And bring ye to the place where Thou and Death 840
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unfeen
Wing filently the buxom air, imbalm'd
With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd
Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey.
He ceas'd, for both feem'd highly pleas'd, and Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
His famin should be fill'd, and blest his maw
Destin'd to that good hour: no lefs rejoic'd
His mother bad, and thus bespake her fire.
The key of this infernal pit by due,
And by command of Heav'n's all-pow'rful King
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock
These adamantin gates; against all force
Death ready stands to interpose his dart
Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might.
But what owe I to his commands above
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,
To fit in hateful office here confin'd,
Inhabitant of Heav'n, and heav'nly born,
Here in perpetual agony and pain,
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'st 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 ease, where I shall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as befeems
Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.
Thus saying, from her fide the fatal key,
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;
And tow'ards 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 ir'on or folid rock with ease
Unfastens: 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 stood,
That with extended wings a banner'd hoft
Under spread ensigns marching might pass through
With horfe and chariots rank'd in loose array;
So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth
Caft forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in fudden view appear
The fecrets of the hoary deep, a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimension, where length, breadth, 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 several clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or flow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid foil,
Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a moment; Chaos umpire fits,
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 sea, nor shore, 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
8, His dark materials to create more worlds;
Into this vast abyss the vary Friend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pond'ring his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with small) than when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to rase
Some capital city'; or less than if this frame
Of Heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn
The stedfast earth. At last his fail-broad vans
He fpreads 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 feat foon failing, meets
A vast 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
The strong rebuff of fome tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury ftay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither fea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares, 940
Treading the crude confistence, half on foot,
Half fly'ing; 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 Realth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, denfe, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And fwims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies: 950
At length a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning founds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, affaults his ear
W'ith loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power
Or Spirit of the nethermoft abyss
Might in that noise reside, of whom to afk
Which way the nearest coaft of darkness lies
Bord'ring on light; when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd
Sat fable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The confort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confufion all embroil'd,
And Difcord with a thousand various mouths.
T' whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers
And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,
Chaos and antient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The fecrets of your realm, but by conftraint
Wand'ring this darksome defart, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light.
Alone, and without guide, half loft, I seek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heav'n; or if some other place
From your dominion won, th'ethereal king
Poffefses lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my course;
Directed to mean recompense it brings
To your behoof, if I that region loft,
All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness and your fway (Which is my present journey) and once more 50 Erect the standard there of antient 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, stranger, who thou art, 990 That mighty leading Angel, who of late Made head against Heav'n's king, though overthrown. I faw and heard, for fuch a numerous hoft
Fled not in filence through the frighted deep.
- With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confufion worse confounded; and Heav'n gates
Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
Keep residence; if all I can will ferve
That little which is left so to defend,
Encroach'd on still through your intestin broils
Weakning the scepter of old Night: first Hell
Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain
To that fide Heav'n from whence your legions fell:
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
So much the nearer danger; go and speed;
Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain.
He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply,
But glad that now his fea should find a shore,
With fresh alacrity and force renew'd
Springs upward like a pyramid of fire
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all fides round
Environ'd wings his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd
Through Bofphorus betwixt the juftling rocks:
Or when Ulyffes on the larbord shunn'd
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