Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air 540
In whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides from Oechalia crown'd
With conqueft, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore
Through pain up by the roots Theffalian Pines,
And Lichas from the top of Octa threw
Into th' Euboic Sea. 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 Battel; and complain that Fate
Free Virtue fhould enthrall to Force or Chance.
Their Song was partial, but the harmony
(What could it lefs when Spirits immortal fing?)
Sufpended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In difcourfe more fweet 555
(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense,)
Others apart fat on a Hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate,
Fiat Fate, free Will, Foreknowledge abfolute, 560
And found no end, in wandring mazes loft.
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final misery.
Paffion and Apathie, and glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and falfe Philofophy:
Yet with a pleafing forcery could chạïm
Pain for a while or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm th'obdurate breaft
With ftubborn patience as with triple steel,
Another Part in Squadrons and gross Bands,
On bold adventure to discover wide
That dismal world, if any Clime perhaps
Might yield them easier 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 ruful ftream; fierce Phlegeton
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these a flow and filent ftream,
Lethe the river of Oblivion rolls
Her watry Labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former ftate and being forgets, 585
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this floud a frozen Continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual forms
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,
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 hail'd,
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce,
From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice
Their foft Ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infixt, and frozen round,
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean Sound
Both to and fro, their forrow to augment,
And with and ftruggle, 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
Medufa with Gorgonian terrour guards
The Ford, and of it felf the water flies
All taft of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In confus'd march forlorn th'adventrous Bands 615
With fhuddring horrour pale, and eyes agaft
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
A Univerfe of death, which God by curfe
Created evil, 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 Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.
Mean while the Adverfary of God and Man,
tan with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, 630 ts on fwift wings, and towards the Gates of Hell plores his folitary flight; fometimes
fcoures the right hand coast, sometimes the left, w shaves with level wing the Deep, then foars to the fiery Concave towring high.
when far off at Sea a Fleet defcry'd ings in the Clouds, by Aquinoctial Winds lofe failing from Bengala, or the Isles.
f Ternate and Tidere, whence Merchants bring heir fpicy Drugs: they on the Trading Floud 640 hrough the wide Ethiopian to the Cape.
y ftemming nightly toward the Pole. So feem'd ar off the flying Fiend: at laft appear
ell bounds high reaching to the borrid Roof, nd thrice threefold the Gates; three folds were Brass, hree Iron, three of Adamantine Rock,
npenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,
et unconfum'd. Before the Gates there fat
n either fide a formidable fhape;
he one feem'd Woman to the wafte, and fair, 650
ut ended foul in many a fcaly fould
oluminous and vaft, a Serpent arm'd
With Mortal fting: about her middle round
A cry of Hell Hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung 655
A hideous Peal: yet, when they lift, would creep,
fought disturb'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 Sea 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 fmell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland Witches, while the lab'ring Moon 665
Eclipfes at their charms. The other shape,
If fhape it might be call'd that fhape had none
Distinguishable in member, joynt, or limb,
Or fubftance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each feem'd either; black it ftood as Night, 670
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook 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 faft
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 naught valu'd he nor fhun'd;
And with difdainful look thus first began.
Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'ft, though 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 askt of thee. Retire, or taft thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heav'n. To whom the Goblin full of wrath reply'd, Art thou that Traitor Angel, art thou he,
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