A lifeless Lump, unfafhion'd and unfram'd,
Of jarring Seeds, and jufty Chaos nam'd.
Before their Eyes in fudden View appear
The Secrets of the hoary Deep: A dark
Illimitable Ocean without Bound,
Without Dimenfion; where Length, Breadth, and Height,
And. Time and Place are loft: Where eldest Night,
And Chaos, Ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal Anarchy, amidft the Noise
Of endless Wars, and by Confufion ftand.
For Hot, Cold, Moift, and Dry, four Champions fierce,
Strive here for Maft'ry, and to Battle bring
Their Embryon Atoms: They around the Flag.
Of each his Faction, in their feveral Clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, fharp, finooth, fwift, or flow,
Swarm populous; unnumber'd as the Sands
Of Barca, or Cyrene's torrid Soil,
Levy'd to fide with warring Winds, and poife
Their lighter Wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a Moment: Chaos Umpire fits,
And by Decifion more embroils the Fray,
By which he reigns; next him high Arbiter
And now the Goddefs with her Charge defcends,
Where fcarce one chearful Glimpfe their Steps befriends.
Here his forfaken Seat old Chaos keeps,
And, undisturb'd by Form, in Silence fleeps:
A grifly Wight, and hideous to the Eye,
An aukward Lump of fhapeless Anarchy;,
With fordid Age his Features are defac'd,
His Lands unpeopled and his Countries wafte.
Upon a Couch of Jet in thefe Abodes,
Dull Night, his melancholly Confort, nods.
No Ways and Means their Cabinet employ,
But their dark Hours they wafte in barren Joy.
He had firft Matter feen undrefs'd.
He took her naked, all alone,
Before one Rag of Form was on:
The Chaos too he had defcry'd,
And feen quite thro', or elfe he ly'd.
Order, a banish'd Rebel flies the Place,
And Strife and Uproar fill the noify Space:
Tumult and Mifiule please at Chaos Court,
And everlasting Wars his Throne fupport;
Pleas'd with thofe Subjects moft thar leaft obey.
Here heavier Seeds rufh on in num'rous Swarms,
And crush their lighter Foes with pond'rous Arms.
The lighter ftraight command with equal Pride,
And on mad Whirlwinds in wild Triumph ride:
None long fubmits to a fuperior Pow'r ;
Each yields, and in his Turn is Conquerour.
SATAN's Paffage thro' Chaos.
The wary Fiend ftood on the Brink of Hell,
And look'd awhile into this wild Abyss,
Pond'ring his Voyage; for no narrow Frith
He had to crofs: Nor was his Ear lefs peal'd
With Noifes loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with small) than when Bellona ftorms
With all her batt'ring Engines, bent to raze
Some Capital City; or less than if this Frame
Of Heav'n were falling, and these Elements
In Mutiny had from her Axle torn
The ftedfaft Earth. At laft his Sail-broad Vans
He spreads for Flight, and in the furging Smoke
Uplifted fpurns the Ground: Thence many a League,
As in a cloudy Chair afcending, rides
Audacious; but that Seat foon failing, meets
A vaft Vacuity: All unawares,
Flutt'ring his Penons vain, plumb down he drops
Ten thousand Fathom deep; and to this Hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill Chance
The ftrong Rebuff of fome tumultuous Cloud,
Inftin&t with Fire and Nitre, hurry'd him
As many Miles aloft: That Fury ftaid,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither Sea
Nor good dry Land. Nigh founder'd, on he fares,
Treading the crude Confistence, half on foot
Half flying; behoves him now both Oar and Sail:
As when a Gryphon, thro' the Wilderness
With winged Courfe o'er Hill or moary Dale,
Purfues the Arimafpian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful Cuftody purloin'd
The guarded Gold; fo eagerly the Fiend
O'er Bog or Steep, thro' ftrait, rough, denfe, or rare,
With Head, Hands, Wings, or Feet purfues his Way,
And fwims or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
At length a univerfal Hubbub wild
Of stunning Sounds, and Voices all confus'd,
Born thro' the hollow Dark, assaults his Ear
With loudest Vehemence: When ftrait behold the Throne
Of Chaes, and his dark Pavilion spread
Wide on the wafteful Deep: With him enthron'd
Sate fable-vefted Night, eldest of things,
The Confort of his Reign; and by them stood
Orchus and Ades, and the dreaded Name
Of Demogorgon: Rumour next, and Chance,
And Tumult and Confufion all embroil'd,
And Difcord, with a thousand various Mouths.
Satan thence
Springs upward like a Pyramid of Fire
Into the wild Expanfe; and thro' the Shock
Of fighting Elements, on all Sides round
Environ'd, wins his way.
At laft the facred Influence
Of Light appears, and from the Walls of Heav'n
Shoots far into the Bofom of dim Night
A glimm'ring Dawn: Here Nature first begins
Her fartheft Verge, and Chaos to retire,
As from her outmost Works, a broken Foe,
With Tumult lefs, and with lefs hoftile Din
That Satan with lefs Toil, and now with Eafe
Wafts on the calmer Wave by dubious Light;
And, like a Weather-beaten Veffel, holds
Gladly the Port, tho' Shrowds and Tackle torn.
