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"Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest
"Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.”

So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell
Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock
Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
Against the day of battle, to a field

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Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured
With scent of living carcasses designed

For death, the following day, in bloody fight:

So scented the grim feature, and upturned
His nostril wide into the murky air;

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Sagacious of his quarry from so far.

Then both from out Hell-gates, into the waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,

Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great)
Hovering upon the waters, what they met

Solid or slimy (as in raging sea

Tost up and down), together crowded drove,

From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell:
As when two polar winds, blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian sea, together drive

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A As when a look of ravenous fowl, &c.-In Matt. xxiv. 28, we are told "wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together;" and many bustances are on record to prove the wonderful acuteness of sight and smell by which, in warm countries, vultures are promptly guided to the spot where their services are needed to remove the offenAs the object of any sense must be an actual existence, it is of course a poetic serion that ravenous foul can be allured with scent gebring carcasses designed The parallel case of the presentiment of a battle at sea, which sailors ascribe to sharks, may admit of explanation from the attractions of the refuse of the ships' kitchens, which might alone induce the attendance of sharks in the wake of each fleet. Milton may have had in view the description given by Lucan (Pharsal. viii. 831), of the vultures following the Roman camp, and scenting the slaughter at Pharsalia before the battle was fought

Neature-figure, forms sagacious of his quarry-quick-scented to discover his prey, according to the original meaning of the word in Latin

The Cronian sea, the northern frozen ocean: the imagined way,he North-west Passage, so long sought for, and discovered in 1853 by Lurer Avisora river in the province of Archangel, flowing into northern oceans it was also the name of a city, and an extensive pro

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PARADISE LOST.

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Mountains of ice, that stop the imagine.
Beyond Petsora eastward, to the ri
Cathaian coast. The aggregated s01:
Death, with his mace petrific, com, an '.
As with a trident, smote, and fixed a LL!
As Delos, floating once: the rest is 100
Bound with Gorgonian rigour not o
And with asphaltic slime, broad as the ga
Deep to the roots of Hell the gathere
They fastened; and the mole immense
Over the foaming deep high arched,
Of length prodigious, joining
Immoveable of this now fenceless work
Forfeit to Death; from hence a passa
Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to lis
So, if great things to small may be c
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to your
From Susa, his Memnonian palace ?
Came to the sea; and, over.
Bridging his way, Europe with Asia
And scourged with many a stroke t
Now had they brought the work,
Hellespor
vince of the north of Russia: Cathaian
called Cathay by the Europeans when the.

to the wa

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1 Petrific,-converting substances into si Its name in Greek means manifest, in allus 2 Delos,-an island in the centre of the originally floated under the surface of th of the sea) struck it with his trident, causir. fixing it, that it might become the birth-pla substances not yet solid, but soft and slimy, have their heads covered with snakes instea 3 Gorgonian rigour,-the Gorgons were t terrible as to turn all beholders instantly for 4 Forfeit,-used for the participle "forfelt 5 Xerxes, king of Persia, aiming at the reached the Hellespont, or "Straits of channel dividing Europe from Asia, mad boats, for the passage of his immens the chief seat of the Persian king Memnonian, from its founder Meer ordered the sea to be scourged Scourged...the waves,-alinding

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Pontifical,1-
1-a ridge of pendent rock,
Over the vexed abyss (following the track
Of Satan to the self-same place where he
First lighted from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos), to the outside bare

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Of this round world: with pins of adamant

And chains they made all fast-too fast they made

And durable! And now in little space

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The confines meet of empyréan Heaven,

And of this world; and, on the left hand, Hell

With long reach interposed; three several ways,
In sight, to each of these three places led.
And now their way to Earth they had descried,
To Paradise first tending; when, behold
Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright,
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering
His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:
Disguised he came; but those his children dear
Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.
He, after Eve seduced,3 unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape
To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act

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By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded

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Upon her husband-saw their shame that sought

Vain covertures: but when he saw descend

The Son of God to judge them, terrified
He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun

The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath

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Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned

1 Art pontifical,-the art of building bridges, as pontifice, bridge-work (1. 348). In ancient Rome, the first bridge over the Tiber, which was of wood, was built, and often repaired, under the superintendence of the priests-hence called " pontifices."

2 Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering.-Satan, on a former visit (b. iv. 1. 569), had been discovered by Uriel, regent of the sun; to avoid this danger, he now keeps at as great a distance as possible, directing his course to the zenith, perpendicularly above the earth, between the constellations Centaur and Scorpion, while the sun rose in Aries, in a different quarter of the heavens.

3 After Eve seduced,-a Latin construction for "after seducing Eve."

By night, and listening where the hapless pair
Sat in their sad discourse and various plaint,
Thence gathered his own doom; which understood
Not instant, but of future time, with joy

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And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned;
And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot
Of this new wondrous pontifice, 2 unhoped

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Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear. Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight Of that stupendous bridge his joy increased. Long he admiring stood; till Sin, his fair, Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke: "O parent! these are thy magnific deeds"Thy trophies! which thou viewst as not thine own: 355 "Thou art their author and prime architect:

"For I no sooner in my heart divined

"(My heart, which by a secret harmony

"Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet)

"That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks 360

"Now also evidence, but straight I felt,

"Though distant from the worlds between-yet felt "That I must after thee, with this thy son;

"Such fatal consequence unites us three.

"Hell could no longer hold us in her bounds,

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"Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure
"Detain from following thy illustrious track:
"Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined3
"Within Hell-gates till now; thou us empowered
"To fortify thus far, and overlay,

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"With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss.
"Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won
"What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gained,
"With odds, what war hath lost; and fully avenged

Which understood not instant,—which [being] understood not to be instant, but remote: with joy and tidings,—i. e. with joyful tidings. 2 Pontifice,-See 1. 313, note.

3 Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined, &c.,i. e. the liberty of us conAned; see similar constructions, b. iv. L 129; viii. 1. 423; ix. l. 909.

"Our foil in Heaven; here thou shalt monarch reign-375 "There didst not: there let him still victor sway "As battle hath adjudged—from this new world

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Retiring, by his own doom alienated;

"And henceforth monarchy with thee divide "Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds, “ His quadrature,1 from thy orbicular world ; "Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne." Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answered glad: "Fair daughter! and thou son and grandchild both! High proof ye now have given to be the race

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"Of Satan (for I glory in the name,

"Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty king);3

"Amply have merited of me, of all

"The infernal empire, that, so near Heaven's door, “Triumphal with triumphal act have met,

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"Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm, "Hell and this world-one realm, one continent "Of easy thoroughfare. Therefore, while I

"Descend through darkness, on your road with ease,
"To my associate Powers, them to acquaint
"With these successes, and with them rejoice,

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"You two this way, among these numerous orbs,

"All yours, right down to Paradise descend;

"There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the Earth "Dominion exercise and in the air,

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"Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared:

"Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.

"My substitutes I send ye, and create

"Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might

"Issuing from me; on your joint vigour now

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1 His quadrature,-the world is described as orbicular, or in the form of a globe; the empyreal heavens, as a quadrature or square, taking the idea from Rev. xxi. 16, where the holy city is so described.

2 Son and grandchild,—death is thus described as the immediate effect of sin, and the more remote effect of the agency of Satan, by which man was tempted to sin.

3 Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty king;-alluding to the meaning of the name Satan, an adversary.

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