Subjected to his servigel wings, [ 155 ]
And flaming Mio watd tend
Thir earthy Charge: Of these the vigilance
I dread, and to elude, thus t in mist
Of midnight vaplide obscure, and prie
In every Bush and Brake, where hap may finde [ 160 ]
The Serpent sleeping, in whose mazie foulds
To hide me, and the dark i I bring.
O foul dest! that I who erst tended
With Gods to sit the highest, am now straind
Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial slime, [ 165 ]
This esseo inate and imbrute,
That to the hight of Deitie aspird;
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Desd to? ires must down as low
As high he soard, obnoxious first or last [ 170 ]
To basest things. Reve first though sweet,
Bitter ere long ba it self recoiles;
Let it; I reot, so it light well aimd,
Since higher I fall short, on him who
Provokes my ehis new Favorite [ 175 ]
Of Heavn, this Man of Clay, Son of despite,
Whom us the more to spite his Maker raisd
From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid.
So saying, through each Thicket Danck or Drie,
Like a black mist low creeping, he held on [ 180 ]
His midnight search, where soo he might finde
The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowld,
His head the midst, well stord with suttle wiles:
Not yet in horrid Shade or dismal Den, [ 185 ]
Nor yet, but on the grassie Herbe
Fearless unfeard he slept: in at his Mouth
The Devil enterd, and his brutal sense,
I or head, possessing soon inspird
With atelligential; but his sleep [ 190 ]
Disturbd not, waiting close th approaorn.
Now when as sacred Light began to dawne
In Eden on the humid Flours, that breathd
Thir m inse, when all things that breath,
From th Earths great Altar send up silent praise [ 195 ]
To the Creator, and his Nostrils fill
With grateful Smell, forth came the human pair
And joind thir vocal Worship to the Quire
Of Creatures wanting voice, that done, partake
The season, prime for sweetest Sents and Aires: [ 200 ]
Then une how that day they best may ply
Thir growing work: for much thir work outgrew
The hands dispatch of two Gardning so wide.
And Eve first to her Husband thus began.