Page:Paradise Lost (1667).djvu/68

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530As at th’ Olympian Games or Pythian fields;
Part curb thir fierie Steeds, or ſhun the Goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted Brigads form.
As when to warn proud Cities warr appears
Wag’d in the troubl’d Skie, and Armies ruſh
To Battel in the Clouds, before each Van
Pric forth the Aerie Knights, and couch thir ſpears
Till thickeſt Legions cloſe; with feats of Arms
From either end of Heav’n the welkin burns.
Others with vaſt Typhæan rage more fell
540Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air
In whirlwind; Hell ſcarce holds the wilde uproar.
As when Alcides, from Oealia Crown’d
With conqueſt, felt th’ envenom’d robe, and tore
Through pain up by the roots Theſſalian Pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th’ Euboic Sea. Others more milde,
Retreated in a ſilent valley, ſing
With notes Angelical to many a Harp
Thir own Heroic deeds and hapleſs fall
550By doom of ſattel; and complain that Fate
Free Vertue ſhould enthrall to Force or Chance.
Thir ſong was partial, but the harmony
(What could it leſs when Spirits immortal ſing?)
Suſpended Hell, and took with raviſhment
The thronging audience. In diſcourſe more ſweet
(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Senſe,)
Others apart ſat on a Hill retir’d,
I n houghts more elevate, and reaſon’d high
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate,
560Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge abſolute,
And found no end, in wandring mazes loſt.