"O friends! why come not on these victors| The rest, in imitation, to like arms proud ?

Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore; Erewhile they fierce were coming; and when we So hills amid the air encountered hills, To entertain them fair with open front

Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire, And breast (what could we more ?) propounded That under ground they fought in dismal shade; terms

Infernal noise ! war seemed a civil game Of composition, straight they changed their mind To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,

Upon confusion rose: and now all Heaven As they would dance; yet for a dance they seemed Had gone to wreck, with ruin overspread, Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps Had not the almighty Father, where he sits For joy of offered peace: but I suppose,

Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure, If our proposals once again were heard,

Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen We should compel them to a quick result.' This tumult, and permitted all, advised:

“ To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood. That his great purpose he might so fulfil, Leader! the terms we sent were terms of weight, To honour his anointed Son, avenged Of hard contents, and full of force urged home, Upon his enemies, and to declare Such as we might perceive amused them all, All power on him transferred: whence to his Son, And stumbled many: who receives them right Th'assessor of his throne, he thus began. Had need from head to foot well understand; “Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved, Not understood, this gift they have besides, Son, in whose face invisible is beheld, They show us when our foes walk not upright.' Visibly, what by deity I am,

“So they among themselves in pleasant vein And in whose hand what by decree I do, Stood scoffing, heightened in their thoughts beyond Second Omnipotence! two days are past, All doubt of victory: eternal might

Two days, as we compute the days of Heaven, To match with their inventions they presumed Since Michael and his powers went forth to tame So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn, These disobedient: sore hath been their fight, And all his host derided, while they stood As likeliest was, when two such foes met armed; A while in trouble: but they stood not long; For to themselves I left them, and thou knowest, Rage prompted them at length, and found them Equal in their creation they were formed,

Save what sin hath impaired, which yet hath Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.

wrought Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power, Insensibly, for I suspend their doom; Which God hath in his mighty angels placed!) Whence in perpetual fight they needs nrust last Their arms away they threw, and to the hills Endless, and no solution will be found: (For earth hath this variety from Heaven War wearied hath performed what war can do, Of pleasure situate in hill and dale,)

And to disordered rage let loose the reins, Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew; With mountains and with weapons armed, which From their foundations loosening to and fro,

makes They plucked the seated hills with all their load, Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the main. Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops Two days are therefore past, the third is thine; Uplifting bore them in their hands: amaze, For thee I have ordained it, and thus far Be sure, and terror, seized the rebel host, Have suffered, that the glory may be thine When coming towards them so dread they saw Of ending this great war, since none but Thou The bottom of the mountains upward turned; Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace Till on those cursed engines' triple row Immense I have transfused, that all may know They saw them whelmed, and all their confidence In Heaven and hell thy power above compare; Under the weight of mountains buricd deep; And, this perverse commotion governed thus, Themselves invaded next, and on their heads To manifest thee worthiest to be heir Main promontories flung, which in the air Of all things; to be Heir and to be King Came shadowing, and oppressed whole legions By sacred unction, by deserved right. armed;

Go then, thou mightiest, in thy Father's might, Their armour helped their harm, crushed in and Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels bruised

That shake Ileaven's basis, bring forth all my war, Into their substance pent, which wrought them My bow and thunder, my almighty arms pain

Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh; Implacable, and many a dolorous groan; Pursue these sons of darkness, drive them out Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind From all Heaven's bounds into the upper deep: Out of such prison, though spirits of purest light. There let them learn, as likes them, to despise Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown. God, and Messiah his anointed King.'

arms

" He said, and on his Son with rays direct |First seen: them unexpected joy surprised, Shone full; he all his father full expressed When the great ensign of Messiah blazed Ineffably into his face received;

Aloft by angels borne, his sign in Heaven; And thus the filial Godhead answering spake. Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced

"O Father, 0 Supreme of Heavenly thrones, His army, circumfused on either wing, First, highest, holiest, best, thou always seekest Under their Head embodied all in one. To glorify thy Son, I always thee,

Before him power divine his way prepared; As is most just; this I my glory account, At his command th’ uprooted hills retired My exaltation, and my whole delight,

Each to his place, they heard his voice, and went That thou, in me well pleased, declarest thy will Obsequious; Heaven his wonted face renewed, Fulfilled, which to fulfil is all my bliss.

