Urg'd them behind; headlong themfelves they threw Down from the verge of heaven; eternal wrath 865 Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
Hell heard th' unfufferable noife, hell faw Heav'n ruining from heav'n, and would have fled. Affrighted; but ftrict Fate had caft too deep
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. 870 Nine days they fell: confounded Chaos roar'd,
And felt tenfold confufion in their fall
Through his wild anarchy, fo huge a rout
Incumber'd him with ruin: Hell at laft
Yawning receiv'd them whole, and on them clos'd;
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the houfe of woe and pain.
Difburden'd heav'n rejoic'd, and foon repair'd
Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd.
Sole victor from th' expulfion of his foes,
Meffiah his triumphal chariot turn'd:
To meet him all his faints, who filent stood
Eye-witnefes of his almighty acts,
With jubilee advanc'd; and, as they went,
Shaded with branching palm, each order bright, 885
Sung triumph, and him fung victorious King,
Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
Worthieft to reign: He celebrated rode,
Triumphant through mid heav'n, into the courts
And temple of his mighty Father thron'd
On high; who into glory him receiv'd,
Where now he fits at the right hand of blifs.
Thus meafuring things in heav'n by things on earth,
At thy request, and that thou may'ft beware
By what is paft, to thee I have reveal'd
What might have else to human race been hid;
The difcord which befel, and war in heav'n
Among th' angelic powers, and the deep fall
Of those too high afpiring, who rebell'd
With Satan; he who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may feduce
Thee alfo from obedience, that, with him
Bereav'd of happiness, thou may'st partake
His punishment, eternal mifery;
Which would be all his folace and revenge,
As a despite done against the Most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
But liften not to his temptations, warn
Thy weaker; let it profit thee to' have heard
By terrible example the reward
Of difobedience; firm they might have food,
Yet fell; remember, and fear to tranfgrefs.
Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; fends his Son with glory and attendance of angels to perform the work of the creation in fix days: The angels cele brate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reafcenfion into heaven.
Efcend from heav'n, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art call'd, whofe voice divine-
Following, above th' Olympian hill I foar,
Above the flight of Pegaféan wing.
The meaning, not the name, I call for thou
Nor of the Mufes nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'ft; but heav'nly born,
Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy fifter, and with her didst play
In presence of th' almighty Father, pleas'd
With thy celeftial fong. Up-led by thee,
Into the heav'n of heav'ns I have prefum'd,
An earthly gueft, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy temp'ring; with like fafety guided down,
Return me to my native element;
Left from this flying steed unrein'd, (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,)
Difmounted, on th' Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.
Half yet remains unfung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere;
Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More fafe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd
To hoarfe or mute, though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round,
And folitude; yet not alone, while thou
Vifit'ft my flumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the eaft: ftill govern thou my fong,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
But drive far off the barbarous diffonance
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the favage clamour drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the Mufe defend
Her fon. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art heav'nly, fhe an empty dream.
Say, Goddefs, what enfu'd when Raphaël,
The affable archangel, had forewarn'd
Adam by dire example to beware
Apoftafy, by what befel in heav'n
To thofe apoftates, left the like befall
In Paradife to Adam, or his race,
Charg'd not to touch the interdicted tree,
If they tranfgrefs, and flight that fole command,
So eafily obey'd, amid the choice
Of all taftes elfe to please their appetite,
Though wand'ring. He with his conforted Eve 50
The story heard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep mufe, to hear
Of things fo high and ftrange, things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in heav'n,
And war fo near the peace of God in blifs,
With fuch confufion: but the evil foon
Driv'n back redounded as a flood on thofe
From whom it fprung, impoffible to mix
With bleffednefs. Whence Adam foon repeal'd
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