THE

THIRD BOOK

O F

PARADISE LOST.

God fitting on his throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; fhows him to the Son, who fat 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 feduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifeftation of his gracious purpofe towards Man; but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the fatiffaction of divine justice; Man hath offended the majefty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death muft die, unlefs fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his offenfe, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransome 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 quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wand'ring he first finds a place, fince call'd the Limbo of Vanity; what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, defcrib'd afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: His paffage thence to the orb of the fun; he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the fhape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had plac'd here, inquires of him the place of his habita、 tion, and is directed; alights first on mount Niphates.

PARADISE

LOST.

BOOK III.

·AIL holy Light, off-spring of Heav'n first-born, Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam

H

May I express thee' unblam'd? fince God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate.
Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
Whofe fountain who shall tell? before the fun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest

The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,

Efcap'd 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 than to th' Orphéan lyre

I fung of Chaos and eternal Night,

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revifit fafe,
And feel thy fovran vital lamp; but thou

Revifit'ft

Revifit'ft not thefe eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more
Ceafe I to wander, where the Mufes haunt
Clear fpring, or fhady grove, or funny hill,
Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flowry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes 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 voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadieft covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seafons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Prefented with a univerfal blank

Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite fhut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

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Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate,

Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and difperfe, that I may fee and tell

Of things invisible to mortal fight.

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Now had th' almighty Father from above, From the pure empyréan 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 stars, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude paft utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his glory fat,
His only Son; on earth he first beheld
Our two first parents, yet the only two
Of mankind, in the happy garden plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd love
In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd
Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coafting 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 feem'd
Firm land imbofom'd, without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein paft, prefent, future he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.

< Only begotten Son, feest thou what rage
Tranfports our Adversary? whom no bounds
Prefcrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains

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Heap'd