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"ONE ALMIGHTY IS, FROM WHOM ALL THINGS PROCEED, AND UP TO HIM RETURN."-MILTON.

"HEAVEN IS AS THE BOOK OF GOD BEFORE THEE SET."-MILTON.

SATAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.

67

Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduced
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain;

Under what torments inwardly I groan,
While they adore me on the throne of hell.
With diadem and sceptre high advanced,
The lower still I fall; only supreme
In misery: such joy ambition finds.

But say I could repent, and could obtain

By act of grace my former state; how soon
Would height recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore! Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep;
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my Punisher; therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace :
All hope excluded thus, behold, instead
Of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,
Mankind, created, and for him this world.
So farewell hope; and with hope, farewell fear:
Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;
Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least
Divided empire with heaven's king I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
As man ere long and this new world shall know.

[JOHN MILTON. From "Paradise Lost."]

66 SOLICIT NOT THY THOUGHTS WITH MATTERS HID."-MILTON.

"TAKE HEED LEST PASSION SWAY THY JUDGMENT TO DO OUGHT."-JOHN MILTON.

"WELL MAY WE LABOUR STILL TO DRESS THIS GARDEN; STILL TO TEND PLANT, HERB, AND FLOWER."-MILTON.

68

889

FOR SOLITUDE SOMETIMES IS BEST SOCIETY;

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

O on he fares, and to the borders comes

Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,

Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and overhead up-grew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend,
Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verd'rous wall of Paradise up-sprung:
Which to our general sire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighb'ring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
Blossoms and fruit at once of golden hue,
Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed;
On which the sun more glad impressed his beams
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,

When God hath showered the earth; so lovely seemed
That landscape; and of pure, now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
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
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow

AND SHORT RETIREMENT URGES SWEET RETURN."-MILTON.

"NOTHING LOVELIER CAN BE FOUND IN WOMAN, THAN TO STUDY HOUSEHOLD GOOD."-JOHN MILTON.

"WELL-CHOSEN FRIENDSHIP, THE MOST NOBLE OF VIRTUES, ALL OUR JOYS MAKES DOUBLE."-DENHAM.

66 NO CRIME SO BOLD BUT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD

THE THAMES.

69

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.

[JOHN MILTON. From "Paradise Lost."]

M

THE THAMES.

Y eye, descending from the Hill, surveys,
Where Thames among the wanton valleys strays;
Thames, the most loved of all the ocean's sons,

By his old sire, to his embraces runs,
Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea,
Like mortal life to meet eternity;

Though with those streams he no remembrance hold,
Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold:
His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore,
Search not his bottom but survey his shore,
O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing,
And hatches plenty for the ensuing spring;
And then destroys it with too fond a stay,
Like mothers who their infants overlay ;
Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave,
Like profuse kings, resumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations spoil

The mower's hopes, nor mock the ploughman's toil,
But god-like his unwearied bounty flows;

First loves to do, then loves the good he does.

Nor are his blessings to his banks confined,

But free or common as the sea or wind;

A REAL, OR AT LEAST A SEEMING GOOD.". -DENHAM.

"HIM NEITHER HOPE NOR FEAR DECEIVES, TO FORTUNE WHO NO HOSTAGE GIVES."-SIR J. DENHAM.

70

"TIS THE MOST CERTAIN SIGN THE WORLD'S ACCURST,

THE THAMES.

When he, to boast or to disperse his stores,

Full of the tributes of his grateful shores,

Visits the world, and in his flying towers

Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours:
Finds wealth where 'tis, bestows it where it wants,
Cities in deserts, woods in cities, plants.

So that to us no thing, no place, is strange,

While his fair bosom is the world's exchange.
Oh, could I flow like thee! and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme;

Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing, full.

[Sir JOHN DENHAM, chiefly known to posterity by his poem of "Cooper's
Hill" (near Chertsey, Surrey), in which the foregoing vigorous and ener-
getic lines occur. Born 1615, died 1668.]

"MORPHEUS! THE HUMBLE GOD THAT DWELLS IN COTTAGES AND SMOKY CELLS."-DENHAM.

THAT THE BEST THINGS CORRUPTED ARE THE WORST."-DENHAM.

"HATES GILDED ROOFS AND BEDS OF DOWN; FLIES FROM THE CIRCLE OF A CROWN."-DENHAM.

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