THE VERSE.

The measure is English heroic verse without rhyme,

as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; grac'd indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part, worse than else they would have expressid them.

Not without cause, therefore, some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial, and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned Ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect then, of rhyme, so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers,

that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered 20 heroic poem, from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.

PARADISE LOST.

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BOOK I.

Che Argument.
This First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, Man's,

disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he
was plac'u: then touches the prime cause of his fall, the ser-
pent, or rather Satan in the serpent; who revolting from God,
and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was by the
command of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into
the great Deep. Which action passid over, the Poem hastes
into the midst of things, prescating Satan with his angels now
falling into Hell, describ'd here, not in the center (for Heaven
and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet
accursed) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos:
here Satan with his angels lying on the burning lake, thunder-
struck and astonish'd, after a certain space recovers as from
confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity

lay by him; they confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens'all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded: they rise, their numbers, array of baitel, their chief leaders nam'd, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaam and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them, lastly, of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven: for that angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemoniuin the palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: the infernal Peers there sit in council. Of 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, tillionė greater Man ,.' Restore-us, and regain the blissful seaty Guiana

Sing heav'nly Muse ! that on the sccret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the Chasen Seed,
In the beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos : or if Sion hill

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Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues 15
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly Thou, O Spi'rit ! that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread 20
Dove-like satse brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal Providence,

25 And justify the ways

of God to men. Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell, say first what cause Mov'd our grand parents, in that happy state, Favor'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off 30 From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides ? Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt? Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile, Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceiv'd 35

The Mother of mankind, what time his prido
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory' above his peers,
He trusted to have equall'd the Most High, 40
If be oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Rais'd impious war in Heav'n and bartel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurl'd headlong flaming from th'ethereal sky, 15
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantin chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he wilh his horrid crew
Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal : but his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath ; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 55
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes,
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mix'di with obdurate pride and stedfast hate :
At once, as far as angels ken, he views
The dismal situation waste and wild;

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A dungeon horrible on all sides round
As one great furnace flam'd, yet from those dames
No light, but rather darkness visible

Serv'd only to discover sights of woc, i Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where Peace 65

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