Directed, no mean recompence it brings
To your behoof, if I that Region loft,
All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness and your sway
(Which is my present journey) and once more.
Erect the Standerd there of ancient Night;
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old
With faultring speech and visage incompos'd
Anfwer'd. I know thee, ftranger, who thou art,
That mighty leading Angel, who of late
Made head against Heav'ns King, though over-
I saw and heard, for such a numerous hoft
Fled not in filence through the frighted deep
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confufion worfe confounded; and Heav'n Gates
Pourd out by millions her victorious Bands
Pursuing. I upon my Frontieres here
Keep refidence; if all I can will serve,
That little which is left fo to defend
Encroacht on still through our intestine broiles
Weakning the Scepter of old Night: first Hell
Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately Heaven and Earth, another World
Hung ore 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 farr;
So much the neerer danger; goe and speed;
Havock and spoil and ruin are my gain.
He ceas'd; and Satan staid not to reply,
But glad that now his Sea fhould find a fhore,
With fresh alacritie and force renew'd
Springs upward like a Pyramid of fire
Into the wilde Expanse, and through the shock
Of fighting Elements, on all fides round
Environ'd wins his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd, then when Argo pafs'd
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling Rocks :
Or when Ulysses on the Larbord shunnd
Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool fteard.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour hee;
But hee once past, soon after when man fell,
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain
Following his track, fuch was the will of Heav'n,
Pav'd after him a broad and beat'n way
Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling Gulf
Tamely endur'd a Bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continu'd reaching th' utmost Orbe
Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse
With eafie intercourse pass to and fro
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
God and good Angels guard by special grace.
But now at laft the facred influence
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav'n
Shoots farr into the bofom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins
Her fardeft verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works a brok'n foe
With tumult lefs and with less hostile din,
That Satan with lefs toil, and now with ease
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light
And like a weather-beaten Veffel holds
Gladly the Port, though Shrouds and Tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, 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.
The End of the Second Book.
AIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n firstborn,
Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam
May I exprefs 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
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 revisit safe,
And feel thy fovran vital Lamp; but thou
Revifit'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 fhadie 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 fhadiest 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 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
Presented with a Univerfal blanc
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
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