1045

Gladly the port, though fhrouds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leifure to behold.
Far off th' empyreal Heav'n, extended wide
In circuit, undetermin'd square or round,
With opal tow'rs and battlements adorn'd
Of living faphir, once his native seat;
And faft 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 cursed hour he hies.

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1055

THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

THE

THE

THIRD BOOK

OF

PARADISE LOST.

THE

ARGUMENT.

God fitting on his throne fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; fhows him to the Son, who fat at his right hand; foretels the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created Man free and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in re, gard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him feduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifeftation of his gracious purpofe towards Man; but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the fatiffaction of divine juftice; Man hath offended the majefty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unlefs fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his offenfe, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransome for Man: the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the Angels to adore him; they obey, and hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermoft orb; where wand'ring he firft finds a place, fince call'd the Limbo of Vanity; what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, defcribed ascending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: His paffage thence to the orb of the fun; he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had plac'd here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on mount Niphates.

PARADISE LOST,

BOOK

III.

H

AIL holy Light, off-spring of Heav'n first-born,
Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam

May I express thee' unblam'd? fince God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate.
Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who fhall tell? before the fun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest

The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formlefs infinite.
Thee I re-vifit now with bolder wing,

Efcap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other notes than to th' Orphéan lyre
I fung of Chaos and eternal Night,
Taught by the heav'nly Mufe to venture down
The dark defcent, and up to re-afcend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revifit fafe,
And feel thy fovran vital lamp; but thou

5

10

15

20

Revifit'ft

Revifit'ft not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or funny hill,
Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flowry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes forget

Those other two equal'd with me in fate,
So were I equal'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tirefias and Phineus prophets old:
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadiest covert hid

25

30

35

Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seasons return, but not to me returns

40

Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,

Or fight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank

Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celeftial Light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

45

50

Irradiate,