Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.

900

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,

And by decision more embroils the fray,

By which he reigns:

Chance governs all.

Next him, high arbiter,
Into this wild abyss,

905

910

915

The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the 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 awhile,
Pondering 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 sinall) than when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to rase
Some capital city; or less than if this frame
Of Heaven were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn

920

J25

The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides

Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
A vast vacuity: all unawares

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops

930

Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury staid,
Quench'd in a beggy Syrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail
As when a gryphon, through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend

935

940

945

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused,

Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power

Or Spirit of the nethermost abyss

955

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies

Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

960

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Hades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance,

965

And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

To whom Satan turning boldly, thus: Ye Powers

And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,

Chaos and ancient Night! I come no spy,

970

With purpose to explore or to disturb

The secrets of your realm: but, by constraint
Wandering this darksome desert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek

975

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds

Confine with Heaven; or if some other place,

From your dominion won, the ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive

980

I travel this profound; direct my course;
Directed, no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof: if I that region lost,
All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness, and your sway
(Which is my present journey,) and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient Night;
Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge!
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltering speech and visage incomposed,

985

Answer'd: I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 That mighty leading Angel, who of late

Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown

I saw and heard; for such a numerous host

Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven gates

Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here

Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands

Keep residence; if all I can will serve
That little which is left so to defend,

995

1000

1005

Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils
Weakening the sceptre of old Night: first Hell,
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath
Now lately Heaven, and Earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain
To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
So much the nearer danger; go, and speed'
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.

He ceased; and Satan staid not to reply, But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd, Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,

1010

Into the wide expanse; and, through the shock

Of fighting elements, on all sides round
Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd than when Argo pass'd
Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks:
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on: with difficulty and labour he:

1015

1020

But, he once pass'd, soon after, when man fell,
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain

Following his track, such was the will of Heaven,

Paved after him a broad and beaten way

1026

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf

Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length,

From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb

Of this frail world; by which the Spirits perverse

With easy intercourse pass to and fro

1031

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

God and good Angels guard by special grace.

But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 1035

Shoots far into the bosom of dim night

A glimmering dawn; Here Nature first begins

Her furthest verge, and Chaos to retire

As from her outmost works a broken foe

With tumult less, and with less hostile din;

1040

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light;

And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold

1045

Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide

In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorn'd
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star

1050

Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.

1055

5 *