Adverse, that they shall fear we have disarm'd
The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt.
Nor long shall be our labour; yet ere dawn,
Effect shall end our wish. Mean while revive;
Abandon fear; to strength and counsel join'd
Think nothing hard, much less to be despair'd.'.
44
A while; but suddenly at head appear'd
Satan, and thus was heard commanding loud.
'Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold;
That all may see who hate us, how we seek
Peace and composure, and with open breast
Stand ready to receive them, if they like
Our overture, and turn not back perverse:
But that I doubt; however witness Heaven!
Heaven, witness thou anon! while we discharge
Freely our part: ye, who appointed stand,
Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch
What we propound, and loud that all may hear!
Leader! the terms we sent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home;
Such as we inight perceive amus'd them all,
And stumbled many: who receives them right,
Had need from head to foot well understand;
Not understood, this gift they have besides,
They show us when, our foes walk not upright.'
[yond
"So they among themselves in pleasant vein
Stood scoffing, heighten'd in their thoughts be-
All doubt of victory: Eternal Might
To match with their inventions they presum'd
So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn,
And all his host derided, while they stood
A while in trouble: but they stood not long;
Rage prompted them at length, and found them
arms
Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.
Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power,
Which God hath in his mighty angels plac'd!)
Their arms away they threw, and to the hills
(For Earth hath this variety from Heaven
Of pleasure situate in hill and dale,)
Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew;
From their foundations loosening to and fro,
They pluck'd the seated hills, with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops
Up-lifting bore them in their hands: amaze,
Be sure, and terrour, seiz'd the rebel host,
When coming towards them so dread they saw
The bottom of the mountains upward turn'd;
Till on those cursed engines' triple row
They saw them whelm'd, and all their confidence
Under the weight of mountains buried deep;
Themselves invaded next, and on their heads
Main promontories flung, which in the air
Came shadowing, and oppress'd whole legions
[bruis'd
Their armour help'd their harm, crush'd in and
Into their substance pent, which wrought them
Implacable, and many a dolorous groan; [pain
Long struggling underneath, ere they could
wind
arm'd;
Since Michael and his powers went forth to
tame
46
The assessor of his throne, he thus began.
Effulgence of my glory, Son belov'd,
Son, in whose face invisible is beheld
Visibly, what by Deity Iam;
And in whose hand what by decree I do,
Second Omnipotence! two days are past,
Two days, as we compute the days of Heaven,
These disobedient: sore hath been their fight,
As likeliest was, when two such foes met arm'd;
For to themselves I left them; and thou
know'st,
Equal in their creation they were form'd,
Save what sin hath impair'd; which yet hath
[wrought
Insensibly, for I suspend their doom;
Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last
Endless, and no solution will be found:
War wearied hath perform'd what war can do,
And to disorder'd rage let loose the reins,
With mountains, as with weapons, arm'd; which
makes
[maiu,
Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the
Two days are therefore past, the third is thine;
For thee I have ordain'd it; and thus far
Have suffer'd, that the glory inay be thine
Of ending this great war, since none but thou
Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace
Immense I have transfus'd, that all may know
In Heaven and Hell thy power above compare;
And, this perverse commotion govern'd thus,
To manifest thee worthiest to be Heir
Of all things; to be Heir, and to be King
By sacred unction, thy deserved right.
Go then, thou Mightiest, in thy Father's might;
Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels
That shake Heaven's basis, bring forth all my
My bow and thunder, my almighty arms [war,
Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh;
Pursue these sons of darkness, drive them out
From all Heaven's bounds into the utter deep:
There let them learn, as likes them, to despise
God, and Messiah, his anointed king.'
"He said, and on his son with rays direct Shone full; he all his Father full express'd Ineffably into his face receiv'd;
And thus the filial godhead answering spake.
"O Father, O Supreme of heavenly thrones, First, Highest, Holiest, Best; thou always [seek'st To glorify thy Son; I always thee, As is most just: this I my glory account, My exaltation, and my whole delight, That thou, in me well pleas'd, declar'st thy will
Out of such prison, though spirits of purest light,
Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.
