Ascending, while the North-wind fleeps, o'er-spread
Heav'n's cheerful face, the louring element
490
Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip fnow, or fhower;
If chance the radiant fun with farewel fweet
Extend his ev'ning beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings.
O fhame to men! devil with devil damn'd
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational, though under hope
Of heav'nly grace: and God proclaming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and ftrife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wafting the earth, each other to destroy:
r As if (which might induce us to accord)
Man had not hellish foes enow befides,
That day and night for his destruction wait.
The Stygian council thus diffolv'd; and forth
In order came the grand infernal Peers:
Midst came their mighty paramount, and feem'd
Alone th' antagonist of Heav'n, nor less
Than Hell's dread emperor with pomp fupreme, 510
And God-like imitated state; him round
A globe of fiery feraphim inclos'd
With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms.
Then of their feffion ended they bid cry
With trumpets' regal found the great refult : 315
Tow'ards the four winds four speedy cherubim
Put to their mouths the founding alchemy
By herald's voice explain'd; the hollow' abyss
Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell
With deaf'ning fhout return'd them loud acclame.
Thence more at ease their minds, and fomewhat rais'd
By false prefumptous hope, the ranged powers
Disband, and wand'ring, each his several way
Pursues, as inclination or fad choice
Leads him perplex'd, where he may likeliest find 525
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours, till his great chief return.
Part on the plain, or in the air fublime,
Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,
As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields;
Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form.
As when to warn proud cities war appears
Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battel in the clouds, before each van
Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms
From either end of Heav'n the welkin burns.
Others with vaft Typhœan rage more fell
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540
In whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd
With conqueft, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore
Through pain up by the roots Theffalian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic fea. Others more mild,
Retreated in a filent valley, fing
With notes angelical to many a harp
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall
By doom of battel; and complain that Fate
Free virtue should inthral to force or chance.
Their fong was partial, but the harmony
(What could it less when spi'rits immortal sing?) Sufpended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In difcourfe more sweet 555 (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,) Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final misery,
Paffion and apathy, and glory' and shame,
Vain wisdom all and false philofophy:
Yet with a pleasing forcery could charm
Pain for a while or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast
With stubborn patience as with triple steel..
Another part in squadrons and grofs bands,
On bold adventure to discover wide
That difmal world, if any clime perhaps
Might yield them easier habitation, bend
Four ways their flying march, along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that difgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams;
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron of forrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful ftream; fierce Phlegethon, 580 Whofe waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these a flow and filent ftream,
Lethe the river of oblivion rolls
Her watry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former state and be'ing forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual forms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; or else deep fnow and ice,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Cafius old,
Where armies whole have funk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595
Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their foft ethereal warmth, and their to pine
Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round,
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean found
Both to and fro, their forrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and so near the brink;
But Fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt 610
Medufa with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford, and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In cónfus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands 615
With fhudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,
View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No reft: through many a dark and dreary vale
They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of
A universe of death, which God bycurfe
Created ev'il, for evil only good
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monftrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire.
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