Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook Heav'n's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks 395 Thou drov'st of warring Angels disarray'd. Back from pursuit thy Pow'rs with loud acclaim Thee only' extoll'd, Son of thy Father's might, To execute fierce vengeance on his foes, Not so on Man: Him thro' their malice fall'n, Father of mercy' and grace, thou didst not doom So strictly, but much more to pity' incline; No sooner did thy dear and only Son Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man So strictly, but much more to pity' inclined, He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife Of mercy' and justice in thy face discern'd, Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat Second to thee, offer'd himself to die For man's offence. O unexampled love! Love no where to be found less than Divine! Hail Son of God, Saviour of Men, thy name Shall be the copious matter of my song Henceforth, and never shall my harp thy praise Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin.
Thus they in Heav'n, above the starry sphere, Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent. Mean while upon the firm opacous globe
Of this round world, whose first convex divides
The luminous inferior orbs, inclosed
From Chaos and th' inroad of Darkness old, Satan alighted walks: a globe far off
It seem'd, now seems a boundless continent
Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night Starless exposed, and ever-threat'ning storms Of Chaos blust'ring round, inclement sky; Save on that side which from the wall of Heav'n, Though distant far, some small reflection gains Of glimm'ring air less vex'd with tempest loud : Here walk'd the Fiend at large in spacious field. 430 As when a vulture on Imaus bred,
Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
412. Milton has been hitherto professedly repeating the sub stance of the angels' song. He here speaks of his own deter mination. 431. Imaus, a celebrated mountain in Asia. G
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey
To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids
On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;
But in his way lights on the barren plains Of Sericana, where Chineses drive
With sails and wind their cany waggons light: So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey: Alone; for other creature in this place, Living or lifeless, to be found was none; None yet, but store hereafter from the earth Up hither like aëreal vapours flew
Of all things transit'ry and vain, when sin With vanity had fill'd the works of men ; Both all things vain, and all who in vain things Built their fond hopes of glory', or lasting fame, Or happiness, in this or th' other life;
All who have their reward on earth, the fruits Of painful superstition and blind zeal,
Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find Fit retribution, empty as their deeds:
All th' unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, 455 Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd, Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,
Till final dissolution, wander here;
Not in the neighb'ring moon, as some have dream'd; Those argent fields more likely habitants, Translated Saints or middle Spirits, hold Betwixt th' angelical and human kind.
Hither of ill-join'd sons and daughters born
First from the ancient world those giants came, 464 With many a vain exploit, though then renown'd:
The builders next of Babel on the plain Of Sennaar, and still with vain design New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build : Others came single; he who to be deem'd A God, leap'd fondly into Etna flames,
438. Sericana; that part of India called Cathay: it is remarkable for the smoothness of its plains. The description of limbo, which follows, has been greatly reprobated by Mr. Addison, and others. But here, as in other places, Milton is best defended by calling to mind the character and design of his poem.
463. See Gen. vi. 4. 467. Sennaar, or Shinar.
Empedocles; and he who to enjoy Plato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea, Cleombrotus; and many more too long, Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars
White, black and grey, with all their trumpery. 475 Here Pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heav'n; And they who, to be sure of Paradise, Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised: They pass the planets sev'n, and pass the fix'd, And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs The trepidation talk'd, and that first moved; And now Saint Peter at Heav'n's wicket seems To wait them with his keys, and now at foot Of Heav'n's ascent they lift their feet, when lo, A violent cross wind from either coast Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues awry Into the devious air; then might ye see Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads, Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, The sport of winds: all these upwhirl'd aloft Fly o'er the backside of the world far off Into a Limbo large and broad, since call'd The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.
All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pass'd, And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thitherward in haste 500 His travell'd steps: far distant he descries Ascending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high; At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd The work as of a kingly palace gate,
471. Empedocles was a Pythagorean philosopher, who threw himself into the crater of Mount Etna.
473. Cleombrotus was a young man, who, having been deeply interested with Plato's reflections on the immortality of the soul, leaped into the sea that he might at once enjoy the felicity mentioned.
482. Milton here follows the ancient or Ptolemaic system of astronomy. Tasso mentions the same spheres in describing Michael's descent from heaven, only in an inverse order.
489. The second person is here put indefimtely; then might be
With frontispiece of diamond and gold Embellish'd thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone, inimitable on earth By model, or by shading pencil drawn. The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending, bands Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled To Padan-Aram in the field of Luz, Dreaming by night under the open sky, And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heav'n. Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood There always, but drawn up to Heav'n sometimes Viewless and underneath a bright sea flow'd Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon Who after came from earth, sailing arrived, Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds. The stairs were then let down, whether to dare The Fiend by easy 'scent, or aggravate His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss: Direct against which open'd from beneath, Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,
A passage down to th' Earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over mount Sion, and, though that were large, 530 Over the Promised Land, to God so dear,
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his Angels to and fro
Pass'd frequent, and his eye with choice regard From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood
To Beërsaba, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and th' Arabian shore :
So wide the op'ning seem'd, where bounds were set To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave. Satan from hence, now on the lower stair That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven gate, Looks down with wonder at the sudden view Of all this world at once. As when a scout Through dark and desert ways with peril gone All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn
510. See Gen. xxviii. 12, 13.
534 Pass'd frequent, is to be understood after regard. 540. The description and comparison here are very noble.
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill, Which to his eye discovers unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land First seen, or some renown'd metropolis With glist'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd, Which now the rising Sun gilds with his beams : Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen, The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized, At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood So high above the circling canopy
Of Night's extended shade) from eastern point Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears Andromeda far off Atlantic seas
Beyond th' horizon; then from pole to pole He views in breadth, and without longer pause Down right into the world's first region throws His flight precipitant, and winds with ease Through the pure marble air his oblique way Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seem'd other worlds; Or other worlds they seem'd, or happy isles, Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old, Fortunate fields, and groves, and flow'ry vales, Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there 570 He stay'd not to inquire: above them all
The golden Sun, in splendour likest Heav'n, Allured his eye: thither his course he bends Through the calm firmament (but up or down, By centre, or eccentric, hard to tell, Or longitude) where the great luminary Aloof the vulgar constellations thick, That from his lordly eye keep distance due, Dispenses light from far; they as they move Their starry dance in numbers that compute Days, months, and years, tow'rds his all-cheering lamp Turn swift their various motions, or are turn'd By his magnetic beam, that gently warms The universe, and to each inward part
558 Constellations directly opposite to each other. star is Aries, which is said to bear Andromeda, because just under it.
568. Hesperian gardens; celebrated among the ancients, and supposed to have been the Cape Verd Islands.
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