The rest, in imitation, to like arms
Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore:
So bills amid the air encounter'd hills,
Hari'd to and fio with jaculation dire;
That under ground they fought in dismal shade;
Infernal noise! war seem'd a civil game
To this uproar; horrid confusion heap'd
Upon confusion rose: and now all Heaven
Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread;
Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits
Shrin'd in his sanctuary of Heaven secure,
Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
This tumalt, and permitted ali, advis'd:
That his great purpose he might so fulfil,
To honour his anointed Son aveng'd
Upon his enemies, and to declare
All power on him transferr'd: whence to his Whom to obey is happiness entire.
Son,
Fulfill'd, which to fulfil is all my bliss.
Sceptre and power, thy giving, I assume,
And gladlier shall resign, when in the end
Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee
For ever; and in me all whom thou lov'st:
But whom thou hat'st, I hate, and can put on
Thy terrears. as I put thy mildness on,
Image of thee in all things; and shall soon,
Arm'd with thy might, rid Heaven of these
rebell'd;
To their prepar'd ill mansion driven down,
To chains of darkness, and the undying worm;
That from thy just obedience could revolt,
Then shall thy saints unmix'd, and from the impure
Far separate, circling thy holy mount,
Unfeigned halleluiahs to thee sing,
And the third sacred morn began to shine, Dawning through Heaven. Forth rush'd with whirlwind sound
The chariot of Paternal Deity,
[drawn,
Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel un-
Itself instinct with spirit, but convoy'd
By four cherubic shapes; four faces each
Had wonderous; as with stars, their bodies all
And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the
wheels
Of beril, and careering fires between;
Over their heads a crystal firmament,
Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure
Amber, and colours of the showery arch.
He, in celestial panoply all arm'd
Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought,
Ascended; at his right hand Victory
Sat eagle-wing'd; beside him hung his bow
And quiver with three bolted thunder stor❜d;
And from about him fierce effusion roll'd
Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles
dire:
Attended with ten thousand thousand saints,
He onward came; far off his coming shone;
And twenty thousand (I their number heard)
Chariots of God, half on each hand, were seen:
He on the wings of cherub rode sublime
On the crystalline sky, in sapphire thron'd,
Illustrious far and wide; but by his own
First seen them unexpected joy surpris'd,
When the great ensign of Messiah blaz'd
Aloft by angels borne, his sign in Heaven;
Under whose conduct Michael soon reduc'd
His army, circumfus'd on either wing,
Under their head imbodied all in one.
Before him Power Divine his way prepar'd;
At his command the uprooted hills retir'd
Each to his place; they heard his voice, and
went
Obsequious; Heaven his wonted face renew'd,
And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smil'd.
This saw his hapless foes, but stood obdur'd,
And to rebellious fight rallied their powers,
Insensate, hope conceiving from despair.
In heavenly spirits could such perverseness
dwell?
But to convince the proud what signs avail,
Or wonders move the obdurate to relent?
They, harden'd more by what might most re-
claim,
Grieving to see his glory, at the sight
Took envy; and, aspiring to his height,
Stood re-embattled fierce, by force or fraud
Weening to prosper, and at length prevail
Against God and Messiah, or to fall
In universal ruin last; and now
To final battle drew, disdaining flight,
Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God
To all his host on either hand thus spake.
"Stand still in bright array, ye saints; here stand,
Ye angels arm'd; this day from battle rest:
Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God
Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause;
And as ye have receiv'd, so have ye done,
Invincibly but of this cursed crew
The punishment to other hand belongs;
Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints :
Number to this day's work is not ordain'd,
:
Nor multitude; stand only, and behold
God's indignation on these godless pour'd
By me; not you, but me, they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against me is all their rage,
Because the Father, to whom in Heaven su-
preme
Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains,
Hath honour'd me, according to his will,
Therefore to me their doom he hath assign'd;
That they may have their wish to try with me
In battle which the stronger proves; they all,
Or I alone against them; since by strength
They measure all, of other excellence
Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe.'
