BOOK THIRD
��Drawn round about thee like a radiant
shrine
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts ap- pear, 380 Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil
their eyes.
Thee next they sang, of all creation first, Begotten Son, Divine Similitude, In whose conspicuous countenance, without
cloud
Made visible, the Almighty Father shines, Whom else no creature can behold : on thee Impressed the effulgence of his glory
abides;
Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests. He Heaven of Heavens, and all the Powers
therein, 390
By thee created ; and by thee threw down The aspiring Dominations. Thou that day Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not
spare, Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that
shook Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the
necks
Thou drov'st of warring Angels disarrayed. Back from pursuit, thy Powers with loud
acclaim Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father's
might,
To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. Not so on Man: him, through their malice
fallen, 400
Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not
doom
So strictly, but much more to pity encline. No sooner did thy dear and only Son Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail
Man
So strictly, but much more to pity enclined, He, to appease thy wrauth, and end the
strife
Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned, Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat Second to thee, offered himself to die 409 For Man's offence. O unexampled love ! 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 harp thy
praise
Forget, nor from thy Father's praise dis- join !
��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 420 From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old, Satan alighted walks. A globe far off It seemed; now seems a boundless conti- nent, 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. 430
As when a vultur, on Imaus bred, Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar
bounds,
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling
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 waggons
light;
So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend 440 Walked up and down alone, bent on his
prey:
Alone, for other creature in this place, Living or lifeless, to be found was none; None yet; but store hereafter from the
Earth
Up hither like aerial vapours flew Of all things transitory and vain, when sin With vanity had filled the works of men Both all things vain, and all who in vain
things Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting
fame,
Or happiness in this or the other life. 450 All who have their reward on earth, the
fruits
�� �
