With secret amity things of like kind, By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade Inseparable, must with me along:
For death from sin no power can separate. But, lest the difficulty of passing back Stay his return perhaps over this gulf Impassible, impervious; let us try
Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine Not unagreeable, to found a path
Over this main from hell to that new world, Where Satan now prevails: a monument Of merit high to all the infernal host, # Easing their passage hence for intercourse, Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn By this new-felt attraction and instinct. Whom thus the meagre shadow answer'd soon: Go whither fate and inclination strong Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste The savour of death from all things there that live Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.
So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, Against the day of battle, to a field,
Where armies he encamp'd, come flying, Iured With scent of living carcasses design'd For death the following day, in bloody fight: So scented the grim feature, and upturn'à
His nostril wide into the murky air: Sagacious in his quarry from so far.
Them both from out hell gates. into the waste Wide anarchy of chaos, damp and dark,
Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great),
Hovering upon the waters, what they met Solid or slimy, as in raging sea
Toss'd up and down, together crowded drove, From each side shoaling towards the mouth of hell : As when two polar winds, blowing adverse Upon the Cronian sea, together drive Mountains of ice that stop the imagined way Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich Cathrian coast. The aggregated soil Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry, As with a trident, smote; and fix'd as firm the rest his look As Delos, floating once, Bound with Gorgonian vigour not to move; And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of hell the gather'd beach They fasten'd, and the mole immense wrought on Over the foaming deep high-arched a bridge Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenceless world, Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad, Smooth, easy, inoffensive down to hell. So, if great things to small may be compared, Xerxes, the liberty for Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea; and, over Hellespont Bridging his way Europe with Asia join'd,
And scourged with many a stroke the indignant
Now had they brought the work by wondrous art Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock.
Over the vex'd abyss, following the track Of Satan to the selfsame place where he First lighted from his wing, and landed safe From out of chaos to the outside bare
Of this round world: with pins of adamant And chains they made all fast, too fast they made And durable! and now in little space
The confines met of empyrean heaven,
And of this world; and on the left hand, hell. With long reach interposed; three several ways In sight, to each of these three places led. And now their way to earth they had descried, To Paradise first tending; when, behold! Satan, in likeness of an angel bright, Betwixt the centaur and the scorpion steering His zeinth, while the sun in Aries rose: Disguised he came; but those his children dear Their parent soon discern'd, though in disguise. He after Eve seduced, unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape, To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought Vain covertures; but when he saw descend The Son of God to judge them, terrified He fled not hoping to escape, but shun The present; fearing, what his warmth Might suddenly inflict; that pass'd return'd
By night, and listening where the hapless pair Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint, Thence gather'd his own doom; which understood Not instant, but to future time with joy
And tidings fraught, to hell he now return'd; And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot Of this new wondrous pontifice, unhoped Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear. Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight Of that stupendous bridge his jov increased. Long he admiring stood, till sin, his fair Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke : O Parent, these are thy magnific deeds, Thy trophies! which thou view'st as not thine own; Thou art their author, and prime architect: For I no sooner in my heart divined,
My heart, which by a secret harmony
Still moves with thine, join'd in connexion sweet, That thou on earth hadst prosper'd, which thy looks Now also evidence, but straight I felt,
Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt. That I must after thee, with this thy son; Such fatal consequence unites us three! Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds, Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure
Detain from following thy illustrious track. Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined Within hell-gates till now; thou us impower'd To fortify thus far, and overlay,
With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss, Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won
What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gain'd
With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged Our foil in heaven; here thou shalt monarch
There didst not; there let him still victor sway, As battle hath adjudged; from this new world Retiring, by his own doom alienated;
And henceforth monarchy with thee divide Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds, His quadrature, from thy orbicular world; Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.
Whom thus the prince of darknes answer'd glad : Fair daughter, and thou son and grandchild both; High proof ye now have given to be the race Of Satan (for I glory in the name,
Antagonist of heaven's Almighty King,) Amply have merited of me, of all
The infernal empire, that so near heaven's door Triumphal with triumphal act have met,
Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm, Hell and this world, one realm, one continent Of easy thoroughfare. Therefore, while I Descend through darkness, on your road with ease, To my associate powers, them to acquaint With these successes, and with them rejoice; You too this way, among these numerous orbs, All yours, right down to Paradise descend; There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth
Dominion exercise and in the air,
Chiefly on man, sole lord of all declared;
Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.
My substitutes I send ye, and create
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