Chapter 13 12
Better end heer unborn. Why is life givn
To be thus wrested from us? rather why
Obtruded on us thus? who if we knew
What we receive, would either not accept [ 505 ]
Life offered, or soon beg to lay it down,
Glad to be so dismist in peace. Can thus
Th Image of God in man created once
So nicely and erect, though faultie since,
To such unsightly sufferings be debt [ 510 ]
Under inhuman pains? Why should not Man,
Retaining still Divine similitude
In part, from such deformities be free,
And for his Makers Image sake exempt?
Thir Makers Image, answer Michael, then [ 515 ]
Forsook them, when they themselves they villifid
To serve ungovernd appetite, and took
His Image whom they servd, a brutish vice,
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
Therefore so abject is thir punishment, [ 520 ]
Disfiguring not Gods likeness, but thir own,
Or if his likeness, by themselves defeat
While they pervert pure Natures healthy rules
To loathsom sickness, worthily, since they
Gods Image did not reverence in themselves. [525]
I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To Death, and mix with our connatural dust?
There is, said Michael, if thou well observe [ 530 ]
The rule of not too much, by temperance taught
In what thou eatt and drinkst, seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:
So maist thou live, till like ripe Fruit thou drop [ 535 ]
Into thy Mothers lap, or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly pluckt, for death mature:
This is old age; but then thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change
To witherd weak and gray; thy Senses then [ 540 ]
Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forgoe,
To what thou hast, and for the Aire of youth
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reigne
A melancholly damp of cold and dry
To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume [ 545 ]
The Balme of Life. To whom our Ancestor.