His dark materials to create more worlds ; Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while, Pond'ring his voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with small) than when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to raze
Some capital city'; or less than if this frame
Of Heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn
The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground thence many a league, As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
A vast vacuity: all unawares,
Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd, ♫
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea
Nor good dry land, nigh founder'd, on he fares, Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying behoves him now both oar and sail. As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth V
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold so eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, thro' strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies :
At length a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd,ient
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear With loudest vehemence: thither he plies, Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or spirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
Bordering on light; when strait behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavillion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd,
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and Chance,
And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroil'd,
And Discord, with a thousand various mouths.
T'whom Satan, turning boldly thus. "Ye Powers
And Spirts of this nethermost abyss,
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The secrets of your realm, but by constraint
Wand'ring this darksome desert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heaven; or, if some other place
From your dominion won, the ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my course; Directed, no mean recompense it brings To your behoof, if I that region lost, All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce To her original darkness and your sway, (Which is my present journey) and once more Erect the standard there of ancient Night; Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge." Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, With falt'ring speech and visage incompos'd,
Answer'd. "I know thee, stranger, who thou art,
That mighty leading Angel, who of late
Made head against Heav'n's King, tho' overthrown. I saw and heard, for such a numerous host
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded; and Heav'n gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands, Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Keep residence ; if all I can will serve That little which is left so to defend,
Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils, Weak'ning the sceptre of old Night: first Hell Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath; Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world, Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain To that side Heav'n from whence your legions fell: If that way be your walk, you have not far; So much the nearer danger; go, and speed; Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain."
He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply, But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity and force renew'd, Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, Into the wild expanse, and through the shock Of fighting elements, on all sides round Environ'd wins his way; harder beset, 9 And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks; o Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty' and labour hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty' and labour he;
But he, once past, soon after, when man fell, (Strange alteration!) Sin and Death amain, Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way
Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, From Hell continu'd, reaching the utmost orb Of this frail world; by which the Spi'rits perverse With easy intercourse pass to and fro
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good Angels guard with special grace. But now at last the sacred influence
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, As from her outmost works a broken foe, With tumult less and with less hostile din; That Satan with less toil, and now with Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold Far off th' empyreal Heav'n, extended wide In circuit, undetermin'd square or round, With opal tow ́rs and battlements adorn'd Of living sapphire, once his native seat; And fast by hanging in a golden chain This pendent world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour, he hies.
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