Side 199 af 239

254

His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect,

And season him thy last and sweetest prey.

This said, they both betook them several ways,

Both to destroy, or unimmortal make

All kinds, and for destruction to mature

Sooner or later; which the Almighty seeing,

From his transcendent seat the saints among,

To those bright Orders uttered thus his voice:

See with what heat these dogs of hell advance

To waste and havoe yonder world, which I So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly of man Let in these wasteful furies, who impute Folly to me; so doth the Prince of hell And his adherents, that with so much ease I suffer them to enter and possess A place so heavenly; and, conniving, seem To gratify my scornful enemies, That laugh, as if, transported with some fit Of passion, I to them had quitted all, At random yielded up to their misrule; And know not that I called, and drew them thither, My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed On what was pure; till, crammed and gorged, nigh burst With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, Both Sin and Death, and yawning grave, at last, Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of hell For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws. Then Heaven and Earth, renewed, shall be made pure To sanctity, that shall receive no stain: Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes. He ended, and the heavenly audience loud

Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas,

Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways,

Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; Who can extenuate Thee? Next, to the Son, Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom New heaven and earth shall to the ages rise, Or down from heaven descend. Such was their song, While the Creator, calling forth by name His mighty Angels, gave them several charge, As sorted best with present things. The sun Had first his precept so to move, so shine, As might affect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit winter; from the south to bring Solstitial summer's heat. To the blank moon Her office they prescribed; to the other five Their planetary motions, and aspects, In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite, Of noxious efficacy, and when to join In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed Their influence malignant when to shower, Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, Should prove tempestuous; to the winds they set Their corners, when with bluster to confound Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll With terror through the dark aerial hall. Some say, He bid his Angels turn askance The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more, From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed Oblique the centric globe. Some say, the sun Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins, Up to the tropic Crab; thence down amain By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales,

PARADISE LOST.

² To Taurus, dc.—This passage describes the supposed relation of the Earth to the signs of the Zodiac through the changes of seasons.

^'In synod unbenign.—One of Milton's faults, even in the judgment of friendly critics, is a somewhat ostentatious display of learning. In the text the reader is favoured with something from the lore of astrology, in which the poet would seem to have been in some sense a believer.