860 Into this gloom of TARTARUS profound, 865 870 880 Thus saying, from her fide the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe! she took; And tow'rds the gate rolling her bestial train, Forthwith the huge Portcullis high up-drew; Which but her felf, not all the STYGIAN Pow'rs 875 Could once have mov'd: then in the key-hole turns Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of maffie iron, or folid rock, with ease Unfastens: on a sudden open fly With impetuous recoil and jarring found Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook OF ERERUS. She open'd, but to shar Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open stood, That with extended wings a banner'd hoft, Under fpread ensigns marching, might pass through With horfe and chariots rank'd in loose array, So wide they stood; and like a furnace mouth Caft forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame: Before their eyes in fudden view appear The fecrets of the hoary deep, a dark Illimitable ocean without bound, 885 890 Without dimenfion, where length, breadth, and height And time and place are loft; where eldest NIGHT And 895 900 905 910 And CHAOS, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand: For hot, cold, moift, and dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mast'ry, and to battel bring Their embryon atoms; they around the flag Of each his faction, in their sev'ral clans, Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, fmooth, fwift or flow, Swarm populous, un-numbred as the fands OF BARCA or CYRENE'S torrid foil, Levi'd to fide with warring winds, and poise Their lighter wing. To whom these most adhere, He rules a moment; CHAOS umpire fits, And by decifion more embroils the fray By which he reigns: next him high arbiter CHANCE governs all. Into this wild abyss, (The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave,) Of neither fea, nor shoar, nor air, non fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight, (Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds) Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell, and look'd a while, Pond'ring his voyage; (for no narrow frith He had to cross): nor was his ear less peal'd With noises loud and ruinous (to compare Great things with small) than when BELLONA storms, With all her batt'ring engins bent to rafe Some capital city; or less than if this frame Of heav'n were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn The stedfast earth. At last his fail-broad vans He fpreads for flight, and in the surging smoke Uplifted spurns the ground: thence many a league, As in a cloudy chair, afcending rides Audacious; but that feat foon failing, meets A vast vacuity: all unawares D 920 925 930 Flut 945 Flutt'ring his pennons vain, plumb down he drops 955 960 |