the Ford, and the Water of itself flies from the Tafte of all living Creatures, as once it fell from the Lip of TANTALUS (g). Thus the fallen Spirits roving on in confufed March, forlorn and pale, with shuddering Horror, and with ghaftly Eyes firft viewed their lamentable Lot, and found no Reft: They passed along through many a dark and dreary Vale, and many a difmal Region, over many a frozen and many a fiery ALP (b); Rocks, Caves, Lanes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and Shades of Death; a Univerfe of Death! which God created Evil by a Curfe; Good only for Evil, where all Life dies, where Death lives, and Nature breeds perversely all monftrous and prodigious Things, abominable and beyond all Expreffion; and worfe than ever Fables yet have feigned, or Fear con

and contended with Minerva, for which the Goddess turned it into Snakes; which were fo terrible, that they turned all that beheld them into Stones. Perfeus cut off her Head, that it might not deftroy the whole Country; and as he carried it through Africa, the Drops of Blood became Serpents: Hence they fay, it is infefted with Swarms of Serpents and other venemous Creatures, above other Parts of the World.

(f) Gorgonian, of the Gorgons; Lat. Gr. i. e. Cruelty. The Gor gons were fo called from Gorgon, a venemous Beast in Africa; they were the three Daughters of Phecus, viz. Medusa, Steno, and Euryale: So called from their Savageness; because they killed at the very Sight.

(g) Tantalus; Gr. Lat. i. e. moft miferable. The Son of Ju piter and Plota. He killed and

dreffed up his Son Pelops to the Gods, at a Feaft; for which they condemned him to Hell; where he was fet in Water to the Chin, with Apples bobbing at his Lips; yet could taste of neither.

(b) Alp for Alps; By a Fig. of Rhet. Lat. i. e. white: because they are always White with Snow, or high; a long Range of Jofty and fteep Mountains, which parts Italy and Germany and France: It cost Hannibal the Carthaginian General, nine Day's before he got to the Top of them; and fifteen in marching over them; wherein he lost vait Numbers both of Men and Beats, though he mollifed the Rocks with Vinegar, and cut them down with iron Tools: But Palybius and Livy fay, that the Italians, Gauls, and others paft and repaft them, long before this famous Expedition of Hannibal.

ceived,

ceived, of dire CHIMERAS (), HYDRAS (k), and. GORGONS.

CHA P. III.

Satan paffes on his Journey to Hell Gates; finds them fhut, and who fat there to guard them, by whom at length they are opened, and difcover to bim the great Gulph between Hell and Hea

ven.

I

N the mean while SATAN, the Adversary of GoD and MAN, with Thoughts enflamed with highest Defigns puts on fwift Wings, and takes his folitary Flight towards the Gates of Hell: Sometimes he fcours the Right-Hand Courfe, fometimes the Left; now flies over the Deep with fteady Wings, then foars up, mounting as high as the fiery Concave: As when a Fleet discovered at Sea, hangs as in the Clouds by Equinoctial (1) Winds, failing clofe from (m) BEN

(1) Chimera; Lat. Gr. i. e. Goats. A Chimera was a fabulous Monster, faid to have had the Head of a Lion, the Belly of a Goat; and the Tail of a Serpent. It was only a Mountain of Lycia, a Branch of the M. Taurus in Afia; whofe Top did caft out Flames, and abounded with Lions, in the Middle there was good Pasture for Goats; and at the Bottom of it were many Serpents.

(k) Hydras; Lat. Gr. i. e. Waters. Hydra is a monftrous

GAL

and exceffive Water Serpent ; feigned with fifty Heads. It is faid, that Hercules tamed this Monster in the Lake Lerna, between Argi and Mycene.

(1) Equinoctial, of the Equinox; Lat. i. e. Equal Night and Days. An Aftron. T. Here, the Trade Winds, that blow in September and March; when the Days and Nights are of equal Length.

(m) Bengal, Indian. The antient Name was Beng, i. e. Water; for as the Waters overflow

fome

GAL, or the Iflands of T ER NATE (0), or TIDORE (p), from whence Merchants bring their Spices, they on the trading Flood ply to the CAPE (9), through the ETHIOPIAN (r) Sea; juft fo afar off feemed

feemed the flying Fiend. At laft the Bounds of Hell appear, reaching high up to the Roof, and the Gates were three Times threefold; three Folds were of Brafs, three of Iron, and three of Adamantine Rock; impenetrable, furrounded with circling Fire, and yet not confumed.

