Or faint retreat; when the great Son of GOD To all his host on either hand thus spake.
Stand still in bright array, ye saints, here stand, Ye angels arm'd, this day from battle rest; Faithful hath been your warfare, and of GOD Accepted, fearless in His righteous cause,
And as ye have received, so have ye done Invincibly but of this cursed crew
The punishment to other hand belongs; Vengeance is His,' or whose He sole appoints: Number to this day's work is not ordain'd, Nor multitude, stand only and behold GOD's indignation on these godless pour'd By Me; not you, but me they have despised, Yet envied against me is all their rage, Because the Father, to whom in heav'n supreme Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains, Hath honour'd me according to his will. Therefore to me their doom he hath assign'd; That they may have their wish, to try with me In battle which the stronger proves, they all,
Or I alone against them; since by strength
They measure all, of other excellence
Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe. So spake the Son, and into terror changed His count'nance, too severe to be beheld And full of wrath bent on his enemies. At once the Four2 spread out their starry wings With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs Of his fierce chariot roll'd, as with the sound Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. He on His impious foes right onward drove, Gloomy as night; under His burning wheels The steadfast empyrean shook throughout, All but the throne itself of GOD. Full soon Among them He arrived, in His right hand Grasping ten thousand thunders, which He sent
1 Deut. xxxii. 35. Rom. xii. 19.
2 The four Cherubim. Ezek. i.
Before Him, such as in their souls infix'd Plagues: they astonish'd all resistance lost, All courage; down their idle weapons dropp'd; O'er shields, and helms, and helmèd heads He rode Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrate, That wish'd the mountains now might be again1 Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire. Nor less on either side tempestuous fell His arrows, from the fourfold visaged Four, Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;
One spirit in them ruled, and every eye
Glared light'ning, and shot forth pernicious fire Among th' accurst, that wither'd all their strength, And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd, Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.
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 heav'n. The overthrown He raised, and as a herd Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd Drove them before Him thunder-struck, pursued With terrors and with furies to the bounds And crystal wall of heav'n, which op'ning wide Roll'd inward, and a spacious gap disclosed Into the wasteful deep; the monstrous sight Struck them with horror backward; but far worse Urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of heav'n, eternal wrath Burn'd after them to the bottomless pit. Hell heard th' unsufferable noise, hell saw Heav'n ruining from heav'n, 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 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 heav'n rejoiced, and soon repair'd Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd. Sole victor from th' expulsion of his foes Messiah His triumphal chariot turn'd: To meet Him all His saints, who silent stood 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 reign: He celebrated rode Triumphant through mid heav'n, into the courts And temple of His mighty Father throned On high; who into glory Him received,1 Where now He sits at the right hand of bliss.
Thus measuring things in heav'n by things on earth, At thy request, and that thou may'st 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 heav'n Among th' 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 may'st 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.
1 1 Tim. iii. 16. Heb. i. 3.
Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how, and wherefore, this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory and attendance of angels to perform the work of creation in six days: the angols celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into heaven.
DESCEND from heav'n, Urania,' by that name If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine Following, above th' Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing.2
The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou Nor of the Muses nine,3 nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st, but heav'nly born, Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd, Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse, Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play In presence of th' almighty Father, pleased With thy celestial song. Up led by thee Into the heav'n of heav'ns I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air Thy temp'ring; with like safety guided down Return me to my native element:
Least from this flying steed unrein'd, as once Bellerophon, though from a lower clime, Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall Erroneous, there to wander and forlorn.
1 The word "Urania" signifies heavenly. Here the Poet means Heavenly Muse.
2 The winged horse, Pegasus, said to belong to the Muses, was emblematical of flights of imagination.
3 Urania, amongst the Muses, was the patroness of Astronomy.
4 Bellerophon, the son of Glaucus, was a beautiful youth, who was falsely accused by Sthenoboa, Queen of Argos, to her hus
band. Protus, King of Argos, sent him, in consequence, into Lycia with letters commanding that he should be exposed to destruction. He escaped from many perilous enterprises forced on him; but when he attempted to mount to heaven on the winged horse, Pegasus (incited to the trial by vain-glory), he was thrown off, and wandered on the Aleian plains for the remainder of his life. The Aleian plains were in Cilicia.
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound, Within the visible diurnal sphere;
Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole, More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues; In darkness, and with dangers compast round, And solitude; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn Purples the east. Still govern thou my song, Urania, and fit audience find, though few. But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears To rapture, till the savage clamour drown'd Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend Her son.1 So fail not thou, who thee implores : For thou art heav'nly, she an empty dream. Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphael, The affable arch-angel, had forewarn'd Adam by dire example to beware Apostasy, by what befell in heav'n
To those apostates, lest the like befall In Paradise to Adam or his race,
Charged not to touch the interdicted tree,
If they transgress, and slight that sole command, So easily obey'd, amid the choice
Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
Though wand'ring. He with his consorted Eve
The story heard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep muse, to hear
Of things so high and strange, things to their thought So unimaginable as hate in heav'n,
And war so near the peace of GOD in bliss With such confusion: but the evil soon
1 Orpheus was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women of Rhodope, a mountain of Thrace; nor could his
mother, the Muse Calliope, save him. Newton thinks that Milton here alludes to the dissolute Court of Charles II.
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