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Awaiting next command. To whom their chief,
Gabriel, from the front thus called aloud:

"O friends! I hear the tread of nimble feet
Hasting this way, and now by glimpse discern
Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade,
And with them comes a third of regal port,
But faded splendour wan; who, by his gait
And fierce demeanour, seems the prince of Hell,
Not likely to part hence without contést;
Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours."

He scarce had ended, when these two approached,
And brief related whom they brought, where found,
How busied, in what form and posture couched.

To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake :
"Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescribed
To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge
Of others, who approve not to transgress
By thy example, but have power and right
To question thy bold entrance on this place;
Employed, it seems, to violate sleep, and those
Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss?"

To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow:
"Gabriel, thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise,
And such I held thee; but this question asked
Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain?
Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell,

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Though thither doomed? Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt, And boldly venture to whatever place

Farthest from pain, where thou mightst hope to change Torment with ease, and soonest recompense

Dole with delight, which in this place I sought;

To thee no reason, who know'st only good,

But evil hast not tried; and wilt object

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His will who bound us? Let him surer bar

His iron gates, if he intends our stay

In that dark durance: thus much what was asked.

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The rest is true, they found me where they say;

But that implies not violence or harm."

Thus he in scorn. The warlike angel moved, Disdainfully half smiling, thus replied:

"O loss of one in Heaven, to judge of wise,

Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew,

And now returns him from his prison 'scaped,
Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise

Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither
Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed;
So wise he judges it to fly from pain
However, and to 'scape his punishment.

So judge thou still, presumptuous, till the wrath,
Which thou incurr'st by flying, meet thy flight

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Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell,
Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain
Can equal anger infinite provoked.

But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with thee
Came not all Hell broke loose? Is pain to them
Less pain, less to be fled; or thou than they
Less hardy to endure? Courageous chief!
The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleged

To thy deserted host this cause of flight,
Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive."

To which the fiend thus answered, frowning stern:
"Not that I less endure or shrink from pain,
Insulting angel; well thou know'st I stood
Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid
The blasting volleyed thunder made all speed,
And seconded thy else not dreaded spear.
But still thy words at random, as before,
Argue thy inexperience what behoves
From hard assays and ill successes past,
A faithful leader, not to hazard all
Through ways of danger by himself untried:
I, therefore, I alone first undertook
To wing the desolate abyss, and spy

This new created world, whereof in Hell
Fame is not silent, here in hope to find
Better abode, and my afflicted powers
To settle here on earth, or in mid air;
Though for possession put to try once more

What thou and thy gay legions dare against;

Whose easier business were to serve their Lord

High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne

And practised distances to cringe, not fight."

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To whom the warrior angel soon replied: "To say and straight unsay, pretending first Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy, Argues no leader, but a liar traced,

Satan, and couldst thou faithful add? O name,

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O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
Army of fiends, fit body to fit head.

Was this your discipline and faith engaged,
Your military obedience, to dissolve

Allegiance to the acknowledged power supreme?
And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou

Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful monarch? wherefore, but in hope

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To dispossess him, and thyself to reign?

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But mark what I arreed thee now: Avaunt!

* Award, decree.

Fly thither whence thou fled'st: if from this hoar
Within these hallowed limits thou appear,

*

Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained,
And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn
The facile gates of Hell, too slightly barred."
So threatened he; but Satan to no threats
Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied:
"Then when I am thy captive talk of chains,
Proud limitary † cherub! But ere then
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King
Ride on thy wings, and thou, with thy compeers,
Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels
In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved."
While thus he spake, the angelic squadron bright
Turned fiery red, sharpening in moonèd horns
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported spears, as thick as when a field
Of Ceres, ripe for harvest, waving bends

Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind

Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands,
Lest on the threshing floor his hopeful sheaves

Prove chaff. On the other side, Satan, alarmed,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood,

Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved :

His stature reached the sky, and on his crest

Sat horror plumed; nor wanted § in his grasp

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What seemed both spear and shield. Now dreadful deeds

Might have ensued; not only Paradise,

In this commotion, but the starry cope

Of heaven, perhaps, or all the elements

At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn

With violence of this conflict, had not soon
The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,

Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign,
Wherein all things created first he weighed,
The pendulous round earth with balanced air
In counterpoise; now ponders all events,
Battles and realms: in these he put two weights,
The sequel each of parting and of fight;
The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam; ||
Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the fiend:

* Cf. Rev. xx. 3.

That is, Who darest to set limits to my movements.
Pointed towards him.

Although he had only just resumed his natural form.

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Bentley, and probably many others, have misunderstood Milton's thought about the scales, judging of it by what they read of Jupiter's scales in Homer and Virgil; the account of which is very different from this of Milton; for in them the fates of the two combatants are weighed one

"Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine, Neither our own, but given; what folly, then,

To boast what arms can do, since thine no more

Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now
To trample thee as mire! For proof look up,
And read thy lot in yon celestial sign,

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Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak,
If thou resist." The fiend looked up, and knew
His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled
Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.

against the other, and the descent of one of the scales foreshowed the death of him whose fate lay in that scale, quo vergat pondere lethum: whereas, in Milton, nothing is weighed but what relates to Satan only, and in the two scales are weighed the two different events of his retreating and his fighting. -Pearce.

He does not make the ascending scale the sign of victory, as in Homer and Virgil, but of lightness and weakness, according to that of Belshazzar, Dan. v. 27, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."

END OF THE FOURTH BOOK.

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BOOK V.

THE ARGUMENT.

Morning approached, Eve relates to Adam her troublesome dream; he likes it not, yet comforts her: they come forth to their day labours: their morning hymn at the door of their bower. God, to render man inexcus able, sends Raphael to admonish him of his obedience, of his free estate, of his enemy near at hand,who he is, and why his enemy, and whatever else avail Adam to know. Raphael comes down to Paradise; his appear. ance described; his coming discerned by Adam afar off, sitting at the door of his bower; he goes out to meet him, brings him to his lodge, entertains him with the choicest fruits of Paradise got together by Eve; their ciscourse at table: Raphael performs his message, minds Adam of his state and of his enemy; relates, at Adam's request, who that enemy is, and how he came to be so, beginning from his first revolt in Heaven, and the occasion thereof; how he drew his legions after him to the parts of the north, and there incited them to rebel with him, persuading all but only Abdiel, a seraph, who in argument dissuades and opposes him, then forsakes him.

Now morn her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,
When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep
Was airy light, from pure digestion bred,

And temperate vapours bland, which the only sound
Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,

Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song
Of birds on every bough, so much the more
His wonder was to find unwakened Eve
With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek,
As through unquiet rest: he on his side
Leaning, half raised, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamoured, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice
Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,

Her hand soft touching, whispered thus: "Awake,
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight,
Awake; the morning shines, and the fresh field
Calls us; we lose the prime + to mark how spring
Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed,
How nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet."

* Viz., his sleep. The words "only sound," mean the sound alone." The early morning.

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