t

But that success attends him; if mishap,
Ere this he had return'd, with fury driven
By his avengers, since no place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
Wings growing and dominion giv'n me large
Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or sympathy, or some connatural force
Powerful at greatest distance to unite
With secret amity things of like kind
By secretest conveyance. Thou my shade
Inseparable must with me along:

For Death from Sin no power can separate.
But lest the difficulty' of passing back
Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
Impassable, impervious, let us try

Advent'rous work, yet to thy power and mine
Not unagreeable, to found a path

Over this main from Hell to that new world
Where Satan now prevails, a monument
Of merit high to all th' infernal host,
Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,
Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn
By this new felt attraction and instinct.

Whom thus the meagre Shadow answer'd soon: Go whether Fate and inclination strong Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err The way, thou leading, such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste

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The savour of death from all things there that live:

Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest

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Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.

So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell

Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock

Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
Against a day of battle, to a field,

Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lur'di

With scent of living carcases design'd

For death, the following day, in bloody fight;
So scented the grim feature, and upturn'd
His nostril wide into the murky air, ...

Sagacious of his quarry from so far,

Then both from out Hell gates into the waste

Wide anarchy of Chaos damp and dark

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Flew diverse, and with power (their power was great) Hovering upon the waters, what they met

Solid or slimy, as in raging sea

Tost up and down, together crouded drove

From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell:
As when two polar winds, blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian sea, together drive

Mountains of ice, that stop th' imagin'd way
Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident smote, and fix'd as firm
As Delos floting once; the rest his look
Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;
And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate,
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PARADISE LOST.

Deep to the roots of Hell the gather'd beach
They fasten'd, and the mole immense wrought on
Over the foaming deep high arch'd, a bridge
Of length prodigious, joining to the wall
Immoveable of this now fenceless world
Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive down to Hell.
So, if great things to small may be compar'd,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From Susa his Memnonian palace high
Came to the sea, and over Hellespont

Bridging his way, Europe with Asia join'd,

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And scourg'd with many a stroke th' indignant waves.

Now had they brought the work by wondrous art
Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock,

Over the vex'd abyss, following the track

Of Satan to the self same place where he

First lighted from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos, to the outside bare

Of this round world: with pins of adamant

And chains they made all fast, too fast they made And durable; and now in little space

The confines met of empyréan Heav'n

And of this world, and on the left hand Hell
With long reach interpos'd; three several ways
In sight, to each of these three places led.
And now their way to Earth they had descry'd,
To Paradise first tending, when behold
Satan in likeness of an Angel bright

Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering

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His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:
Disguis'd he came, but those his children dear
Their parent soon discern'd, though in disguise.
He after Eve seduc'd, unminded slunk...
Into the wood fast by, and changing shape
To' observe the sequel, saw his guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded
Upon her husband, saw their shame that sought
Vain covertures; but when he saw descend
The Son of God to judge them, terrify'd
He fled, not hoping to escape, but shun
The present, fearing guilty what his wrath
Might suddenly inflict; that past, return'd
By night, and list'ning where the hapless pair
Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,'
Thence gather'd his own doom, which understood
Not instant, but of future time, with joy
And tidings fraught, to Hell he now return'd,
And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot
Of this new wondrous pontifice, unhop'd'
Met who to meet him came, his offspring dear.
Great joy, was at their meeting, and at sight
Of that stupendous bridge his joy increas'd.
Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair
Inchanting daughter, thus the silence broke:

O Parent, these are thy, magnific deeds,
Thy trophies, which thou view'st as not thine own;
Thou art their author and prime architect:

For
no sooner in my heart divin'd,
My heart, which by a secret harmony

Still moves with thine, join'd in connexion sweet,
That thou on earth hadst prosper'd, which thy looks
Now also evidence, but strait I felt

Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt
That I must after thee with this thy son,
Such fatal consequence unites us three :
Hell could no longer hold us in her bounds,
Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure
Detain from following thy illustrious track.
Thou hast achiev'd our liberty, confin'd
Within Hell gates till now, thou us impower'd
To fortify thus far, and overlay

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With this portentous bridge the dark abyss.
Thine now is all this world; thy virtue' hath won
What thy hands builded not, thy wisdom gain'd
With odds what war hath lost, and fully? aveng'd
Our foil in Heav'n; here thou shalt monarch reign,
There didst not; there let him still victor sway,
As battle hath adjudg'd, from his new world
Retiring, by his own doom alienated,
And henceforth monarchy with thee divide
Of all things parted by the empyreal bounds,
His quadrature, from thy orbicular world,
Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.
Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answer'd glad:
Fair daughter, and thou son and grandchild both,
High proof ye now have giv'n to be the race
Of Satan, (for I glory in the name,
Antagonist of Heav'n's almighty King)
Amply have merited of me, of all

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