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Fell with us from on high. From them I go

This uncouth errand sole; and, one for all,

Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread

The unfounded deep, and through the void immense

To search with wandering quest a place foretold

Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now

Created, vast and round, a place of bliss

In the purlieus of heaven, and therein placed

In the purlieus of neaven, and therein placed

A race of upstart creatures, to supply

Perhaps our vacant room; though more removed,

Lest heaven, surcharged with potent multitude,

Might hap to move new broils. Be this or aught

Than this more secret now designed, I haste

To know; and, this once known, shall soon return,

And bring ye to the place where thou and Death

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen

Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed

With odours; there ye shall be fed and filled Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey.

He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased; and Death Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear His famine should be filled; and blessed his maw Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire:

The key of this infernal pit by due,

And by command of heaven's all-powerful King,

I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates; against all force

Death ready stands to interpose his dart,

Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might.

But what owe I to His commands above

Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down

Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To sit in hateful office here confined,

Inhabitant of heaven, and heavenly born,

Here, in perpetual agony and pain,

With terrors and with clamours compassed round

Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou

My being gavest me; whom should I obey

But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon

To that new world of light and bliss, among

The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems

Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.

PARADISE LOST.

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took; And towards the gate rolling her bestial train, Forthwith the huge portcullis high updrew, Which but herself, not all the Stygian powers Could once have moved; then in the key-hole turns The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens. On a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She opened, but to shut Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood That with extended wings a bannered host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through, With horse and chariots ranked in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.

Before their eyes in sudden view appear

The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark

Illimitable ocean, without bound,

Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height,

^\ Purlicus.—Adjacent and open parts. \ The bus

³ The buxom air .- Light, yielding.

¹ Erebus.—Dark shades below, through which spirits were supposed to pass into Hades.