810 Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height, But thou, O father! I forewarn thee, shun She finish'd, and the subtile fiend his lore 815 Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd sinooth: "Dear daughter! since thou claim'st me for thy sire, And my fair son here show'st me (the dear pledge Of dalliance had with thee in heaven, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, thro' dire change Befallen us, unforeseen, unthought of!) know 821 1 come no enemy, but to set free 880 Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument 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 875 Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron, or solid rock, with ease Unfastens on a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil, and jarring sound, 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 power; the gates wide open stood, 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 stood! and like a furnace mouth, Cast forth redounding smoke, and ruddy flame. Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark 885 $90 And time, and place are lost; where eldest Night Of endless wars, and by confusion stand: fierce, Strive here for mast'ry, and to battle bring Light arm'd, or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, 905 910 915 920 925 Levy'd to side with warring winds, and poise 930 935 945 [rare, 951 955 960 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. I travel this profound; direct my course; 970 975 980 991 Directed, no mean recompense it brings Through Bosphorus, betwixt the justling rocks: To your behoof: if I that region lost, Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'a All usurpation thence expelid, reduce Charybdis, and by th other whirlpool steer'd. 1020 To her original darkness, and your sway, So he with difficulty, and labour hard (Which is my present journey) and once more 985 Mov'd on; with difficulty and labour he: Erect the standard there of ancient Night; But he once passid, soon after, when man fell, Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge!" Strange alteration! Sin, and Death, amain Following his tract (such was the will of Heaven! Thus Satan; and him thus the anarch old, Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way 1026 With fault'ring speech, and visage incompos'd, Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Answer'd: “I know thee stranger, who thou art, Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length, That mighty leading angel, who of late From hell continued, reaching th' utmost orb Made head against heaven's King, tho' overthrown. Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse I saw, and heard; for such a num'rous host With easy intercourse pass to and fro, 1031 Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, To tempt or punish mortals, except whom With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 995 God and good angels guard by special grace. Confusion worse confounded; and heaven-gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands But now at last the sacred influence Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven Keep residence; if all I can will serve, Shoots far into the bosom of dim night 1036 That little which is left so to defend, 1000 A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins Encroach'd on still through our intestine broils, Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, Weak'ning the sceptre of old Night: first hell, As from her outmost works a broken foe, Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath: With tumult less, and with less hostile din; 1040 Now lately heaven and earth, another world That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain, 1005 Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light; To that side heaven from whence your legions fell: And like a weather-beaten vessel holds If that way be your walk, you have not far; Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn: So much the nearer danger; go, and speed! Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 1045 Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my gain." Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold Far off th' empyreal heaven, extended wide He ceas'd, and Satan staid not to reply, 1010 In circuit, undetermin'd square or round: But glad that now his sea should find a shore, With opal towers and battlements adorn'd With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd, Of living sapphire, (once his native seat!) 1050 Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, And fast by, hanging in a golden chain, Into the wild expanse ; rough the shock This pendant world, in bignes as a star Of fighting elements, on all sides round 1015 Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon. Environ'd, wins his way: harder beset, Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge, And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour, he hies. 1055 END OF BOOK SECOND. PARADISE LOST. . BOOK III. THE ARGUMENT. God sitting on his throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son who sat at his right hand; foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind: clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free, and able enough to have withstood his tempter ; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards Man; but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine justice ; Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore, with aŭ his progeny devoted to death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for Man: the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in heaven and earth; commands all the angels to adore him; they obey, and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above that it: his Uriel the regent of that orb; but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel; and pretending, a zealous desire to behold the new creation and Man whom God had placed there, inguires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed ; alights first on mount Niphates. HAIL holy Light, offspring of heaven first-born! Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine : But cloud instead, and ever-during dark 45 May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, Surrounds me! from the cheerful ways of men And never but in unapproached light Cut off; and for the book of knowledge fair, Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee, 5 Presented with a universal blank Bright effluence of bright essence increate! Of nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd, Or nearest thou rather pure ethereal stream, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out! 50 Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, So much the rather thou, celestial Light! Before the heavens thou wert, and at the voice Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest 10 Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from thence The rising world of waters dark and deep, Purge and disperse; that I may see and tell Won from the void and formless infinite. Of things invisible to mortal sight. 55 Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd Now had th' Almighty Father from above, In that obscure sojourn; while in my flight 15 (From the pure enpyrean where he sits Through utter and through middle darkness borne, High thron'd above all height) bent down his eye, With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre, His own works and their works at once to view : I sung of Chaos, and eternal Night; About him all the sanctities of heaven 60 Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd The dark descent, and up to reascend, 20 Beatitude past utterance: on his right Our two first parents (yet the only two. 65 To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; Of mankind) in the happy garden plac'd, So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs, 25 Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love; Or dim suffusion veil'd! Yet not the more Uninterrupted joy, unrivalid love, Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt In blissful solitude. He then survey'd Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, Hell, and the gulf hetween, and Satan there 70 Smit with the love of sacred song: but chief Coasting the wall of heaven on this side night, Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, 30 In the dun air sublime; and ready now That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow, To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet, Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget On the bare outside of this world, that seem'd Those other two equall'd with me in fate, Firm land imbosom'd without firmament; 75 (So were I equall'd with them in renown!) Uncertain which, in ocean, or in air. Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides: 35 Him God beholding from his prospect high, And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old. Wherein past, present, future he beholds, “Only begotten Son! seest thou what rage 80 Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year 40 Transports our adversary, whom no bounds Seasons return; but not to me returns Prescrib'd, no bars of hell, nor all the chains Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Wide-interrupt, can hold. So bent he seems B 85 90 On desperate revenge, that shall redound 95 100 Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. What pleasure I from such obedience paid, 110 Not me? They therefore, as to right belong'd, Their will, dispos'a by absolute decree, 115 120 Or high foreknowledge. They themselves decreed 126 147 Elect above the rest: so is my will: 175 180 190 194 The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd 185 205 210 216 He ask'd, but all the heavenly choir stood mute, And silence was in heaven: on man's behalf Patron, or intercessor none appear'd; Much less that durst upon his own head draw 220 The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set. And now, without redemption, all mankind Must have been lost, adjudg'd to death and hell By doom severe, had not the Son of God, In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, His dearest mediation thus renew'd: 225 "Father, thy word is pass'd; man shall find grace: And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers, 230 To visit all thy creatures, and to all 150 I offer; on me let thine anger fall; Account me man: I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die 240 155 Well pleas'd: on me let death wreak all his rage: "O Father! gracious was that word which clos'd To whom the great Creator thus replied: Though now to death I yield, and am his due 245 260 355 Father! to see thy face, wherein no cloud With solemn adoration down they cast 35 Of anger shall remain; but peace assurd Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold; And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more Immortal amaranth! a flower which onoe Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire." 265 In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence His words here ended, but his meek aspect To heaven remov'd, where first it grew, there Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life; (grows, To mortal men, above which only shone And where the river of bliss thro' midst of heaven Filial obedience: as a sacrifice, Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream: Glad to be offer'd, he atten.is the will 270 With these, that never fade, the spirits elect 360 Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd [tend, Bind their resplendent locks, inwreath'd with All heaven, what this might mean, and whither beams; Wond'ring; but soon th' Almighty thus replied: Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone, “O thou, in heaven and earth the only peace Impurpled with celestial roses smil'd. Found out for mankind under wrath! O thou, 275 Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took, My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear Harps ever tun'd, that, glittering by their side, 366 To me are all my works, nor man the least, Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet Though last created; that for him I spare of charming symphony they introduce Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, Their sacred song, and waken raptures high; By losing thee a while, the whole racé lost. 280 No voice exempt; no voice but well could join 370 Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem, Melodious