Tone and manner again changed.
Than to submit :-boasting I could subdue
Ah 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 advanc'd,
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 recal high thoughts? how soon unsay
What feign'd 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 pierc'd 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, exil'd, 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.
Printed by C. F. Hodgson, 1 Gough Square, Fleet Street, London. 65