of your Kingdom, but wander this darkfome Defart by Constraint, as my Way up to Light lies thro' your fpacious Empire; I feek which is the readiest Path that leads where your dark Bounds join to thofe of Heaven; or if the celeftial King poffeffes fome other Place lately won from your Dominion, I travel this dangerous Path to go thither; do you direct my Course, which if you do, it will bring no mean Recompence to your Advantage; if that Region be left, and I can (expelling thence all Ufurpation) reduce it to original Darkness, and your Sway, (which is the Intent of my prefent Journey) and once more establish there the Government of antient NIGHT; let yours be all the Advantage, and only mine the Revenge!

THUS fpoke SATAN, and thus old CHAOS answer'd him, with a Vifage uncompos'd, and faultering in his Speech:

STRANGER, I know thee, who thou art, that mighty leading Angel, who lately made Oppofition against the King of Heaven, though overthrown; I saw and heard; for fuch a numerous Army did not fly in Silence thro' the affrighted Deep, with Ruin upon Ruin, and Rout upon Rout, Confufion worse confounded; and the Gates of Heaven pour'd her victorious Bands in Pursuit, out by Millions. I upon my Borders here keep Refidence, if all I can do will ferve, I fhall not be wanting to strive to defend that Little which is yet left me, being continually encroach'd on thro' our inteftine Wars, which weaken the Power of old NIGHT: First was Hell, your Dungeon, ftretching far and wide below; and now lately Heaven and Earth, another World, hung o'er my Kingdom, link'd in a golden Chain, and is on that Side of Heaven from whence your Legions fell: If that be the Way you would go, you have not very far: (fo much the nearer are you to Danger) Go, and Succefs be

with you, for all Havock, Spoil, and Ruin are my Gain.

HE faid no more, and SATAN did not stay to make him a Reply, but glad that he was like to find a Shore to this Sea, with fresh Chearfulness and renew'd Force, he springs upwards like a Pyramid (m) of Fire into the wide Firmament, and forces his Way thro' the Shock of Elements, fighting on all Sides round him; in more Danger and harder befet, than when the ARGO (n) pass'd thro' the BOSPHORUS, (0) H 3 betwixt

(m) Pyramid; Gr. i. e. A Fire, a Geometrical Term. A Pyramid is a Heap of fquare Stones, rifing up like a Flame of Fire in four Squares. There are about 80 Pyramids near Grand Cairo in Egypt, the Wonder of the World to this Day, tho' they have stood 4000 Years, and may continue as long again; three of them are very large, befides many fmall

ones.

The Arabs call them Dgebel Pharaon, and the Turks Pharaon Deglary, i. e. Pharaob's Hills. Mr. Lucas faw above 20,000 Pyramids near Cafarea in Leffer Afia.

(n) Argo; Lat. Gr. i. e. Swift; because of her fwift failing; being rowed with 50 Oars, which was a new Invention of Jafon; or from the Builder of it; and Cicero derives it from the Argives or Greeks, who fail'd in it. The Ship wherein Jason and other valiant Greeks made a famous Expedition to Colchos, now Mingrelia, Georgia and Iberia, upon the Pontus, to bring from thence

the golden Fleece into Greece. The Expedition of rhe Argonauts, celebrated in antient History, was in the Reign of Egeus, King of Athens, about A. M. 2714. Before Chrift 1284. It was no more than a bold and new Voyage to bring home fine Wool, the valuable Commodity of that Country, as the British Wool is now; or carrying off the Treasure of the King of Colchis, which confifted of Gold, gathered out of the Rivers, by the Help of a Ram's Fleece; becaufe Gaza, Heb. fignifies a Treature and a Fleece: The two Bulls and a Dragon were the two Walls round the Caftle, and a Brafs Gate. For Sour, Heb. fignifies both a Bull and a Gate; Brafs and a Dragon.

(0) Bofphorus, Bosporus, or Bojperus; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. The Paffage of an Ox, as we fay Oxford. A Paffage into the Euxine Sea, by Conftantino ple, thro' which Jafon pals'd with much Difficulty and Danger in this Voyage. It is fo trait and narrow, that Cattle swim

betwixt the crowded Rocks; or when ULYSSES (P) fhunn'd CHARYBDIS (q) on the Larboard Side, and steer'd by the Whirpool of SCYLLA: So did SATAN move on, and pafs with great Difficulty and very hard Labour; but he having once pafs'd, foon after when MAN fell, was a ftrange Alteration; for SIN and DEATH quickly following his Path, (fuch was the Will of Heaven) pav'd after him a very broad and beaten Way over the dark Gulph, and built thereon a Bridge of wondrous Length, continu'd from Hell, and reaching to the outmost Orb of this frail World; over which the perverse and fallen Spirits pafs and repass with an easy Intercourse, to punish Mortals, or lead them into Temptation, excepting fuch, who by more efpecial Grace, are guarded by GoD and good Angels.

BUT now at laft appears the facred Influence of Light, and far into the Bofom of dim NIGHT fhoots a glimmering Dawn from the Walls of Heaven; NATURE firft begins here her fartheft Bounds, and CHAos retires from her outmoft Works like a broken Foe, with lefs Tumult and lefs hoftile Noife; fo that SATAN

SATAN with little Toil, (and prefently with Eafe) paffes on calm Waves, affifted by fome fmall Degree of Light; and like a weather-beaten Veffel is glad to find Harbour, tho' her Shrouds and Tackling be all damag'd and torn; or elfe in the emptier Wafte fomething refembling the Air, lies on his fpread Wings to behold at Leifure the diftant empyreal Heaven, in Circuit extended wide, but its Form and Limits not determin'd; with Towers of precious Stones and Battlements of living Saphires, (r) once the native Seat of SATAN; and juft by was this pendent World, hanging in a golden Chain, in Bignefs about the Size of one of the smallest Stars, and clofe by the Moon. Thither accurfed, and in an accurfed Hour he haftens, quite fill'd with Malice and mifchievous Revenge.