Paradise Lost - Book I
By John Milton
Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heavnly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heavns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloas Brook that flowd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou knowst; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And madst it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert th Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
Say first, for Heavn hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Movd our Grand Parents in that happy State,
Favourd of Heavn so highly, to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seducd them to that fowl revolt?
Th infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceivd
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heavn, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equald the most High,
If he opposd; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Raisd impious War in Heavn and Battel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded though immortal: But his doom
Reservd him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witnessd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as Angels kenn he views
The dismal Situation waste and wilde,
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flamd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Servd only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsumd:
Such place Eternal Justice had prepard
For those rebellious, here their Prison ordaind
In utter darkness, and their portion set
As far removd from God and light of Heavn
As from the Center thrice to th utmost Pole.
O how unlike the place from whence they fell!
There the companions of his fall, orewhelmd
With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns, and weltring by his side
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and namd
Beelzebub. To whom th Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heavn calld Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began.
If thou beest he; But O how falln! how changd
From him, who in the happy Realms of Light
Clothd with transcendent brightnes didst outshine
Myriads though bright: If he whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope,
And hazard in the Glorious Enterprize,
Joynd with me once, now misery hath joynd
In equal ruin: into what Pit thou seest
From what highth faln, so much the stronger provd
He with his Thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire Arms? yet not for those
Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage
Can else inflict do I repent or change,
Though changd in outward lustre; that fixt mind
And high disdain, from sence of injurd merit,
That with the mightiest raisd me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along
Innumerable force of Spirits armd
That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power opposd
In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heavn,
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deifie his power
Who from the terrour of this Arm so late
Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,
That were an ignominy and shame beneath
This downfall; since by Fate the strength of Gods
And this Empyreal substance cannot fail,
Since through experience of this great event
In Arms not worse, in foresight much advanct,
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal Warr
Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in th excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heavn.
So spake th Apostate Angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:
And him thus answerd soon his bold Compeer.
O Prince, O Chief of many Throned Powers,
That led th imbattelld Seraphim to Warr
Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds
Fearless, endangerd Heavns perpetual King;
And put to proof his high Supremacy,
Whether upheld by strength, or Chance, or Fate,
Too well I see and rue the dire event,
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat
Hath lost us Heavn, and all this mighty Host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,
As far as Gods and Heavnly Essences
Can Perish: for the mind and spirit remains
Invincible, and vigour soon returns,
Though all our Glory extinct, and happy state
Here swallowd up in endless misery.
But what if he our Conquerour, (whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, since no less
Then such could hav orepowrd such force as ours)
Have left us this our spirit and strength intire
Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of Warr, what ere his business be
Here in the heart of Hell to work in Fire,
Or do his Errands in the gloomy Deep;
What can it then avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminisht, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment?
Whereto with speedy words th Arch-fiend replyd.
Falln Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil;
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destind aim.
But see the angry Victor hath recalld
His Ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the Gates of Heavn: The Sulphurous Hail
Shot after us in storm, oreblown hath laid
The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice
Of Heavn receivd us falling, and the Thunder,
Wingd with red Lightning and impetuous rage,
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.
Let us not slip th occasion, whether scorn,
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde,
The seat of desolation, voyd of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves,
There rest, if any rest can harbour there,
And reassembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire Calamity,
What reinforcement we may gain from Hope,
If not what resolution from despare.
Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes
That sparkling blazd, his other Parts besides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warrd on Jove,
Briarios or Typhon, whom the Den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th Ocean stream:
Him haply slumbring on the Norway foam
The Pilot of some small night-founderd Skiff,
Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell,
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Moors by his side under the Lee, while Night
Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes:
So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay
Chaind on the burning Lake, nor ever thence
Had risn or heavd his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought
Evil to others, and enragd might see
How all his malice servd but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn
On Man by him seduct, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pourd.
Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool
His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames
Drivn backward slope their pointing spires, and rowld
In billows, leave ith midst a horrid Vale.
Then with expanded wings he stears his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air
That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land
He lights, if it were Land that ever burnd
With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire;
And such appeard in hue, as when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a Hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shatterd side
Of thundring tna, whose combustible
And feweld entrals thence conceiving Fire,
Sublimd with Mineral fury, aid the Winds,
And leave a singed bottom all involvd
With stench and smoak: Such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next Mate,
Both glorying to have scapt the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by their own recoverd strength,
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.
Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heavn, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be changd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heavn of Hell, a Hell of Heavn.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then 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 choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heavn.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th associates and copartners of our loss
Lye thus astonisht 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
Regaind in Heavn, or what more lost in Hell?
