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
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.
The End of the Second Book.
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
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,
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
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
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
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.
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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