With what compulsion and
laborious flight
We sunk thus low? Th' ascent
is easy, then;
Th' event is feared! Should we
again provoke
Our stronger, some worse way
his wrath may find
To our destruction, if there
be in Hell
II, 80-84
Attendance none shall need,
nor train, where none
Are to behold the judgement,
but the judged,
Those two; the third best
absent is condemned,
Convict by flight, and rebel
to all law:
Conviction to the serpent none
belongs.
X, 80-84
And judgement from above: him
old and young
Exploded, and had seized with
violent hands,
Had not a cloud descending
snatched him thence
Unseen amid the throng: so
violence
Proceeded, and oppression, and
sword-law,
XI, 668-672
How first this world and face
of things began,
And what before thy memory was
done
From the beginning; that
posterity,
Informed by thee, might know:
If else thou seekest
Aught, not surpassing human
measure, say.
VII, 636-640
Cherub and Seraph rolling in
the flood
With scattered arms and
ensigns, till anon
His swift pursuers from
Heaven-gates discern
Th' advantage, and,
descending, tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked
thunderbolts
I, 324-328
My journey strange, with
clamorous uproar
Protesting Fate supreme;
thence how I found
The new created world, which
fame in Heaven
Long had foretold, a fabrick
wonderful
Of absolute perfection!
therein Man
Placed in a Paradise, by our
exile
X, 479-484
Enamoured at that sight; but
in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reigned, nor
jealousy
Was understood, the injured
lover's hell.
Thus when with meats and
drinks they had sufficed,
Not burdened nature, sudden
mind arose
V, 448-452
Which Gabriel spying, thus
bespake the Fiend.
Satan, I know thy strength,
and thou knowest mine;
Neither our own, but given:
What folly then
To boast what arms can do?
since thine no more
Than Heaven permits, nor mine,
though doubled now
IV, 1005-1009
Can either sex assume, or
both; so soft
And uncompounded is their
essence pure,
Not tried or manacled with
joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle
strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but, in
what shape they choose,
I, 424-428
Of Palestine, in Gath and
Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gaza's
frontier bounds.
Him followed Rimmon, whose
delightful seat
Was fair Damascus, on the
fertile banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid
streams.
He also against the house of
God was bold:
I, 465-470
A leper once he lost, and
gained a king--
Ahaz, his sottish conqueror,
whom he drew
God's altar to disparage and
displace
For one of Syrian mode,
whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and
adore the gods
Whom he had vanquished. After
these appeared
I, 471-476
Left them superiour, while we
can preserve
Unhurt our minds, and
understanding sound,
Due search and consultation
will disclose.
He sat; and in the assembly
next upstood
Nisroch, of Principalities the
prime;
As one he stood escaped from
cruel fight,
VI, 443-448
More unexpert, I boast not:
them let those
Contrive who need, or when
they need; not now.
For, while they sit
contriving, shall the rest--
Millions that stand in arms,
and longing wait
The signal to ascend--sit
lingering here,
II, 52-56
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:
XII, 27-32
Endeavour peace: their strife
pollution brings
Upon the temple itself: at
last they seise
The scepter, and regard not
David's sons;
Then lose it to a stranger,
that the true
Anointed King Messiah might be
born
XII, 355-359
Their office in the firmament
of Heaven,
To give light on the Earth;
and it was so.
And God made two great lights,
great for their use
To Man, the greater to have
rule by day,
The less by night, altern; and
made the stars,
VII, 344-348
Insatiate; I thus single; nor
have feared
Thy awful brow, more awful
thus retired.
Fairest resemblance of thy
Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze
on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial
beauty adore
IX, 536-540
He also against the house of
God was bold:
A leper once he lost, and
gained a king--
Ahaz, his sottish conqueror,
whom he drew
God's altar to disparage and
displace
For one of Syrian mode,
whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and
adore the gods
I, 470-475
Springs upward, like a pyramid
of fire,
Into the wild expanse, and
through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all
sides round
Environed, wins his way;
harder beset
And more endangered than when
Argo passed
Through Bosporus betwixt the
justling rocks,
II, 1013-1018
Now when fair morn orient in
Heaven appeared,
Up rose the victor-Angels, and
to arms
The matin trumpet sung: In
arms they stood
Of golden panoply, refulgent
host,
Soon banded; others from the
dawning hills
VI, 524-528
Eternal Father from his throne
beheld
Their multitude, and to his
Son thus spake.
At least our envious Foe hath
failed, who thought
All like himself rebellious,
by whose aid
This inaccessible high
strength, the seat
Of Deity supreme, us
dispossessed,
VII, 137-142
Easier than air with air, if
Spirits embrace,
Total they mix, union of pure
with pure
Desiring, nor restrained
conveyance need,
As flesh to mix with flesh, or
soul with soul.
But I can now no more; the
parting sun
VIII, 626-630
Pausing a while, thus to
herself she mused.
Great are thy virtues,
doubtless, best of fruits,
Though kept from man, and
worthy to be admired;
Whose taste, too long forborn,
at first assay
Gave elocution to the mute,
and taught
IX, 744-748
As battle hath adjudged; from
this new world
Retiring, by his own doom
alienated;
And henceforth monarchy with
thee divide
Of all things, parted by the
empyreal bounds,
His quadrature, from thy
orbicular world;
X, 377-381
Advancing, sowed the earth
with orient pearl,
When Adam waked, so customed;
for his sleep
Was aery-light, from pure
digestion bred,
And temperate vapours bland,
which the only sound
Of leaves and fuming rills,
Aurora's fan,
V, 2-6
Or potent tongue: Fool! not to
think how vain
Against the Omnipotent to rise
in arms;
Who out of smallest things
could, without end,
Have raised incessant armies
to defeat
Thy folly; or with solitary
hand
Reaching beyond all limit, at
one blow,
VI, 135-140
And Virtues, winged Spirits,
and chariots winged
From the armoury of God; where
stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen
mountains lodged
Against a solemn day,
harnessed at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now
came forth
VII, 199-203
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 washed by stream
XI, 565-569
Adam observed, and with his
eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve
thus spake.
O Eve, some further change
awaits us nigh,
Which Heaven, by these mute
signs in Nature, shows
Forerunners of his purpose; or
to warn
XI, 191-195
In loving thou dost well, in
passion not,
Wherein true love consists
not: Love refines
The thoughts, and heart
enlarges; hath his seat
In reason, and is judicious;
is the scale
By which to heavenly love thou
mayest ascend,
VIII, 588-592
