Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/260

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��PARADISE LOST

��And season him thy last and sweetest

prey." This said, they both betook them several

ways, 610

Both to destroy, or uuimmortal make All kinds, and for destruction to mature Sooner or later; which the Almighty see- ing, From his transcendent Seat the Saints

among, To those bright Orders uttered thus his

voice: " See with what heat these dogs of Hell

advance

To waste and havoc yonder World, which I So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly of

Man 619

Let in these wasteful furies, who impute Folly to me (so doth the Prince of Hell And his adherents), that with so much

ease

I suffer them to enter and possess A place so heavenly, and, conniving, seem To gratify my scornful enemies, That laugh, as if, transported with some

fit

Of passion, I to them had quitted all, At random yielded up to their misrule; And know not that I called and drew them

thither, My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and

filth 630

Which Man's polluting sin with taint hath

shed On what was pure; till, crammed and

gorged, nigh burst With sucked and glutted offal, at one

sling

Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, Both Sin and Death, and yawning Grave,

at last Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth

of Hell

For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws. Then Heaven and Earth, renewed, shall be

made pure

To sanctity that shall receive no stain: Till then the curse pronounced on both

precedes." 6 4 o

He ended, and the Heavenly Audience

loud

Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas, Through multitude that sung: "Just are

thy ways,

��thy decrees on all thy Next, to the

��Righteous are

works; Who can extenuate thee ?

Son,

Destined restorer of Mankind, by whom New Heaven and Earth shall to the ages

rise, Or down from Heaven descend." Such

was their song,

While the Creator, calling forth by name His mighty Angels, gave them several

charge, 650

As sorted best with present things. The

Sun

Had first his precept so to move, so shine, As might affect the Earth with cold and

heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to

call

Decrepit winter, from the south to bring Solstitial summer's heat. To the blanc

Moon Her office they prescribed; to the other

five

Their planetary motions and aspects,' In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite, Of noxious efficacy, and when to join 660 In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed Their influence malignant when to shower Which of them, rising with the Sun or fall- ing, Should prove tempestuous To the winds

they set

Their corners, when with bluster to con- found Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to

roll

With terror through the dark aerial hall. Some say he bid his Angels turn askance The poles of Earth twice ten degrees and

more From the Sun's axle; they with labour

pushed 670

Oblique the centric Globe: some say the

Sun Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial

road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the

seven

Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins, Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amaiu By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn; to bring in change Of seasons to each clime. Else had the

spring

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