The space of fev'n continu'd nights he rode
With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line
He circled; four times cross'd the car of night
From pole to pole, traverfing each colure:
On th' eighth return'd, and on the coaft averfe
From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth
Found unfufpected way. There was a place,

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59

Now not, though fin, not time, firft wrought the change,
Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradife,
Into a gulf shot under ground, till part
Rofe up a fountain by the Tree of Life:

In with the river funk, and with it rofe

Satan, involv'd in rifing mist; then fought

Where to lie hid: fea he had search'd, and land,
From Eden over Pontus, and the pool
Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob;

Downward as far antarctick; and in length,
Weft from Orontes to the ocean barr'd
At Darien, thence to the land where flows

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80

L. 63. The space of fev'n continu'd nights he rode With darkness, &c.] It was about noon that Satan came to the earth, and having been discovered by Uriel, he was driven out of Paradife the fame night, as we read in book fourth. From that time he was a whole week in continual darkness, for fear of another difcovery. Thrice the equinoctial line he circled; he travelled on with the night three times round the equator; he was three days moving round from east to west, as the fun does, but always on the oppofite fide of the globe, in darkness. Newton.

L. 71. Tigris.] A Perfian and Median word, from the Heb. i. e. an arrow or dart, because of the rapidity of its courfe; therefore, Dionyfius calls it the most rapid of all rivers in the world; Perf. I. line 778. It rifeth in mount Ararat or Niphates in Armenia, parts Mefopotamia and Affyria, runs by Babylon, and a little below Bagdad joins the river. Euphrates.

L. 78. Mantis. Lat. Gr. i. e. the mother or nurse of the fea; because it is the fource or original fpring of the Pontus. It is a Jake on the coaft of Crim Tartary, into which the river Tanais runneth, and parts Europe from Afia, on that fide. In the deepest parts, it is not above eighteen feet.

Ibid. Ob,] by a figure of grammar. In Latin Obba, or Obbius; Perf. Tartar. extenfion, wideness; because it is a broad river. A vaft river, which parts Siberia and Tartary from Rufia.

L. 81. Darien.] American. A neck of land eighteen, and in

Ganges and Indus. Thus the orb he roam'd

With narrow fearch, and with inspection deep
Confider'd ev'ry creature, which of all

Moft opportune might ferve his wiles; and found
The ferpent fubtleft beaft of all the field.

85

Him after long debate, irrefolute

Of thoughts revolv'd, his final fentence chofe

Fit veffel, fitteft imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark fuggeftions hide
From fharpeft fight: for in the wily fnake
-Whatever fleights none would fufpicious mark,
As from his wit and native fubtlety
Proceeding; which in other beats obferv'd,
Doubt might beget of diabolick pow'r
Active within beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he refolv'd, but first from inward grief
His burting paffion into plaints thus pour'd:

O earth how like to heav'n! if not preferr'd
More juftly, feat worthier of gods, as built
With fecond thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God after better worse would build ?
Terreftrial heav'n, dane'd round by other heav'ns
That fhine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as feems,
In thee concent'ring all their precious beams.
Of facred influence! As God in heav'n
Is centre, yet extends to all; fo thou

Cent'ring receiv'ft from all thofe orbs in thee,

Not in themfelves, all their known virtue' appears 110
Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with gradual life

Of growth, fenfe, reason, all fumm'd up in man.

fome places no more than twelve leagues over from caft to west upon the river Darien, between the gulf of Mexico and the South Sea; therefore, the Spaniards attempted to cut it; but they could. not perfect it. It joineth North and South America.

