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He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving towards the shore, his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast. The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist1 views At evening from the top of Fesole³ Or in Valdarno,3 to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine, Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast On some great ammiral,4 were but a wand He walked with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marl, not like those steps On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. Nathless he so endured, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Vallambrosa, where the Etrurian shades High overarched embower, or scattered sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,8

Fits Care

000

Воок І.—308-341]

PARADISE LOST.

While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrewn, Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He called so loud, that all the hollow deep Of Hell resounded: Princes, potentates, Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize Eternal spirits. Or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the Conqueror?—who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood, With scatterred arms and ensigns; till anon His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern The advantage, and descending, tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!

They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung Upon the wing—as when men, wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel. Yet to their general's voice they soon obeyed Innumerable. As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind

1 Amrams son. - Moses.

1 The Tuscan artist.—Galileo, the inventor of the telescope.

^\ Fesole .- A hill overlooking Florence and the surrounding country.

^\ Ammiral.—An Italian form of expression for admiral. The admiral's ship was often called the admiral.

\ Entranced.—Bereft of mental power.

^\ Entranced.—Bereft of mental power—incapable of action.

^\ Vallambrosa.—A wooded district about eighteen miles from Florence.

Busiris.—Name given to the Pharaohs of the Red Sea. \ Memphian chivalry.—The horsemen and charioteers who followed the Israelites.