Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/63

Rh Of good and evil much they argued then. Of happiness and final misery, Passion and apathy, and glory and shame— Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy! Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm Pain for awhile or anguish, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast With stubborn 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 easier habitation, bend Four ways their flying march, along the banks Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams; Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, named of lamentation loud Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethè, the river of oblivion, rolls Her watery 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