Paradise Regained

"I who e're while the happy Garden sung, By one mans disobedience lost, now sing Recover'd Paradise to all mankind, By one mans firm obedience fully tri'd Through all temptation, and the Tempter foil'd In all his wiles, defeated and repuls't, And Eden rais'd in the wast Wilderness."

"[...] tell of deeds Above Heroic, though in secret done, And unrecorded left through many an Age, Worthy t' have not remain'd so long unsung."

"His coming, is sent Harbinger, who all Invites, and in the Consecrated stream Pretends to wash off sin"

"Victory and triumph to the Son of God Now entring his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles. The Father knows the Son; therefore secure Ventures his filial Vertue, though untri'd, Against whate're may tempt, whate're seduce, Allure, or terrifie, or undermine. Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, And devilish machinations come to nought."

"Envy they say excites me, thus to gain Companions of my misery and wo."

"That fellowship in pain divides not smart, Nor lightens aught each mans peculiar load."

"Most men admire Virtue who follow not her lore."

"And the great Thisbite who on fiery wheels Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come."

"Behold the kings of the Earth how they oppress Thy chosen, to what highth thir pow'r unjust They have exalted, and behind them cast All fear of thee, arise and vindicate Thy Glory, free thy people from thir yoke"

"My heart hath been a store-house long of things And sayings laid up, portending strange events."

"Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets."

"Beauty stands In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive."

"Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd."

"For therein stands the office of a King, His Honour, Vertue, Merit and chief Praise, That for the Publick all this weight he bears. Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;"

"For what is glory but the blaze of fame."

"Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise."

"They err who count it glorious to subdue By Conquest far and wide, to over-run Large Countries, and in field great Battels win,"

"Elephants endors'd with towers."

"Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, Meroe, Nilotic isle."

"Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreath'd."

"The first of all Commandments, Thou shalt worship The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;"

"The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. Be famous, then, By wisdom; as thy empire must extend, So let extend thy mind o'er all the world In knowledge; all things in it comprehend."

"Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence."

"The olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long."

"Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne."

"Socrates... Whom well inspired the oracle pronounced Wisest of men."

"The first and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew."

"Who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself."

"As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore. Or if I would delight my private hours With music or with poem, where so soon As in our native language can I find That solace?"

"Till morning fair Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray."

"On the fate of the Paradise Regained the voice of the public, which on a question of poetic excellence cannot for any long time be erroneous, has irrevocably decided. Not to object to the impropriety of the title, which would certainly be more consistent with a work on the death and the resurrection of our blessed Lord, the extreme narrowness of the plan of the poem, the small proportion of it which is assigned to action and the large part which is given to disputations and didactic dialogue, its paucity of characters and of poetic imagery, and, lastly, its general deficiency in the charm of numbers must for ever preclude it from any extended range of popularity. It may be liked and applauded by those who are resolute to like and are hardy to applaud: but to the great body of the readers of poetry, let the critics amuse themselves with their exertions as they please, it will always be "caviare." It is embellished however with several exquisite passages, and it certainly shows in some of its finer parts, the still existing author of the Paradise Lost."