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Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;
One spirit in them ruled; and every eye
Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
Among the accursed, that wither'd all their strength,
And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.

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Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven:
The overthrown he raised; and as a herd
Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd
Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
With terrours and with furies to the bounds
And crystal wall of heaven; which, opening wide,
Roll'd inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight
Struck them with horrour backward, but far worse
Urged them behind: headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of heaven: eternal wrath
Burn'd after them to the bottomless pit.

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Hell heard the unsufferable noise; hell saw
Heaven ruining from heaven, and would have fled
Affrighted; but strict fate had cast too deep
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.
Nine days they fell: confounded Chaos roar'd,
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
Through his wild anarchy; so huge a rout

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Incumber'd him with ruin: hell at last

Yawning received them whole, and on them closed;
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
Disburden'd heaven rejoiced, and soon repair'd
Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd.

Sole victor, from the expulsion of his foes,

Messiah his triumphal chariot turn'd:
To meet him all his saints, who silent stood

P Half his strength he put not forth.

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This fine thought is somewhat like that of the Psalmist, lxxviii. 38 :-" But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea, many a time turned

he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath." - NEWTON.

৭ With terrours and with furies.

See Job, vi. 4:"The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." And the fury of the Lord is a common expression in Scripture :-" They are full of the fury of the Lord," Isaiah, li. 20. NEWTON.

Yawning received them.

Hell at last

This is a fine imitation of Isaiah, v. 14:- "Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,

and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it."-ToDD.

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Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,
With jubilee advanced; and as they went,
Shaded with branching palm each order bright,
Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King,
Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
Worthiest to reigns: he, celebrated, rode
Triumphant through mid heaven, into the courts
And temple of his mighty Father throned
On high; who into glory "him received,
Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss.

Thus, measuring things in heaven by things on earth,
At thy request, and that thou mayst beware
By what is past, to thee I have reveal'd
What might have else to human race been hid;
The discord which befell, and war in heaven
Among the angelic powers, and the deep fall
Of those too high aspiring, who rebell'd
With Satan; he who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience, that, with him
Bereaved of happiness, thou mayst partake
His punishment, eternal misery;
Which would be all his solace and revenge,
As a despite done against the Most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
But listen not to his temptations; warn
Thy weaker"; let it profit thee to have heard,

By terrible example, the reward

Of disobedience: firm they might have stood,

Yet fell: remember, and fear to transgress.

• Worthiest to reign.

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The angels here sing the same divine song which St. John heard them sing in his vision, Rev. iv. 11. NEWTON.

Who into glory.

See 1 Tim. iii. 16:-" Received up into glory; " and Heb. i. 3:-" Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."-GILLIES.

▼Thus, measuring things in heaven.

He repeats the same kind of apology here in the conclusion, that he made in the beginning of his narration. See b. v. 573, &c. And it is indeed the best defence that can be made for the bold fictions in this book, which, though some cold readers perhaps may blame, yet the coldest, I conceive, cannot but admire. It is remarkable too with what art and beauty the poet, from the height and sublimity of the rest of the book, descends here, at the close of it, like the lark from her loftiest notes in the clouds, to the most prosaic simplicity of language and numbers; a simplicity, which not only gives it variety, but the greatest majesty; as Milton himself seems to have thought, by always choosing to give the speeches of God and the Messiah in that style, though these I suppose are the parts of this poem which Dryden censures as the flats which he often met with for thirty or forty limes together. NEWTON.

Thy weaker.

As St. Peter calls the wife, "the weaker vessel," 1 Pet. iii. 7. NEWTON.

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