{
 "id": "john-milton/book-iii",
 "title": "Book III",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Milton",
 "poet_slug": "john-milton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Paradise Lost",
 "book_slug": "paradise-lost",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 3,
 "container": "Book III",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1674,
  "venue": "Paradise Lost (1674)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://github.com/standardebooks/john-milton_paradise-lost"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-milton_paradise-lost",
  "file": "book-3.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000634929"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 742,
  "n_stanzas": 21,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 55,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or of the Eternal coeternal beam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never but in unapproached light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bright effluence of bright essence increate!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or hear’st thou rather pure Ethereal stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the Heavens, thou wert, and at the voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rising World of waters dark and deep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Won from the void and formless infinite!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through utter and through middle darkness borne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With other notes than to the Orphean lyre",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sung of Chaos and eternal Night;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taught by the Heavenly Muse to venture down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And feel thy sovereign vital lamp; but thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Revisit’st not these eyes, that roll in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee, Zion, and the flowery brooks beneath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nightly I visit; nor sometimes forget",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those other two equalled with me in fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So were I equalled with them in renown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seasons return; but not to me returns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But cloud instead and ever-during dark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Presented with a universal blank",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Nature’s works, to me expunged and rased,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So much the rather thou, celestial Light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Irradiate: there plant eyes, all mist from thence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of things invisible to mortal sight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now had the Almighty Father from above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the pure Empyrean where he sits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High throned above all highth, bent down his eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His own works and their works at once to view:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About him all the Sanctities of Heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beatitude past utterance; on his right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The radiant image of his glory sat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His only Son. On Earth he first beheld",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our two first parents, yet the only two",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mankind, in the Happy Garden placed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In blissful solitude. He then surveyed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the dun air sublime, and ready now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the bare outside of this World, that seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Firm land imbosomed without firmament,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him God beholding from his prospect high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein past, present, future, he beholds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Only-begotten Son, seest thou what rage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transports our Adversary? whom no bounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heaped on him there, nor yet the main Abyss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On desperate revenge, that shall redound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon his own rebellious head. And now,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Directly towards the new-created World,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Man there placed, with purpose to assay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If him by force he can destroy, or, worse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By some false guile pervert: and shall pervert;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Man will hearken to his glozing lies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And easily transgress the sole command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sole pledge of his obedience; so will fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All he could have; I made him just and right,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such I created all the ethereal powers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Spirits, both them who stood and them who failed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not free, what proof could they have given sincere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where only what they needs must do appeared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not what they would? what praise could they receive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What pleasure I, from such obedience paid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When will and reason⁠—reason also is choice⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made passive both, had served necessity,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not me? They therefore, as to right belonged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So were created, nor can justly accuse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if predestination overruled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their will, disposed by absolute decree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or high foreknowledge. They themselves decreed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So without least impulse or shadow of fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or aught by me immutably foreseen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They trespass, authors to themselves in all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both what they judge and what they choose; for so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I formed them free, and free they must remain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till they enthrall themselves: I else must change",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their nature, and revoke the high decree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their freedom; they themselves ordained their fall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The first sort by their own suggestion fell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Self-tempted, self-depraved; Man falls, deceived",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The other, none. In mercy and justice both,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus while God spake ambrosial fragrance filled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits elect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sense of new joy ineffable diffused.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond compare the Son of God was seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Most glorious; in him all his Father shone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Substantially expressed; and in his face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Divine compassion visibly appeared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love without end, and without measure grace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O Father, gracious was that word which closed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sovereign sentence, that Man should find grace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For which both Heaven and Earth shall high extol",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy praises, with the innumerable sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Encompassed shall resound thee ever blest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For should Man finally be lost, should Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy creature late so loved, thy youngest son,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though joined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With his own folly? that be from thee far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That far be from thee, Father, who art judge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all things made, and judgest only right!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or shall the Adversary thus obtain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His end, and frustrate thine? shall he fulfil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His malice, and thy goodness bring to naught?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or proud return, though to his heavier doom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet with revenge accomplished, and to Hell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Draw after him the whole race of mankind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By him corrupted? or wilt thou thyself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abolish thy creation, and unmake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him, what for thy glory thou hast made?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So should thy goodness and thy greatness both",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be questioned and blasphemed without defence.