Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on, with difficulty and labour he;
But he once past, soon after, when man fell,
(Strange alteration!) Sin and Death amain
Following his track (such was the will of Heaven),
Paved after him a broad and beaten way

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length,
From hell continued, reaching the utmost orb
Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse
With easy intercourse pass to and fro
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
God and good angels guard by special grace.

But now at last the sacred influence
Of light appears, and from the wals of heaven
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works, a broken foe,
With tumult less and with less hostile din;
That Satan, with less toil, and now with ease,
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light;
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,

qu'Ulysse, lorsque d'un côté évitant Charybde, sa manœuvre le portait dans un autre gouffre.

Ainsi SATAN s'avançait avec difficulté et un labeur pénible; il s'avançait avec difficulté et labeur. Mais une fois qu'il eut passé, bientôt après, quand l'homme tomba, quelle étrange altération! le PÉCHÉ et la MORT, suivant de près la trace de l'Ennemi (telle fut la volonté du ciel), pavèrent un chemin large et battu sur le sombre Abime dont le gouffre bouillonnant souffrit avec patience qu'un pont d'une étonnante longueur s'étendît de l'Enfer à l'orbe extérieur de ce globe fragile. Les Esprits pervers, à l'aide de cette communication facile, vont et viennent pour tenter ou punir les mortels, excepté ceux que DIEU et les Saints Anges gardent par une grace particulière.

Mais enfin l'influence sacrée de la lumière commence à se faire sentir, et des murailles du ciel un rayon pousse au loin dans le sein de l'obscure Nuit une aube scintillante: ici de la Nature commence l'extrémité la plus éloignée; le CHAOS se retire, comme de ses ouvrages avancés ; ennemi vaincu, il se retire avec moins de tumulte et moins d'hostile fracas. SATAN, avec moins de fatigue, et bientôt avec aisance, guidé par une douteuse lumière, glisse sur les vagues apaisées, et comme un vaisseau battu des tempêtes, haubans et cordages brisés, il entre joyeusement au port. Dans l'espace plus vide ressemblant à l'air, l'Ar

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Far off the empyreal heaven, extended wide
In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorn'd
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.

change balance ses ailes déployées, pour contempler de loin et à loisir le ciel empyrée : si grande en est l'étendue qu'il ne peut déterminer si elle est carrée ou ronde. Il découvre les tours d'opale, les créneaux ornés d'un vivant saphir, jadis sa demeure natale; il aperçoit attaché au bout d'une chaîne d'or ce monde suspendu, égal à une étoile de la plus petite grandeur serrée près de la lune. Là SATAN, tout chargé d'une pernicieuse vengeance, maudit et dans une heure maudite, se hâta.

THE ARGUMENT.

GOD sitting on his throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son, who sat at his right hand; foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free, and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards man; but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of divine justice; man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man; the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in heaven and earth; commands all the angels to adore him; they obey, and, hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile, Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it; his passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel, there regent of that orb; but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel; and, pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on Mount Niphates.