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Gladly the Port, though Shrouds and Tackle torn ;
Or in the emptier wafte, resembling Air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leasure to behold
Farr off th' Empyreal Heav'n, extended wide
In circuit, undetermind fquare or round,
With Opal Towrs and Battlements adorn'd
Of living Saphire, once his native Seat;
And fast by hanging in a golden Chain
This pendant world, in bigness as a Starr
Of smallest Magnitude close by the Moon.
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurft, and in a curfed hour he hies.

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The End of the Second Book.

Paradife Loft.

BOOK III.

AIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n firstborn,

Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam May I express thee unblam'd? fince God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright effence increate. Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream, Whose Fountain who fhall tell? before the Sun, Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest

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The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-vifit now with bolder wing,
Escap'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 then to th' Orphean Lyre
I fung of Chaos and Eternal Night,

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reafcend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revifit fafe,

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And feel thy fovran vital Lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quencht thir Orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veild. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt
Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,
Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief
Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath
That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fomtimes 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 voluntarie move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadieft Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year
Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud in ftead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men
Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair
Prefented with a Universal blanc

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Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out. 50
So much the rather thou Celestial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal fight.

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 Sanctities of Heaven

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Stood thick as Starrs, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his Glory fat,
His onely Son; On Earth he first beheld
Our two first Parents, yet the onely two
Of mankind, in the happie Garden plac't,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivald love

In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd

Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this fide Night
In the dun Air fublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet
On the bare outside of this World, that seem'd
Firm land imbofom'd without Firmament,
Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.
Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein past, prefent, future he beholds,
Thus to his onely Son foreseeing spake.

Onely begotten Son, feeft thou what
rage
Transports our adverfarie, whom no bounds
Prescrib'd, no barrs of Hell, nor all the chains
Heapt on him there, nor yet the main Abyss
Wide interrupt can hold; fo bent he seems
On desperat revenge, that shall redound

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way

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Upon his own rebellious head. And now
Through all restraint broke loose he wings his
Not farr off Heav'n, in the Precincts of light,
Directly towards the new created World,
And Man there plac't, with purpose to affay
If him by force he can destroy, or worse,
By fom false guile pervert; and shall pervert;
For man will heark'n to his glozing lyes,
And easily tranfgrefs the fole Command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall
Hee and his faithless Progenie: whose fault?
Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' Ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood & them who faild;
Freely they stood who ftood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have givn fincere
Of true allegiance, conftant Faith or Love,
Where onely what they needs must do, appeard,
Not what they would? what praise could they re-
What pleasure I from fuch obedience paid, [ceive?
When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoild,
Made paffive both, had fervd neceffitie,
Not mee. They therefore as to right belongd,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Thir maker, or thir making, or thir Fate;
As if Predeftination over-rul'd

Thir will, difpos'd by abfolute Decree

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Or high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed Thir own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,

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