Than hell's dread Emperor, with pomp fupreme,
And God-like imitated state. Him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim inclos'd,
With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. Then, of their feffion ended they bid cry With trumpets regal found the great result : Tow'rds the four winds four speedy Cherubim Put to their mouths the founding alchymy, By herald's voice explain'd: the hollow Abyss Heard far and wide, and all the hoft of hell With deaf'ning fhout return'd them loud acclaim. Thence more at ease their minds, and fomewhat rais'd By falfe prefumptuous hope, the ranged Pow'rs Difband, and wand'ring, each his feveral way Purfues, as inclination or fad choice
Leads him perplex'd, where he may likelieft find 525 Truce to his restless 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 fwift race contend, As at th' Olympian games, or Pythian fields : Part curb their fiery steeds, or fhun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form. As when, to warn proud cities, war appears Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush To battel in the clouds; before each van Prick forth the aery Knights, and couch their spears Till thickeft legions clofe; with feats of arms From either end of heav'n the welkin burns.
Others, with vaft Typhaan rage, more fell!
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 In whirlwind: hell fcarce holds the wild uproar. As when Alcides from Oechalia crown'd
With conqueft, felt th' invenom'd robe, and tore Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines; And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic Sea. Others more mild, Retreated in a filent valley, fing With notes Angelical to many a harp Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall
By doom of battel: and complain that fate
Free virtue fhould inthrall to force, or chance. Their fong was partial; but the harmony (What could it less when spirits immortal fing? ) Sufpended hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In difcourfe more sweet, (For eloquence the foul, fong charms the fenfe) 556 Öthers apart fat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reafon'd high, Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate; Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute; 560 And found no end, in wandring mazes loft. Of good, and evil, much they argu'd then, Of happiness, and final misery, Paffion, and apathy, and glory, and shame: Vain wisdom all, and falfe philofophy! Yet, with a pleasing forcery, could charm. Pain for a while, or anguish; and excite Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdurate breast With stubborn patience, as with triple steel.
Into the burning lake their 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 rueful ftream: fierce Phlegeton, Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these, a flow and filent stream, Letbe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her wat❜ry labyrinth; whereof who drinks, Forthwith his former state and Being forgets, Forgets both joy, and grief, pleasure, and pain. Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark, and wild; 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 elfe, 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. 595 Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd,
At certain revolutions, all the damn'd
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce!
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire. They ferry over this Lethaan Sound
Both to and fro, their forrow to augment, And wish, and struggle as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose In fweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and so near the brink: But Fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt 610 Medufa with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford, and of itself 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' advent'rous bands, 615 With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes agast, View'd firft their lamentable lot, and found No reft: through many a dark and dreary vale They pafs'd, and many a region dolorous, O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and fhades of A univerfe of death! which God by curfe [death; Created evil; for evil only good,
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625 Abominable, inutterable; and worse
Than Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
Mean while the adversary of God and man
Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, Puts on fwift wings, and tow'rds the gates of hell Explores his folitary flight: fometimes
He fcours the right-hand coaft, fometimes the left: Now thaves with level wing the Deep; then foars Up to the fiery concave tow'ring high.
As when far off at fea a fleet defcry'd,
Hangs in the clouds, by Equinoctial winds Clofe failing from Bengala, or the isles
Of Ternate, and Tidore, whence merchants bring Their fpicy drugs: they on the trading flood 640 Through the wide Ethiopian, to the Cape Ply, ftemming nightly tow'rd the Pole: fo feem'd Far off the flying Fiend. At laft appear
Hell bounds, high-reaching to the horrid roof; 644 And thrice threefold the gates: three folds were brafs, Three iron, three of adamantine rock; Impenetrable, 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 waift, and fair; 650 But ended foul in many a fcaly fold,
Voluminous and vaft! a ferpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round A cry of hell-hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal: yet, when they lift, would creep, If ought difturb'd their noife, into her womb, And kennel there; yet there ftill bark'd, and howl'd Within, unfeen. Far lefs abhor'd than thefe
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