1015

1020

Into the wild expanse, and through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all fides round
Environ'd wins his way; harder befet
And more indanger'd, than when Argo pafs'd
Through Bofporus betwixt the juftling rocks:
Or when Ulyffes on the larbord shunn'd
Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool fteer'd.
So he with difficulty and labor hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty and labor he;
But he once past, soon after when man fell,
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain
Following his track, fuch was the will of Heaven,
Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way
Over the dark abyfs, whose boiling gulf
Tamely indur'd a bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continued reaching th' utmost orb
Of this frail world; by which the Spirits perverfe 1030
With easy intercourse pass to and fro

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
God and good Angels guard by special grace.
But now at laft the facred 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 fartheft verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmoft works a broken foe
With tumult lefs and with lefs hoftile din,
That Satan with lefs toil, and now with ease
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,
And like a weather-beaten veffel holds

F 3

1040

Gladly

Gladly the port, though fhrouds and tackle to:
Or in the emptier wafte, refembling air,
Weighs his fpread wings, at leifure 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 faphir, once his native feat;
And faft by hanging in a golden chain
This pendent world, in bignefs as a star
Of finalleft magnitude close by the moon.
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurs'd, and in a curfed hour he hies.

THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

T

THE

THIRD BOOK

O F

PARADISE LOST.

God fitting on his throne fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; fhows 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 manifeftation of his gracicus purpofe towards Man; but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the fatiffaction of divine juftice; Man hath offended the majefty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death muft die, unlefs fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his offenfe, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ranfome 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. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wand'ring he firft finds a place, fince call'd the Limbo of Vanity; what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, defcrib'd afcending 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 shape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had plac'd here, inquires of him the place of his habita tion, and is directed; alights first on mount Niphates.

PARADISE

H

LOST.

воок III.

AIL holy Light, off-spring of Heav'n firft-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 heart thou rather pure ethereal stream,
Whofe fountain who fhall 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,

Efcap'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-afcend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revifit safe,
And feel thy fovran vital lamp; but thou

Revifit

5

10

15

20