And time and place are lost; where eldest Night

Thir embryon Atoms; they around the flag [ 900 ]

His dark materials to create more Worlds,

At length a universal hubbub wilde

Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance, [ 965 ]

Unless th Almighty Maker them ordain [ 915 ]

Chance governs all. Into this wilde Abyss, [ 910 ]

Great things with small) then when Bellona storms,

Of Chaos, and his dark Pavilion spread [ 960 ]

Swarm populous, unnumberd as the Sands

As many miles aloft: that furie stayd,

Of each his faction, in thir several Clanns,

Of endless Warrs, and by confusion stan９9lib•nｅｔd.

Borne through the hollow dark assaults his eare

Of stunning sounds and voices all confusd

Eternal Anarchie, amidst the noise

The Consort of his Reign; and by them stood

But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,

Thir lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,

Light-armd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or slow,

With winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale,

Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets

Before thir eyes in sudden view appear [ 890 ]

Without dimension, where length, breadth, & highth,

Bordering on九九藏书网 light; when strait behold the Throne

With all her battering Engines bent to rase

Nor good dry Land: nigh founderd on he fares, [ 940 ]

In mutinie had from her Axle torn

A vast vacuitie: all unawares

Ore bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,

Of Heavn were falling, and these Elements [ 925 ]

And Tumult and Confusion all imbroild,

Ten thousand fadom deep, and to this hour

Illimitable Ocean without bound,

With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,

The stedfast Earth. At last his Sail-broad Vannes

Pondering his Voyage: for no narrow frith

As in九九藏书网 a cloudy Chair ascending rides [ 930 ]

Half flying; behoves him now both Oare and Saile.

Uplifted spurns the ground, thence many a League

By which he Reigns: next him high Arbiter

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoak

Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss

The strong rebuff of som tumultuous cloud

Down had been falling, had not by ill chance [ 935 ]

Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,

And Chaos, Ancestors of Nature, hold [ 895 ]

The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,

Confusdly, and which thus must ever fight,

Quencht in a Boggy Syrtis, neither Sea,

He hawｗw.9９ｌib.nｅｔd to cross. Nor was his eare less peald [ 920 ]

Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flyes: [ 950 ]

Strive here for Maistrie, and to Battel bring

Of Barca or Cyrenes torrid soil,

The secrets of the hoarie deep, a dark

Undaunted to meet there what ever power [ 955 ]

Hee rules a moment; Chaos Umpire sits,

The guarded Gold: So eagerly the fiend

Levied to side with warring Winds, and poise [ 905 ]

Which way the neerest coast of darkness lyes

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare

Instinct with Fire and Nitre hurried him

Sat Sable-veste藏书网d Night, eldest of things,

And by decision more imbroiles the fray

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four Champions fierce

Stood on the brink of Hell and lookd a while,

Had from his wakeful custody purloind

With loudest vehemence: thither he plyes,

Som Capital City; or less then if this frame

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stelth [ 945 ]

Wide on the wasteful Deep; with him Enthrond

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness

Into this wild Abyss the warie fiend

Fluttring his pennons vain plumb down he drops

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.