With terrors and with clamors compafs'd round
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
My being gav'ft me; whom should I obey
But thee, whom follow? thou wilt bring me foon
To that new world of light and blifs, among
The Gods who live at eafe; 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 bestial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew;
Which but herself, not all the Stygian Powers
Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar,
Of massy 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 shook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut
Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open flood,
That, with extended wings, a banner'd host,
Under spread ensigns marching,might pass through
With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array;
So wide they flood; and,like a furnace mouth,
Caft forth redounding fmoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes, in fudden view, appear
The secrets of the hoary 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 anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mast'ry, and to battel bring
Their embryon atoms; they, around the flag
Of each his faction, in their feveral clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or flow,
Swarm populous; un-number'd as the fands
Of Barca orCyrene'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 sits,
And by decision more embroils the fray
By which he reigns: next him,high arbiter,
Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature,and perhaps her grave,
Of neither fea, nor fhore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds;
Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell, and look'd a while,
Pond'ring his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to crofs. Nor was his ear lefs peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with small) than when Bellona ftorms,
With all her battering engins bent to rase
Some capital city'; or lefs than if this frame
Of Heav'n were falling; and these elements,
In mutiny, had from her axle torn
The ftedfaft earth. At laft his fail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and, in the furging smoke Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league, As in a cloudy chair, afcending,rides
Audacious; but that seat soon failing, meets
A vaft vacuity: 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, 935
The ftrong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Inftinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither fea,
Nor good dry land, nigh founder'd,on he fares, 940
Treading the crude confiftence, half on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and fail.
As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
'Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So 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: 950
At length, a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds, and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power
Or Spirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noise refide, of whom to ask
the nearest coast of darkness lies
Which way
Bord'ring on light; when ftrait, behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd
Sat fable-vefted Night, eldeft of things,
The confort of his reign; and by them food
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore,or to difturb
The fecrets of your realm; but, by constraint,
Wand'ring this darkfome defert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half loft, I feek
What readieft path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heav'n; or if some other place,
From your dominion won, th'ethereal king
Possesses lately; thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my course;
Directed,no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof; if I that region loft,
All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness, and your sway,
(Which is my present journey) and once more 985
Erect the fandard there of ancient Night;
Yours be th'advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltring speech, and visage incompos'd,
Answer'd. I know thee, ftranger, who thou art, 990
That mighty leading Angel, who of late
Made head against Heav'n's king, though overthrown.
I saw and heard, for such 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 frontiers here
Keep refidence; if all I can will ferve
That little which is left fo to defend,
Encroach'd on ftill through your intestin broils,
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