br>   Copartner in these regions of the World,
  If not disposer—lend them oft my aid,
  Oft my advice by presages and signs,
  And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,
  Whereby they may direct their future life.
  Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain
  Companions of my misery and woe!
  At first it may be; but, long since with woe
  Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof 400
  That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
  Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load;
  Small consolation, then, were Man adjoined.
  This wounds me most (what can it less?) that Man,
  Man fallen, shall be restored, I never more."
    To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied:—
  "Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies
  From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,
  Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come
  Into the Heaven of Heavens. Thou com'st, indeed, 410
  As a poor miserable captive thrall
  Comes to the place where he before had sat
  Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,
  Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,
  A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,
  To all the host of Heaven. The happy place
  Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy—
  Rather inflames thy torment, representing
  Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable;
  So never more in Hell than when in Heaven. 420
  But thou art serviceable to Heaven's King!
  Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
  Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
 &n