Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour Down had been falling, had not by ill chance The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him As many miles aloft: that fury staid, Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares, Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail. 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 sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 At length a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, 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 reside, of whom to ask Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Hades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance, And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd, And Discord with a thousand various mouths.
To whom Satan turning boldly, thus: Ye Powers
And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,
Chaos and ancient Night! I come no spy, With purpose to explore or to distur
The secrets of your realm: but, by constraint Wandering this darksome desert, as my way Lies through your spacious empire up to light, Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds Confine with Heaven; or if some other place, From your dominion won, the 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 lost, All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce To her original darkness, and your sway (Which is my present journey,) and once more Erect the standard there of ancient Night; Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge! Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, With faltering speech and visage incomposed, Answer'd: I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 That mighty leading Angel, who of late Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown I saw and heard; for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Keep residence; if all I can will serve That little which is left so to defend,
Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils Weakening the sceptre of old Night: first Hell, Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath; Now lately Heaven, and Earth, another world, Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain To that side Heaven 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 ceased; and Satan staid not to reply; But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd, Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, Into the wide expanse; and, through the shock Of fighting elements, on all sides round Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset And more endanger'd than when Argo pass'd Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks: Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd. So he with difficulty and labour hard Moved on: with difficulty and labour he: But, he once pass'd, soon after, when man fell, Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain
Following his track, such was the will of Heaven,
Paved after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb Of this frail world; by which the Spirits perverse
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 1035
Shoots far into the bosom of dim night
A glimmering dawn; Here Nature first begins
Her furthest verge, and Chaos to retire As from her outmost works a broken foe
With tumult less, and with less hostile din; That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light;
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide
In circuit, undetermined square or round, With opal towers and battlements adorn'd Of living sapphire, once his native seat; And fast by, hanging in a golden chain, This pendent world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.
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; foretels 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 all 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 acsepts 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 the firmament that flow about it: His passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there 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 here, inquires of him the place of his habi tation, and is directed: Alights first on mount Niphates.
MAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born, Or of the Eternal coeternal beam, May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate! Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, Lefore the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest The rising world of waters dark and deep Won from the void and formless infinite.
« PreviousContinue » |