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom the great Creator thus replied:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Son of my bosom, Son who art alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My word, my wisdom, and effectual might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As my eternal purpose hath decreed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet not of will in him, but grace in me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Freely vouchsafed. Once more I will renew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His lapsed powers, though forfeit, and enthralled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By sin to foul exorbitant desires:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On even ground against his mortal foe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By me upheld, that he may know how frail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His fallen condition is, and to me owe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All his deliverance, and to none but me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some I have chosen of peculiar grace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elect above the rest; so is my will:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their sinful state, and to appease betimes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The incensed Deity, while offered grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What may suffice, and soften stony hearts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though but endeavoured with sincere intent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I will place within them as a guide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Light after light well used they shall attain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to the end persisting safe arrive.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This my long sufferance and my day of grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They who neglect and scorn shall never taste;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And none but such from mercy I exclude.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But yet all is not done. Man, disobeying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the high supremacy of Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Affecting Godhead, and so, losing all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To expiate his treason hath naught left,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, to destruction sacred and devote,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He with his whole posterity must die⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Die he or justice must; unless for him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some other, able and as willing, pay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rigid satisfaction, death for death.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say, Heavenly powers, where shall we find such love?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man’s mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He asked, but all the Heavenly choir stood mute,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And silence was in Heaven: on Man’s behalf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Patron or intercessor none appeared⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Much less that durst upon his own head draw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now without redemption all mankind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must have been lost, adjudged to Death and Hell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By doom severe, had not the Son of God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His dearest mediation thus renewed:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Father, thy word is passed, Man shall find grace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The speediest of thy winged messengers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To visit all thy creatures, and to all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Happy for Man, so coming! He her aid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Atonement for himself, or offering meet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indebted and undone, hath none to bring.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold me, then: me for him, life for life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I offer; on me let thine anger fall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Account me Man: I for his sake will leave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Freely put off, and for him lastly die",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under his gloomy power I shall not long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie vanquished: thou hast given me to possess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life in myself for ever; by thee I live;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ever with corruption there to dwell;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I shall rise victorious, and subdue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death his death’s wound shall then receive, and stoop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I through the ample air in triumph high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The powers of Darkness bound. Thou, at the sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death last, and with his carcase glut the grave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, with the multitude of my redeemed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of anger shall remain, but peace assured",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His words here ended; but his meek aspect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To mortal men, above which only shone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filial obedience: as a sacrifice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glad to be offered, he attends the will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his great Father. Admiration seized",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All Heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wondering; but soon the Almighty thus replied:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sole complacence! well thou know’st how dear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me are all my works; nor Man the least,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though last created, that for him I spare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By losing thee a while, the whole race lost!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their nature also to thy nature join;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And be thyself Man among men on Earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By wondrous birth; be thou in Adam’s room",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The head of all mankind, though Adam’s son.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As in him perish all men, so in thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As from a second root, shall be restored",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As many as are restored; without thee, none.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And live in thee transplanted, and from thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dying rise, and rising with him raise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So Heavenly love shall outdo Hellish hate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Giving to death, and dying to redeem,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So dearly to redeem what Hellish hate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So easily destroyed, and still destroys",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In those who, when they may, accept not grace.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man’s nature, lessen or degrade thine own.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Equal to God, and equally enjoying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God-like fruition, quitted all to save",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A world from utter loss, and hast been found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By merit more than birthright Son of God⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Found worthiest to be so by being good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far more than great or high; because in thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With thee thy manhood also to this throne:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Anointed universal King. All power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I give thee; reign for ever, and assume",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy merits; under thee, as Head supreme,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All knees to thee shall bow of them that bide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The summoning Archangels to proclaim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy dread tribunal, forthwith from all winds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The living, and forthwith the cited dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all past ages, to the general doom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall hasten: such a peal shall rouse their sleep.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, all thy Saints assembled, thou shalt judge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bad men and Angels; they arraigned shall sink",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The World shall burn, and from her ashes spring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And after all their tribulations long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Joy and Love triumphing, and fair Truth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For regal sceptre then no more shall need;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God shall be all in all. But all ye gods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adore him who, to compass all this, dies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adore the Son, and honour him as me.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but⁠—all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The multitude of Angels, with a shout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loud as from numbers without number, sweet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As from blest voices, uttering joy⁠—Heaven rung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eternal regions. Lowly reverent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With solemn adoration down they cast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Immortal amarant, a flower which once",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Began to bloom, but soon for Man’s offence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flowers aloft, shading the Fount of Life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And where the River of Bliss through midst of Heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With these that never fade the Spirits elect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like quivers hung; and with preamble sweet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of charming symphony they introduce",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their sacred song, and waken raptures high:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No voice exempt, no voice but well could join",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Melodious part; such concord is in Heaven.