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
« PreviousContinue » |