Through Bofphorus betwixt the justling rocks = Or when Ulyffes on the larboard shunn'd Charybdis, and by th'other whirlpool steer'd. So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he; But he once past, soon after when man fell, Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain Following his tract, fuch was the will of heav'n, Pav'd after him a broad and beat'n ways ES Over the dark abyfs, whose boiling gulf Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length From hell continu'd reaching th'utmost orbe Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse With eafie intercourse pass to and fro To tempt or punish mortals, except whom t God and good angels guard by special grace. But now at laft the facred influence
Of light appears, and from the walls of heav'n Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night A glimmering dawn; here nature first begins Her fardeft verge, and Chaos to retire As from her utmost works a brok'n foe- With tumult lefs and with lefs hoftile din, That Satan with less toil, and now with ease Wafts on the calmer wave by dubius light And like a weather-beaten vessel holds
Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; Or in the emptier wafte, resembling air, Weighs his spread wings, at leasure to behold Far off th'empyreal heav'n, extended wide In circuit, undetermin'd fquare or round,
With opal towrs and battlements adorn'd Of living faphire, once his native feat And faft by hanging in a golden chain This pendant world, in bigness as a star Of fmalleft magnitude close by the moon. Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge, Accurft, and in a cursed hour he hies.
The End of the Second Book.
AIL holy light, offspring of heav'n first-born, Or of th'eternal coeternal beam
May I exprefs thee unblam'd? fince God is light, And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright effence increate. Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? before the fun, Before the heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a mantle did invest
The rifing world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revifit now with bolder wing, Efcap't the Stygian pool, though long detain'd In that obfcure fojourn, while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness borne With other notes than to th'Orphean lyre
I fung of Chaos and eternal Night, Taught by the heav'nly mufe to venture down The dark defcent, and up to re-ascend, Though hard and rare: thee I revifit safe, And feel thy fovran vital lamp; but thou Revifit'ft not these eyes, that rowle in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop ferene hath quencht their orbs, Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more Ceafe I to wander where the mufes haunt
Clear fpring, or fhaddie grove, or funnie hill, Smit with the love of sacred fong; but chief Thee Sion and the flowrie brooks beneath That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes forget
Those other two equal'd with me in fate, So were I equal'd with them in renown, Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides, And Tirefias and Phineus prophets old. Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return, but not tó mẹ returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Or fight of vernal bloom, or fummer's rofe, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud inftead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the chearful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Prefented with a univerfal blanc
Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd, And wisdom at one entrance quite fhut out. So much the rather thou celeftial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powere Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and difperfe, that I may fee and tell Of things invisible to mortal fight, chan Now had the almighty father from above, From the pure empyrean where he fits High thron'd above all highth bent down his eye.
His own works and their works at once to view:
About him all the fanctities of heav'n
Stood thick as stars, and from his fight receiv'd Beatitude past utterance; on his right The radiant image of his glory fat, His only Son; on earth he first beheld Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden plac't, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd love
In blissful folitude; he then survey'd Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there Coasting the wall of heav'n on this fide Night In the dun air sublime, and ready now
To ftoop with wearied wings, and willing feet On the bare outside of this world, that seem'd Firm land imbosom'd without firmament, Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his prospect high, Wherein paft, prefent, future he beholds, Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.
Only begotten Son, feest thou what rage Transports our adversarie, whom no bounds Prefcrib'd, no barrs of hell, nor all the chains Heapt on him there, nor yet the main abyss Wide interrupt can hold; so bent he seems On defperate revenge, that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head. And now. Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way Not far off heav'n, in the precincts of light, Directly towards the new created world.
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