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Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With folemn adoration down they sast
Their crowns, inwove with amarant and gold;

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Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but foon for man's offence
To heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,

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And where the riv'r of bliss through midst of heav'n

Rolls o'er Elyfian flow'rs her amber stream :

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With these, that never fade, the spirits elect
Bind their refplendent locks, inwreath'd with beams,
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright

Pavement, that like a fea of jafper shone,

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Impurpled with celestial roses smil'd..
Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took:
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their fide
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming fymphony they introduce
Their facred fong, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt, no voice but well could join 370
Melodious part, fuch concord is in heaven.

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Thee, Father, first they fung omnipotent, Immutable, immortal, infinite, Eternal King; thee Author of all being, Fountain of light, thyfelf invifible Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st Thron'd inaccessible; but when thou shad'st The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine, Dark with excefive bright thy skirts appear; Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes. Thee next they fang of all creation first,

Begotten Son, divine fimilitude,

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In whose confpicuous-count'nance, without cloud 385

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Made vifible, th' almighty Father shines,
Whom else no creature can behold; on thee
Impress'd th' effulgence of his glory' abides,
Transfus'd on thee his ample Spirit rests.

He heav'n of heav'ns, and all the powers therein, 390
By thee created; and by thee threw down
Th' afpiring dominations: thou that day
Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare,
Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook
Heav'n's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks 395
Thou drov'it 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 through their malice fall'n, 400
Father of mercy' and grace, thou didst not doom
So strictly, but much more to pity' incline:
No fooner did thy dear and only Son
Perceive thee purpos'd not to doom frail man
So strialy, but much more to pity' inclin'd,
He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife
Of mercy' and justice in thy face difcern'd,

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Regardless of the bliss wherein he fat

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 fong
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 inclos'd

From Chaos, and th' inroad of darkness old.

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Satan

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 expos'd, and ever-threat'ning storms
Of Chaos blust'ring round, inclement sky;
Save on that fide 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,

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Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Diflodging 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;

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But in his way lights on the barren plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

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With fails and wind their cany wagons light.
So on this windy fea 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 aërial vapours flew
Of all things tranfitory' and vain, when fin
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' ether life;
All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
Of painful fuperftition and blind zeal,
Nought feeking 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,
Diffolv'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

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Till final diffolution, wander here;
Not in the neighb'ring moon, as fome have dream'd;.

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Those argent fields more likely habitants,
Tranflated faints, or middle spirits hold
Betwixt th' angelical and human kind:
Hither of ill-join'd fons and daughters born
First from the ancient world those giants came
With many a vain exploit, tho' then renown'd: 465
The builders next of Babel on the plain

Of Sennaar, and still with vain design

New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build :
Others came fingle; he who to be deem'd

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A god, leap'd fondly into Ætna flames,
Empedocles; and he who to enjoy
Plato's Elyfium, leap'd into the sea,
Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friers
White, black, and gray, 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 fure of Paradise,
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Francifcan think to pass difguis'd;
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs

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The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd;
And now Saint Peter at heav'n's wicket seems

To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of heav'n's afcent they lift their feet, when lo
A violent cross wind from either coaft

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Blows them tranverse, ten thousand leagues awry

Into the devious air; then might ye fee

Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost 490 And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads,

Indulgences, difpenfes, pardons, bulls,

The sport of winds: all these upwhirl'd aloft

Fly

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Fly o'er the backfide of the world far off
Into a limbo large and broad, fince call'd
The Paradife 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,
Afcending 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,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by fhading pencil drawn.
The stairs were fuch as whereon Jacob faw
Angels afcending and defcending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Efau 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 fea flow'd
Of jafper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth failing arriv'd,
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

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The fiend by easy' afcent, or aggravate
His fad exclufion from the doors of bliss:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful feat of Paradise,
A paffage down to the earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times

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