"After the toil of battle, to repose

"Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find

"To slumber here, as in the vales of heav'n?
"Or in this abject posture have you sworn
"To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds
"Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
"With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon
"His swift pursuers from heav'n gates discern
"Th' 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!

Myriads of spirits rose at the call, numberless as a pitchy cloud of locusts. Their leaders, godlike forms who before had sat on thrones in heaven, came singly before their emperor at his bidding, while the promiscuous crowd stood aloof. All flocked with downcast and damped looks, in which gleamed some obscure glimpse of joy, and Satan with high words raised their drooping courage. His mighty ensign was unfurled to the sound of trumpets and clarions, while a shout arose that frighted the realms of night and chaos, and in a moment innumerable banners, and a huge forest of spears, and helms, and shields shone in dense array, and the phalanx, inspired not by rage but deliberate valor, moved forwards to the Doric measures of flutes and soft recorders. Satan's heart distended with pride as he viewed the concourse; and when he prepared to speak, the double ranks mute with attention, bent from wing to wing half enclosing him and his peers. Thrice he essayed to address them, and thrice, in spite of scor, was checked by the outburst of

such tears as angels weep. He told them, according to the prophecy of heaven, of the creation of a new world and of man, and referred them to a full council to deliberate what course they should pursue. As he spake there flew out to confirm his words millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs of mighty cherubim, the sudden blaze of which illumined hell. The hosts betook themselves to new labors, and there arose, like an exhalation, a huge temple adorned with pilasters and Doric pillars on whose friezes were graven bossy sculptures, while the roof was of fretted gold, pendant from which starry lamps and brazen cressets yielded light as from a sky. Satan presided at the council on a throne of royal state, and displayed his proud imagination in the discussion; declaring that he gave not up heaven for lost, but doubted whether by open war or covert stratagem to regain their power. Moloch, the strongest and fiercest spirit that fought in heaven, declared for open war, and ended with a frown that denounced desperate revenge. Belial, more graceful and humane, than whom a fairer person lost not heaven, who seemed composed for high exploit and dignity, but who, while his tongue dropped manna, would make the worse appear the better reason— Belial counselled from their present condition that they should not further by open war aggravate the hostility of the Almighty; urging that when conformed in temper and nature to the place where they then dwelt, its fierce heat would grow familiar and its fervent horrors mild. Mammon offered a similar argument, adding that their

desert soil was not deficient in gems or gold, nor themselves in skill from which to raise magnificence. Loud applause greeted this proposal, for the hosts were inclined to peace; the thunder and sword of Michael still wrought within them, and they dreaded another field worse than hell. When Beelzebub perceived this, he rose,

And in his rising seem'd

A pillar of state; deep on his front ingraven
Deliberation sat, and public care;

And princely counsel in his face yet shone
Majestic, though in ruin.

His look drew the attention of the multitude, and they remained as still as night, or the air of a summer's noon. He discouraged the lazy argument of peace; but without suggesting any desperate conflict, proposed an easier enterprise against the newly created world and man, where some advantage, either by onset or by guile, might be gained over the favored offspring of heaven. The infernal powers highly exulted at the bold design, and joy sparkled in their eyes as they voted their full assent. All looked astonished, and pondered deeply by whom the perilous attempt should be undertaken. Satan, with unmoved dignity, pointed out the dangers of the design, offered to encounter them, and desired his mighty powers to intend at home whatever might render hell more tolerable, while he abroad, through the courts of destruction, with none to partake his enterprise, sought deliverance for them all. Thus ended the council, and the hosts dispersed, while

I

Satan winged his way to the gates of hell, before which, guarding the portals, sat Sin and Death. Satan promises to both dominion in the earth, at which they favored his departure,

And Death

Grinn'd horribly a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be fill'd.

They drew up the huge portcullis and set wide the infernal doors, at whose feet yawned the illimitable ocean of chaos. The wary fiend standing on the brink of hell looked awhile into the abyss, pondering his voyage, while loud and ruinous noises pealed in his ears. At last he spread his wings, and after a slight ascent, met with a void space where his pinions fluttered in vain, and he dropped down ten thousand fathoms, until a cloud hurried him as many miles aloft, and wading half on foot and half flying through a boggy syrtis, he reached the throne of chaos and communed with the old anarch-then springing up like a pyramid of fire through the shock of fighting elements, he moved on with difficulty and labor until he reached the glimmering dawn of light on the last verge of nature, and there weighing his spread wings he paused to behold at leisure the far off heaven, once his habitation, adorned with opal towers and battlements of living sapphire, from which by a golden chain hung the world, small as a little star close by the moon, and thither in proud malevolence he bent his inauspicious way.

The progress of Satan was tracked by the Almighty power, who foretold the success of his purpose and revealed the mystery of human redemption, at which the multitude of angels, with a shout loud and sweet as from blest voices uttering joy, sang loud hosannahs, bent in adoration before the throne, and cast down their crowns interwoven of amarant and gold, until the bright pavement shone like a sea of jasper empurpled with celestial roses. In the mean time Satan alighted on the bare convex of the world's outermost orb, and walked up and down in gloomy solitude, intent on his prey, until at last a gleam of light attracted his attention, and he descried afar off a high structure of stairs, at the top of which appeared a palace gate embellished with diamond and gold, while beneath flowed a bright sea of liquid pearl. From thence he

looked down with wonder on the sudden view of the earth, and winding his oblique way amongst innumerable stars, threw his precipitate flight downwards into the first region of the system. Above all the sun allured him; there he alighted and saw the glorious angel Uriel, on whose head was a golden tiar of sunbeams, while his locks waved over his shoulders fledged with wings. Satan then assumed the guise of a stripling cherub, and having accosted the archangel in hypocritical accents, at length landed on the earth upon the summit of Mount Niphates. There, while in sight of paradise, he was filled with doubts and misgivings; but he overleaped the walls of Eden, and, like a cormorant, sat upon the tree of life, which overtopped the rest, and viewed the scene around him.