And time, and place are loft; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
For hot, cold, moift, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for maft'ry, and to battel bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their feveral clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, fharp, fmooth, fwift or flow,
Swarm populous, un-number'd as the fands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid foil,
Levied to fide with warring winds, and poife
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, He rules a moment; Chaos umpire fits,
And by decifion more embroils the fray
Chance governs all. Into this wild abyfs,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither fea, nor fhore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus muft 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 ear lefs peal'd
With noifes loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with fmall) than when Bellona ftorms,
With all her battering engins bent to rafe
Some 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 vans
He spreads for flight, and in the furging smoke
Uplifted fpurns 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 some tumultuous cloud,
Inftinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury ftay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither fea,
Nor good dry land, nigh founder'd on he fares, 940
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 cuftody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend
And fwims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:
At length a univerfal hubbub wild
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
Of stunning founds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, affaults his ear
With loudeft vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power
Or Spirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noise 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 wafteful 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
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 readieft 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 course;
Directed no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof, if I that region loft,
All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness and your fway
(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 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 fuch 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
Purfuing. I upon my frontiers here
Keep refidence; if all I can will ferve
That little which is left so to defend,
Encroach'd on ftill through your inteftin 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 1005
To that fide Heav'n from whence your legions fell:
If that way be your walk, have not far;
So much the nearer danger; go and speed ;
Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain.
He ceas'd; and Satan ftay'd not to reply,
But glad that now his fea fhould find a fhore,
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 th' other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labor hard
Mov'd on: with difficulty and labor he;
But he once paft, 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 abyss, 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 Spi'rits perverse 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 1035
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
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