Of Creatures rational, though under hope
Of heavenly Grace: and God proclaiming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmitie, and strife
Among themselves, and levie cruel warres,
Wafting the Earth, each other to destroy :
As if (which might induce us to accord)
Man had not hellish foes anow befides,
That day and night for his deftruction waite.
The Stygian Councel thus diffolv'd; and forth
In order came the grand infernal Peers,
Midst came thir mighty Paramount, and seemd
Alone th' Antagonist of Heav'n, nor less
Then Hells dread Emperour with pomp Supream, 510 And God-like imitated State; him round
A Globe of fierie Seraphim inclos'd
With bright imblazonrie, and horrent Arms.
Then of thir Seffion ended they bid cry
With Trumpets regal found the great refult:
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to thir mouths the founding Alchymie
By Haralds voice explain'd: the hollow Abyss
Heard farr and wide, and all the hoft of Hell
With deafning fhout, return'd them loud acclaim.
Thence more at eafe thir minds and fomwhat rais'd
By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers
Disband, and wandring, each his feveral way
Pursues, as inclination or fad choice
Leads him perplext, where he may likelieft find
Truce to his reftless thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours, till his great Chief return.
Part on the Plain, or in the Air fublime
Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,
530 As at th' Olympian Games or Pythian fields;
Part curb thir fierie Steeds, or fhun the Goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted Brigads form.
As when to warn proud Cities warr appears
Wag'd in the troubl'd Skie, and Armies rufh
To Battel in the Clouds, before each Van
Prie forth the Aerie Knights, and couch thir fpears
Till thickest Legions clofe; with feats of Arms
From either end of Heav'n the welkin burns.
Others with vaft Typhaan rage more fell
540 Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air
In whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wilde
As when Alcides from Oealia Crown'd
With conqueft, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore
Through pain up by the roots Theffalian Pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic Sea. Others more milde,
Retreated in a filent valley, fing
With notes Angelical to many a Harp
Thir own Heroic deeds and hapless fall
550 By doom of Battel; and complain that Fate
Free Vertue fhould enthrall to Force or Chance.
Thir fong was partial, but the harmony
(What could it lefs when Spirits immortal fing?)
Sufpended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In difcourfe more sweet
\(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense,)\
Others apart fat on a Hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reafon'd high
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate,
560 Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge abfolute,
And found no end, in wandring mazes loft.
Of good and evil much they argu'd then,
Of happiness and final misery,
Paffion and Apathie, and glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and falfe Philofophie :
Yet with a pleasing forcerie could charm
Pain for a while or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breft
With ftubborn patience as with triple steel.
Another part in Squadrons and grofs Bands,
On bold adventure to discover wide
That dismal world, if any Clime perhaps
Might yeild them easier habitation, bend
Four ways thir flying March, along the Banks
Of four infernal Rivers that difgorge
Into the burning Lake thir baleful streams;
Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate,
Sad Acheron of forrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud
Heard on the ruful stream; fierce Phlegeton
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with
Farr off from these a flow and filent ftream,
Lethe the River of Oblivion roules
Her watrie Labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former ftate and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen Continent
Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms
Of Whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; all else deep fnow and ice,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Cafius old,
Where Armies whole have funk: the parching Air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of Fire.
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hail'd,
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce, 600 From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice
Thir foft Ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infixt, and frozen round,
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean Sound
Both to and fro, thir forrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
The tempting stream, with one fmall drop to loose
In fweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and fo neer the brink;
61 0 But fate withstands, and to oppofe th' attempt
Medufa with Gorgonian terror guards
The Ford, and of it felf the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled.
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In confus'd march forlorn, th' adventrous Bands
With fhuddring horror pale, and eyes agaft
View'd first thir lamentable lot, and found
No reft through many a dark and drearie Vaile
They pafs'd, and many a Region dolorous,
620 O're many a Frozen, many a Fierie Alpe,
Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of
A Universe of death, which God by curfe (death,
Created evil, for evil only good,
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monftrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worfe
Then Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.
Mean while the Adversary of God and Man,
Satan with thoughts inflam'd of highest design,
Puts on fwift wings, and toward the Gates of Hell
Explores his folitary flight; som times
He fcours the right hand coaft, fom times the left,
Now shaves with level wing the Deep, then foares
Up to the fiery concave touring high.
As when farr off at Sea a Fleet defcri'd
Hangs in the Clouds, by Equinoctial Winds
Close failing from Bengala, or the Iles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence Merchants bring
Thir fpicie Drugs: they on the trading Flood
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply stemming nightly toward the Pole. So feem'd
Farr off the flying Fiend: at last appeer
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid Roof,
And thrice threefold the Gates; three folds were
Three Iron, three of Adamantine Rock,
Impenitrable, impal'd with circling fire,
Yet unconfum'd. Before the Gates there fat
On either fide a formidable shape;
The one feem'd Woman to the wafte, and fair,
But ended foul in many a scaly fould
Voluminous and vaft, a Serpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round
A cry of Hell Hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous Peal: yet, when they lift, would creep,
If aught disturb'd thir noyse, into her woomb,
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