And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled. Sceptre and power, thy giving, I assume, This saw his hapless foes, but stood obdured, And gladlier shall resign, when in the end And to rebellious fight rallied their powers, Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee

Insensate, hope conceiving from despair. For ever, and in me all whom thou lovest; In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell? But whom thou hatest, I hate, and can put on I

But to convince the proud what signs avail, Thy terrors, as I put thy mildness on,

Or wonders move th' obdurate to relent?
Image of thee in all things; and shall soon, They, hardened more by what might most re-
Armed with thy might, rid Heaven of these re- claim,
belled,

Grieving to see his glory, at the sight
To their prepared ill mansion driven down, Took envy; and, aspiring to his height,
To chains of darkness, and th' undying worm, Stood re-embattled fierce, by force, or fraud
That from thy just obedience could revolt, Weening to prosper, and at length prevail
Whom to obey is happiness entire.

Against God and Messiah, or to fall Then shall thy saints unmixed, and from th’im- In universal ruin last; and now pure

To final battle drew, disdaining flight, Far separate, circling thy holy mount,

Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God Unfeigned hallelujahs to thee sing,

To all his host on either hand thus spake. Hymns of high praise, and I among them Chief.' “«Stand still in bright array, ye saints, here “So said, he, o'er his sceptre bowing, rose

stand, From the right hand of glory where he sat; Ye angels armed, this day from battle rest; And the third sacred morn began to shine, Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God Dawning through Heaven: forth rushed with Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause ; whirlwind sound

And as ye have received, so have ye done The chariot of paternal Deity,

Invincibly; but of this cursed crew Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel un- The punishment to other hand belongs; drawn,

Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints: Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed Number to this day's work is not ordained, By four cherubic shapes; four faces each Nor multitude; stand only, and behold Had wondrous; as with stars, their bodies all God's indignation on these godless poured And wings were set with eyes, with eyes the wheels By me; not you, but me, they have despised, Of berryl, and careering fires between;

Yet envied; against me is all their rage, Over their heads a crystal firmament,

Because the Father, to whom in Heaven supreme Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains, Amber, and colours of the showery arch. Hath honoured me according to his will. He, in celestial panoply all armed

Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought, That they may have their wish, to try with me Ascended; at his right hand Victory

In battle which the stronger proves; they all, Sat eagle-winged; beside him hung his bow Or I alone against them; since by strength And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored, They measure all, of other excellence And from about him fierce effusion rolled Not emulous, nor care who them excels; Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles dire: Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe.' Autended with ten thousand thousand saints, “So spake the Son, and into terror changed He onward came, far off his coming shone; His countenance, too severe to be beheld, And twenty thousand (I their number heard) And full of wrath bent on his enemies. Chariots of God, half on each hand, were seen: At once the four spread out their starry wings He on the wings of cherub rode sublime With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned, of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound Illustrious far and wide, but by his own

Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host.

He on his impious foes right onward drove, Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
Gloomy as night ; under his burning wheels Worthiest to reign: he, celebrated, rode
The steadfast empyrean shook throughout, Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the courts
All but the throne itself of God. Full soon And temple of his mighty Father throned
Among them he arrived, in his right hand On high; who into glory him received,
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss.
Before him, such as in their souls infixed

Thus, measuring things in Heaven by things
Plagues : they, astonished, all resistance lost, on earth,
All courage; down their idle weapons drop; At thy request, and that thou may'st beware
O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode By what is past, to thee I have revealed
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrate, What might have else to human race been hid;
That wished the mountains now might be again The discord which befell, and war in Heaven
Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire. Among the angelic powers, and the deep fall
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell

Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled His arrows, from the four-fold visaged four With Satan; he who envies now thy state, Distinct with eyes; and from the living wheels Who now is plotting how he may seduce Distinct alike with multitude of eyes ;

Thee also from obedience, that with him
One spirit in them ruled, and every eye

Bereaved of happiness, thou may'st partake
Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire His punishment, eternal misery ;
Among th' accursed, that withered all their Which would be all his solace and revenge,
strength,

As a despite done against the most High,
And of their wonted vigour left them drained, Thee once to gain companion of his wo.
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.

