If chance the radiant Sun with farewel sweet Extend his ev'ning beam, the fields revive, The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings. O shame to men! Devil with Devil damn'd
Firm concord holds; men only difagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heav'nly grace, and God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity and strife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wafting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enow befides, That day and night for his destruction wait.
The STYGIAN council thus dissolv'd, and forth
In order came the grand infernal Peers: 'Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seem'd Alone th' antagonist of Heav'n, nor less Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp fupreme, 510 And God-like imitated state: him round A globe of fiery Seraphim inclos'd With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. Then of their session ended they bid cry With trumpets regal found the great refult : Tow'rds the four winds four speedy Cherubim Put to their mouths the founding alchymy, By heralds voice explain'd: the hollow Abyss Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell With deafning thout return'd them loud acclaim. 520
Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat rais'd By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Pow'rs Disband, and wand'ring, each his feveral way Perfues, as inclination or fad choice Leads him perplext, where he may likelieft find 525 Truce to his restiess thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours, till his great chief return.
Part on the plain, or in the air fublime Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, As at th' OLYMPIAN games or PYTHIAN fields: Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form. As when, to warn proud cities, war appears Wag'd in the troubl'd sky, and armies rush To battel in the clouds, before each van
Prick forth the aery Knights, and couch their spears Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms From either end of heav'n the welkin burns. Others, with vast TYPHAAN rage, more fell Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 In whirlwind: Hell scarce holds the wild uproar. As when ALCIDES from OECHALIA crown'd With conquest, felt th' invenom'd robe, and tore Through pain up by the roots THESSALIAN pines, And LICHAS from the top of OETA threw 545 Into the EUBOIC Sea. Others more mild,
Retreated in a filent valley, fing
With notes angelical to many a harp Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall By doom of battel: and complain that Fate Free virtue should inthrall to force or chance.
Their fong was partial, but the harmony (What could it less when spirits immortal fing?) Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 555 (For eloquence the foul, fong charms the fenfe)
Others apart fat 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; 560 And found no end, in wandring mazes loft. Of good and evil much they argu'd then, Of happiness and final mifery,
Paffion and apathy, and glory and shame, Vain wisdom all, and false philofophy:
Yet with a pleasing forcery could charm Pain for a while, or anguish; and excite Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdurate breaft With ftubborn 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 yield them eafier habitation, bend Four ways their flying march, along the banks Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful ftreams: Abhorred STYX, the flood of deadly hate; Sad ACHERON, of forrow black and deep; COCYTUS, nam'd of lamentation loud Heard on the rueful stream; fierce PHLEGETON, 580 Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these a flow and filent stream, LETHE the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watry 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 wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail; which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin feems 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 funk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd At certain revolutions, all the damn'd Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce! From beds of raging fire to starve in ice Their foft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Inmoveable, infixt, and frozen round,
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
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