Voyag'd th'unreal, vaft, unbounded Deep
Of horrible Confufion;
And thro' the palpable Obfcure toil'd out
His uncouth Paffage, fpreading his airy Flight,
Upborn with indefatigable Wings,
Over the vaft Abrupt; compell'd to ride
Th'untra&table Abyfs, plung'd in the Womb
Of unoriginal Night, and Chaos wild.
CHAPLAIN. See Prieft.
CHARIOT.
Bold Erithonias was the firft that joyn'd
Four Horfes for the rapid Race defign'd,
And o'er the dufty Wheels prefiding fate:
The Lapitke to Chariots add the State
Of Bits and Bridles; taught the Steed to bound,
To run the Ring, and trace the mazy Ground
Toftop, to fly, the Rules of War to know,
T'obey the Rider, and to dare the Foe.
Haft thou beheld when from the Goal they part;
The youthful Charioteers with heaving Heart,
Ruth to the Race, and panting fcarcely bear
Th'Extreams of feav'rifh Hope and chilling Fear,
Stoop to the Reins, and lafh with all their Force;
The flying Chariots kindle in the Course.
And now alow, and now aloft they fly,
As born thro' Air, and feem to touch the Sky:
No Stop, no Stay; but Clouds of Sand arife.
Spurn'd, and caft backward on the Foll'wers Eyes:
The hindmoft blows the Foam upon the firft,
Such is the Love of Praife, an honourable Thirft. Dryd. Virg.
So Four fierce Courfers, ftarting to the Race,
Scour thro' the Plain, and lengthen ev'ry Pace:
Nor Reins, nor Curbs, nor threat'ning Cries they fear,
But force along the trembling Charioteer.
CHARNEL-HOUSE.
Behold a Charnel-Houfe, .
O'er-cover'd quite with dead Mens ratling Bones,
With reeky Shanks, and yellow chapless Skulls.
Upon the gloomy Banks of Acheron,
Whose troubled Eddies, thick with Ooze and Clay,
Are whirl'd aloft, and in Cocytus loft,
Old Charon ftands, who rules the dreary Coaft;
A fordid God! Down from his hoary Chin
A Length of Beard defcends, uncomb'd, unclean :
His Eyes like hollow Furnaces on fire:
A Girdle foul with Greafe binds his obfcene Attire.
He spreads his Canvas; with his Pole he fteers;
The Frights of flitting Ghofts in his thin Bottom bears:
He look'd in Years; Yet in his Years were feen
A youthful Vigour, and autumnal Green.
CHEAT. See Coward.
Doubtless the Pleasure is as great,
Of being cheated, as to cheat.
As Lookers-on feel moft Delight,
That leaft perceive the Juggler's Slight;
And ftill the less they understand,
The more admire the Slight of Hand.
For the dull World most Honour pay to thofe,
Who on their Understanding most impose.
Firft Man creates, and then he fears the Elf:
Thus others cheat him not, but he himself.
He loaths the Subftance, and he loves the Show;
He hates Realities, and hugs the Cheat,
And ftill the only Pleafure's the Deceit.
So Meteors flatter with a dazling Dye,
Which no Existence has but in the Eye.
At diftance Profpects please us, but when near,
We find but defart Rocks and fleeting Air;
From Stratagem to Stratagem we run,
And he knows moft, who lateft is undone.
An honest Man may take a Knave's Advice,
But Ideots only will be couzen'd Twice:
Once warn'd is well bewar'd.
Dryd. the Cock and the Fox.
There with like Hafte to feveral Ways they run,
Some to undo, and fome to be undone.
While Luxury and Wealth, like War and Peace,
Are each the other's Ruin and Increase:
As Rivers loft in Seas, fome fecret Vein
Thence re-conveys, there to be loft again.
Behold a Cliff, whofe high and bending Head Looks dreadful down upon the roaring Deep; How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to caft one's Eyes fo low.
The Grows and Choughs that wing the mid-way Air
Shew fcarce fo grofs as Beetles: Half-way down
Hangs one that gathers Samphire: Dreadful Trade!
The Fishermen that walk upon the Beach
Appear like Mice; and yon tall anch'ring Bark
Seems leffen'd to her Cock, her Cock a Buoy
Almost too fimall for Sight. The murm'ring Surge
Cannot be heard fo high.
As from fome fteep and dreadful Precipice,
The frighted Traveller cafts down his Eyes,
And fees the Ocean at fo great a Distance,
It looks as if the Skies were funk beneath him.
If then fome neighb'ring Shrub, how weak foe'er,
Peep up, his willing Eyes ftop gladly there,
And feem to ease themselves, and reft upon it. Dryd. Riv. Lad. As one condemn'd to leap a Precipice,
Who fees before his Eyes the Depth below,
Stops fhort, and looks about for fome kind Shrub
To break his dreadful Fall.
CLOUDS, See Deluge, Storm, Tempeft, Thunder, Wind. Not one kind Star was kindled in the Sky,
Nor could the Moon her borrow'd Light fupply:
For mifty Clouds involv'd the Firmament,
The Stars were muffled and the Moon was pent.
Mark what collected Night involves the Skies.
O'erfpreading Mifts th'extinguish'd Sun-beams drown,
Dark Clouds o'er all the black Horizon frown,
And hang their deep hydropick Bellies down.
The low'ring Clouds, that dip themfelves in Rain,
To shake their Fleeces on the Earth again.
The Wrack of Clouds is driving on the Wind, And fhews a Break of Sunfhine.
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