But listen not to his temptations, warn
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked Thy weaker ; let it profit thee to have heard,
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant By terrible example, the reward
Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven: Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,
The overthrown he raised, and, as a herd Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress."
Of goats or tim'rous flock together thronged,
Drove them before him thunderstruck, pursued
With terrors, and with furies, to the bounds

BOOK VII.
And crystal wall of Heaven, which, opening wide,
Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed

THE ARGUMENT.
Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight

Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore Struck them with horror backward, but far worse this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Urged them behind: headlong themselves they satan and his angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to threw

create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein;

sends his son with glory, and attendance of angels, lo perform Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath

the work of creation in six days; the angels celebrate with Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.

hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into Hell heard the unsufferable noise, hell saw Heaven. Heaven running from Heaven, and would have fied

Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name Affrighted; but strict fate had cast too deep If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Nine days they fell: confounded Chaos roared, Above the flight of Pegasean wing, And felt tenfold confusion in their fall

The meaning, not the name I call: for thou Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout Nor of the muses nine, nor on the top Encumbered him with ruin; hell at last Of old Olympus dwellest, but, heavenly-born, Yawning received them whole, and on them closed; Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed, Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse, Unquenchable, the house of wo and pain. Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired in presence of the Almighty Fasier, pleased Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled. With thy celestial song Up led by thee Sole victor, from the expulsion of his foes Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, Messiah bis triumphal chariot turned:

An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, To meet him all his saints, who silent stood Thy tempering: with like safety, guided down Eyewitnesses of his almighty acts,

Return me to my native element: With jubilee advanced; and, as they went, Lest from this flying steed unreined (as once Shaded with branching palm, each order bright Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,) Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King, Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall

Her son.

Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn. Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound Receive, with solemn purpose to observe
Within the visible diurnal sphere;

Immutably his sovereign will, the end
Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole, Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed
More safe 1 sing, with mortal voice unchanged Gently, for our instruction, to impart
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned
On evil days thou fal and evil tongues; Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed,
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, Deign to descend now lower, and relate
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou What may no less, perhaps, avail us, known;
Visitest my slumbers nightly, or when morn How first began this Heaven which we behoid
Purples the east; still govern thou my song, Distant so high, with moving fires adorned
Urania, and fit audience find, though few. Innumerable; and this which yields or fills
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance All space, the ambient air wide interfused,
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race

Embracing round this florid earth; what cause Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard Moved the Creator, in his holy rest In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears Through all eternity, so late to build To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned In Chaos, and the work begun, how soon Both harp and voice; nor could the muse defend | Absolved; if unforbid thou mayest unfold

So fail not thou, who thee implores: What we, not to explore the secrets, ask For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream. Of his eternal empire, but the more

Say, goddess, what ensued when Raphael To magnify his works, the more we know. The affable archangel, had forewarned

And the great light of day yet wants to run Adam, by dire example, to beware

Much of his race, though steep; suspense in Hea Apostacy, by what befell in Heaven

ven, To those apostates, lest the like befall

Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears, In Paradise, to Adam or his race,

And longer will delay to hear thee tell
Charged not to touch the interdicted tree, His generation, and the rising birth
If they transgress and slight that sole command, Of nature from the unapparent deep:
So easily obeyed amid the choice,

Or if the star of evening and the moon
Of all tastes else to please their appetite, Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring
Though wandering. He with his consorted Eve Silence; and sleep, listening to thee, will watch
The story heard attentive, and was filled Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
With admiration and deep muse, to hear End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine."
Of things so high and strange, things to their Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
thought

And thus the godlike angel answered mild. So unimaginable as hate in Heaven,

“This also thy request, with caution asked And war so near the peace of God in bliss, Obtain: though to recount almighty works, With such confusion: but the evil, soon What words or tongue of seraph can suffice, Driven back, redounded as a flood on those Or heart of man suffice to comprehend ? From whom it sprung, impossible to mix Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve With blessedness. Whence Adam soon revealed To glorify the Maker, and infer The doubts that in his heart arose: and now Thee also happier, shall not be withheld Lad on, yet sinless, with desire to know

