LITMIR.BIZ

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Terror of Heav’n, though fall’n; intend at home,

       While here shall be our home, what best may ease

       The present misery, and render Hell

       More tollerable; if there be cure or charm

       To respite or deceive, or slack the pain

       Of this ill Mansion: intermit no watch

       Against a wakeful Foe, while I abroad

       Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek

       Deliverance for us all: this enterprize

       None shall partake with me. Thus saying rose

       The Monarch, and prevented all reply,

       Prudent, least from his resolution rais’d

       Others among the chief might offer now

       (Certain to be refus’d) what erst they feard;

       And so refus’d might in opinion stand

       His rivals, winning cheap the high repute

       Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they

       Dreaded not more th’ adventure then his voice

       Forbidding; and at once with him they rose;

       Thir rising all at once was as the sound

       Of Thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend

       With awful reverence prone; and as a God

       Extoll him equal to the highest in Heav’n:

       Nor fail’d they to express how much they prais’d,

       That for the general safety he despis’d

       His own: for neither do the Spirits damn’d

       Loose all thir vertue; least bad men should boast

       Thir specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,

       Or close ambition varnisht o’re with zeal.

       Thus they thir doubtful consultations dark

       Ended rejoycing in thir matchless Chief:

       As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds

       Ascending, while the North wind sleeps, o’respread

       Heav’ns chearful face, the lowring Element

       Scowls ore the dark’nd lantskip Snow, or showre;

       If chance the radiant Sun with farewell sweet

       Extend his ev’ning beam, the fields revive,

       The birds thir notes renew, and bleating herds

       Attest thir joy, that hill and valley rings.

       O shame to men! Devil with Devil damn’d

       Firm concord holds, men onely disagree

       Of Creatures rational, though under hope

       Of heavenly Grace: and God proclaiming peace,

       Yet live in hatred, enmitie, and strife

       Among themselves, and levie cruel warres,

       Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy:

       As if (which might induce us to accord)

       Man had not hellish foes anow besides,

       That day and night for his destruction waite.

      The Stygian Councel thus dissolv’d; and forth In order came the grand infernal Peers, Midst came thir mighty Paramount, and seemd Alone th’ Antagonist of Heav’n, nor less Then Hells dread Emperour with pomp Supream, And God-like imitated State; him round A Globe of fierie Seraphim inclos’d With bright imblazonrie, and horrent Arms. Then of thir Session ended they bid cry With Trumpets regal sound the great result: Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim Put to thir mouths the sounding Alchymie By Haralds voice explain’d: the hollow Abyss Heard farr and wide, and all the host of Hell With deafning shout, return’d them loud acclaim. Thence more at ease thir minds and somwhat rais’d By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers Disband, and wandring, each his several way Pursues, as inclination or sad choice Leads him perplext, where he may likeliest find Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain The irksome hours, till his great Chief return. Part on the Plain, or in the Air sublime Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, As at th’ Olympian Games or Pythian fields; Part curb thir fierie Steeds, or shun the Goal With rapid wheels, or fronted Brigads form. As when to warn proud Cities warr appears Wag’d in the troubl’d Skie, and Armies rush To Battel in the Clouds, before each Van Pric forth the Aerie Knights, and couch thir spears Till thickest Legions close; with feats of Arms From either end of Heav’n the welkin burns. Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wilde uproar. As when Alcides from Oealia Crown’d With conquest, felt th’ envenom’d robe, and tore Through pain up by the roots Thessalian Pines, And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw Into th’ Euboic Sea. Others more milde, Retreated in a silent valley, sing With notes Angelical to many a Harp Thir own Heroic deeds and hapless fall By doom of Battel; and complain that Fate Free Vertue should enthrall to Force or Chance. Thir song was partial, but the harmony (What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?) Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet (For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense,) Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d, In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wandring mazes lost. Of good and evil much they argu’d then, Of happiness and final misery, Passion and Apathie, and glory and shame, Vain wisdom all, and false Philosophie: Yet with a pleasing sorcerie could charm Pain for a while or anguish, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm th’ obdured brest With stubborn patience as with triple steel. Another part in Squadrons and gross Bands, On bold adventure to discover wide That dismal world, if any Clime perhaps Might yeild them easier habitation, bend Four ways thir flying March, along the Banks Of four infernal Rivers that disgorge Into the burning Lake thir baleful streams; Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate, Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, nam’d of lamentation loud Heard on the ruful stream; fierce Phlegeton Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Farr off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe the River of Oblivion roules Her watrie Labyrinth, whereof who drinks, Forthwith his former state and being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Beyond this flood a frozen Continent Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms Of Whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice, A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, Where Armies whole have sunk: the parching Air Burns frore, and cold performs th’ effect of Fire. Thither by harpy-footed Furies hail’d, At certain revolutions all the damn’d Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce, From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice Thir soft Ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infixt, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. They ferry over this Lethean Sound Both to and fro, thir sorrow to augment, And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to loose In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, All in one moment, and so neer the brink; But fate withstands, and to oppose th’ attempt Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The Ford, and of it self the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on In confus’d march forlorn, th’ adventrous Bands With shuddring horror pale, and eyes agast View’d first thir lamentable lot, and found No rest: through many a dark and drearie Vaile They pass’d, and many a Region dolorous, O’re many a Frozen, many a Fierie Alpe, Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death, A Universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good, Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Then Fables yet have feign’d, or fear conceiv’d, Gorgons

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