So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub
Thus answerd. Leader of those Armies bright,
Which but th Omnipotent none could have foyld,
If once they hear that voyce, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it ragd, in all assaults
Their surest signal, they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lye
Groveling and prostrate on yon Lake of Fire,
As we erewhile, astounded and amazd,
No wonder, falln such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceast when the superiour Fiend
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous 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 Evning from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands,
Rivers or Mountains in 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 walkt with to support uneasie steps
Over the burning Marle, not like those steps
On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;
Nathless he so endurd, till on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and calld
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intranst
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th Etrurian shades
High overarcht imbowr; or scatterd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion armd
Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew
Busiris and his Memphian Chivalrie,
While with perfidious hatred they pursud
The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore their floating Carkases
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He calld so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriers, the Flowr of Heavn, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can sieze
Eternal spirits; or have ye chosn this place
After the toyl of Battel to repose
Your wearied vertue, for the ease you find
To slumber here, as in the Vales of Heavn?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conquerour? who now beholds
Cherube and Seraph rowling in the Flood
With scatterd Arms and Ensigns, till anon
His swift pursuers from Heavn Gates discern
Th advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.
Awake, arise, or be for ever falln.
They heard, and were abasht, 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 perceave the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their Generals Voyce they soon obeyd
Innumerable. As when the potent Rod
Of Amrams Son in Egypts evill day
Wavd round the Coast, up calld a pitchy cloud
Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind,
That ore the Realm of impious Pharoah hung
Like Night, and darkend 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 givn, th uplifted Spear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Thir course, in even ballance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain;
A multitude, like which the populous North
Pourd never from her frozen loyns, to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous Sons
Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.
Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band
The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood
Their great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;
Though of their Names in heavnly Records now
Be no memorial, blotted out and rasd
By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.
Nor had they yet among the Sons of Eve
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth,
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator, and th invisible
Glory of him, that made them, to transform
Oft to the Image of a Brute, adornd
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,
Rousd from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud 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 adord
Among the Nations round, and durst abide
Jehovah thundring out of Sion, thrond
Between the Cherubim; yea, often placd
Within his Sanctuary it self their Shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profand,
And with their darkness durst affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid King besmeard with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
Their childrens cries unheard, that past through fire
To his grim Idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry Plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against the Temple of God
On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna calld, the Type of Hell.
Next Chemos, th obscene dread of Moabs Sons,
From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild
Of Southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
And Heronaim, Seons Realm, beyond
The flowry Dale of Sibma clad with Vines,
And Eleale to th Asphaltick Pool.
Peor his other Name, when he enticd
Israel in Sittim on their march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlargd
Even to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;
Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.
With these came they, who from the bordring flood
Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,
These Feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their Essence pure,
Not tid or manacld with joynt or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condenst, bright or obscure,
Can execute their aerie purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfill.
For those the Race of Israel oft forsook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low
Bowd down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians calld
Astarte, Queen of Heavn, with crescent Horns;
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon
Sidonian Virgins paid their Vows and Songs,
In Sion also not unsung, where stood
Her Temple on th offensive Mountain, built
By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,
Beguild by fair Idolatresses, fell
To Idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allurd
The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth Adonis from his native Rock
Ran purple to the Sea, supposd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected Sions daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led
His eye survayd the dark Idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one
Who mournd in earnest, when the Captive Ark
Maimd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat, and shamd his Worshipers:
Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high
Reard in Azotus, dreaded through the Coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gazas frontier bounds.
Him followd Rimmon, whose delightful Seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertil Banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold:
A Leper once he lost and gaind a King,
Ahaz his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
Gods Altar to disparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious offrings, and adore the Gods
Whom he had vanquisht. After these appeard
A crew who under Names of old Renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abusd
Fanatic Egypt and her Priests, to seek
Thir wandring Gods disguisd in brutish forms
Rather then human. Nor did Israel scape
Th infection when their borrowd Gold composd
The Calf in Oreb: and the Rebel King
Doubld that sin in Bethel and in Dan,
Likning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,
Jehovah, who in one Night when he passd
From Egypt marching, equald with one stroke
Both her first born and all her bleating Gods.
Belial came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood
Or Altar smoakd; yet who more oft then hee
In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest
Turns Atheist, as did Elys Sons, who filld
With lust and violence the house of God.
In Courts and Palaces he also Reigns
And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse
Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,
And injury and outrage: And when Night
Darkens the Streets, then wander forth the Sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Witness the Streets of Sodom, and that night
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door
Exposd a Matron to avoid worse rape.
