To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds ́ Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon His swift purfuers from Heav'n gates difcern Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf. Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.
They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and beftir themselves ere well awake. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; Yet to their general's voice they soon obey'd Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day, Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind, That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels feen Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell ?Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires; Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain; A multitude, like which the populous north Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan fands. Forthwith from every fquadron and each band The heads and leaders thither hafte where stood Their great commander; Godlike shapes and forms Excelling human, princely Dignities,
And Pow'rs that erft in Heaven fat on thrones ; Though of their names in heav'nly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd By their rebellion from the books of life.
Nor had they yet among the fons of Eve
Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth, Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, By falfities and lies the greatest part Of mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator, and th' invisible Glory of him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd With gay religions full of pomp and gold, And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various names, And various idols through the Heathen world. Say, Mufe, their names then known, who first, who last, Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch, At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous croud ftood yet aloof. The chief were those who from the pit of Hell Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix : VOL. I.
But what if he our conqu❜ror (whom I now
Of force believe almighty, fince no less
Than fuch could have o'er-pow'r'd fuch force as ours) Have left us this our spi'rit and strength entire Strongly to fuffer and fupport our pains, That we may fo fuffice his vengeful ire, Or do him mightier fervice as his thralls By right of war, whate'er his business be, Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, Or do his errands in the gloomy deep; What can it then avail, though yet we feel Strength undiminish'd, or eternal being To undergo eternal punishment?
Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend reply'd.
Fall'n Cherub, to be weak is miferable
Doing or fuffering: but of this be fure,
To do ought good, never will be our task, But ever to do ill our fole delight, As be'ing the contrary to his high will Whom we refift. If then his providence Out of our evil feek to bring forth good, Our labor must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil; Which oft-times may fucceed, fo as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmoft counfels from their deftin'd aim. But see the angry victor hath recall'd His ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the gates of Heav'n: the fulphurous hail Shot after us in ftorm, o'erblown hath laid
The fiery furge, that from the precipice Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling; and the thunder, Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his fhafts, and ceafes now To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. Let us not flip th' occafion, whether scorn, Or fatiate fury yield it from our foe.
Seeft thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, The feat of defolation, void of light,
Save what the glimmering of thefe livid flames Cafts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the toffing of these fiery waves, There reft, if any rest can harbour there, And re-affembling our afflicted Powers, Confult how we may henceforth most offend Our enemy, our own lofs how repair, How overcome this dire calamity, What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not what refolution from despair.
Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling bláz'd, his other parts befides Prone on the flood, extended long and large Lay floting many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom the fables name of monftrous fize, Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove, Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarfus held, or that fea-beaft Leviathan, which God of all his works. Created hugeft that swim th' ocean stream:
Him haply flumb'ring on the Norway foam The pilot of fome small night-founder'd skiff Deeming fome iland, oft, as fea-men tell, With fixed anchor in his skaly rind
Moors by his fide under the lee, while night Invests the fea, and wished morn delays:
So ftretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay Chain'd on the burning lake, nor ever thence Had ris'n or heav'd his head, but that the will And high permiffion of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs,, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation, while he fought Evil to others, and enrag'd might fee How all his malice ferv'd but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown On Man by him feduc'd, but on himself Treble confufion, wrath and vengeance pour'd. Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty ftature; on each hand the flames Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires, and roll'd In billows, leave i'th' midst a horrid vale. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight, till on dry land He lights, if it were land that ever burn'd With folid, as the lake with liquid fire; And fuch appear'd in hue, as when the force Of fubterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd fide
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