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Of force believe Almighty-since no less Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours-Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, Strongly to suffer and support our pains, That we may so suffice1 His vengeful ire, Or do Him mightier service as His thralls2 By right of war, whate'er His business be, Here in the heart of hell to work in fire, Or to His errands in the gloomy Deep? What can it then avail, though yet we feel Strength undiminished, or eternal being, To undergo eternal punishment? Whereto with speedy words the arch-fiend replied:

Fallen cherub! to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering: but of this be sure, To do aught good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being contrary to His high will Whom we resist. If then His providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil; Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmost counsels from their destined aim. But see! the angry Victor hath recalled His ministers of vengeance and pursuit Back to the gates of Heaven. The sulphurous hail, Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid The fiery surge, that from the precipice Of Heaven received us falling, and the thunder, Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now .To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.

Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn, Or satiate fury, yield it from our Foe. Seest thou the dreary plain, forlorn and wild, The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Cast pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves, There rest-if any rest can harbour there-And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, Consult how we may henceforth most offend Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, How overcome this dire calamity, What reinforcement we may gain from hope,

If not, what resolution from despair.

PARADISE LOST.

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, With head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed, his other parts besides, Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom 1 the fables name of monstrous size, Titanian,2 or Earth-born, that warred on Jove; Briareus,3 or Typhon,4 whom the den By ancient Tarsus held; or that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all His works Created hugest that swim the ocean stream: Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, Moors by his side under the lea, while night Invests the sea, and wished morn delays:-So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay

¹ Suffice. - Satisfy.

Thralls.—Anglo-Saxon for slaves. Hence our word thraldom.

As whom. - As his whom

^\ Titanian.—The Titans, or giants, who according to the Greek mythology, made war upon the gods. \Briareus.—One of three monster brothers, described as possessing a hundred arms and fifty heads. They are said to have given victory to the gods over the Titans.

^\* Typhon.—A tempest-producing, and sometimes a fire-breathing giant. Hesiod makes Typhaon and Typhons two distinct monster powers of the primitive world.