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With fresh alacritie and force renew'd

Springs upward like a Pyramid of fire

Into the wilde Expanse, and through the shock
Of fighting Elements, on all fides round
Environ'd wins his way; harder befet

And more endanger'd, then when Argo pass'd
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling Rocks :
Or when Ulysses on the Larbord shunnd
Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool fteard. 1020
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour hee;
But hee once past, soon after when man fell,
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain
Following his track, fuch was the will of Heav'n,
Pav'd after him a broad and beat'n way
Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling Gulf
Tamely endur'd a Bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continu'd reaching th' utmost Orbe
Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse
With eafie intercourse pass to and fro
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
God and good Angels guard by special grace.
But now at laft the facred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav'n
Shoots farr into the bofom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins
Her fardeft verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works a brok'n foe
With tumult lefs and with less hostile din,
That Satan with lefs toil, and now with ease
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light
And like a weather-beaten Veffel holds

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Gladly the Port, though Shrouds and Tackle torn ;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling Air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leasure to behold
Farr off th' Empyreal Heav'n, extended wide
In circuit, undetermind square or round,
With Opal Towrs and Battlements adorn'd
Of living Saphire, once his native Seat;
And fast by hanging in a golden Chain
This pendant world, in bigness as a Starr
Of smallest Magnitude close by the Moon.
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurft, and in a curfed hour he hies.

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The End of the Second Book.

Paradise Loft.

BOOK III.

AIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n firstborn,

Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam May I express thee unblam'd? fince God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright effence increate. Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream, Whofe Fountain who fhall tell? before the Sun, Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest

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The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-vifit now with bolder wing,
Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other notes then to th' Orphean Lyre

I fung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark defcent, and up to reafcend,
Though hard and rare; thee I revisit safe,

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And feel thy fovran vital Lamp; but thou
Revifit'ft not these eyes, that rowle in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quencht thir Orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veild. Yet not the more
Ceafe I to wander where the Mufes haunt
Cleer Spring, or fhadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath
That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fomtimes forget

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Those other two equal'd with me in Fate,
So were I equal'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tirefias and Phineus Prophets old.
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadieft Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year
Seafons return, but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud in ftead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men
Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair
Prefented with a Universal blanc

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Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdome at one entrance quite fhut out.
So much the rather thou Celestial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal fight.

Now had the Almighty Father from above, From the pure Empyrean where he fits High Thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye, His own works and their works at once to view: About him all the Sanctities of Heaven

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Stood thick as Starrs, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his Glory fat,
His onely Son; On Earth he first beheld
Our two first Parents, yet the onely two
Of mankind, in the happie Garden plac't,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivald love

In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd
Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this fide Night
In the dun Air fublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet
On the bare outfide of this World, that feem'd
Firm land imbofom'd without Firmament,
Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.
Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein past, present, future he beholds,
Thus to his onely Son foreseeing spake.

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Onely begotten Son, feest thou what rage 80 Transports our adverfarie, whom no bounds Prefcrib'd, no barrs of Hell, nor all the chains Heapt on him there, nor yet the main Abyss Wide interrupt can hold; fo bent he seems On desperat revenge, that shall redound

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