"For sudden all at once their reeds Put forth, and to a narrow vent applied With nicest touch. Immediate in a flame, But soon obscured with clouds, all heav'n appeared, From these deep-throated engines belched, whose roar Emboweled with outrageous noise the air, And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul Their devilish glut, chained thunder-bolts and hail Of iron globes." The angels of God were at first overwhelmed by this shower of missiles and cast down; but they soon rallied: "From their foundations, loos'ning to and fro, They plucked the seated hills, with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods, and by their shaggy tops Uplifted bore them in their hands." The rebels seized the hills also: So hills amid the air encountered hills, Hurled to and fro with jaculation. dire. . . . . And now all heaven Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread," had not the Almighty sent out his Son, the Messiah, to help his sorely struggling angels. The evil ones are overthrown, overwhelmed, driven to the edge of heaven: "The monstrous sight Struck them with horror backward, but far worse Urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of heav'n; eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. . . .{p. 250} Nine days they fell: _confounded Chaos roared_ And felt tenfold confusion in their fall Through his wide anarchy, so huge a rout Encumbered him with ruin." Thus down into our own times and literature has penetrated a vivid picture of this world-old battle. We see, as in the legends, the temporary triumph of the dragon; we see the imperiled sun obscured; we see the flying rocks filling the appalled air and covering all things with ruin; we see the dragon at last slain, and falling clown to hell and chaos; while the sun returns, and God and order reign once more supreme. And thus, again, Milton paints the chaos that precedes restoration: On heav'nly ground they stood; and from the shores They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss, Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom, turned by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains to assault Heav'n's height, and with the center mix the poles." But order, peace, love, and goodness follow this dark, wild age of cold and wet and chaos:--the Night is slain, and the sun of God's mercy shines once more on its appointed track in the heavens. But never again, they feel, shall the world go back to the completely glorious conditions of the Tertiary Age, the golden age of the Eden-land. The comet has "brought death into the world, and all our woe." Mankind has sustained its great, its irreparable "Fall." This is the event that lies, with mighty meanings, at the base of all our theologies. {p. 251} CHAPTER X. THE FALL OF THE CLAY AND GRAVEL.