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With trumpets regal found the great result :
Towards the four winds four fpeedy Cherubim
Rut to their mouths the founding alchemy,
By heralds voice explain'd; the hollow' abyfs
Heard far and wide, and all the hoft of hell
With deaf'ning fhout return'd them loud acclaim. 520
Thence more at cafe their minds, and fomewhat
By falfe prefumptuous hope, the ranged powers [rais'd
Difband, and wand'ring, each his feveral way
Purfues, as inclination or fad choice

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Leads him perplex'd, where he may likelieft find 525
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain
The irkfome hours, till his great chief return.
Part on the plain, or in the air fublime,
Upon the wing, or in fwift race contend,
As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields;
Part curb their fiery fteeds, or fhun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form.
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Wage'd in the troubled fky, and armies rufh
To battle in the clouds, before each van
Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears
Till thickest legions clofe; with feats of arms
From either end of heav'n the welkin burns.
Others, with vaft Typhoan rage more fell,
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
In whirlwind; hell fcarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd
With conqueft, felt th' invenom'd robe, and tore
Through pain up by the roots Theffalian pines ;
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic fea. Others more mild,
Retreated in a filent valley, fing
With notes angelical to many a harp
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall

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By doom of battle; and complain that fate
Free virtue fhould inthrall to force or chance.
Their fong was partial; but the harmony
(What could it lefs when fpi'rits immortal fing?)
Sufpended hell, and took with ravishment

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The thronging audience. In difcourfe more fweet, 555 (For eloquence the foul, fong charms the fenfe), Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,

In thoughts more elevate, and reafon'd high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate;
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge abfolute;
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes loft.
Of good and evil much they argu'd then,
Of happiness and final mifery,
Paffion and apathy, and glory' and fhame;
Vain wifdom all, and falfe philofophy:
Yet, with a pleafing forcery, could charm
Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast
With ftubborn patience, as with triple steel.
Another part, in squadrons and grofs bands,
On bold adventure to difcover wide
That difmal world, if any clime perhaps
Might yield them eafier habitation, bend

Four ways their flying march, along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that difgorge

Into the burning lake their baleful ftreams;
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron, of forrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud

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Heard on the rueful ftream; fierce Phlegethon, 580 Whofe waves of torrent fire inflame with rage,

Far off from thefe, a flow and filent stream,

Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls

Her watry labyrinth; whereof who drinks, .

Forthwith his former ftate and be'ing forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; all elfe deep fnow and ice ; 1
A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Cafius old,

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Where armies whole have funk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595 Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd,

At certain revolutions, all the damın'd

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce; From beds of raging fire to starve in ice

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Their foft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round,

Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean found

Both to and fro, their forrow to augment,

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And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach

The tempting ftream, with one fmall drop to lofe
In fweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

All in one moment, and fo near the brink :

But Fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt 610
Medufa with Gorgonian terrour guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies
All tafte of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In cónfus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands 615
With fhudd'ring horrour pale, and eyes aghast,
View'd firft their lamentable lot, and found
No reft through many a dark and dreary vale
They pafs'd, and many a region dolorous,

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O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,

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Rocks, caves, lakes, fens; bogs, dens, and fhades of death,

A universe of death; which God by curfe

Created ev'il, for evil only good,

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,

Perverse, all monftrous, all prodigious things, 625
Abominable, inutterable, and worfe

Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire.

Mean while the adverfary' of God and man,
Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of high'est design, 630
Puts on fwift wings, and tow'ards the gates of hell
Explores his folitary flight: fometimes

He fcours the right hand coaft, fometimes the left;
Now fhaves with level wing the deep, then foars
Up to the fiery concave tow'ring high,
As when far off at fea a fleet defcry'd,
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close failing from Bengala, or the ifles

Of Ternate and. Tidore, whence merchants bring

Their fpicy drugs; they on the trading flood
Thro' the wide Ethiopian to the Cape

Far off the flying fiend. At laft appear

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Ply, ftemming nightly toward the pole: fo feem'd

Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;

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And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brafs, Three iron, three of adamantine rock;

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Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,

Yet unconfum'd. Before the gates there fat

On either fide a formidable fhape;

The one feem'd woman to the waste, and fair;

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But ended foul in many a fcaly fold

Voluminous and vaft; a ferpent arm'd

With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of hell-hounds never ceafing bark'd

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With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655
A hideous peal; yet, when they lift, would creep,
If aught difturb'd their noife, into her womb,
And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd
Within unfeen. Far lefs abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the fea that parts
Calabria from the hoarfe Trinacrian fhore
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when call'd
In fecret, riding through the air fhe comes,
Lur'd with the smell of infant-blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon
Eclipfes at their charms. The other shape,
If fhape it might be call'd that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or fubftance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each feem'd either; black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,

And fhook a dreadful dart; what feem'd his head,

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The likeness of a kingly crown had on.

Satan was now at hand, and from his feat

The monster moving, onward came as fast

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With horrid ftrides; hell trembled as he ftrode.
Th' undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd;
Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valu'd he, nor fhunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began.

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape,
That dar'st, tho' grim and terrible, advance
Thy mifcreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass,
That be affur'd, without leave afk'd of thee:
Retire, or taste thy folly', and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with spi'rits of heaven.
To whom the goblin, full of wrath, reply'd.

Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he,

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