Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury staid,
Quench'd in a beggy Syrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail
As when a gryphon, through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale
Purses the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend

935

940

945

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 At length a universal hubbub wild

Of styrning sounds and voices all confused,

Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power

Or Spirit of the nethermost abyss

955

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies

Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

960

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned

Sat sablo-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by thein stood
Orcus and Hades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance,

965

And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,

And Discord with a thousand various anouths.

To whom Satan turning boldly, thus: Ye Powers

And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,

Chaos and ancient Night! I come no spy,

970

With purpose to explore or to disturb

The secrets of your realm: but, by constraint
Wandering this darksome desert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek

975

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds

Confine with Heaven; or if some other place,

From your dominion won, the ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive

980

I travel this profound; direct my course;
Directed, no mean recompense it brings
То
your
behoof: if I that region lost,
All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness, and your sway
(Which is my present journey,) and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient Night;
Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge!

!

985

Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, With faltering speech and visage incomposed, Answer'd: I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 That mighty leading Angel, who of late

Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown I saw and heard; for such a numerous host

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,

995

Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven gates

Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
Keep residence; if all I can will serve
That little which is left so to defend,

1000

1005

Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils
Weakening the sceptre of old Night: first Hell,
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately Heaven, and Earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain
To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
So much the nearer danger; go, and speed
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.

He ceased; and Satan staid not to reply, But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd, Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,

1010

Into the wide expanse; and, through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all sides round
Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd than when Argo pass'd
Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks:
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on: with difficulty and labour he:

1018

1020

But, he once pass'd, soon after, when man fell,

Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain

Following his track, such was the will of Heaven,

Paved after him a broad and beaten way

1026

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf

Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length,

From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb

Of this frail world; by which the Spirits perverse

With easy intercourse pass to and fro

1031

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

God and good Angels guard by special grace.

But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 1035 Shoots far into the bosom of dim night

A glimmering dawn; Here Nature first begins
Her furthest verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works a broken foe
With tumult less, and with less hostile din ;
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,

1040

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light;
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold

1045

Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide

In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorn'd
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.

1050

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.

1055

5 *

PARADISE LOST

BOOK III.

3od, sitting on his throne, sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son, who sat at his right hand; foretels the success 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 regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but oy him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards Man: But God again declares, hat grace cannot be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine justice: Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and, therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must die, unless some one can be found sufficient 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 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 choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity: What persons and things fly up thither: Thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, 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 first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and, pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habi. tation, and is directed: Alights first on mount Niphates.

HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born,
Or of the Eternal coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate !
Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun,
Lefore the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep

Won from the void and formless infinite..

10