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thee, Father, first they sung, Omnipotent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eternal King; thee, Author of all being,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fountain of light, thyself invisible",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throned inaccessible, but when thou shadest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee next they sang, of all creation first,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made visible, the Almighty Father shines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom else no creature can behold: on thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He Heaven of Heavens, and all the powers therein,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By thee created; and by thee threw down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The aspiring Dominations. Thou that day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy Father’s dreadful thunder didst not spare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heaven’s everlasting frame, while o’er the necks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou drov’st of warring Angels disarrayed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back from pursuit, thy powers with loud acclaim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father’s might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To execute fierce vengeance on his foes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not so on Man; him, through their malice fallen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So strictly, but much more to pity incline.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No sooner did thy dear and only Son",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So strictly, but much more to pity inclined,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He, to appease thy wrath, and end the strife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Second to thee, offered himself to die",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Man’s offence. O unexampled love!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love nowhere to be found less than divine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hail, Son of God, Saviour of men! Thy name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall be the copious matter of my song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Henceforth, and never shall my harp thy praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forget, nor from thy Father’s praise disjoin!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus they in Heaven, above the starry sphere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meanwhile, upon the firm opacous globe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this round World, whose first convex divides",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The luminous inferior orbs, enclosed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Satan alighted walks. A globe far off",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seemed; now seems a boundless continent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though distant far, some small reflection gains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As when a vulture on Imaus bred,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dislodging from a region scarce of prey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in his way lights on the barren plains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Sericana, where Chineses drive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With sails and wind their cany waggons light:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone, for other creature in this place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Living or lifeless, to be found was none⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "None yet; but store hereafter from the Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up hither like aerial vapours flew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all things transitory and vain, when sin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With vanity had filled the works of men:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both all things vain, and all who in vain things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or happiness in this or the other life.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All who have their reward on earth, the fruits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of painful superstition and blind zeal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Naught seeking but the praise of men, here find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the unaccomplished works of Nature’s hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dissolved on Earth, fleet hither, and in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till final dissolution, wander here;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not in the neighbouring moon, as some have dreamed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those argent fields more likely habitants,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Translated saints, or middle Spirits, hold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Betwixt the angelical and human kind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hither, of ill-joined sons and daughters born,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First from the ancient world those giants came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With many a vain exploit, though then renowned;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The builders next of Babel on the plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Sennaar, and still with vain design",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others came single: he who, to be deemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A god, leaped fondly into Aetna flames,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Empedocles; and he who, to enjoy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Plato’s Elysium, leaped into the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cleombrotus; and many more, too long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they who, to be sure of Paradise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The trepidation talked, and that first moved;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now Saint Peter at Heaven’s wicket seems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wait them with his keys, and now at foot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Heaven’s ascent they lift their feet, when, lo!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A violent cross wind from either coast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the devious air. Then might ye see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fluttered into rags; then relics, beads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sport of winds: all these, upwhirled aloft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fly o’er the backside of the World far off",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a limbo large and broad, since called",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Paradise of Fools; to few unknown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long after, now unpeopled and untrod.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And long he wandered, till at last a gleam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of dawning light turned thitherward in haste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His travelled steps. Far distant he descries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ascending by degrees magnificent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up to the wall of Heaven, a structure high;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The work as of a kingly palace-gate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With frontispiece of diamond and gold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The portal shone, inimitable on Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By model, or by shading pencil drawn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Angels ascending and descending, bands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreaming by night under the open sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And waking cried, “This is the gate of Heaven.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flowed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who after came from Earth sailing arrived,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wafted by Angels, or flew o’er the lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stairs were then let down, whether to dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Direct against which opened from beneath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Just o’er the blissful seat of Paradise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wider by far than that of after-times",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over Mount Zion, and, though that were large,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the Promised Land to God so dear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On high behests his Angels to and fro",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Paneas, the fount of Jordan’s flood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Beersaba, where the Holy Land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looks down with wonder at the sudden view",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all this World at once. As when a scout,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through dark and desert ways with peril gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which to his eye discovers unaware",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The goodly prospect of some foreign land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First seen, or some renowned metropolis",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At sight of all this World beheld so fair.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round he surveys (and well might where he stood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So high above the circling canopy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Night’s extended shade) from eastern point",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Andromeda far off Atlantic seas",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond the horizon; then from pole to pole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He views in breadth; and, without longer pause,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down right into the World’s first region throws",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His flight precipitant, and winds with ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the pure marble air his oblique way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amongst innumerable stars, that shone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stars distant, but nigh-hand seemed other worlds.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like those Hesperian Gardens famed of old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He stayed not to inquire. Above them all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Allured his eye. Thither his course he bends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the calm firmament (but up or down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By centre or eccentric, hard to tell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or longitude) where the great luminary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That from his lordly eye keep distance due,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dispenses light from far. They, as they move",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their starry dance in numbers that compute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turn swift their various motions, or are turned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By his magnetic beam, that gently warms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Universe, and to each inward part",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With gentle penetration, though unseen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So wondrously was set his station bright.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Astronomer in the sun’s lucent orb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The place he found beyond expression bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Compared with aught on Earth, metal or stone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not all parts like, but all alike informed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Aaron’s breast-plate, and a stone besides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stone, or like to that, which here below",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Philosophers in vain so long have sought;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain, though by their powerful art they bind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drained through a limbec to his native form.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What wonder then if fields and regions here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Potable gold, when, with one virtuous touch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The arch-chemic sun, so far from us remote,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here in the dark so many precious things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of colour glorious and effect so rare?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here matter new to gaze the Devil met",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Undazzled. Far and wide his eye commands;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But all sunshine, as when his beams at noon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Culminate from the equator, as they now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shot upward still direct, whence no way round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nowhere so clear, sharpened his visual ray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To objects distant far, whereby he soon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The same whom John saw also in the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Circled his head, nor less his locks behind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay waving round: on some great charge employed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find who might direct his wandering flight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Paradise, the happy seat of Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His journey’s end, and our beginning woe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But first he casts to change his proper shape,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which else might work him danger or delay:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now a stripling Cherub he appears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not of the prime, yet such as in his face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suitable grace diffused; so well he feigned.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under a coronet his flowing hair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of many a coloured plume sprinkled with gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His habit fit for speed succinct; and held",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before his decent steps a silver wand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Admonished by his ear, and straight was known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Archangel Uriel; one of the seven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who in God’s presence, nearest to his throne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stand ready at command, and are his eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er sea and land. Him Satan thus accosts:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Uriel! for thou of those seven Spirits that stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sight of God’s high throne, gloriously bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The first art wont his great authentic will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where all his Sons thy embassy attend;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And here art likeliest by supreme decree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like honour to obtain, and as his eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To visit oft this new creation round;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unspeakable desire to see and know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All these his wondrous works, but chiefly Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His chief delight and favour, him for whom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All these his works so wondrous he ordained,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath brought me from the choirs of Cherubim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph, tell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In which of all these shining orbs hath Man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His fixed seat; or fixed seat hath none,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I may find him, and with secret gaze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or open admiration him behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On whom the great Creator hath bestowed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That both in him and all things, as is meet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Universal Maker we may praise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Created this new happy race of Men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To serve him better: wise are all his ways!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So spake the false dissembler unperceived;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For neither man nor Angel can discern",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invisible, except to God alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At Wisdom’s gate, and to Simplicity",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resigns her charge, while Goodness thinks no ill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where no ill seems: which now for once beguiled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who to the fraudulent impostor foul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his uprightness, answer thus returned:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The works of God, thereby to glorify",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The great Work-master, leads to no excess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That reaches blame, but rather merits praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The more it seems excess, that led thee hither",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contented with report, hear only in Heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wonderful indeed are all his works,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had in remembrance always with delight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But what created mind can comprehend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their number, or the wisdom infinite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw when at his word the formless mass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This World’s material mould, came to a heap:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till at his second bidding Darkness fled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift to their several quarters hasted then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cumbrous elements⁠—earth, flood, air, fire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flew upward, spirited with various forms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each had his place appointed, each his course;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rest in circuit walls this Universe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look downward on that globe, whose hither side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With light from hence, though but reflected, shines:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(So call that opposite fair star) her aid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Timely interposes, and, her monthly round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With borrowed light her countenance triform",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hence fills and empties, to enlighten the Earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in her pale dominion checks the night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That spot to which I point is Paradise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adam’s abode; those lofty shades his bower.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy way thou canst not miss; me mine requires.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where honour due and reverence none neglects,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor stayed till on Niphates’ top he lights.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}