Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/175

 BOOK THIRD

��Drawn round about thee like a radiant

shrine

Dark with excessive bright thy skirts ap- pear, 380 Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil

their eyes.

Thee next they sang, of all creation first, Begotten Son, Divine Similitude, In whose conspicuous countenance, without

cloud

Made visible, the Almighty Father shines, Whom else no creature can behold : on thee Impressed the effulgence of his glory

abides;

Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests. He Heaven of Heavens, and all the Powers

therein, 390

By thee created ; and by thee threw down The aspiring Dominations. Thou that day Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not

spare, Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that

shook Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the

necks

Thou drov'st of warring Angels disarrayed. Back from pursuit, thy Powers with loud

acclaim Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father's

might,

To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. Not so on Man: him, through their malice

fallen, 400

Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not

doom

So strictly, but much more to pity encline. No sooner did thy dear and only Son Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail

Man

So strictly, but much more to pity enclined, He, to appease thy wrauth, and end the

strife

Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned, Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat Second to thee, offered himself to die 409 For Man's offence. O unexampled love ! Love nowhere to be found less than Divine ! Hail, Son of God, Saviour of men ! Thy

name

Shall be the copious matter of my song Henceforth, and never shall my harp thy

praise

Forget, nor from thy Father's praise dis- join !

��Thus they in Heaven, above the Starry

Sphere, Their happy hours in joy and hymning

spent.

Meanwhile, upon the firm opacous globe Of this round World, whose first convex

divides

The luminous inferior Orbs, enclosed 420 From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old, Satan alighted walks. A globe far off It seemed; now seems a boundless conti- nent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of

Night Starless exposed, and ever - threatening

storms

Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky, Save on that side which from the wall of

Heaven, Though distant far, some small reflection

gains Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest

loud. Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious

field. 430

As when a vultur, on Imaus bred, Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar

bounds,

Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling

kids On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward

the springs

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams, But in his way lights on the barren plains Of Sericana, where Chineses drive With sails and wind their cany waggons

light;

So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend 440 Walked up and down alone, bent on his

prey:

Alone, for other creature in this place, Living or lifeless, to be found was none; None yet; but store hereafter from the

Earth

Up hither like aerial vapours flew Of all things transitory and vain, when sin With vanity had filled the works of men Both all things vain, and all who in vain

things Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting

fame,

Or happiness in this or the other life. 450 All who have their reward on earth, the

fruits

�� �