"So spake the Son, and into terrour chang'd His countenance too severe to be beheld, And full of wrath bent on his enemies. At once the Four spread out their starry wings With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs Of his fierce chariot roll'd, as with the sound Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. He on his impious foes right onward drove, Gloomy as night, under his burning wheels The stedfast empyréan shook throughout, All but the throne itself of God. Full soon Among them he arriv'd; in his right hand Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent Before him, such as in their souls infix'd Plagues: they, astonish'd, all resistance lost, All courage; down their idle weapons dropt: O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostráte,
That wish'd the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire.
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell
His arrows, from the fourfold-visag'd Four
Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels
Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;
One spirit in them rul'd; and every eye
Glar'd lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
Among the accurs'd, that wither'd all their
strength,
And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant (check'd
Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven:
The overthrown he rais'd, and as a herd
Of goats or timorous flock together thronged
Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
With terrours, and with furies, to the bounds
And crystal wall of Heaven; which, opening
wide,
Roll'd inward, and a spacious gap disclos'd
Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight
Struck them with horrour backward, but far worse
Urg'd them behind: headlong themselves they
threw
Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit,
"Hell heard the unsufferable noise, Hell aw Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. Nine days they fell: confounded Chaos roar'd, And felt tenfold confusion in their fall Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout
Encamber'd bind with rain : Hell at last
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play Yawning receiv'd them whole, and on them in presence of the Almighty Father, pleas'd Hell
, their fit habitation, fraught with fire[ clos'd; With thy celestial song. Up led by thee, Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain. Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presum'd, Disburden'd Heaven rejoic'd, and soon repair'd An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, Her mural breach, returning whence it rolPd. Thy tempering : with like safety guided down Sole victor, from the espulsion of his foes, Return me to my native element : Messiah his triumphal chariot turn'd:
Lest from this flying steed unrein'd, (as once To meet him all his saints, who silent stood Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,) Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall, With jubilee advane'd ; and, as they went, Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn. Shaded with branching palm, each order bright, Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King, Within the visible diurnal sphere ; Son, Heir, and Lord, to bim dominion given, Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole, Worthiest to reign: He, celebrated, rode (courts More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang'd Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days, And temple of his mighty Father thron'd On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; On high; who into glory him receiv'd,
In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round, Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss. And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou “Thus measuring things in Heaven by things Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when mom on Earth,
Purples the east : still govern thou my song, At thy request, and that thou may'st beware Urania, and fit audience find, though few. By what is past, to thee I have reveal'd
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance What might have else to human race been hid; Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race The discord which befel, and war in Heaven Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian band Among the angelic powers, and the deep fall In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears Of those too high aspiring, who rebell'd
To rapture, till the savage clamour drown'd With Satan; he who envies now thy state, Both harpand voice; nor could the Muse defend Woo now is plotting how he may seduce
Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores : Thee also from obedience, that, with him
For thou art heavenly, she an emply dream. Bereav'd of happmess, thou may'st partake
Say, goddess, what ensued when Raphaël, His punishment, eternal misery ;
The affable arch-angel, had forewarn'd Which would be all his solace and revenge,
Adam, by dire example, to beware As a despite done against the Most High, Apostacy, by what befel in Heaven Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
To those apostates; lest the like befall But listen not to his temptations, warn
In Paradise to Adam or bis race, Thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard,
Charg'd not to touch the interdicted tree, By terrible example, the reward
If they transgress, and slight that sole command, Of disobedience ; firm they might have stood,
So easily obey'd amid the choice
Yet fell ; remember, and fear to transgress.”
Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
Though wandering. He, with his consorted Eve,
The story beard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep muse, to hear
PARADISE LOST.
Of things so high and strange; things, to their
thought BOOK VII.
