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his bad Mother did not rejoice lefs, who thus fpake to her Father SATAN:

By the Command of Heaven's all-powerful King, and by due Right, I keep the Key of this infernal Pit; forbidden by him to unlock thefe Adamantine Gates; DEATH ftands ready to interpofe his Dart a gainst all Force, not fearing to be over-matched by any Thing created: But what do I owe to his Commands above, who hates me, and hath thrust me down hither into this Gloom of profound Hell, to fit here employed in this hateful Office, once an Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly-born, yet has doomed me to remain here in perpetual Agony and Pain, encompaffed round with the Terrors and Clamours of my own Brood, that feed themselves with my Bowels? Thou art my Father, my Author, thou gavest me Being; whom fhould I obey and follow but thee? Thou wilt foon lead me to that new World of Light and Happiness, where among the Gods, who live at Eafe, I fhall reign voluptuously at thy Right-Hand, Time without End.

As fhe faid this, he took from her Side the fatal Key, the fad Instrument of all our Woe, and rolling her fnaky Train towards the Gate, forthwith drew up the great Portcullice, which excepting herfelf, not all the combined Powers of Hell could once have moved, then turns the intricate Wards of the Keyhole, and with Eafe unfaftens every Bolt and Bar, though of maffy Iron, or of folid Rock: Upon a fudden the infernal Doors fly open, with a moft violent Rebound, and grating Noife of the Hinges, and jarring Sound like harfh Thunder, that the lowest Bottom of Hell's Caverns fhook.

THUS fhe opened the Gates, but to fhut thefn again was beyond her Power; they stood fo wide open; that an Army with all its Body and Wings extended; marching

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Book II. marching under fpread Enfigns, might pafs through; with all their Horfes and Chariots, though ranked but in loofe Order: fo wide they ftood, and caft forth a yaft Smoak and red Flame, like the Mouth of a Furnace. Before their Eyes there fuddenly appeared the Secrets of the raging Deep; a dark infinite Ocean, without Dimenfion or Bound whatfoever; where Length, Breadth, Height, and Time, and Place are loft; where eldest NIGHT and CHAOS, the first Anceftors of Nature, hold continual Anarchy, amongst the Noife of endless Strife, and keep their Station by Confufion For Hot, Cold, Moift, and Dry, four fierce Champions, ftrive here for Mastery, and bring to Battle the imperfect Particles of the firft Matter; and they fwarm populous, each by Nature tending to their own Factions, in their feveral Clans, whether light, heavy, fharp, finooth, fwift, or flow, being numberless as the Sands of BARCA (e), or the fcorched Soil of CYRENE (f), which is lifted up with warring Winds, and driven about the Air. What these most adhere to, rules for a Moment; CHAOS fits Um-i pire, and by his Decifion embroils the Fray the more,

(e) Barca; Carthag. i. e A Defart; or from Amilcar Barca, the Father of Hannibal, who is fid to have founded it. A large, findy, barren anddry Country in Africa; fo called from the capi tal City of it, lying on the West of Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Tripoli, fix-hundred Miles from Eaft to Welt, and one-hundred and twenty Miles from South to North: Others call it the Sandy Lybia: The Chief City is five-hundred and fifty Miles from Alexandria in Egypt. Barca feparates Egypt from Cyrene.

(f) Cyrene Carthag, from Creno; i. e. A Fountain, which fp ings from a Mountain of the

fame Name there; a very barren fandy Province of Lybia, towards the Great Syrtis, lying upon the Mediterranean Sea near Egypt. Cyrene was built by Battus the Lacedemonian, from whom the Inhabitants were called Battida, and gave the Name to the whole Country. It ftrove once with Carthage for fome Privileges. In the moft Southern Part of it ftood the famous Temple of Jupiter Ammon; and was the Birth place of Simon, who carried our Saviour's Crofs to Mount Calvary, Mat. xxvii. 32. Cyrene was also called Pentapolis; Gr. because it contained five fine Cities of old,

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by which he reigns; next him the high Arbiter CHANCE governs all: Such was this wild Abyss, the deep Womb of Nature, and not unlikely but it shall be her Grave, made up of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, but all thefe mixed confufedly in their pregnant Causes, and which must for ever fight thus, unless the ALMIGHTY Maker ordain them, his dark Materials to create, and form new Worlds.

CHA P. IV:

With what Difficulty Satan paffes the Gulph; directed by Chaos, the Power of that Place, to the Sight of this new World which he fought.

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HE wary Fiend stood upon the Brink of Hell, and looked for a-while to this wild Abyss; for now he had no narrow Sea to crofs, nor was his Ear lefs deafened with loud and ruinous Noifes, than to compare great Things with fmall) BELLONA (g), bent to deftroy fome capital City, ftorms it with all her battering Engines; as if this Frame of Heaven were falling, and these Elements in Uproar, had torn the stedfast Earth from her Axle (b).

