The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
Of massy iron or solid rock with ease
Unfastens. On a sudden open fly,
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880
The infernal doors, and on their hinges
grate

Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook

Of Erebus. She opened; but to shut Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood,

That with extended wings a bannered host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through

With horse and chariots ranked in loose array;

So wide they stood, and like a furnacemouth

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.

889

Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary Deep a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension; where length, breadth, and highth,

And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce,

Strive here for maistrie, and to battle bring Their embryon atoms: they around the

flag

900

Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
A vast vacuity. All unawares,
Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down
he drops

Ten thousand fadom 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 stayed-
Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land-nigh foundered, on
he fares,

940

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,

Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail.

As when a gryfon through the wilderness With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloined The guarded gold; so eagerly the Fiend 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.

At length a universal hubbub wild

950

Of stunning 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

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 950 Wide on the wasteful Deep! With him

enthroned

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The consort of nis reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and
Chance,

And Tumult, and Confusion, all imbroiled, And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus: "Ye Powers

And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss,

Satan, now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions — fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil; journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described; overleaps the bounds; sits, in the shape of a Cormorant, on the Tree of Life, as highest in the Garden, to look about him. The Garden described; Satan's first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their dis-" course; thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden them to eat of under penalty of death, and thereon intends to found his temptation by seducing them to transgress; then leaves them a while, to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel, descending on a sunbeam, warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil Spirit had escaped the Deep, and passed at noon by his Sphere, in the shape of a good Angel, down to Paradise, discovered after by his furious gestures in the Mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel, drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the rounds of Paradise, appoints two strong Angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil Spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping: there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom questioned, he scornfully answers; prepares resistance; but, hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.

O FOR that warning voice, which he who

saw

The Apocalypse heard cry in Heaven aloud, Then when the Dragon, put to second rout, Came furious down to be revenged on men, Woe to the inhabitants on Earth! that now, While time was, our first parents had been