With what delight could I have walk'd thee round,
If I could joy in ought, fweet interchange
Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now fea, and fhores with foreft crown'd,
Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I fee
Pleasures about me, fo much more I feel
Torment within me', as from the hateful fiege
Of contraries; all good to me becomes

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120

Bane; and in heav'n much worse would be my state.
But neither here feek I, no nor in heav'n

To dwell, unless by maft'ring heav'n's Supreme; 125

Nor hope to be myfelf lefs miferable

By what I feek, but others to make fuch
As I, though thereby worfe to me redound:
For only in deftroying I find ease

To my relentless thoughts; and him deftroy'd,
Or won to what may work his utter loss,

For whom all this was made; all this will foon
Follow, as to him link'd in weal or wo;
In wo then! that deftruction wide may range:
To me fhall be the glory fole among
Th' infernal pow'rs, in one day to have marr'd
What he, Almighty ftyl'd, fix nights and days
Continu'd making; and, who knows how long
Before had been contriving? though perhaps
Not longer than fince I, in one night, freed
From fervitude inglorious well nigh half
Th' angelick name, and thinner left the throng
Of his adorers: he, to be aveng'd,

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135

140

And to repair his numbers thus impair'd,

Whether fuch virtue fpent of old now fail'd

145

More angels to create, if they at leaft
Are his created, or, to fpite us more,
Determin'd to advance into our room
A creature form'd of earth, and him endow,

Exalted from fo base original,

150

With heav'nly spoils, our fpoils: what he decreed,
He' effected; man he made, and for him built
Magnificent this world, and earth his feat,

Him lord pronounc'd, and, O indignity!
Subjected to his fervice angel-wings,
And flaming minifters to watch and tend
Their earthly charge. Of these the vigilance
I dread; and to elude, thus wrapt in mift
Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry
In every bush and brake, where hap may find
The ferpent sleeping, in whofe mazy folds
To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.

O foul defcent! that 1, who erft contended

With gods to fit the high'eft, am now constrain'd
Into a beast, and mix'd with beftial flime,
This effence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the height of deity afpir'd!
But what will not ambition and revenge

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160

165

Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low
As high he foar'd, obnoxious, firit or laft,

170

To baseft things. Revenge, at first though fweet,
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils :

Let it ;
I reck not, fo it light well aim'd,
Since higher I fall fhort, on him who next
Provokes my envy, this new favourite
Of heav'n, this man of clay, fon of despite,
Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker rais'd
From duft fpite then with spite is beft repaid.
So faying, through each thicket, dank or dry,
Like a black mift low creeping, he held on
His midnight fearch, where fooneft he might find
The ferpent him faft fleeping foon he found
In labyrinth of many a round self-roll'd,
His head the midft, well ftor'd with fubtle wiles:
Not yet in, horrid fhade or difmal den,

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Nor nocent yet, but on the graffy herb
Fearless unfear'd he flept. In at his mouth
The devil enter'd, and his brutal sense,
In heart or head, poffeffing, foon infpir'd
With act intelligential; but his sleep

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195

Disturb'd not, waiting clofe th' approach of morn.
Now, when as facred light began to dawn
In Eden on the humid flow'rs, that breath'd
Their morning incenfe, when all things that breathe,
From th' earth's great altar fend up filent praise
To the Creator, and his noftrils fill
With grateful fmell, forth came the human pair,
And join'd their vocal worship to the choir
Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake
The feafon, prime for sweetest scents and airs:
Then commune how that day they beft may ply
Their growing work; for much their work outgrew
The hands difpatch of two gard'ning fo wide.
And Eve first to her husband thus began:

Adam, well may we labour still to dress
This garden, ftill to tend plant, herb, and flow'r,
Our pleasant tafk injoin'd; but till more hands.
Aid us, the work under our labour grows,
Luxurious by reftraint; what we by day
Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,
One night or two with wanton growth derides,
Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise,

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210

L. 192. Now, when as facred light, &c.] The author gives us a defcription of the morning, which is wonderfully fuitable to a divine poem, and peculiar to that first season of nature he reprefents the earth, before it was curfed, as a great altar, breathing out its incenfe from all parts, and fending up a pleasant favour to the noftrils of its Creator; to which he adds a noble idea of Adam and Eve, as offering their morning worship, and filling up the univerfal concert of praise and adoration. Addifon.

L. 200. The feafon, prime for fweeteft fcents and airs.] As Milton thus commends the morning, fo he was himself an early rifer. See what he fays of himself in his Apology for Smedtymnuus, p. 102. vol. I. edit. 1738.