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النشر الإلكتروني

Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assur'd
And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.

His words here ended, but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal man, above which only shone
Filial obedience: as a sacrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd
All Heav'n what this might mean, and whither
tend

[ply'd: || Wond'ring; but soon th' Almighty thus reO thon in Heav'n and Earth the only peace Found out for Mankind under wrath, O thou My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear

To me are all my works, nor Man the least, Though last created; that for him I spare Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, By losing thee a while, the whole race lost. Thou, therefore, whom thou only caust redeem,.

Their nature also to thy nature join ;

And be thyself Man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of Virgin seed,
By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The head of all Mankind, though Adam's son,
As in him perish all men, so in thee,
As from a second root, shall be restor'd
As many as are restor'd, without theɛ none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy
merit

Imputed shall absolve them who renounce Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,

And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for Man, be judg'd and die,
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.

Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume
Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
Because thou hast, though thron'd in highest
bliss

Equal to God, and equally enjoying
Godlike fruition, quitted all to save
A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,
Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation shali exalt

With thee thy manhood also to this throne; Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,

Anointed Universal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits; under thee as head supreme
Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions, I

reduce:

All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide

In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heav'n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning arch-angels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages, to the general doom
Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their
sleep.

Then all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean

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The world shall burn, and from her ashes New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,

And after all their tribulations long
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.
Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,
For regal sceptre then no more shall nced,
God shall be all in all. But all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honor him as me.

Nor sooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all
The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from uumbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas fill'd
Th'eternal regious: lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the
ground

With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;
Iminortal amarant, a flow'r which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of Life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To Heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, there

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Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
Impurpled with celestial roses smil'd.
Then crown'd again, their golden harps they
took,

Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet,
Of charming symphony, they introduce
Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
Melodious part, such concord is in Heav'n.

Thee, Father, first they sung Omnipotent, Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,

Eternal King; thee Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou

sitst

Thron'd inaccessible, but when thou shad'st The full blaze of thy beams, and through a

cloud

Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine, Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear, Yet dazzle Heav'n, that brightest seraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil their

eyes.

Thee next they sang of all creation first, Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,

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Starless expos'd, and ever threat'ning storms Of Chaos blust'ring round, inclement sky; Save on that side which from the wall of [gains Though distant far, some small reflection Of glimmering air less vex'd with tempest loud:

Heav'n,

{field,
Here walk'd the Fiend at large in spacious
As when a vulture on Imaus bred,
Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,

In whose conspicuous count'nauce, without Dislodging from a region scarce of prey

cloud

Made visible, th' almighty Father shines,
Whom else no creature can behold; on thee
Impress'd th' effulgence of his glory abides,
Transfus'd on thee his ample Spirit rests.
He Heav'n of Heav'ns, and all the pow'rs
therein,

By thee created, and by thee threw down
Th'aspiring Dominations: thou that day
Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare,
Nor stop thy flaming chariot wheels, that
shook

Heav'n's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks
Thou drov'st of warring angels disarray'd.
Back from pursuit thy powers with loud ac-

clame

Thee only extoll'd, Son of thy Father's might,
To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,
Not so on mau: hun through their malice
fall'n,

Father of mercy aud grace, thou didst not doom

So strictly, but much more to pity incline:
No sooner did thy dear and only Sou
Perceive thee purpos'd not to doom frail Man
So strictly, but much more to pity inclin'd,
He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife
Of Mercy and Justice in thy face discern'd,
Regardless of the bliss wherein be sat
Second to thee, offer'd himself to die
For Man's offence. O unexampled love,
Love no where to be found less than divine!

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids Ou hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the

springs

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;
But in his way lights on the barren plaius
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive
With sails and wind their cany waggons light:
So on this windy sea of land the Fiend
Walk'd up and down alone beut 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 aereal vapors flew

Of all things transitory and vain, when Sin
With vanity bad fill'd 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 th' other life;
All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
Of painful superstition and blind zeal,
Nought seeking but the praise of men, here
find

Fit retribution, empty as their deeds ;
All th' unaccomplish'd works of Nature's
hand,

Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd, Dissolv'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain, Till final dissolution, wander here,

Not in the neighb'ring moon, as some have dream'd;

Those argent fields more likely habitants,

Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold
Betwixt th' angelical and human kind.
Hither of ill join'd sons and daughters born
First from the ancient world those giants came
With many a vain exploit, though then re-
nown'd:

The builders next of Babel on the plain
Of Sennaar, and still with vain design
New Babels, had they wherewithal, would
build:

Others came siugle; he who to be deem'd
A god, leap'd fondly into Ætna flames,
Empedocles; and he who to enjoy
Plato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea,
Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars
White, black, and grey, with all their
trumpery.

Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven;
And they who to be sure of Paradise
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd;
They pass the planets sev'n, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance
weighs

The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd;
And now Saint Peter at Heav'n's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of Heav'n's ascent they lift their feet, when lo,
A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues

awry

Into the devious air; then might ye see
Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers
tost

And flutter'd into rags, then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds: all these upwhirl'd aloft
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off
Into a limbo large and broad, since call'd
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown
Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.
All this dark globe the Fiend found as he
pass'd,

To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz,
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven.
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heav'n some

times

Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flow'd
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth, sailing arriv'd,
Wafted by angels, or flew o'er the lake
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,
A passage down to th' earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over mount Sion, and, though that were
large,

Over the Promis'd Land to God so dear,
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his angels to and fro
Pass'd frequent, and his eye with choice
regard

From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood
To Beersaba, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and th' Arabian shore;
So wide the opening seem'd, where bounds

were set

To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave. Satan from hence, now on the lower stair That scal'd by steps of gold to Heaven gate, Looks down with wonder at the sudden view Of all this world at once. As when a scout Through dark and deser! ways with peril gone All night; at last by break of cheerful dawn Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill, || Which to his eye discovers unaware The goodly prospect of some foreign land First seen, or some renown'd metropolis With glist'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd, Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:

Such wonder seiz'd, though after Heaven seen, The sp'rit malign, but much more envy

seiz'd

At sight of all this world beheld so fair. Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood

So high above the circling canopy

Of night's extended shade) from eastern point Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears Andromeda far off Atlantic seas

And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in baste
His travel'd steps: far distant he descries
Ascending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high,
At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by shading pencil drawn.
The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
No. IV.-N. S. Continued from the Poetical Part of No. III.

Beyond th' horizon; then from pole to pole He views in breadth, and without longer pause Down right into the world's first region throws

His flight precipitant, and winds with ease

E

·Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but uigh hand seem'd other
worlds;

Or other worlds they seem'd, or happy isles,
Like those Hesperian gardens fau'd of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flow'ry vales,
Thrice happy isles, but who dwelt happy

there

He stay'd not to enquire: above them all
The golden sun in splendour likest Heaven
A Hur'd his eye: thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament, (but up or
down

By centre, or eccentric, hard to tell,
Or longitude) where the great luminary
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,
That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses light from far; they as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days, mouths, and years, towards his all-
cheering lamp

Turn swift their various motions, or are turn'd
By his magnetic beam, that gently warms
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen,
Shoots invisible virtue ev'u to the deep;
So wondrously was set his station bright.
There lands the Fiend, a spot like which
perhaps

Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb

Through his glaz'd optic tube yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compar'd with aught on earth, metal or

stone;

Not all parts like, but all alike inform'd
With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
If metal, part seem'd gold, part silver clear;
If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shoue
In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides
Imagin'd rather oft than elsewhere. seen,
That stone, or like to that which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have sought,
In vain, though by their pow'rful art they
bind

Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound

Is various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
Drain'd through a limbec to his native form.
What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run
Portable gold, when with one virtuous touch
́ 'I'h' arch-chemic sun, so far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humour mix'd,
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of colour glorious and effect so rare?
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands;
To sight no obstacle found hire, uor shade,

But all sun shine, as when his beams at noou
Culminate from th' equator, as they now
Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall; and th'
air

To objects distant far, whereby he soon
No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray
Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,
The same whom John saw also in the sun:
His back was tu:n'd, but not his brightness
hid;

Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wing
Lay waving round; on some great charge
employ'd

He seem'd, or fix'd in cogitation deep.
Glad was the spirit impure, as now in hope
To find who might direct his wand'ring flight
To Paradise, the happy seat of Man,
His journey's end, and our beginning woe.
But first he casts to change his proper shape,
Which else might work him danger or delay:
And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth smil'd celestial, and to every limb
Suitable grace diffus'd, so well he feign'd:
Under a coronet his flowing hair
lu curls on either cheek play'd; wings he wore
Of many a colour'd płome sprinkled with
gold,

His habit fit for speed succinct, and held
Before his decent steps a silver wand.
He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright,
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turn'd,
Admonish'd by his car, and straight was
known

Th' Arch-Angel Uriël, one of the seven
Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne,
Stand read at command, and are his eyes
That run through all the Heav'us, or down to
th' carth

[bright,

Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,
O'er sea and laud: bim Satan thus accosts.
Uriel, for thou of those sev'n Spirits that
stand
In sight of God's high throne, gloriously
The first art wout his great authentic will
Interpreter through bighest Heav'n to bring,
Where all his sons thy embassy attend;
And here art likeliest by supreme decree
Like honour to obtain, and as his eye
To visit oft this new creation round;
Unspeakable desire to see, and know
All these his wondrous works, but chiefly
Man,

His chief delight and favour, him for whom
All these his works so wondrous he or

dain'd,

Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim Alone thus wanding. Brightest Seraph,

tell

In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
His fixed seat, or fixed scat hath none,
But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
That I may find him, and with secret gaze
Or open admiration him behold,

On whom the great Creator hath bestow'd Worlds, and on whom bath all these graces pour'd;

That both in him and all things, as is meet,
The universal Maker we may praise;
Who justly hath driv'n out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of Men
To serve him better: wise are all his ways.
So spake the false dissembler unperceiv'd;
For neither Man nor Angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Juvisible, except to God alone,

By his permissive will, through Heav'n and

Earth:

And oft though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no
ill
[beguil'd
Where no ill seems: which now for once
Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
The sharpest sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;
Who to the fraudulent impostor fou!
In his uprightness auswer thus return’d.

Fair Angel, thy desire which tends to know
The works of God, thereby to glorify
The great Work-master, leads to no excess
That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps
Contented with report hear only in Heav'n;
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight;
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite
That brought them forth, but bid their causes

deep?

I saw when at his word the formless mass,
This world's material mould, came to a heap:
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood rald, stood vast infinitude confin'd;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung:
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire;
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward, spirited with various forms,
That roll'd orbicular, and turn'd to stars
Numberless, as thou secst, and how they
[course;
Each had his place appointed, each his
The rest in circuit walls this universe.
Look downward on that globe, whose hither
[shin s;
With light from bence, though but refle ted,
That place is Earth, the seat of Man,that light
His day, which else as th' other hemisphere
Night would invade; but there the neighb'ring

move;

side,

moon

(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
Timely interposes, and her monthly round
Still ending, still renewing, through mid
Heaven,

With borrow'd light her countenance triform
Bence fills and empties to enighten th'
Earth,

And in her pale dominion checks the night. That spot to which I point is Paradise, Adam's abode, those lofty shades his bower. Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires. {low,

Thus said, he turn'd; and Satan bowing As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, Where honour due and reverence none ne[beneath,

glects,

Took leave, and toward the coast of earth Down from th' ecliptic, sped with hop'd

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