The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-01-14
Gboite Qoetie Ssleftlons.
Beauties of Paradise Lost---BoOk 1.
NUMBER ONE.

MnTcN's Invocation is at orce grand and
natural, more especially when he passes from
the Pagan powers OF poetry to the Deity:
Of mans first disobedience, and the fruit
OF that forbidden tree. whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our wo,
With loss Of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore US, and regain the biisstui seat,
Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the sacred top
OF Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd. who FIRST taught the chosen
seed.
In the beginning, how the heavens and certh
Rose out of chaos : or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Silva's brook, that
flowed
Fast by the oracle of God; thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song.
That with no middle fight intends to soar
Above the AOuian mount, while il pursue5
Thirgs uninterrupted yet, in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly Thou, Q Spirit. that dost prefer
Before all temples tn upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou knOwest; Thou from
the first
Vast present, and with mighty wings out
spread,
Dove like sat bro7ding on the dark abyss,
And madSt it pregnant: what in me is dark
lllumine; what is low raise and support;
That to The height Of this great argument
| may assert eternal Providence,
And Justify the ways of God to men,
The description Of Lucifsr, and the infer
nal abode to which he had been expelled by
the juss sentence of offended heaven, is thus
given:
But bis doom
Reserved him to more wrath for now the
thought
Both of lost happiness. and lasting pain,
Torments him !; round he throws bis baleful
eyes.
That witnessed huge affection and dismay,
Mixed with obdnrate pride and stedfast hate:
Al once, as far angels ken, ne views
The dismal situation waste and wild;
A dungeon horrible on all sides round,
As one great furnace famed yet from those
flames
No light, but rGGie7 darkness visiJZe
Served only 10 discover sights Of wo,
Regions Of sorrow, doeful shades, where
peace
And re t can never dwell. hope never comes
That comes TO all; but torture without end
Still urges, add fiery deluge. fed
With ever burning sulphur uuconsumfd;
Such place eternal justice had prepared
For those rebellicus; here their prism or
daned
Ia utter darkness and their portion set
As far removed from God and light Of Heaven
As from the centre thrice TO the utmost pole
0 how unlike the lace from whence they
Then follows Satan's address to Bee!zsbub,
wherein he assures his co-corsp pirator that
Though the field be losl.
All is not lost /; the unconquerable will,
And study Of revenge immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.
He afterwards solaces himself that
Here we may reign secure. and in my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell :
Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven
The marshaling e bis hosts by IIucifer has
been pronounced by some critics an irnita-
ton of Homer's description of the arraying
of the Greeks before the walls of Troy, but
they should bear IN mind that this assembly
Of the fallen angels was a necessity growing
out of the subject treated by our poet What
can be more sublime than the poets pen
picture of the arch-fend at the head of his
hosts
He. above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tower: his form had not yet lost
All her original brightness. nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
OF glory obscured.
Or that of Mammon leading the inrerual
spirits in the search for gold:
Maumon led them on
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From heaven: for even in heaven his looks
and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heavens pavement, trodden
gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
10 vision beatifc; by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransacked the centre, and with impious
hands,
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Opened into the bill spacious wound,
Aud digged out ribs Of gold. Let none ad-
mlre
That riches grow in hell that soil may best
Deserve the precious bdne.