Unbid, as balm and spices did at first;
For man, the earth, of which he was, is curst.
By thy own toil procured, thou food shalt eat;
[To ADAM.
And know no plenty, but from painful sweat.
She, by a curse, of future wives abhorr'd,
Shall pay obedience to her lawful lord;..
And he shall rule, and she in thraldom live,
Desiring more of love than man can give.
Adam. Heaven is all mercy: labour I would chuse;
And could sustain this paradise to lose :
The bliss, but not the place: Here, could I
Heaven's winged messenger did pass the day;
Under this pine the glorious angel staid :
Then, shew my wondering progeny the shade.
In woods and lawns, where-e'er thou didst appear,
Each place some monument of thee should bear.
I, with green turfs, would grateful altars raise,
And heaven, with gums, and offer'd incense, praise.
Raph. Where-e'er thou art, He is; the Eternal
Mind
Acts through all places; is to none confined:
Fills ocean, earth, and air, and all above,
And through the universal mass does move.
Thou canst be nowhere distant: Yet this place
Had been thy kingly seat, and here thy race,
From all the ends of peopled earth had come
To reverence thee, and see their native home.
Immortal, then; now sickness, care, and age,
And war, and luxury's more direful rage,
Thy crimes have brought to shorten mortal breath,
With all the numerous family of death.
Eve. My spirits faint, while I these ills foreknow, And find myself the sad occasion too.
Raph. In vision thou shalt see his griesly face, The king of terrors, raging in thy race.
That, while in future fate thou shar'st thy part, A kind remorse, for sin, may seize thy heart.
The SCENE shifts, and discovers deaths of several sorts. A Battle at Land, and a Naval Fight.
Adam. O wretched offspring! O unhappy state Of all mankind, by me betray'd to fate! Born, through my crime, to be offenders first; And, for those sins they could not shun, accurst! Eve. Why is life forced on man, who, might he chuse,
Would not accept what he with pain must lose? Unknowing, he receives it; and when, known, He thinks it his, and values it, 'tis gone.
Raph. Behold of every age; ripe manhood see, Decrepit years, and helpless infancy :
Those who, by lingering sickness, lose their breath;
And those who, by despair, suborn their death:
See yon mad fools, who for some trivial right,
For love, or for mistaken honour, fight:
See those, more mad, who throw their lives
In needless wars; the stakes which monarchs lay,
When for each other's provinces they play.
Then, as if earth too narrow were for fate,
On open seas their quarrels they debate:
In hollow wood they floating armies bear;
And force imprison'd winds to bring them near.
Eve. Who would the miseries of man foreknow?
Not knowing, we but share our part of woe :
Now, we the fate of future ages bear,
And, ere their birth, behold our dead appear. Adam. The deaths, thou show'st, are forced and full of strife,
Cast headlong from the precipice of life.
Is there no smooth descent? no painless way
Of kindly mixing with our native clay ?
Raph. There is; but rarely shall that path be trod, Which, without horror, leads to Death's abode. Some few, by temperance taught, approaching slow, To distant fate by easy journies go :
Gently they lay them down, as evening sheep
On their own woolly fleeces softly sleep.
Adam. So noiseless would I live, such death to find:
Like timely fruit, not shaken by the wind,
But ripely dropping from the sapless bough,
And, dying, nothing to myself would owe.
Eve. Thus, daily changing, with a duller taste
Of lessening joys, I, by degrees, would waste:
Still quitting ground, by unperceived decay,
And steal myself from life, and melt away.
Raph. Death you have seen: Now see your race
revive,
How happy they in deathless pleasures live;
Far more than I can shew, or you can see,
Shall crown the blest with immortality.
Here a Heaven descends, full of Angels, and blessed
Spirits, with soft Music, a Song and Chorus.
Adam. O goodness infinite! whose heavenly will Can so much good produce from so much ill! Happy their state!
Pure, and unchanged, and needing no defence
From sins, as did my frailer innocence.
Their joy sincere, and with no sorrow mixt:
Eternity stands permanent and fixt,
And wheels no longer on the poles of time;
Secure from fate, and, more, secure from crime.
Eve. Ravish'd with joy, I can but half repent
The sin, which heaven makes happy in the event.
Raph. Thus arm'd, meet firmly your approach-
ing ill;
For see, the guards, from yon' far eastern hill,
Already move, nor longer stay afford;
High in the air they wave the flaming sword,
Your signal to depart; now down amain
They drive, and glide, like meteors, through the plain.
Adam. Then farewell all; I will indulgent be
To my own ease, and not look back to see.
When what we love we ne'er must meet again,
To lose the thought is to remove the pain.
Eve. Farewell, you happy shades!
Where angels first should practise hymns, and string
Their tuneful harps, when they to heaven would sing.
Farewell, you flowers, whose buds, with early care,
I watch'd, and to the cheerful sun did rear :
Who now shall bind your stems? or, when you fall,
With fountain streams your fainting souls recal?
A long farewell to thee, my nuptial bower,
Adorn'd with every fair and fragrant flower!
And last, farewell, farewell my place of birth!
I go to wander in the lower earth,
As distant as I can; for, dispossest,
Farthest from what I once enjoy'd, is best.
Raph. The rising winds urge the tempestuous
air;
And on their wings deformed winter bear:
The beasts already feel the change; and hence
They fly to deeper coverts, for defence:
The feebler herd before the stronger run;
For now the war of nature is begun :
But, part you hence in peace, and, having mourn'd
For outward Eden lost, find Paradise within.
Sed, cum fregit subsellia versu, Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendat Agaven.-Juv.
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