impair and weary human sense:

Henceforth what is to come I will relate;

Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.

This second source of Men, while yet but few,

And while the dread of judgement past remains

Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,

With some regard to what is just and right

Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace;

Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,

Corn, wine, and oil; and, from the herd or flock,

Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,

With large wine-offerings poured, and sacred feast,

Shall spend their days in joy unblamed; and dwell

Long time in peace, by families and tribes,

Under paternal rule: till one shall rise

Of proud ambitious heart; who, not content

With fair equality, fraternal state,

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Will arrogate dominion undeserved

Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

Concord and law of nature from the earth;

Hunting (and men not beasts shall be his game)

With war, and hostile snare, such as refuse

Subjection to his empire tyrannous:

A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled

Before the Lord; as in despite of Heaven,

Or from Heaven, claiming second sovranty;

And from rebellion shall derive his name,

Though of rebellion others he accuse.

He with a crew, whom like ambition joins

With him or under him to tyrannize,

Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find

The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge

Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell:

Of brick, and of that stuff, they cast to build

A city and tower, whose top may reach to Heaven;

And get themselves a name; lest, far dispersed

In foreign lands, their memory be lost;

Regardless whether good or evil fame.

But God, who oft descends to visit men

Unseen, and through their habitations walks

To mark their doings, them beholding soon,

Comes down to see their city, ere the tower

Obstruct Heaven-towers, and in derision sets

Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase

Quite out their native language; and, instead,

To sow a jangling noise of words unknown:

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Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud,

Among the builders; each to other calls

Not understood; till hoarse, and all in rage,

As mocked they storm: great laughter was in Heaven,

And looking down, to see the hubbub strange,

And hear the din: Thus was the building left

Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named.

Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeased.

O execrable son! so to aspire

Above his brethren; to himself assuming

Authority usurped, from God not given:

He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,

Dominion absolute; that right we hold

By his donation; but man over men

He made not lord; such title to himself

Reserving, human left from human free.

But this usurper his encroachment proud

Stays not on Man; to God his tower intends

Siege and defiance: Wretched man!what food

Will he convey up thither, to sustain

Himself and his rash army; where thin air

Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross,

And famish him of breath, if not of bread?

To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorrest

That son, who on the quiet state of men

Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue

Rational liberty; yet know withal,

Since thy original lapse, true liberty

Is lost, which always with right reason dwells

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Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being:

Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed,

Immediately inordinate desires,

And upstart passions, catch the government

From reason; and to servitude reduce

Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits

Within himself unworthy powers to reign

Over free reason, God, in judgement just,

Subjects him from without to violent lords;

Who oft as undeservedly enthrall

His outward freedom: Tyranny must be;

Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.

Yet sometimes nations will decline so low

From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,

But justice, and some fatal curse annexed,

Deprives them of their outward liberty;

Their inward lost: Witness the irreverent son

Of him who built the ark; who, for the shame

Done to his father, heard this heavy curse,

Servant of servants, on his vicious race.

Thus will this latter, as the former world,

Still tend from bad to worse; till God at last,

Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw

His presence from among them, and avert

His holy eyes; resolving from thenceforth

To leave them to their own polluted ways;

And one peculiar nation to select

From all the rest, of whom to be invoked,

A nation from one faithful man to spring:

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Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,

Bred up in idol-worship: O, that men

(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,

While yet the patriarch lived, who ‘scaped the flood,

As to forsake the living God, and fall

To worship their own work in wood and stone

For Gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes

To call by vision, from his father’s house,

His kindred, and false Gods, into a land

Which he will show him; and from him will raise

A mighty nation; and upon him shower

His benediction so, that in his seed

All nations shall be blest: he straight obeys;

Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:

I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith

He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native soil,

Ur of Chaldaea, passing now the ford

To Haran; after him a cumbrous train

Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude;

Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth

With God, who called him, in a land unknown.

Canaan he now attains; I see his tents

Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain

Of Moreh; there by promise he receives

Gift to his progeny of all that land,

From Hameth northward to the Desart south;

(Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed;)

From Hermon east to the great western Sea;

Mount Hermon, yonder sea; each place behold

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In prospect, as I point them; on the shore

Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted stream,

Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons

Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.

This ponder, that all nations of the earth

Shall in his seed be blessed: By that seed

Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise

The Serpent’s head; whereof to thee anon

Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest,

Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,

A son, and of his son a grand-child, leaves;

Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown:

The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs

From Canaan to a land hereafter called

Egypt, divided by the river Nile

See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths

Into the sea. To sojourn in that land

He comes, invited by a younger son

In time of dearth, a son whose worthy deeds

Raise him to be the second in that realm

Of Pharaoh. There he dies, and leaves his race

Growing into a nation, and now grown

Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks

To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests

Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves

Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:

Till by two brethren (these two brethren call

Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim

His people from enthralment, they return,

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With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.

But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies

To know their God, or message to regard,

Must be compelled by signs and judgements dire;

To blood unshed the rivers must be turned;

Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill

With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land;

His cattle must of rot and murren die;

Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,

And all his people; thunder mixed with hail,

Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptians sky,

And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls;

What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,

A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down

Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;

Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,

Palpable darkness, and blot out three days;

Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born

Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds

The river-dragon tamed at length submits

To let his sojourners depart, and oft

Humbles his stubborn heart; but still, as ice

More hardened after thaw; till, in his rage

Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea

Swallows him with his host; but them lets pass,

As on dry land, between two crystal walls;

Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand

Divided, till his rescued gain their shore:

Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend,

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Though present in his Angel; who shall go

Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire;

By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire;

To guide them in their journey, and remove

Behind them, while the obdurate king pursues:

All night he will pursue; but his approach

Darkness defends between till morning watch;

Then through the fiery pillar, and the cloud,

God looking forth will trouble all his host,

And craze their chariot-wheels: when by command

Moses once more his potent rod extends

Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;

On their embattled ranks the waves return,

And overwhelm their war: The race elect

Safe toward Canaan from the shore advance

Through the wild Desart, not the readiest way;

Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed,

War terrify them inexpert, and fear

Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather

Inglorious life with servitude; for life

To noble and ignoble is more sweet

Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on.

This also shall they gain by their delay

In the wide wilderness; there they shall found

Their government, and their great senate choose

Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained:

God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top

Shall tremble, he descending, will himself

In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets’ sound,

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Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain

To civil justice; part, religious rites

Of sacrifice; informing them, by types