Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/255

 BOOK TENTH

��213

��Meanwhile, ere thus was sinned and

judged on Earth, Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and

Death, 230

In counterview within the gates, that now Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed

through,

Sin opening; who thus now to Death be- gan: " O Son, why sit we here, each other

viewing

Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives In other worlds, and happier seat provides For us, his offspring dear ? It cannot be But that success attends him; if mishap, Ere this he had returned, with fury driven By his Avengers, since no place like this Can fit his punishment, or their revenge. Methinks I feel new strength within me

rise, 243

Wings growing, and dominion given me

large Beyond this Deep whatever draws me

on,

Or sympathy, or some connatural force, Powerful at greatest distance to unite With secret amity things of like kind By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade Inseparable, must with me along; 250

For Death from Sin no power can sepa- rate.

But, lest the difficulty of passing back Stay his return perhaps over this gulf Impassable, impervious, let us try (Adventrous work, yet to thy power and

mine

Not unagreeable !) to found a path Over this Main from Hell to that new

World

Where Satan now prevails a monument Of merit high to all the infernal Host, 259 Easing their passage hence, for intercourse Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn By this new-felt attraction and instinct." Whom thus the meagre Shadow answered

soon :

" Go whither fate and inclination strong Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor

err

The way, thou leading: such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste The savour of death from all things there

that live.

��Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid." 271 So saying, with delight he snuffed the

smell Of mortal change on Earth. As when a

flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league

remote,

Against the day of battle, to a field Where armies lie encamped come flying,

lured

With scent of living carcases designed For death the following day in bloody

fight;

So scented the grim Feature, and upturned His nostril wide into the murky air, 280 Sagacious of his quarry from so far. Then both, from out Hell-gates, into the

waste

Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark, Flew diverse, and, with power (their power

was great)

Hovering upon the waters, what they met Solid or slimy, as in raging sea Tossed up and down, together crowded

drove, From each side shoaling, towards the mouth

of Hell;

As when two polar winds, blowing adverse Upon the Crouian sea, together drive 290 Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined

way

Beyond Petsora eastward to the rich Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry, As with a trident smote, and fixed as firm As Delos, floating once; the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move, And with asphaltic slime ; broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered

beach They fastened, and the mole immense

wraught on 300

Over the foaming Deep high-arched, a

bridge

Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenceless World, Forfeit to Death from hence a passage

broad,

Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell. So, if great things to small may be com- pared,

Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea, and, over Hellespont

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