with you, for all Havock, Spoil, and Ruin are my Gain. HE faid no more, and SATAN did not ftay to make him a Reply, but glad that he was like to find a Shore to this Sea, with fresh Chearfulness and renew'd Force, he fprings upwards like a Pyramid (m) of Fire into the wide Firmament, and forces his Way thro' the Shock of Elements, fighting on all Sides round him; in more Danger and harder befet, than when the ARGO (n) pafs'd thro' the BOSPHORUS, (0) H 3 betwixt A near (m) Pyramid; Gr. i. e. Fire, a Geometrical Term. A Pyramid is a Heap of fquare Stones, rifing up like a Flame of Fire in four Squares. There are about 80 Pyramids Grand Cairo in Egypt, the Wonder of the World to this Day, tho' they have stood 4000 Years, and may continue as long again; three of them are very large, befides many fmall ones. The Arabs call them Dgebel Pharaon, and the Turks Pharaon Deglary, i. e. Pharaob's Hills. Mr. Lucas faw above 20,000 Pyramids near Cæfarea in Leffer Afia. (n) Argo; Lat. Gr. i. e. Swift; because of her swift failing being rowed with 50 Oars, which was a new Invention of Jafon; or from the Builder of it; and Cicero derives it from the Argives or Greeks, who fail'd in it. The Ship wherein Jason and other valiant Greeks made a famous Expedition to Colchos, now Mingrelia, Georgia and Iberia, upon the Pontus, to bring from thence the golden Fleece into Greece. The Expedition of rhe Argonauts, celebrated in antient History, was in the Reign of Egeus, King of Athens, about A. M. 2714. Before Chrift 1284. It was no more than a bold and new Voyage to bring home fine Wool, the valuable Commodity of that Country, as the British Wool is now; or carrying off the Treasure of the King of Colchis, which confifted of Gold, gathered out of the Rivers, by the Help of a Ram's Fleece; becaufe Gaza, Heb. fignifies a Treafure and a Fleece: The two Bulls and a Dragon were the two Walls round the Caftle, and a Brafs Gate. For Sour, Heb. fignifies both a Bull and a Gate; Brafs and a Dragon. (0) Bofphorus, Bosporus, or Bofperus; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. The Paffage of an Ox, as we fay Oxford. A Paffage into the Euxine Sea, by Conftantinople, thro' which Jafon pals'd with much Difficulty and Danger in this Voyage. It is fo ftrait and narrow, that Cattle betwixt the crowded Rocks; or when ULYSSES (1) fhunn'd CHARYBDIS (q) on the Larboard Side, and steer'd by the Whirpool of SCYLLA: So did SATAN move on, and pass with great Difficulty and very hard Labour; but he having once pass'd, foon after when MAN fell, was a ftrange Alteration; for SIN and DEATH quickly following his Path, (fuch was the Will of Heaven) pav'd after him a very broad and beaten Way over the dark Gulph, and built thereon a Bridge of wondrous Length, continu'd from Hell, and reaching to the outmost Orb of this frail World; over which the perverse and fallen Spirits pafs and repass with an eafy Intercourse, to punish Mortals, or lead them into Temptation, excepting fuch, who by more efpecial Grace, are guarded by GoD and good Angels. BUT now at laft appears the facred Influence of Light, and far into the Bofom of dim NIGHT fhoots a glimmering Dawn from the Walls of Heaven; NATURE first begins here her fartheft Bounds, and CHAos retires from her outmoft Works like a broken Foe, with lefs Tumult and lefs hoftile Noife; fo that SATAN fwim over it, and they hear the Cocks crowing and Dogs barking from one Side to another. Now Stretti di Conftantinopoli, Ital. i. e. The Straits of Conflantinople. (P) Ulyffes; Lat. Gr. i, e. All Strength, robuft; or contracted from his original Name, Oduffeus, Gr. i. e. The publick Road: becaufe his Mother, overtaken in a violent Rain, was deliver'd of him on the Highway. The Son of Laertes, Prince of Ithaca and Dulichia, Iflands in the Egean Sea; an SATAN with little Toil, (and prefently with Eafe) paffes on calm Waves, affifted by fome fmall Degree of Light; and like a weather-beaten Veffel is glad to find Harbour, tho' her Shrouds and Tackling be all damag❜d and torn; or else in the emptier Wafte fomething resembling the Air, lies on his spread Wings to behold at Leifure the diftant empyreal Heaven, in Circuit extended wide, but its Form and Limits not determin'd; with Towers of precious Stones and Battlements of living Saphires, (r) once the native Seat of SATAN; and juft by was this pendent World, hanging in a golden Chain, in Bignefs about the Size of one of the smallest Stars, and close by the Moon. Thither accurfed, and in an accurfed Hour he haftens, quite fill'd with Malice and mifchievous Revenge. FH THE THIRD BOOK O F PARADISE LOST. G The ARGUMENT. OD fitting on his Throne fees Satan flying towards this World, then newly created; fhews him to the SON who fat at his Right Hand; foretells the Success of Satan in perverting Mankind; clears his own Juftice and Wisdom from all Imputation having created Man free and able enough to have withstood bis Tempter; yet declares his Purpose of Grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own Malice, as Satan did, but by him feduc'd. The SON of GOD renders Praifes to his Father for the Manifeftation of his gracious Purpofe towards Man but GOD again declares that Grace cannot be extended towards Man, without the Satisfaction of Divine Justice, Man bath offended the Majefty of ; GOD |