What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reason hath equal'd, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell Receive thy new possessor; one who brings A mind not to be chang'd by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven, But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, Th' associates and copartners of our loss, Lie thus astonish'd on th' oblivious pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion, or once more With rallied arms to try what may be yet Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell?
So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub Thus answer'd. Leader of those armies bright, Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd, If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle when it rag'd, in all assaults Their surest signal, they will soon resume New courage, and revive, though now they lie Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, As we ere while, astounded and amaz'd, No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height.
He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend
Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fesolé, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers or mountains on her spotty globe. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand, He walk'd with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle, not like those steps On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire: Nathless he so endur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd
His legions, Ange! forms, who lay entranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases
And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrown, Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon
His swift pursuers from Heav'n gates discern
Th' advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.
THEY heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their general's voice they soon obey'd Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels seen Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; Till, as a signal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain; A multitude, like which the populous North Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the South, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. Forthwith from every squadron and each band The heads and leaders thither haste where stood Their great commander; Godlike shapes and forms Excelling human, princely dignities,
And pow'rs that erst in Heaven sat on thrones;
Though of their names in heav'nly records now
Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
By their rebellion from the books of life.
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth, 365 Through God's high sufferance for the tri'al of man,
By falsities and lies the greatest part Of mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator, and the invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various names,
And various idols through the Heathen world.
Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery couch, At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. The chief were those who from the pit of Hell Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix Their seats long after next the seat of God, Their altars by his altar, Gods ador'd Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profan'd, And with their darkness durst affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
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