INTRODUCTION TO PARADISE LOST.

Or Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse,1 that, on the secret top
Of Oreb,2 or of Sinai, didst inspire

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,"
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill'

Delight Thee more, and Siloa's brooks that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke Thy aid to my adventurous song,10

1 Milton invokes God Himself to in-
spire him to sing of the loss of
Eden and its results.

2 Oreb, or Horeb, a lower peak of Mount Sinai, which still bears the same name. The word means "the dry," "the desert." Some, however, think it was the general name for the whole mountain group, of which Sinai was a particular peak.

3 Sinai,the mountain in the Arabian Peninsula, near the Red Sea, where God delivered the Law to Moses.

4 Moses-who lived, at the time, as a shepherd, in that region.

5 the chosen seed, the people of Israel.

6 Chaos, the dark and shapeless confusion which Scripture says existed before God brought order

forth at the creation. Notice the inversion of the sentence. God taught Moses "how the heavens and earth rose, &c., in the beginning," not "taught Moses in the beginning," &c.

7 Sion hill, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built. It was spoken of as the dwelling place of God-"O Thou that dwellest in Zion "-from the Temple being in Jerusalem.

8 Siloa's brook. The spring and pool of Siloam are at the S.E. corner of Jerusalem.

9 The Temple.

10 He invokes God to help him out of Zion, and from beside Siloa's brook, if that delight Him more than Horeb or Sinai, i.e. if He now dwell there.

That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount," while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit,12 that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou knowest; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,18
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine; what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great argument14
I may assert15 Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Say first for Heaven hides nothing from Thy view,
Nor the deep tract of Hell; say, first, what cause
Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state,
Favour'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress His will
For one restraint,16 lords of the world besides?
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

The infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind,17 what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
Of rebel Angels; by whose aid, aspiring

1 Mount Helicon, in Boeotia, in
Greece, the seat of the Muses.

12 The Holy Spirit.

13 Gen. 1, 2.

Milton uses the Hebrew word exactly aright when he says, "dove like, sat'st brooding."

14 That through all the grandeur of

this great subject of discourse.

15 assert, maintain successfully (the wisdom and goodness of Providence.)

16 On account of one restraint-one prohibition, "although lords," &c.

17 Eve.

To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
If he opposed; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God

Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurl'd headlong, flaming, from the ethereal sky,18
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition; there to dwell
In adamantine19 chains and penal fire,20
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men,21 he, with his horrid crew,
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded, though immortal. But his doom
Reserved him to more wrath; for, now, the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes,22
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,
Mixed with obdurate's pride and steadfast hate.
At once, as far as Angel's ken,24 he views

The dismal situation waste and wild.

A dungeon horrible on all sides round,

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,

18 sky, the upper sky, which the
pure ether fills.

19 adamantine, unbreakable-lit. hard as diamond.

20 penal fire, fire kindled as a punishment.

22 Eyes full of misery and terror,

mingled with pride and hate. hardened against

23 obdurate,

(God).

21 As the ken, or range of sight, of an angel.

21 After falling from heaven, Satan, with his host, lay stunned, and confounded.

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed;
Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
For those rebellious; here their prison ordained
In utter25 darkness, and their portion set,
As far removed from God and light of heaven,
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.26

HE scarce had ceased, when the superior Fiend
Was moving toward the shore:1 his ponderous shield,
Ethereal temper,2 massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass3 the Tuscan artist views
At evening, from the top of Fesolè,5

6

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
His spear-to equal which the tallest pine.

25 utter-outer, farthest off-hence,

perfect, total.

26 As thrice from the centre of the
earth to the pole on which, not
the world, but the universe re-
volves,

1 the shore of the burning lake.
2 Of surpassing hardness, such as we
may suppose of a shield tempered

in the ethereal or heavenly re-
gions

3 optic glass, the telescope.
4 Galileo.

He first employed the telescope for astronomical purposes, in 1609.

5 A height close to Florence.

6 Valdarno, the Vale of the River Arno.

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral,' were but a wand—
He walked with, to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle; not like those steps
On heaven's azure; and the torrids clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire.
Nathless he so endured, till on the beach
Of that inflamèd1o sea he stood, and call'd
His legions-Angel Forms, who lay entranced
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow" the brooks
In Vallombrosa,12 where the Etrurian1s shades,
High over-arch'd, imbower; or scattered sedge14
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orìon15 armed
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris16 and his Memphian" chivalry,

While with perfidious18 hatred they pursued
The sojourners of Goshen,19 who beheld
From the safe shore their floating carcases

ammiral, or admiral, here, of the
ship, also, an admiral.

8 torrid, scorching.
9nathless, nevertheless, an old

English word used by Chaucer,
but seemingly not by Shakspeare.

10 inflamed, burning.

strow. This would now be strew. 12 Vallombrosa, "The shady valley," 18 miles from Florence. Milton was at Florence in 1638.

13 Etrurian, Tuscan.

14 sedge, flags or coarse grass. The Red Sea is in Hebrew "The Weedy Sea."

15 The constellation Orion is called armed because of its "sword"