part, such concord is in heaven. Their nature also to thy nature join, And be thyself man among men on earth, “ Thee, Father," first they sung, "omnipotent, Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed, Immutable, inmortal, infinite, By wondrous birth: be thou, in Adam's room, 285 Eternal King; thee, Author of all being, The head of all mankind, though Adam's son. Fountain of light, thyself invisible 375 As in him perish all men, so in thee, Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st As from a second root, shall be restor'd Thron'd inaccessible, but when thou shad'st As many as are restor'd, without thee none. The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud, His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit 290 Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine, Imputed shall absolve them who renounce Dark with excessive bright, thy skirts appear, 380 Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds, Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim And live in thee transplanted, and from the Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes." Receive new life. So man, as is most just, “ Thee," next they sang, “ of all creation first, Shall satisfy for man, be judg'd, and die, 1295 | Begotten Son, divine similitude ! And dying rise, and rising with him raise In whose conspicuous count'nance, without cloud His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life. Made visible, th' almighty Father shines, 386 So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate, Whom else no creature can behold : on thee Impress'd, th' effulgence of his glory' abides, He heaven of heavens, and all the powers therein, In those who, when they may, accept not grace. By thee created, and by thee threw down 391 Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume Th' aspiring dominations: thou that day Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own. Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare, Because thou hast, though thron'd in highest bliss Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook Equal to God, and equally enjoying 306 Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks Godlike fruition, quitted all to save Thou drov'st of warring angels disarray'd. 396 A world from utter loss, and hast been found Back from pursuit thy powers with loud acclaim By merit more than birthright Son of God, Thee only' extollid, Son of thy Father's might, Found worthiest to be so by being good, 310 To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. Far more than great or high; because in thee Not so on man: him thro' their malice fallen, 400 Love hath abounded more than glory' abounds; Father of mercy' and grace! thou didst not doom Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt So strictly, but much more to pity' incline : With thee thy manhood also to this throne: No sooner did thy dear and only Son Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign 315 Perceive thee purpos'd not to doom frail man Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man, So strictly, but much more to pity' incline, 405 Anointed Universal King; all power He, to appease thy wrath, and end the strife I give thee; reign for ever, and assume Of mercy and justice in thy face discern'd, Thy merits: under thee, as head supreme, 319 Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat Thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions, Í reduce; Second to thee, offer'd himself to die All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide For man's offence. O unexampled love! 410 In heaven, or earth, or under earth in hell. Love no where to be found less than divine ! When thou, attended gloriously from heaven, Hail, Son of God, Saviour of men ! Thy name Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send Shall be the copious inatter my song The summoning archangels to proclaim 325 Henceforth, and never shall my harp thy praise Thy dread tribunal: forth with from all winds Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin." 415 The living, and forth with the cited dead Of all past ages, to the general doom Thus they in heaven, above the starry sphere, Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their sleep: Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent. Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge 330 Meanwhile upon the firm opacous globe Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shali sink Of this round world, whose first convex divides Beneath thy sentence; hell (her numbers full). The luminous inferior orbs, enclos'd 420 Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile From Chaos, and th' inroad of darkness old, The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring Satan alighted walks. A globe far off New heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell; It seem'd, now seems a boundless continent, And, after all their tribulations long, 336 Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, Starless expos'd, and ever-threat'ning storms 425 With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth: Of Chaos blust'ring round, inclement sky: Then thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by, Save on that side which from the wall of heaven, For regal sceptre then no more shall need; 340 Though distant far, some small reflection gains God shall be all in all, But all ye gods, Of glimmering air, less vex'd with tempest loud : Adore him, who to compass all this dies; Here walk'd the fiend at large in spacious field. Adore the Son, and honour him as me!" As when a vulture, on Imaus bred, 431 Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, No sooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, The multitude of angels, with a shout 345 To gorge the flesh of lambs, or yeanling kids, Loud as from numbers without number, sweet, On hills where flocks are fed, flies tow'rds the springs As from bless'd voices uttering joy, heaven rung Of Ganges, or Hydaspes, Indian streams; 456 With jubilee, and loud hosannas fillid But in his way lights on the barren plains Th' eternal regions. Lowly reverent Of Sericana, where Chineses drive Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground With sails and wind their cany waggons light: |