Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/370

Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.
Accept me, and in me from these receive
The smell of peace toward Mankind: let him live
Before thee reconciled, at least his days
Numbered, though sad; till death, his doom—which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse—41
To better life shall yield him, where with me
All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss,
Made one with me, as I with thee am one."
To whom the Father, without cloud, serene:
"All thy request for Man, accepted Son,
Obtain; all thy request was my decree.
But, longer in that Paradise to dwell
The law I gave to Nature him forbids;
Those pure immortal elements, that know50
No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul,
Eject him, tainted now, and purge him off,
As a distemper, gross, to air as gross,
And mortal food, as may dispose him best
For dissolution wrought by sin, that first
Distempered all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I at first with two fair gifts
Created him endowed, with happiness
And immortality; that fondly lost,
This other served but to eternize woe,60
Till I provided death: so death becomes
His final remedy, and, after life