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Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed:
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
My being gav'st me; whom should I obey
But thee, whom follow thou wilt bring me foon
To that new world of light and bliss, among
The Gods who live at cafe, where I fhall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
Thy daughter and thy darling, without end,
Thus faying, from her fide the fatal key,
Sad inftrument of all our woe, she took ;
And towards the gate rolling her beftial train,
Forthwith the huge porcullis high up drew,
Which but herself not all the Stygian powers
Could once have moy'd; then in the key-hole turns
Th'intricate wards, and every bolt and bar

Of maffie iron or folid rock with ease
Unfaftens: on a fudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring found
Th'infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom fhook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut

Excell'd her power; the gates wide open stood,
▾ That with extended wings a banner'd hoft
Under spread enfigns marching might pass through
With horfe and chariots rank'd in loose array;
So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth
Caft forth redounding fmoak and ruddy fame.
Before their eyes in fudden view appear
The fecrets of the hoarie deep, a dark

Illimitable Ocean without bound,

Without dimenfion, where length, breadth, and highth,

And time and place are loft; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold"

Eternal Anarchie, amidft the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion ftand.

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce
Strive here for maistrie, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or flow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the fands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid foil,

Levied to fide with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a moment; Chaos umpire fits,

And by decifion more embroils the fray

By which he reigns

Chance governs all.

next him high arbiter

Into this wild abyfs,

The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave,
Of neither fea, nor fhore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixtamı
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th'almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyfs the warie fiend p
Stood on the brink of hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to crofs. Nor was his ear lefs peal'd
With noifes loud and ruinous (to compare

Great things with small) then when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to rafe

Some capital city; or lefs than if this frame

Of heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutinie had from her axle torn

The ftedfaft earth. At laft his fail-broad vannes

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoak
Uplifted fpurns the ground, thence many a league
As in a cloudy chair ascending rides

Audacious, but that feat foon failing, meets
A vaft vacuitie: all unawares

Fluttering his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud
Inftinct with fire and nitre hurried him
As many miles aloft: that furie stay'd,
Quencht in a boggie Syrtis, neither fea,

Nor good dry land nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, hâlf on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and fail.
As when a Gryphon through the wilderness
With winged courfe o'er hill and moarie dale,
Pursues the Arimafpian, who by ftelth
Had from his wakeful cuftody purloin'd
The guarded gold: To eagerly the fiend

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare,
With head, hands, wings or feet pursues his way,
And swims or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:
At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd
Born through the hollow dark' affaults his ear
With loudest vehemence thither he plyes,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power

Or fpirit of the nethermoft abyss

Might in that noise refide, of whom to afk
Which way the nearest coast of darkness ties
Bordering on light; when ftrait behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavillion fpread

Wide on the wafteful deep; with him enthron'd
Sat fable-vefted Night; eldeft of things,

The confort of his reign; and by them food
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confufion all imbroil'd,
And Difcord with a thousand various mouths.
T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye powers
And fpirits of this nethermost abyss,
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb

The fecrets of your realm, but by constraint
Wandring this darkfome defart, as my way
Lies through your fpacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half loft, I feek

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with heav'n; or if fome other place
From your dominion won, th'ethereal king
Poffeffes lately, thither to arrive

I travel this profound, direct my courfe
Directed no mean recompence it brings
To your behoof, if I that region loft,
All ufurpation thence expelt'd, reduce
To her original darkness and your fway
(Which is my present journey) and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient night {

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Your's be th'advantage all, mine the revenge.

Thus Satan; and him thus the anarch old
With fault'ring fpeech and visage incompos'd
Anfwer'd. I know thee, ftranger, who thou art,
That mighty-leading angel, who of late

Made head againft heav'n's king, though overthrown.
1 faw and heard, for fuch a numerous hoft
Fled not in filence through the frighted deep
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Confufion worfe confounded; and heav'n gates
Pour'd out by millions her victorious.bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontieres here
Keep refidence ; if all I can will serve,
That little which is left fo to defend,
Encroacht on fill through our inteftine broils
Weakning the fceptre of old Night: first hell
Your dungeon ftretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately heav'n and earth, another world,
Hung o're my realm, link'd in a golden chain
To that fide heav'n from whence your legions fell:
If that way be your walk, you have not far ;`
So much the nearer danger; go and speed;
Havock and spoil and ruin are my gain.

He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply,
But glad that now his fea fhould find a shore,
With fresh alacrity and force renew'd....
Springs upward like a pyramid of fire

Into the wild expanfe, and through the fhock
Of fighting elements, on all fides round
Environ'd wins his way; harder befet

And more endanger'd, then when Argo pass'd

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