Their fpecious deeds on earth, which glory excites;
Or close ambition varnish'd o'er with zeal. 485. Thus they their doubtful consultations dark Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief: As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds Afcending, while while the north-wind fleeps, o'er-spread
Heav'n's chearful face, the lowring element 490 Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape fnow, or shower;
If chance the radiant fun with farewel sweet
Extend his ev'ning beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings. 495
O fhame to men! Devil with Devil damn'd
Firm concord holds; men only disagree
Of creatures rational, though under hope
Of heav'nly grace: and God proclaiming peace,
Yet live in hatred; enmity and strife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wafting the earth, each other to destroy:
As if, which might induce us to accord,
Man had not hellish foes enow befides,
That day and night for his destruction wait. 505
The Stygian council thus diffolv'd, and forth
In order came the grand infernal Peers:
'Midft came their mighty Paramount, and
feem'd
Alone th' antagonist of heav'n, nor less
Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp fupreme,
And Goh-like imitated state: him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim inclos'd
With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms.
Then of their feffion ended they bid cry
With trumpets regal found the great refult: 515
Tow'rds the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to their mouths the founding alchemy
By heralds voice explain'd: the hollow Abyss
Heard far and wide, and all the hoft of Hell
With deaf'ning fhout return'd them loud
acclaim.
Thence more at eafe their minds, and
somewhat rais'd
By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers
Disband, and wand'ring, each his several way
Pursues, as inclination or fad choice
Leads him perplex'd, where he may likelieft
Truce to his reftlefs thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours, till his great chief return.
'Part on the plain, or in the air fublime
Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,
As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields:
Part curb their fiery steeds, or fhun the goal 531
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form.
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Wag'd in the troubl'd fky, and armies rufh To battel in the clouds, before each van 535 Prick forth the aery Knights, and couch their
Till thickest legions clofe; with feats of arms From either end of heav'n the welkin burns. Others, with vaft Typhoean rage, more fell Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the
540 In whirlwind: Hell fcarce hold the wild
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd With conqueft, felt th' invenom'd robe, and
Through pain up by the roots Theffalian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw 545
Into th' Euboic fea. 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 550
Free virtue fhould inthrall to force or chance.
Their fong 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
Tweet,
For eloquence the foul, fong charms the fenfe, Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, an reafon'd high. Of providence, foreknowledge, will and fate, Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge *abso560
서 And found no end, in wand'ring mazes luft.:
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final mifery,
Paffion and apathy, and glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and falfe philosophy: 565
Yet with a pleafing forcery could charm
Pain for a while, or anguish; and excite.
Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast
With stubborn patience, as with triple steel.
Another part, in fquadrons and grofs bands, 570
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 disgorge 575
Into the burning lake their baleful streams;
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron, of forrow black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud
Heard en the rueful stream; fierce Phle
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. For off from thefe a flow and filent stream, Lethe the river of oblivion rolls
Her watry labyrinth; whereof, who drinks,
Forthwith his former state and being for
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual
Of ancient pile; or else deep fnow and ice,
A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Cañus old,
Where armies whole have funk: the parching
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of
Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 Their foft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire, They ferry over this Lethéan found
Both to and fro, their forrow to augment, 605
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