Some capital city'; or lefs 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 vans
He spreads for flight, and in the furging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending 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 ftrong rebuff of fome tumultuous cloud,
Inftinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude confiftence, 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: So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through ftrait, rough, denfe, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And fwims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies: At length a univerfal 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 Spirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noife refide, 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-vefted Night, eldest of things,
The confort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Damogorgon; Rumor next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,
And Difcord with a thousand various mouths.
T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers
And Spirits of this nethermost 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 desert, as my way
Lies through your fpacious 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,
dominion won, th' ethereal king Poffeffes lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my course;
Directed no mean recompenfe it brings
To your behoof, if I that region loft,
All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness and your sway
(Which is my present journey) and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient Night;
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltring fpeech and vifage 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 fuch a numerous hoft
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 fo to defend,
Encroach'd on still through your intestin broils
Weakning the fcepter of old Night: firft Hell
Your dungeon ftretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain
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 fpoil and ruin are my gain.
He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply,
But glad that now his fea fhould find a shore,
With fresh alacrity and force renew'd
Springs upward like a pyramid of fire
Into the wild expanse, and through the fhock
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 th' other whirlpool steer'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, whofe 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 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 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
Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
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 fquare or round,
With opal tow'rs and battlements adorn'd
Of living faphir, once his native feat;
And fast by hanging in a golden chain
This pendent world, in bignefs as a star
Of smallest 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.
|