"Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through Heaven "Grateful vicissitude, like day and night: "Light issues forth, and at the other door 66 Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour 10 "To veil the Heaven; though darkness there might well "Seem twilight here: and now went forth the Morn, "Such as in highest Heaven, arrayed in gold "Empyreal: from before her vanished Night, "Shot through with orient beams;1 when all the plain, 15 "Covered with thick embattled squadrons bright, "Chariots, and flaming arms, and fiery steeds, "Reflecting blaze on blaze, first met his view: "War he perceived—war in procinct:2 and found "Already known what he, for news, had thought "To have reported: gladly then he mixed "Among those friendly Powers, who him received "With joy and acclamations loud, that one"That of so many myriads fallen, yet one "Returned not lost. On to the sacred hill 20 25 "They led him high applauded, and present "Before the seat supreme; from whence a voice, "From midst a golden cloud, thus mild was heard: "Servant of God,3 well done! well hast thou fought "Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms; “And for the testimony of truth hast borne "Universal reproach, far worse to bear "To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds 35 1 Night, shot through with orient beams;-An expression not only poetical but just, as the rays of light do literally shoot through the darkness. The power of the sunbeams, and their inconceivable velocity, is only under-stated by speaking of it as "the arrow that flieth by day," Ps. xci. 2 War in procinct,—a state of full readiness for action: alluding to the practice of the Roman soldiers, girding up their loose garments previous to battle. 3 Servant of God,-so the name Abdiel signifies. Juge tee erverse: ne easier conquest now *: what commant throwers militant • Tar stool to Heaven, n. my quadrate joined *Dumor presstinis, moved on *It silence ther bright legions, to the sound 0: instrumenta. harmony, that breathed G Machael-This battle of the Angels is founded chiefly on Rex. Hr fiery Chaos, Tartarus, or Hell, was represented, b. ii. 1.3002, as bail: in Chaos. Clouds began to darken, In this description Milton seems to have had in view the account of the manifestations of the Divine presence o Stel SelExod. xix 18 the Latin sense of the word, struggling" (as i be thick enveloping smoke. "Heroic ardour to adventurous deeds, "Indissolubly firm; nor obvious1 hill, Nor straitening vale, nor wood nor stream, divides 70 * Their perfect ranks; for high above the ground "Their march was, and the passive air uphore "Their nimble tread. As when the total kind* "Of birds, in orderly array on wing, "Came summoned over Eden to receive "Their names of thee; so over many a tract ས "Of Heaven they marched, and many a province wide, "Tenfold the length of this terrene. At last, "Far in the horizon to the north appeared "From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched "In battailous aspect, and-nearer view "Bristled with upright beams innumerable "Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shielda 66 Various, with boastful argument portrayed, "The banded powers of Satan hasting on 66 With furious expedition; for they weened "That self-same day, by fight or by surprise, "To win the mount of God, and on his throne "To set the envier of his state, the proud 66 Aspirer: but their thoughts proved fond" and vain "In the mid way. Though strange to us it seemed "At first, that Angel should with Angel wa "And in fierce hosting7 meet, who wont to mout "So oft in festivals of joy, and love "Unanimous, as sons of one great Hire, "Hymning the Eternal Father: but the shout 60 |