Above the Aönian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st, Tisou from the first
Wast present, and with inighly wings outspread
Dovelike satst/brooding outle vast abyss,
And madest it pregnant: What in me is dark,
Illumine ; what is low, raise and support ;
That in the height of this great argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,

25 And justify the ways of God to men.

Say first, for Heaven, hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell; say first, what cause Moved our grand Paren's, in that happy state, Favour'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off

From their Creator, and transgress his will
a í for one restraint, lords of the world besides ?

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
The infernal Serpent; he it was, wliose gvile,
Stirrd up with envy und revenge, deceived 35
The mother of mankind, what tinc his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, wit! all his host
Of rebel Angels; by whose aid, aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
Ile trusted to have equal'd the Most High,
If he opposed; and, with ambiticus aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle pr sud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Muirl' I licadlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 45
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell
In adamantine chairs and penal fire,

Who dursi defy the Omnipotent to arms. }
Au Nine 1 mes the space that measutes day and night 54

To mrtal inen, hie kvith hiš Korrid crew)
May vanquish'

droiling in the fiery gulf,

•

(Confusided, though immortal But his doum
Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness, and lasting pain,
Torments himni round hé throws his baleful eyes,
That witness'u huge affliction and disiray
Mix'd with obdurate pride and steadfast hate,
At onco, as far as Angels ken, he views
l'he dismal situacion waste and wild.
A dungeon horrible on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed yet from thoce flames
Vo light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 6
And rest can never dwell; hope never comes
That comes to all x but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluyc, fed
With ever burning sulphir unconsumed
Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
For those rebellious where their prison ordain'd

In utter darkness, and their portion set ;
A As far removed from God and light of Heaven

As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.
Xo, how unlikö the phice from whence they fell 75

There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
Ho soon discerns and weltering by his side
One next hiinseif in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and named 80
Beelzebub To whom the Archenemy,
And thence in Heaven call'd Satan, with bold words
Breahing the horrid silence, thus began.

If thou be he; but o, how fallen! how changed
From him, who, in the happy realms of light, &
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads though bright Alf he whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise,
Join'd with me oni e, now misery hail join'd

In equal ruin X Into what pit thou seest,
From what height fallen; so much the stronger proved
He with his thunder. and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms. Yet not for thoso,
Nóg what the potent victor in his rage
Can else, inflict, du I repent or change,
Though'changed in outward lustre, that fix'd mird,
And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along 100
linumerable force of Spirits arm'd,
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost :
All is not lost, the unconquerable will,

10€
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit ur yield,
And what is else not to be overcopie;
That glory never shall his wrath or might

110 Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee, and deify his power, Who from the terror of this arm so late Doubted his empire; that were low indeed, That were an ignominy, and shame beneath 115 This downfal : şinco, by fate, the strength of Gods And this empyreal substance cannot fail; Since through experience of this great event În arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, We may with more successful none resolve 120 Min wage, by force or gule, ete ‘nal war Irruoncilable to our grand foc, · Who now triumphs, and, in the excess of joy Bole reigning, holds the tyranny of Heaven. "So spake the apostate Angel, though ina pain, 125 Vaunting aloud, but rack'á with deep despair : And hin thus answer'd soon his bold cumpeer.

O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powors.

KA

That lod 'he embattled Seraphim to war
Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds
Fearless endanger'd Heaven's perpetual king,
And put to proof his high supremacy,
Whcthér upheld by strength, or chance. or sate
Too well I see and rue the dire event,
That with sad overthrow, and foul defeat, 135
Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,
As far as Gods and heavenly essences
Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains
Invincible, and vigour soon returns,
Though all our glorý cxtinct, and happy state
Here swallow,d up in endless miscry.
But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, since no less
Than such could have o'erpower'd such force as ours)
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire 148
Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of war, whate'er his business be,
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
· Or do his errands in the gloomy deep;

What can it then avail, though yet wo feel
„Strength undiminish’d, or eternal being,
To undergo eternal punishment ?

155 Whereto with speedy words the Archfiend replied

Fallen cherub! to be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,
To do aught good never will be our task,
But over to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will,
Whom we resist. If then liis providence
Out of our evil seck to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil; 168
Wb ch ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps

Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim.
But sec! the angry victor hath recallid
IIis ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail,
Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid
The fiery surge, that from the precipice
Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder,
Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rago, 175
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow tlırough the vast and boundless deep.
Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn,
Or satiate fury, yield it from our Fue.
Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 180
The seat of desolation, void of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thit?ier let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves;
There rest, if any rest can harbour there,
And, reassembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy, Aur own loss how repair
How overcome this dire calamity;
What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
If not, what resolution from despair.

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides
Prone on the flood, extended long and large,
Lay floating many a rood; in bulk as huge
As whom the fable; name of monstrous sizo,
Titanian, or Earth born, that war'd on Jove
Briarcos or Typhen, whom the den
By ancient Tarsus held; or that seabeast
Leviathan, which God of all liis works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream:
Him, haply, siunibering on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff