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Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat

Second to thee, offered himself to die

For man's offence. Oh, unexampled love!

Love nowhere to be found less than Divine!

Love nowhere to be found less than Divine!

Hail, Son of God, Saviour of men! Thy name

Shall be the copious matter of my song

Henceforth, and never shall my heart thy praise

Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin.

Thus they in heaven, above the starry sphere, Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent. Meanwhile upon the firm opacous globe Of this round World, whose first convex divides The luminous inferior orbs, enclosed From Chaos, and the inroad of Darkness old, Satan alighted walks. A globe far off It seemed, now seems a boundless continent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night Starless, exposed, and ever-threatening storms Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky; Save on that side which, from the wall of heaven, Though distant far, some small reflection gains Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud. Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field. As when a vulture on Imaus¹ bred, Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yearling kids, On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams; But in his way lights on the barren plains Of Sericana, where Chineses drive With sails and wind their cany wagons light: So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey;

Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars,

Book III., lines 473, 474.

¹ Imaus.—The snow-cowned Himalaya mountains.

\* Cany wagons.—Light vehicles, constructed of bamboo.