Paradise Lost

(Book III, lines 111 – 125)

 

They therefore as to right belonged,

so were created, nor can justly accuse

their maker, or their making, or their fate,

as if predestination overruled

their will, disposed by absolute decree

or high foreknowledge: they themselves decreed

Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,

foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,

which had no less proved certain unforeknown.

So without least impulse or shadow of fate,

or aught by me immutably foreseen,

they trespass, authors to themselves in all

both what they judge and what they choose; for so

I formed them free, and free they must remain,

till they enthrall themselves

—John Milton