Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven:

The overthrown he raised, and as a herd

Of goats or timorous flock together thronged

Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued

With terrors, and with furies, to the bounds

And crystal wall of Heaven; which, opening wide,

Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed

Into the wasteful deep: The monstrous sight

Struck them with horror backward, but far worse

Urged them behind: Headlong themselves they threw

Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath

Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.

Hell heard the unsufferable noise, Hell saw

Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled

Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep

Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.

Nine days they fell: Confounded Chaos roared,

And felt tenfold confusion in their fall

Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout

Incumbered him with ruin: Hell at last

Yawning received them whole, and on them closed;

Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire

Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.

Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired

Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled.

Sole victor, from the expulsion of his foes,

Messiah his triumphal chariot turned:

To meet him all his Saints, who silent stood

Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,

With jubilee advanced; and, as they went,

Shaded with branching palm, each Order bright,

Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King,

Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,

Worthiest to reign: He, celebrated, rode

Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the courts

And temple of his Mighty Father throned

On high; who into glory him received,

Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss.

Thus, measuring things in Heaven by things on Earth,

At thy request, and that thou mayest beware

By what is past, to thee I have revealed

What might have else to human race been hid;

The discord which befell, and war in Heaven

Among the angelic Powers, and the deep fall

Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled

With Satan; he who envies now thy state,

Who now is plotting how he may seduce

Thee also from obedience, that, with him

Bereaved of happiness, thou mayest partake

His punishment, eternal misery;

Which would be all his solace and revenge,

As a despite done against the Most High,

Thee once to gain companion of his woe.

But listen not to his temptations, warn

Thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard,

By terrible example, the reward

Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,

Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.”

BOOK VII

Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name

If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine

Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,

Above the flight of Pegasean wing!

The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou

Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top

Of old Olympus dwellest; but, heavenly-born,

Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,

Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,