By which he reigns: next him high arbiter
Chance governs all. Into this wild abyfs
The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither fea, for fhore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant caufes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' almighty Maker them ordain
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 crofs. Nor was his car lefs peal'd
With noifes loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with fmall) than when Bellona Norms,
With all her battering engins bent to rafe
Come capital city'; or less than if this frame
Of Heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn
The ftedfaft Earth. At laft his fail-broad vass
He spreads for flight, and in the furging smoke
Uplifted fpurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, afcending rides
Audacious; but that feat foon failing, meets
A vaft 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 fyrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares, 940
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half fly'ing; behoves him now both oar and fail.
As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: fo eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep,through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And fwims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:
At length a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning founds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, affaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or fpirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
Bord'ring on light; when strait behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd
Sat fable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The confort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Damogorgen; Rumour next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,
And Difcord with a thoufand various mouths.
To' whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers
And Spirits of this nethermoft abyss,
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The fecrets of your realm, but by constraint
Wand'ring this darksome defert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half loft, I seek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heav'n; or if fome other place,
From your dominion won, th' ethereal King
Poffeffes lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my courfe;
Directed no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof, if I that region lost,
All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her orig'inal darkness and your sway,
(Which is my present journey) and once more
Erect the flandard there of ancient Night;
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltring speech and visage incompos'd,
Anfwer'd. I know thee, ftranger, who thou art, 990
That mighty leading angel, who of late
Made head against Heav'n's King, though overthrown,
I faw and heard, for such a numerous host
Fled not in filence through the frighted Deep
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confufion worse confounded; and Heav'n gates
Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
Keep refidence; if all I can will ferve
That little which is left so to defend,
Encroach'd on still through your intestin broils
Weakning the feepter 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, link'd in a golden chain 1005
To that fide 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 fides round
Environ'd wins his way; harder befet
And more indanger'd, than when Argo pass'd
Through Bofporus betwixt the juftling rocks:
Or when Ulyffes on the larbord fhunn'd
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd. 1010
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 Heav'n,
Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way
Over the dark abyfs, whose boiling gulf
Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continued reaching th' outmost orb
Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse
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 Heav'n
Shoots far into the bofom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins
Her fartheft verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works a broken foe,
With tumult lefs and with less hostile din,
That Satan with less toil, and now with case
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,
And like a weather-beaten veffel 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,
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