AT last SATAN fpread his wide Wings, like Sails, for Flight, and lifted up in the rifing Smoak, fpurns the Ground; thence afcending, rifes intrepidly many a League, as it were in a cloudy Chair; but that Seat

(g) Bellona; Lat. i. e. The Goddess of War. A Deity among the old Romans; the Mother, Sifter, and Wife of Mars. She had many Temples, Priefts, Sacrifices, Statues and Honours paid her; and was painted with a furious Countenance, holding a Trumpet, a Whip, and fometimes a lighted Torch; to fhew the difmal Effects of War. In

Time of Peace her Temple was fhut up.

(b) Axle; Sax. Lat. Gr. i. e. Going round; A Geog. T. An Axle-Tree. Here, an imaginary Line drawn through the Center of the Earth, from the North to the South Pole ; upon which the Earth is fuppofed to move, in its Diurnal Motion from Eaft to West.

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foon

foon failing, he meets nothing but the vaft empty Space At unawares, fluttering his ufelefs Wings, directly down he drops ten Thousand Fathom deep, and to this Hour he had been falling, had not the ftrong Rebuff of a flying Cloud, kindled with Fire and Nitre, hurried him up as many Miles aloft: That Fury over, he lights on a finking Quick-fand, and nigh foundered, makes his Way over what was neither Sea nor good dry Land, treading the crude Subftance of the Abyfs half on Foot and half flying, that it was requifre for him now to ufe both Oar and Sail: As when a Griffin (i) with winged Courfe, over Hill, through Wilderness, or moorifh Vales, purfues the ARIMASPIAN (k), who by Stealth had taken from his watchful Cuftody the Gold that he had guarded; fo eagerly the Fiend purfues his Way over Bog or ́fteep Hill, through strait, rough, folid Land, or Water, with Head, Hands, and Wings or Feet; and as he can best, makes his Way; either swims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. At length his Ear is affaulted with a univerfal Uproar of stunning Sounds, and Voices all in Confufion, which were born through the hollow Darknefs; undaunted he bends his Way thither, to meet there whatever Power, or Spirit of the lowermoft Abyss might refide there, of whom he might enquire, which Way the nearest Coast of Darknefs lay, that bordered upon Light; when ftrait appears the Throne of CHAOS, and his dark Pavillion fpread wide upon the wafteful Deep; enthroned with

(i) Griffin or Griffon; Lat. Gr. i. e. To gripe faft or fqueeze. A fabulous, terrible and rapacious Bird, faid to be partly Jike an Eagle, partly like a Lion Guardians of hidden Gold, and dedicated to Apollo, the God and Maker of Gold, i.. The Sun with the Heat of his Rays.

(4) Arimafpian; Scyth. from Ari, i. e. One and Mafpos, i. e. An Eye, One-eyed; a People of Scythia or Little Tartary in Europe, faid to have had one Eye. The Truth is, they were expert Archers, who fhut one Eye, that they might with the more Exacnefs hit the Mark. Alexander the Great fubdued them.

him fat dark and fable-habited NIGHT, the eldest of Things, and Confort of his Reign; and by them ftood ORCUS (1), and HADES (m), and the dreaded Name of DEMOGORGON (n): Next RUMOUR, and CHANCE, and CONFUSION, and TUMULT, and DisCORD, with a thousand various Mouths, all thefe in continual Mutiny; to whom SATAN boldly turning, faid thus:

YE Powers, and Spirits of the lowermoft Abyss, CHAOS, and antient NIGHT! I come not hither as a Spy, with Purpofe to pry into, or disturb the Secrets of your Kingdom, but wander this darkfome Defart by Conftraint, as my Way up to Light lies through your fpacious Empire; I feek which is the readieft Path that leads where your dark Bounds join to thofe of Heaven; or if the celeftial King poffeffes fome other Place lately won from your Dominion, I travel this dangerous Path to go thither; do you direct my Course, which if you do, it will bring no mean Recompence to your Advantage; if that Region be loft, and I can (expelling thence all Ufurpation) reduce it to original Darkness, and your Sway, (which is the Intent of my prefent Journey) and once more eftablish there the Government of antient NIGHT; let yours be all the Advantage, and only mine the Revenge!

THUS fpoke SATAN, and thus old CHAOS anfwered him, with a Vifage uncompofed, and faultering in his Speech:

(Orcus; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. An Oath: because the Supernal Gods made their Oaths by Orcus, as well as by Styx, another Name of Hell.

(m) Hades; Gr. Lat. i. e. A dark, bidden and invifible Place; the fame as Orcus or Hell; in Holy Writ and facred Authors.

It is efteemed to be the general Receptacle of all Souls departed this Life, in a State of Expectation, till the Day of Judgment.

(n) Demogorgon; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Beholding the Gorgon. which none could do but He; for fhe turned all Things that. looked on her into Stones.

STRANGER,

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