Page images
PDF
EPUB

With tumult lefs, and with lefs hostile 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, tho' fhrouds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his fpread wings, at leifure to behold
Far off th' empyreal heaven, 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 faft by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star

1040

1045

1050

Of fmalleft magnitude, clofe by the moon.

Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour he hies.

1055

END of the SECOND BOOK.

M 3

ARGUMENT of Book III.

God fitting on his throne fees. Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son who fat at his right hand; foretells the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own juftice and wif dom from all imputation, having created man free, and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard 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 purpose towards man: but God again. declares, that grace cannot be extended towards man without the fatisfaction of divine juftice. Man hath offended the majesty of God by afpiring. to Godhead; and therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, muft die, unless fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment: The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man: the Father accepts him, ordains his inearnation, 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 wandering he first finds a place, fince called the Limbo of Vanity: what persons and things fly up thither: thence comes to the gate of heaven, defcrib'd afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his passage thence to the orb of the Sun; he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but firft changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and man, whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights firft on mount Niphates.

;

To Front BOOK.

The Phinn Jap!

PARADISE LOST..

BOOK III.

H

AIL, holy Light! offspring 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,
Whofe 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 formless infinite.
Thee I revifit 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;

10

15

20

Taught by the heav'nly Mufe to venture down
The dark defeent, and up to reafcend,
Though hard and rare. Thee I revifit fafe,
And feel thy fov'reign vital lamp; but thou
Revifit'ft not thefe eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs, 25

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »