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النشر الإلكتروني

LV.

For ever had this ISLE in that dire pit,

With cureless grief, and endless error stray'd,
Where fire and brimstone had tormented it;

Had not the KING, whose laws he, fool! betray'd,
Unsnarl'd that chain, then firm that lake secured;
For which ten thousand tortures HE endur'd:
So hard was this lost ISLE, so hard to be recur'd
LVI.

O thou deep Well of life, wide stream of love,
More deep, more wide, than widest, deepest seas!
Who, dying, death to endless death didst prove,
To work this wilful rebel ISLAND's ease;

Thy love no time began, no time decays;

But still increaseth with decreasing days:
Where then may we begin, where may we end thy praise?
LVII.

My callow wing, that newly left the nest,
How can it make so high a tow'ring flight?
O depth without a depth! in humble breast,
With praises I admire so wondrous height:

But thou my sister Muse*, may'st well go high'r,
And end thy flight; ne'er may thy pinions tire!
Thereto may he his grace, and gentle heat aspire.
LVIII.

Then let me end my easier taken story,
And sing this ISLAND's new recover'd seat :
But see, the eye of noon, its brightest glory,
Teaching great men, is ne'er so little, great;
Our panting flocks retire into the glade ;

They crouch, and close to th' earth their horns have laid: Screen we our scorched heads in that thick beech's shade.

Alluding to his brother and his poem entitled "Christ's Victory and

Triumph."

J

CANTO II.

I.

DECLINING Phoebus, as he larger grows,

Taxing proud folly gentler waxeth still;
Never less fierce, than when he greatest shows :-
When Thirsil on a gently rising hill

Where all his flock he round might feeding view,
Sits down, and circled with a lovely crew

Of nymphs and shepherd-boys, thus 'gan his song renew.

II.

Now was this ISLE pull'd from that horrid main,

Which bears the fearful looks and name of Death;

And settled new with blood and dreadful pain

By HIM who twice had giv'n, once forfeit, breath:
A baser state than what was first assign'd;

Wherein, to curb the too aspiring mind,

The better things were lost, the worst were left behind : III.

That glorious image of himself was raz’d;

Ah! scarce the place of that best part we find :
And that bright sun-like knowledge much defac'd;
Only some twinkling stars remain behind :

Then mortal made; yet as one fainting dies,
Two other in its place succeeding rise;

And drooping stock with branches fresh immortalize.
IV.

So that lone *bird, in fruitful Arabic,

When now her strength, and waning life decays, Upon some airy rock, or mountain high,

In spicy bed (fir'd by new Phoebus' rays)

*The Phoenix,

1

Herself, and all her crooked age consumes:

Straight from the ashes, and those rich perfumes, A new born Phoenix flies, and widow'd place resumes.

V.

It grounded lies upon a sure *foundation,

Compact and hard; whose matter, cold and dry,

To marble turns in strongest congelation;

Fram'd of fat earth, which fires together tie,
Through all the Isle and every part extent†,
To give just form to ev'ry regiment‡ ;
Imparting to each part due strength and 'stablishment.

VI.

Whose looser ends are glew'd with brother earth§,
Of nature like, and of a near relation;

Of self-same parents both, at self-same birth;
That oft itself stands for a good foundation || :
Both these a third doth solder fast, and bind¶T;
Softer than both, yet of the self-same kind;
All instruments of motion, in one league combin'd.
VII.

Upon this base** a curious work is rais'd,

Like undivided brick, entire and one,

Tho' soft, yet lasting, with just balance pais'd++;
Distributed with due proportion:

[blocks in formation]

Annexed to the Bones are the Cartilages, white, flexible, and smooth, which themselves oss fy in process of time.

Some of them sustain and uphold certain parts.

These are fastened together by a kind of cartilages called Ligaments. ** Upon the bones, as the foundation, reposes the flesh, soft, ruddy, and covered with the common membrane or skin.

tt i. e. Poised. So Spenser.

D

And that the rougher frame might lurk unseen,
All fair is hung with coverings slight and thin :
Which partly hide it all, yet all is partly seen,
VIII.

As when a virgin her snow-circled breast

Displaying hides, and hiding sweet displays;
The greater segments cover'd, and the rest
The vail transparent willingly betrays;

Thus takes and gives, thus lends and borrows light: Lest eyes should surfeit with too greedy sight, Transparent lawns with-hold, more to increase delight. IX.

Nor is there any part in all this land,

But is a little isle; for thousand brooks*

In azure channels glide on silver sand;

Their serpent windings, and deceiving crooks,
Circling about, and wat'ring all the plain,
Empty themselves into th' all-drinking main ;
And creeping forward slide, but ne'er return again†.
X.

Three diff'rent streams, from fountains different,
Neither in nature nor in shape agreeing,

(Yet each with other, friendly ever went)
Give to this Isle its fruitfulness and being:
The first in single channels ‡sky-like blue,
With luke-warm waters dy'd in porphry hue,
Sprinkle this crimson Isle, with purple colour'd dew.

The whole body is watered, as it were, with great plenty of rivers; namely, the veins, arteries, and nerves.

This was the universally received opinion, before Dr. Harvey made known his great discovery of the circulation of the blood.

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A vein is a hollow canal, which receives the blood from the artery, and conveys it back to the heart.

XI.

The next, though from the same springs first it rise,
Yet passing through another greater fountain,

Doth lose his former name and qualities :

Through many a dale it flows, and many a mountain;
More fiery light, and needful more than all;

And therefore fenced with a double wall;
All froths his yellow streams, with many a sudden fall.
XII.

The flast, in all things diff'ring from the other,

Fall from an hill, and close together go, Embracing as they run; each with his brother Guarded with double trenches sure they flow:

The coldest spring, yet nature best they have; And like the lacteal stones which Heaven pave; Slide down to ev'ry part with their thick milky wave. XIII.

These with a thousand streams through th' Island roving,
Bring tribute in; the first gives nourishment,

Next life, last sense, and arbitrary moving :

For when the prince hath now his mandate sent,

The nimble posts quick down the river run,

And end their journey, though but now begun;

But now the mandate came, and now the mandate's done.

*An artery is a hollow canal, composed of fibres twisted together, which conveys the blood from the cavity of the heart to all the parts of the body.

+ A nerve is a whitish, round, slender body, arising from the brain, which is supposed to convey the animal spirits to all parts of the body.

That is, the veins convey the nourishment; the artery, life and heat; the nerves, sense and motion; the will commands, and the mandate is executed almost in an instant.

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