So unimaginable, as hate in Heaven,
And war so near the peace of God in bliss,
THE ARGUMENT.
With such confusion : but the evil, soon
Driven back, redounded as a flood on those Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and from whom it sprumg; impossible to mix wherefore this world was first created ; that The doubts that in his heart arose : and now
With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repeal'd God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels Led on, yet sintess, with desire to know out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell Of Heaven and Earth conspicuous first began;
What nearer might concern him, how this world therein; sends his Son with glory, and attend. When, and whereof created; for what cause; ince of angels, to perform the work of creation in six days: the angels celebrate with Before his memory: as one whose drought
What within Eden, or without, was done hymns the performance thereof, and his reas
Yet scarce allay'd still eyes the current stream, cension into Heaven.
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
P.oceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest. DESCEND from Heaven, Urania, by that name • Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine Far differing from this world, thou hast reveald, Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Divine interpreter! by favour sent Above the flight of Pegaséan wing.
Down from the empyréan, to forewarn The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou Us timely of what might else have been our loss, Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Unknown, which human knowledge could not Of old Olympus dwell'st ; but, heavenly-born,
reach : Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd, For which to the infinitely Good we owe Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse, Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sovrau will, the end
Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsaf'd
Goutly, for our instruction, to impart [cern'd
Things above earthly thought, which yet con-
Our knowing, as to highest Wisdom seem'd,
Deign to descend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known,
How first began this Heaven which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorn'd
Innumerable; and this which yields or fils
All space, the ambient air wide interfus'd
Embracing round this florid Earth? what cause
Mov'd the Creator in his holy, rest
Through all eternity so late to build
In Chaos; and the work begun, how scon
Absolv'd; if unforbid thou may'st unfo'd
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works, the more we know.
And the great light of day yet wants to run
Much of his race though steep; suspense in
Heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of Nature from the unapparent deep:
Or if the star of evening and the Moon
Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring
Silence; and Sleep, listening to thee, will watch;
Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.”
Thus Adam his illus ricus guest besought:
And thus the godlike angel answer'd mild.
"This also thy request, with caution ask'd,
Obtain; though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?
Yet what thou canst attain, which best may scrve
To glorify the Maker, and infer
Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing; such commission from above
I have receiv'd, to answer thy desire
Or knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain
To ask; por let thine own inventions hope
Things not reveal'd, which the invisible King,
Caly Omaiscient, hath suppress'd in night;
To none communicable in Farth or Heaven:
Enough is left besides to search and know.
But knowledge is as f od, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know
In mea ure what the mind may well contain;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
"Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven (So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of angels, then that siar the stars ameng,) Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great. Son return'd
Victorious with his saints, the Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.
At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who
A like himself rebellious, by whose aid [thought
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of Deity supreme, us dispossess'd,
I trusted to have sci'd, and into fraud
Drew many, whom their place knows here no
Yet far the greater part have kept, I see, [more:
Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due, and solemn rites:
But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose.
Self-lost; and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here; till, by degrees of merit rais'd,
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried; [Earth,
And Earth be chang'd to Heaven, and Heaven to
One kingdom, joy and un on without end.
Mean while inhabit lax, ye powers of Heaven;
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform; speak thou, and be it done!
My overshadowing spirit and might with thee
I send along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth;
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space,
Though I, uncircumscrib'd myself, retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance
Approach not me, and what I will is fate.'
"So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.
Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,
When such was heard declared the Almighty's
will;
Glory they sung to the Most High, good will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace:
Glory to him, whose just avenging ire
Had driven out the ungodly from his sight
And the habitations of the just; to him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create; instead.
Of spirits malign, a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.
"So sang the hierarchies: wean while the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,
Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub, and scraph, potentates, and thrones,
And virtues, winged spirits, and chariots wing'd
From the armoury of God; where stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodg
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them spirit liv'd,
Attendant on their Lord: Heaven open'd wide
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.
On heavenly ground they stood; and from the
They view'd the vast immeasureable abyss [shore
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
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