Before their eyes in sudden view appear
The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound, [highth,
Without dimension, where length, breadth, and
And time and place are lost; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy amidst the noise

895

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand:
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mast'ry, and to battel bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag 900
Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,

898 For hot] Ovid. Met. i. 19. Newton.

890

Levy'd to side with warring winds, and poise 905
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a moment; Chaos umpire sits,

And by decision more imbroils the fray
By which he reigns: next him high arbiter
Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds.
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell, and look'd a while,

910

915

Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd 920
With noises loud and ruinous, to compare
Great things with small, than when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to rase
Some capital city; or less than if this frame
Of heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn

930

The stedfast earth. At last his sail-broad vannes
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league
As in a clouded chair ascending rides
Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
A vast vacuity: all unawares
Flutt'ring his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance 935
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud
Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him

925

As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,

·

927 sail-broad] See Maximi Tyrii Diss. vol. i. p. 214, ed. Reiske. τεινάσαι τὰς πτερύγας ὥσπερ ἱστία. And Lucret. vi. 743. Pennarum vela remittunt.' Or consult Wakefield's note. See Milton's Prose Works, i. 148: ed. Symmons. 936 rebuff] Compare Statii Theb. vii. 35.

'Atque illum Arctoæ labentem cardine portæ
Tempestas æterna plagæ, prætentaque cœlo
Agmina nimborum, primique Aquilonis hiatus
In diversa ferunt.'

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,"
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail.
As when a gryfon 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 [rare,
O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd,
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

945

942 oar] Beaumont's Psyche, c. xvi. st. 224. Spreading their wings like oars.'

Marino's Sl. of the Inn. p. 49.

'With wings like feather'd oars.' And Dante, Il. Purg. c. ii.

'Si che remo non vuol, ne altro velo.' C. xii. 4. 945 Arimaspian] Eschyli Prometheus, ver. 810. See Pomp. Mela; lib. ii. c. 1. Solini Polyh. xv. 22. Prisciani Pervig. ver. 700. Plauti Aulularia, act iv. sc. 8. i. p. 142. Plin. N. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26. See Bulwer's Artif. Changeling, p. 102.

'Pastor, Arator, Eques, pavi, colui, superavi,
Capras, rus, hostes, fronde, ligone, manu.'

955

949 With head] See Sidon. Apollinar. c. ii. 171. Antholog. Lat. ed. Burm. vol. 1, p. 403. Ep. cciii. for this manner of speech:

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 enthron'd
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

960

Of Demogorgon; Rumor next, and Chance, 965 And Tumult, and Confusion, all imbroil'd,

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.
T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus.-Ye Powers,
And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,
Chaos and antient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The secrets of your realm; but by constraint
Wand'ring this darksome desart, 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 heav'n; or if some other place,
From your dominion won, th' ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive

975

I travel this profound, direct my course;
Directed, no mean recompence 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 985
Erect the standard there of antient Night;

970

980

995

Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With fault'ring speech and visage incompos'd,
Answer'd. I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990
That mighty leading angel, who of late [thrown.
Made head against heav'n's King, though over-
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 heav'n 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 thro' your intestine broils 1000
Weak'ning the scepter 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 1005
To that side heav'n from whence your legions fell:
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
So much the nearer danger: go and speed;
Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.

He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply, 1010
But glad that now his sea should find a shore,
With fresh alacrity and force renew'd
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,

1013 a pyramid of fire] Drayton in his David and Goliah,

1630.

'He look't like to a pirumid on fire.' Todd.