140
��PARADISE LOST
��So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden, where delicious Paradise, Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure
green,
As with a rural mound, the champain head Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and
wild,
Access denied; and overhead up-grew Insuperable highth of loftiest shade, Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching
palm,
A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend 140 Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their
tops
The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung; Which to our general Sire gave prospect
large
Into his nether empire neighbouring round. And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit, Blossoms and fruits at once of golden
hue, Appeared, with gay enamelled colours
mixed; On which the sun more glad impressed his
beams 150
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow, When God hath showered the earth: so
lovely seemed
That lantskip. And of pure now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart in- spires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair. Now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they
stole Those balmy spoils. As, when to them who
sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are
past 1 60
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow Sabean odours from the spicy shore Of Araby the Blest, with such delay Well pleased they slack their course, and
many a league Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean
smiles; So entertained those odorous sweets the
Fiend Who came their bane, though with them
better pleased Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume
��That drove him, though enamoured, from the spouse
Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent 170
From Media post to -35gypt, there fast
bound.
Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill
Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow;
But further way found none; so thick en- twined,
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had per- plexed
All path of man or beast that passed that way.
One gate there only was, and that looked east
On the other side. Which when the Arch- Felon saw,
Due entrance he disdained, and, in con- tempt, >8o
At one slight bound high overleaped all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within
Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,
Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve,
In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold;
Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash
Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no as- sault, >9
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles;
So clomb this first grand Thief into God's fold:
So since into his Church lewd hirelings climb.
Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,
Sat like a Cormorant; yet not true life
Thereby regained, but sat devising death
To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only used
For prospect what, well used, had been the pledge 200
Of immortality. So little knows
Any, but God alone, to value right
�� �
