Chapter 7 7

Titanian, or Earth-born, that warrd on Jove, Briareos or Typhon, whom the Den By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast [200] Leviathan, which God of all his works Created huge that swim th Ocean stream: Him happily slumbring on the Norway foam The Pilot of some small night-founderd Skiff, Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell, [ 205 ] With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind Moors by his side under the Lee, while Night Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delays: So stretch out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay Chaind on the burning Lake, nor ever thence [ 210 ] Had risn or heaved his head, but that the will

And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation, while he sought [ 215 ] Evil to others, and enragd might see How all his malice servd but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn On Man by him seduct, but on himself Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour. [ 220 ] Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames Drivn backward slope thir pointing spires, and rowld In billows, leave it midst a horrid Vale. Then with expanded wings he stears his flight [ 225 ]

Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land He lights, if it were Land that ever burnt With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire; And such appeared in hue, as when the force [ 230 ] Of subterranean wind transports a Hill Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side Of thundring Ætna, whose combustible And feweled entrances thence conceiving Fire, Sublimd with Mineral fury, aid the Winds, [ 235 ]