Him follow'd iffuing forth to th' open field, Where all yet left of that revolted rout Heav'n-fall'n, in ftation ftood or just array, Sublime with expectation when to see
In triumph iffuing forth their glorious chief: They faw, but other fight instead, a crowd Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell, And horrid fympathy; for what they saw,
They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast, And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire form Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant Turn'd to exploding hifs, triumph to shame
Caft on themfelves from their own mouths. There ftood A grove hard by, fprung up with this their change, His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradife, the bait of Eve Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris'n, to work them further woe or fhame; 555 Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, Though to delude them fent, could not abstain, But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks That curl'd Megara: greedily they pluck'd The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;
This more delufive, not the touch, but tafte Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended tafte With spattering noise rejected: oft they' assay'd, Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft, With hatefulleft difrelish writh'd their jaws With foot and cinders fill'd: so oft they fell Into the fame illufion, not as Man Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hifs, Till their loft shape, permitted, they refum'd, Yearly injoin'd, fome fay, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days, To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc'd. However fome tradition they dispers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born. Mean while in Paradife the hellish pair Too foon arriv'd, Sin there in pow'r before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.
Second of Satan fprung, all conqu'ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd
With travel difficult, not better far
Than still at Hell's dark threshold to' have fat watch, Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyfelf half starv'd? 595
Whom thus the Sin-born monster anfwer'd foon. To me, who with eternal famin pine, Alike is Hell, or Paradife, or Heaven,
There beft, where moft with ravin I may meet; Which here, though plenteous, all too little feems 600 To ftuff this maw, this vaft unhide-bound corps.
To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd. Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers Feed first, on each beaft next, and fish, and fowl, No homely morfels; and whatever thing The fithe of Time mowes down, devour unfpar'd; Till I in Man refiding through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect, And feafon him thy laft and sweetest prey.
This said, they both betook them feveral ways, 610 Both to deftroy, or unimmortal make
All kinds, and for deftruction to mature Sooner or later; which th' Almighty seeing, From his tranfcendent feat the Saints among, To thofe bright Orders utter'd thus his voice.
See with what heat thefe dogs of Hell advance
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly' of Man Let in these wasteful furies, who impute Folly to me, fo doth the prince of Hell And his adherents, that with so much ease VOL. II.
I fuffer them to enter and poffefs
A place fo heav'nly, and conniving seem To gratify my scornful enemies,
That laugh, as if, transported with some fit Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth Which Man's polluting fin with taint hath shed On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one sling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last 635 Through Chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of Hell For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.
Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd shall be made pure To fanctity that shall receive no stain :
Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both precedes. 640 He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud Sung Halleluiah, as the found of feas, Through multitude that fung: Juft are thy ways, Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son, Deftin'd reftorer of mankind, by whom New Heav'n and Earth shall to the ages rife,
Or down from Heav'n descend. Such was their song, While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty Angels gave them several charge
As forted beft with present things. The fun
Had first his precept so to move, so shine,
As might affect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit winter, from the south to bring Solstitial fummer's heat. To the blanc moon Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five Their planetary motions and aspects In fextile, fquare, and trine, and oppofit Of noxious efficacy, and when to join In fynod unbenign; and taught the fix'd Their influence malignant when to shower, Which of them rifing with the fun, or falling, Should prove tempeftuous: To the winds they fet Their corners, when with blufter to confound Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll With terror through the dark aereal hall. Some fay he bid his angels turn afcanfe
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more From the fun's axle, they with labor push'd Oblique the centric globe: Some fay the fun Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road Like diftant breadth to Taurus with the feven Atlantic Sifters, and the Spartan Twins Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change Of feasons to each clime; elfe had the spring Perpetual fmil'd on earth with vernant flowers,
· Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted fhone, while the low fun
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