Thy hearing; such commission from above What nearer might concern him; how this world I have received, to answer thy desire Of Heaven and earth conspicuous, first began; Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain When, and whereof created; for what cause; To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope What within Eden, or without, was done Things not revealed, which th’invisible King, Before his memory; as one whose drought, Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night, Yet scarce allayed, still eyes the current stream, To none communicable in earth or Heaven: Whose liquid murmur heard, new thirst excites, Enough is left besides to search and know. Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest. But knowledge is as food, and needs no less

"Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, Her temperance over appetite, to know Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed, In measure what the mind may well contain ; Divine interpreter! by favour sent

Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns Down from the empyrean, to forewarn

Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind. Ja timely, of what might else have been our loss, “Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven Unknown, which human knowledge could not (So call him, brighter once amidst the host reach.

Of angels, than that star the stars among) For which to the infinitely good we owe

Fell with his flaming legions through the deep

Into his place, and the great Son returned |Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
Victorious with his saints, the omnipotent, His good to worlds and ages infinite.
Eternal Father, from his throne beheld

“So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile the Son Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake. On his great expedition now appeared, “At least our envious foe hath failed, who Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crowned thought

Of majesty divine; sapience and love
All like himself rebellious, by whose aid Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
This inaccessible high strength, the seat About his chariot numberless were poured
Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,

Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones,
He trusted to have seized, and into fraud And virtues, winged spirits, and chariots winged
Drew many, whom their place knows here no From the armoury of God, where stand of old
more;

Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged Yet far the greater part have kept, I see, Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand, Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains Celestial equipage; and now came forth Number sufficient to possess her realms, Spontaneous, for within them spirit lived, Though wide, and his highest temple to frequent Attendant on their Lord: Heaven opened wide With ministeries due, and solemn rites: Her ever during gates, harmonious sound, But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm On golden hinges moving, to let forth Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven, The King of Glory, in his powerful Word My damage fondly deemed, I can repair And spirit, coming to create new worlds. That detriment, if such it be to lose

On heavenly ground they stood: and from the Self-lost, and in a moment will create

shore Another world, out of one man a race

They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss Of men innumerable, there to dwell,

Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Not here, till, by degrees of merit raised, Up from the bottom turned by furious winds They open to themselves at length the way And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Up hither, under long obedience tried,

Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole. And earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to “Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep earth;

peace,' One kingdom, joy and union without end. Said then the omnific Word, 'your discord end! Meanwhile inhabit lax, ye powers of Heaven; Nor stayed, but, on the wings of cherubim And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee Uplifted, in paternal glory rode This I perform; speak thou, and be it done! Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; My overshadowing spirit and might with thee For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train I send along; ride forth, and bid the deep Followed in bright procession, to behold Within appointed bounds be Heaven and earth, Creation, and the wonders of his might. Boundless the deep, because I AM who fill Then stayed the fervid wheels, and in his hand Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.

He took the golden compasses, prepared Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire, In God's eternal store, to circumscribe And put not forth my goodness, which is free This universe, and all created things: To act or not, necessity and chance

One foot he centered, and the other turned Approach not me, and what I will is fate.' Round through the vast profundity obscure,

" So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake And said, ' Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect. This be thy just circumference, O world! Immediate are the acts of God, more swift Thus God the Heaven created, thus the earth, Than time or motion, but to human ears Matter unformed and void: darkness profound Can not without process of speech be told, Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm So told as earthly notion can receive.

His brooding wings the spirit of God outspread, Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven, And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth When such was heard declared the Almighty's Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged will;

The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs, Glory they sung to the Most High, good will Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed To future men, and in their dwellings peace Like things to like, the rest to several place Glory to him, whose just avenging ire

Disparted, and between spun out the air; Had driven out the ungodly from his sight And earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung And the habitations of the just: to him

“Let there be light,' said God; and forthwith Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained light Good out of evil to create; instead

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Of spirits malign, a better race to bring Sprung from the deep, and, from her native ener,

a