る

In heav'n, or earth, or under earth in hell;
When thou attended gloriously from heav'n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning archangels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal: forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead

Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
- Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New heav'n and earth,' wherein the just shall dwell,
And after all their tribulations long

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth:
Then thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by,2
4For regal sceptre then no more shall need,
GOD shall be all in all. But all ye Gods
Adore him, who to compass all this dies,
Adore the Son, and honour him as me.

No sooner had th' Almighty ceased, but all

The multitude of angels with a shout,

Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, heav'n rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas fill'd

Th' eternal regions. Lowly reverent

Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast1

Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold,
Immortal amarant," a flow'r which once
In Paradise fast by the Tree of Life
Began to bloom, but soon for man's offence
To heav'n removed, where first it grew, there
And flow'rs aloft shading the fount of life,

12 Peter iii. 12, 13.

2 Heb. i. 6.

1 Cor. xv. 24.

Rev. iv. 10.

A flower of a purple velvet colour.

grows,

It was supposed not to die when gathered, but recovered its lustre when sprinkled with water. The name is Greek for "unfading."—From HUME

And where the river of bliss through midst of heav'n
Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;

bo -With these that never fade the spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams;
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off; the bright
Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.
Then crown'd again their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce

Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
70-No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
Melodious part, such concord is in heav'n.
Thee Father first they sung, Omnipotent,
Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,

до

Eternal King; Thee author of all being,
Fountain of light, Thyself invisible

Amidst the glorious brightness where Thou sitt'st
Throned 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 excessive bright Thy skirts appear;
Yet dazzle heav'n, that brightest Seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.
Thee next they sang of all creation first,
Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,

In whose conspicuous count'nance, without cloud
Made visible, the Almighty Father shines,
Whom else no creature can behold: on Thee
Impress'd th' effulgence of His glory abides;
Transfused on Thee his ample Spirit rests.
Qo-He heav'n of heavens and all the powers therein
By Thee created, and by Thee threw down
Th' aspiring 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
Thou drov'st of warring angels disarray'd.
Back from pursuit Thy powers with loud acclaim

Thee only extoll'd, Son of Thy Father's might,
To execute fierce vengeance on his foe

A- 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 nowhere 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.
Meanwhile 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 glimmering air, less vex'd with tempest loud.
30-Here walk'd the fiend at large in spacious field.
As when a vulture on Imaus1 bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids

A momain in Asia. Its name signifies snowy. It is the eastern boundary of Western Tartary.

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 place2
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 transitory 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,
50-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,
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;"
6-Those argent fields more likely habitants,

Translated saints, or middle spirits hold
Betwixt th' angelical and human kind:

4

Hither of ill-join'd sons and daughters born
First from the ancient world those giants came
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

80

A God leap'd fondly into Ætna flames,
Empedocles,' and he who to enjoy
Plato's Elysium leap'd into the sea,
Cleombrotus, and many more too long,
Embryoes and idiots, eremites and friars,
White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.
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 seven, 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
qo-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 back side 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
500-Of dawning light turn'd thitherward in haste
His travell'd steps; far distant he descries,
Ascending by degrees magnificent

Up to the wall of heav'n a structure high,

1 A Pythagorean philosopher. His attempt at disappearing in an extraordinary manner from the earth was defeated by the volcano throwing back his iron pattens.

2 An Epirot.

Carmelites, Dominicans, and Fran

elscana.

4 In the dark ages, a ridiculous super stition prevailed that a dying sinner who put on the habit of a religious order was sure of salvation. It was frequently done.

5 Milton speaks here according to Ptolemy's astronomy.-From NEWTON.