“O Sons, like one of us Man is become To know both good and evil, since his taste Of that defended fruit; but let him boast His knowledge of good lost and evil got, Happier had it sufficed him to have known Good by itself, and evil not at all. He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite⁠— My motions in him; longer than they move, His heart I know how variable and vain, Self-left. Lest, therefore, his now bolder hand Reach also of the Tree of Life, and eat, And live for ever⁠—dream at least to live For ever⁠—to remove him I decree, And send him from the garden forth, to till The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil. Michael, this my behest have thou in charge: Take to thee from among the Cherubim Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the Fiend, Or in behalf of Man, or to invade Vacant possession, some new trouble raise; Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God Without remorse drive out the sinful pair, From hallowed ground the unholy, and denounce To them, and to their progeny, from thence