IN Difcourfe ftill more sweet (for Eloquence charms the Soul, and Song only the Senfe) others fat apart retired upon a Hill, in Thoughts more elevated, and they reafoned high of PROVIDENCE, of FOREKNOWLEDGE, WILL, and FATE: FIXED FATE, FREE WILL, and ABSOLUTE FOR E-KNOWLEDGE; and in these perplexing Contemplations were loft in wandering Mazes, and found no End: Then they urged much about Good and Evil, of Happinefs, and of eternal Mifery, of the Paffions, of Apathy, and Glory, and Shame; all which was vain Wifdom, and falfe Philofophy; yet with pleafing Sorcery it could charm Pain and Sorrow of Mind for a Time, and raife deceitful Hope, or arm the hardened Heart with ftubborn Patience, as it were with Steel.

ANOTHER Part bend their flying March four Ways in Squadrons and great Bands, upon a bold Adventure, to make fresh Discoveries in that dismal World, if peradventure any Part of it might yield them a happier Habitation. Their Way was along the Banks of the four Rivers of Hell, that difcharge their deadly Streams into the burning Lake; abhorred STYX (t), the River of Hatred; fad ACHERON (u): COCYTUS (x); the River of Lamentation; and fierce

PHLEGETON (y), whofe Waves boil with raging Fire. Not far from thefe runs a flow and filent Stream in a watry Labyrinth (z), called LETHE (a), the River of Oblivion, whereof whoever drinks, forgets all his former State and Being, both Joy and Grief, Pleasure and Pain. Beyond this Flood lies a frozen Continent, dark and wild, beat with continual Storms of Whirlwind and Hail, which not thawing on the firm Land, gathers to a Heap, and feems like the Ruins of fome old Building, all befides being deep Snow and Ice; a Gulph as deep as that SERBONIAN (b) Bog, betwixt DAMIATA

DAMIATA (c) and Mount CASIUS (d), where whole Armies have funk: The parching Air burns in Frost, and Cold performs the Effect of Fire: Thither at certain Revolutions all the Damned are dragged by their Torments, and by Turns feel all the bitter Change of fierce Extreams, which by Change are made more fierce; their foft etherial Warmth forced from Beds of raging Fire, to ftarve in Ice, there to pine immoveable, fixed in and frozen round for Periods of Time, and from thence be hurried back to Fire. They pafs over this River LETHE, both too and fro, to heighten their Sorrow, and wish and struggle as they pass to reach the much defired Stream; with one Drop of its Water, to lofe in fweet Forgetfulness all Sorrow and Pain in one Moment, being fo near the Brink: But Fate opposes, and Spirits of Honour, like MEDUSA (e), with GORGONIAN (f) Terror guard

and fo were swallowed up therein and loft. Indeed that large Tract of Land abounds with Quickfands, Mountains, and Heaps of Sands, wherein many Travellers have been buried alive, as Cambyfes loft fifty thousand Men in the Sands of Lybia. This Lake has been filled up long ago, and is not to be found now.

(c) Damiata, or Damieta; Heb. i. e. Dirt or Mud. A Town in Egypt upon the Mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, and the most Easterly Bank of the Nile, near old Pelufium, which fignifies alfo Dirt; becaufe both are fituated in a dirty, Clay Soil, Thefe Cities were the Key and Bulwark of Egypt. Damiata was founded by fis, and deftroyed by the Saracens, in the Holy War; but is now a Place of great Trade.

the

(d) Cafius, or Caffius; Syr. i,e: A Boundary; because it parts Egypt and Palefline: A Sandy Mountain on the farther Side of Pelufium, near the Serbonian Bog, between the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, extending Southward to Arabia Petræa: At the Foot of it ftood Once a Town called Cafium, famous for the Temple of Jupiter Cafius, wherein stood a Statue of him in full Proportion ftretching out his Right Hand with a Pomegranate, the Emblem of his being the Terminal God, defending the Borders of that Nation.

(e) Medufa Lat. Gr. i. e. An imperious Queen, the Daughter of Ceto Phoreas, a King of Corfica and Sardinia ; very beautiful, having golden Hair; of which the was exceeding proud,

and

the Ford and the Water of itself flies from the Taste of all living Creatures, as once it fell from the Lip of TANTALUS (g). Thus the fallen Spirits roving on in confused March, forlorn and pale, with fhuddering Horror, and with ghaftly Eyes firft viewed their lamentable Lot, and found no Reft: They paffed 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 perverfely all monftrous and prodigious Things, abominable and beyond all Expreffion; and worse 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 destroy 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 venomous Creatures, above other Parts of the World.

(f) Gorgonian, of the Gorgons, Lat. Gr. i. e. Cruelty. The Gorgons were fo called from Gorgon, a venomous Beast in Africa: they were the three Daughters of Phecus, viz. Medufa, 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 Jupiter 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 lofty and fteepy Mountains, which parts Italy and Germany and France: It coft Hannibal the Carthaginian General, nine Days before he got to the Top of them; and fifteen in marching over them; wherein he loft vaft Numbers both of Men and Beafts, though he mollified the Rocks with Vinegar, and cut them down with Iron Tools ; but Polybius and Livy say, that the Italians, Gauls, and others paft and repaft them, long before this famous expedition of Hannibal.

ceived,

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

CHA P. III.

SATAN paffes on bis 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 Adverfary of GoD and MAN, with Thoughts enflamed with highest Designs puts on fwift Wings, and takes his folitary Plight towards the Gates of Hell: Sometimes he fcours the Right-hand Course, 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 difcovered at Sea, hangs as in the Clouds by Equinoctial (1) Winds, failing clofe from (m) BEN

(i) 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 Pafture for Goats; and at the Bottom of it were many Serpents.

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

GALS

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

(1) Equinoctial, of the Equi
nox; Lat. i. e. Equal Nights 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

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