Weening to profper, and at length prevail
Against God and Meffiah; or to fall
In universal ruin last: and now
To final battel drew, disdaining flight,
Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God
To all his hoft on either hand thus fpake.
Stand still in bright array, ye Saints, here stand
Ye Angels arm'd, this day from battel reft:
Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God
Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause:
And as ye have receiv'd, fo have ye done
Invincibly. But of this cursed crew
The punishment to other hand belongs:
Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints:
Number to this day's work is not ordain'd,
Nor multitude: stand only and behold
God's indignation on these godless pour'd
By me; not you, but me they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against me is all their rage,
Because the Father, t' whom in Heav'n fupreme
Kingdom and pow'r and glory appertains,
Hath honor'd me according to his will.
Therefore to me their doom he hath affign'd:
That they may have their wish, to try with me
In battel which the stronger proves; they all,
Or I alone against them, fince by strength
They measure all, of other excellence
Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
Nor other ftrife with them do I vouchsafe.
So spake the Son, and into terror chang'd His count'nance, too fevere to be beheld! And full of wrath bent on his enemies.
At once the four spread out their starry wings,
With dreadful fshade contiguous, and the orbs
Of his fierce chariot roll'd as with the found
Of torrent floods, or of a numerous hoft.
He on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night: under his burning wheels
The stedfast empyrean shook throughout
All but the throne itself of God. Full foon
Among them he arriv'd; in his right hand
Grafping ten thousand thunders, which he sent
Before him, fuch as in their fouls infix'd
Plagues: they astonish'd, all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt:
O'er shields, and helms and helmed heads he rode 840
Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate;
That wifh'd the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them as a fhelter from his ire.
Nor less on either fide tempestuous fell
His arrows, from the fourfold-visag'd Four,
Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels
Diftinct alike with multitude of eyes;
One spirit in them rul'd, and every eye
Glar'd lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
Among th' accurs'd, that wither'd all their strength, 850
And of their wonted vigor left them drain'd,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd
His thunder in mid voly; for he meant
Not to destroy, but root them out of Heav'n.
The overthrown he rais'd, and as a herd
Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd,
Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
With terrors, and with furies, to the bounds
And crystal wall of heav'n; which op'ning wide, 860
Roll'd inward, and a spacious gap disclos'd
Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous fight
Struck them with horror backward; but far worse
Urg'd them behind: headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of Heav'n; eternal wrath
Burn'd after them to the bottomless pit.
Hell heard th' unfufferable noife, Hell saw
Heav'n ruining from Heav'n, and would have fled
Affrighted; but strict fate had caft too deep
Her dark foundations, and too faft had bound.
Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roar'd,
And felt tenfold confufion in their fall
Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout
Incumber'd him with ruin! Hell at last
Yawning receiv'd them whole, and on them clos'd; 875
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
Disburden'd Heav'n rejoic'd, and foon repair'd
Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd.
Sole Victor, from th' expulsion of his foes
Messiah his triumphal chariot turn'd:
To meet him all his Saints, who filent stood
Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,
With jubilee advanc'd; and as they went,
Shaded with branching palm, each order bright 0885
Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King,
Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
Worthiest to reign: He celebrated rode
Triumphant through mid-heav'n, into the
And temple of his mighty Father thron'd
On high; who into glory him receiv'd,
Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss
Thus, measuring things in Heav'n by things on earth,
At thy request, and that thou may'st beware
By what is past, to thee I have reveal'd
What might have else to human race been hid;
The difcord which befel, and war in heav'n
Among th' Angelic Powr's, and the deep fall
Of those too high aspiring, who rebell'd
With Satan, he who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience, that with him
Bereav'd of happiness, thou may'st partake
His punishment, eternal misery;
Which would be all his folace and revenge,
As a despite done against the Most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe:
But liften not to his temptations; warn
Thy weaker: let it profit thee to have heard,
By terrible example, the reward
Of disobedience: firm they might have stood,
Yet fell: Remember, and fear to transgress.
The End of the Sixth Book.
BOOK VII.
Descend from Heav'n, Urania! by that name
If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine
Following, above th' Olympian hill I foar,
Above the flight of Pegaféan wing.
The meaning, not the name I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st; but heav'nly born,
Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy fifter, and with her didst play
In prefence of th' almighty Father, pleas'd
With thy celestial fong. Up led by thee
Into the Heav'n of Heav'ns I have prefum'd,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy temp'ring: With like safety guided down,
Return me to my native element:
Lest from this flying steed unrein'd, as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,
Dismounted, on th' Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.
Half yer remains unfung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere:
Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More fafe I sing with mortal voice; unchang'd
To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round,
And folitude! Yet not alone, while thou
Visit'st my slumbers nightly; or when morn
Purples the east still govern thou my fong,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance.
Of Bacchus and his revellers; the race А Я Ч
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, 'till the savage clamor drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her fon. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art heav'nly, she an empty dream.
Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphaël,
The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn'd
Adam, by dire example to beware
Apoftafy, by what befel in Heav'n
To those apostates, left the like befal
In Paradife to Adam of his race,
Charg'd not to touch the finterdicted tree,
If they tranfgrefs, and flight that sole command;
So easily obey'd amid the choice
Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
Though wand'ring. He with his conforted Eve
The story heard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep muse, to hear
Of things fo high and strange, things to their thought
So unimaginable, as hate in Heav'n,
And war fo near the peace of God in bliss,
With fuch confufion: but the evil foon:
Driv'n back redounded as a flood on those
From whom it fprung; impoffible to mix
With blefledness. Whence Adam foon repeal'd
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet finless, with defire to know
What nearer might concern him, how this world
Of Heav'n and earth conspicuous first began;
When, and whereof created, for what cause,
What within Eden or without was done
Before his memory, as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allay'd, still eyes the current stream,
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