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
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
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
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
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,
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
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,
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,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
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
Ply, ftemming nightly toward the pole: fo feem'd
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;
And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brafs, Three iron, three of adamantine rock;
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;
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
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,
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand, and from his feat
The monster moving, onward came as fast
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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