BEFORE the Gates there fat on each Side a dreadful Shape, one of which feemed a Woman to the Waift, and fair, but the ended in fcaly Folds like a Serpent, voluminous and vaft, armed with a mortal Sting; round about her Middle a Cry of Hell-Hounds. barked without ceafing, and rung a hideous Peal with loud and wide CERBERIAN (5) Mouths; yet when they would, if any thing disturbed their Noife, crept into her Womb, and kennelled there, and when not seen, still barked and howled within: Lefs abhorred than these were those that vexed SCYLIA (t), bathing in the Sea that parts CALABRIA (u) from SI

and through which the European Merchants pafs, as they go to and come from the Eaft Indies, China, and Japan, &c.

(s) Cerberian; belonging to Cerberus; Lat. Gr. i. e. A Devourer of Flesh, i. e. As wide as thofe of Cerberus the Dog, that kept the Gates of Hell, who had three, fome fay fifty, and Horace fays an hundred Heads; fignifying his greedy and devouring Nature. The Fable reprefents Time, which devours all Things; the three Heads, Time paft, prefent, and to come.

(t) Scylla; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Vexation and Disturbance. Scylla was a frightful Rock in the Sea between Italy and Sicily, fo called from Scyllio, a Caftle on

the Italian Shore, upon which the Waves made a Noife, like the Barking of Dogs, which terrified the Sailors: Or Scylla the Daughter of Phorcus, who was poifoned by Circe, and changed from the Waist down into ftrange and frightful Monsters; wherefore the threw herself into the Sea.

(u) Calabria; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Good and fruitful. A very fine fruitful Country on the outmoft Parts of Italy, facing Sicily, and divided from it by a narrow Strait: It is almoft an If. land, yields Fruit twice in the Year, and is about fixty Miles wide, called now Terre de Laber; i. e. The Land of Calabria, by an Abbreviation of the old Name.

CILY (x), nor do uglier follow the Night-Hag, who, when called in fecret, comes riding through the Air, drawn by the Smell of Infants Blood, to dance with LAPLAND (y) Witches, while the labouring Moon is eclipfed by their Charms.

THE other Shape (if it might be called fo, that had none diftinguishable, in Joint, Limb, or Member, or that might be called Subftance, that seemed Shadow, for each feemed either) ftood as black as Night, as fierce as ten Furies (z), as terrible as Hell, and fhook a dreadful Dart; what feemed his Head, had the Likeness of a kingly Crown on it. SATAN was now near at Hand, and the Monster moving from his Seat, came onward as faft with horrid Strides, fo that Hell trembled: SATAN undaunted admired what this might be, but without Fear; for he never valued nor fhunned any thing that was created, nor feared

(x) Sicily. It was fo called from the Sicani and Siculi, who were the antient Inhabitants. Sicily is the largest and nobleft Ifle in the Mediterranean Sea, facing Italy; and, as Thucydides fays, twenty Furlongs from it; therefore it has been a Bone of Contention between the Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, and other adjacent Nations, in all Ages to this Time.

(3) Lapland; from the antient Lupiones, or Loppi; i. e. Silly, fottish, and rude. The Natives call it Lapmark; the Germans, Laplandi; the Mufcovites, Lappi; for they are an illiterate People, void of all Arts and Sciences, grofs Heathens. A cold Northern Country in Europe, belonging partly to Sweden, partly to Muscovy; very barren

and barbarous: For their dreadful Ignorance, Superftition, and Malice, the People are branded with Witchcraft and other Diabolical Practices.

(z) Furies; Fr. Ital. Sp. Lat. i. e. Madness and Rage; or Heb. Farar; i. e. Revenge. The three Furies of Hell were imagined to be the Tormentors of the Damned, and painted with Snakes about their Heads, with Eyes fparkling with Fire, and burning Torches in their Hands; tormenting the Souls of the Wicked in Hell: And their Names

implied Dread and Terror. Aletto; Gr. i. e. Inceffant, without Reft, never ceafing to torment: Megara, Gr. i. e. Envied, hated: Tefiphone, Gr. i e. A Revenger of Murder, and Ehynides ; i. e. Difcord and Revenge.