BOOK ELEVENTH
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��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. 470
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 appeared, sad, noisome,
dark;
A lazar-house it seemed, wherein were laid Numbers of all diseased all maladies 480 Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture
qualms
Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, Dsemoniac phrenzy, 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; De- spair
Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; 490
And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delayed to strike, though oft in- voked 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
quelled
His best of man, and gave him up to tears A space, till firmer thoughts restrained ex- cess, And, scarce recovering words, his plaint
renewed :
" O miserable Mankind, to what fall 500 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 offered, or soon beg to lay it down, Glad to be so dismissed 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 510 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," answered Mi- chael, " then
Forsook them, when themselves they vilified To serve ungoverned Appetite, and took His image whom they served a brutish
vice,
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. Therefore so abject is their punishment, 520 Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their
own;
Or, if his likeness, by themselves defaced While they pervert pure Nature's health- ful rules To loathsome sickness worthily, since
they
God's image did not reverence in them- selves."
" I yield it just," said Adam, " and sub- mit.
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 530
The rule of Not too much, by temperance
taught In what thon 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 Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death
mature.
This is old age; but then thou must outlive Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which
will change
To withered, weak, and grey; thy senses then, 540
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