THE ARGUMENT.

God, fitting on his throne, fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; fhews him to the Son who fat at his right hand; foretels the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created Man free, and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of Grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him feduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards Man; but God again declares, that Grace cannot be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine juftice: Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore, with all his progeny devoted to death, must die, unless some one can be found fufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for Man. The Father accepts him; ordains his incarnation; pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the Angels to adore him: they obey, and, hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermoft orb; where, wandering, he first finds a place, fince called The Limbo of Vanity;' what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it. His paffage thence to the orb of the fun: he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the fhape of a meaner Angel, and, pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habi

tation, and is directed; alights firit on mount Niphates.

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK III.

HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first-born!

Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam

May I express thee' unblam'd? fince God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate.
Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whofe fountain who shall tell? before the fun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest
The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-vifit now with bolder wing,

Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne,
With other notes than to th' Orphéan lyre,

I fung of Chaos and eternal Night,

Taught by the heav'nly Mufe to venture down

The dark defcent, and up to re-ascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revifit fafe,
And feel thy fov'reign vital lamp; but thou
Revifit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more
Ceafe I to wander, where the Muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or funny hill,
Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes forget
Those other two equal'd with me in fate,
So were I equal'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tirefias and Phineus, prophets old:
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadieft covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the
Seafons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with an universal blank
Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

year

So much the rather thou, celeftial Light,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mift from thence

Purge and difperfe, that I may fee and tell

Of things invifible to mortal fight.

Now had th' almighty Father from above,

From the pure empyréan where he fits

High thron'd above all height, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view.
About him all the Sanctities of Heav'n

Stood thick as ftars, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his glory sat,
His only Son: on earth he first beheld
Our two first parents, yet the only two
Of mankind, in the happy garden plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd love,
In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd
Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this fide Night
In the dun air fublime, and ready now

To stoop, with wearied wings and willing feet,
On the bare outfide of this world, that seem'd
Firm land embofom'd, without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein paft, present, future, he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.

Only begotten Son, feest thou what rage Tranfports our Adverfary, whom no bounds

Prefcrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyfs,
Wide interrupt, can hold? fo bent he seems
On desperate revenge, that shall redound
Upon his own rebellious head. And now,
Through all reftraint broke loose, he wings his way
Not far off Heav'n, in the precincts of light,
Directly towards the new created world,
And Man there plac'd, with purpose to affay
If him by force he can destroy, or worse,
By fome false guile pervert; and shall pervert,
For Man will hearken to his glozing lies,
And easily tranfgrefs the fole command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: fo will fall
He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me

All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' ethereal Powers

And Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail'd;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv'n fincere
Of true allegiance, conftant faith or love,

Where only what they needs must do appear'd,
Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from fuch obedience paid,
When will and reafon (reafon alfo' is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both defpoil'd,
Made paffive both, had ferv'd neceffity,
Not me? They therefore as to right belong'd,
So were created, nor can juftly' accuse