Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/357

Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say
That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery810
From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and so last
To perpetuity . . . Ay me! that fear
Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head. Both Death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both;
Nor I on my part single; in me all
Posterity stands cursed. Fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, sons! Oh, were I able
To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!820
So disinherited, how would ye bless
Me, now you curse! Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemned?—
If guiltless; but from me what can proceed
But all corrupt, both mind and will depraved
Not to do only, but to will the same
With me? How can they then acquitted stand
In sight of God? Him, after all disputes,
Forced I absolve; all my evasions vain,
And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still
But to my own conviction: first and last831
On me, me only, as the source and spring
Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;