xult, while the wicked are
seized with terror, although they disdain to flee. Bidding the angelic
host watch him triumph single-handed over the foe, the Son of God
changes his benignant expression into one of wrath, and hurls his
thunder-bolts to such purpose that the rebels long for the mountains
to cover them as on the previous day. With these divine weapons Christ
ruthlessly drives Satan and his hosts out of the confines of heaven,
over the edge of the abyss, and hurls them all down into the
bottomless pit, sending after them peal after peal of thunder,
together with dazzling flashes of lightning, but mercifully
withholding his deadly bolts, as he purposes not to annihilate, but
merely to drive the rebels out of heaven. Thus, with a din and clatter
which the poet graphically describes, Satan and his host fall through
space and land nine days later in the fiery lake!

After pursuing the foe far enough to make sure they will not return,
the Messiah re-enters heaven in triumph, greeted by saints and angels
with hymns of praise. This account of the war in heaven concluded,
Raphael informs Adam that Satan, leader of these fallen angels,
envying his happy state, is now plotting to seduce him from his
allegiance to God, and thus compel him to share his eternal misery.

"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._ At Adam's request Raphael next explains how the earth was
created, saying that, as Satan had seduced one-third of heaven's
inhabitants, God decided to create a new race, whence angels could be
recruited to repeople his realm. In terms simple enough to make
himself understood, Raphael depicts how the Son of God passing through
heaven's gates and viewing the immeasurable abyss, decided to evolve
from it a thing of beauty. He adds that the Creator made use of the
divine compasses "prepared in God's eternal store," to circumscribe
the universe, thus setting its bounds at equal distance from its
centre. Then his spirit, brooding over the abyss, permeated Chaos with
vital warmth, until its various components sought their appointed
places, and earth "self-balanced on her centre hung." Next the light
evolved from the deep began to travel from east to west, and "God saw
that it was good."

On the second day God created the firmament, on