These were the prime in order and in might;
The rest were long to tell, though far renownd,
Th Ionian Gods, of Javans Issue held
Gods, yet confest later then Heavn and Earth
Thir boasted Parents; Titan Heavns first born
With his enormous brood, and birthright seisd
By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove
His own and Rheas Son like measure found;
So Jove usurping reignd: these first in Creet
And Ida known, thence on the Snowy top
Of cold Olympus ruld the middle Air
Thir highest Heavn; or on the Delphian Cliff,
Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
Of Doric Land; or who with Saturn old
Fled over Adria to th Hesperian Fields,
And ore the Celtic roamd the utmost Isles.
All these and more came flocking; but with looks
Down cast and damp, yet such wherein appeard
Obscure some glimps of joy, to have found thir chief
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost
In loss it self; which on his countnance cast
Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth not substance, gently raisd
Their fainted courage, and dispeld their fears.
Then strait commands that at the warlike sound
Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard
His mighty Standard; that proud honour claimd
Azazel as his right, a Cherube tall:
Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld
Th Imperial Ensign, which full high advanct
Shon like a Meteor streaming to the Wind
With Gemms and Golden lustre rich imblazd,
Seraphic arms and Trophies: all the while
Sonorous mettal blowing Martial sounds:
At which the universal Host upsent
A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond
Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night.
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand Banners rise into the Air
With Orient Colours waving: with them rose
A Forrest huge of Spears: and thronging Helms
Appeard, and serried Shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable: Anon they move
In perfect Phalanx to the Dorian mood
Of Flutes and soft Recorders; such as raisd
To highth of noblest temper Heros old
Arming to Battel, and in stead of rage
Deliberate valour breathd, firm and unmovd
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat,
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches, troubld thoughts, and chase
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they
Breathing united force with fixed thought
Movd on in silence to soft Pipes that charmd
Thir painful steps ore the burnt soyle; and now
Advanct in view they stand, a horrid Front
Of dreadful length and dazling Arms, in guise
Of Warriers old with orderd Spear and Shield,
Awaiting what command thir mighty Chief
Had to impose: He through the armed Files
Darts his experienct eye, and soon traverse
The whole Battalion views, thir order due,
Thir visages and stature as of Gods,
Thir number last he summs. And now his heart
Distends with pride, and hardning in his strength
Glories: For never since created man,
Met such imbodied force, as namd with these
Could merit more then that small infantry
Warrd on by Cranes: though all the Giant brood
Of Phlegra with th Heroic Race were joynd
That fought at Thebs and Ilium, on each side
Mixt with auxiliar Gods; and what resounds
In Fable or Romance of Uthers Son
Begirt with British and Armoric Knights;
And all who since, Baptizd or Infidel
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore
When Charlemain with all his Peerage fell
By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observd
Thir dread Commander: he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost
All her Original brightness, nor appeard
Less then Arch Angel ruind, and th excess
Of Glory obscurd: As when the Sun new risn
Looks through the Horizontal misty Air
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes Monarchs. Darknd so, yet shon
Above them all th Arch Angel: but his face
Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht, and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under Browes
Of dauntless courage, and considerate Pride
Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion to behold
The fellows of his crime, the followers rather
(Far other once beheld in bliss) condemnd
For ever now to have their lot in pain,
Millions of Spirits for his fault amerct
Of Heavn, and from Eternal Splendors flung
For his revolt, yet faithfull how they stood,
Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire
Hath scathd the Forrest Oaks, or Mountain Pines,
With singed top their stately growth though bare
Stands on the blasted Heath. He now prepard
To speak; whereat their doubld Ranks they bend
From Wing to Wing, and half enclose him round
With all his Peers: attention held them mute.
Thrice he assayd, and thrice in spite of scorn,
Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last
Words interwove with sighs found out their way.
O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers
Matchless, but with th Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though th event was dire,
As this place testifies, and this dire change
Hateful to utter: but what power of mind
Foreseeing or presaging, from the Depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have feard,
How such united force of Gods, how such
As stood like these, could ever know repulse?
For who can yet beleeve, though after loss,
That all these puissant Legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heavn, shall fail to re-ascend
Self-raisd, and repossess their native seat.
For me, be witness all the Host of Heavn,
If counsels different, or danger shund
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns
Monarch in Heavn, till then as one secure
Sat on his Throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent or custome, and his Regal State
Put forth at full, but still his strength conceald,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New warr, provokt; our better part remains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile
What force effected not: that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heavn that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven:
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this Infernal Pit shall never hold
Caelestial Spirits in Bondage, nor th Abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird,
For who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr
Open or understood must be resolvd.
He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumind hell: highly they ragd
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashd on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heavn.
There stood a Hill not far whose griesly top
Belchd fire and rowling smoak; the rest entire
Shon with a glossie scurff, undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,
The work of Sulphur. Thither wingd with speed
A numerous Brigad hastend. As when bands
Of Pioners with Spade and Pickaxe armd
Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field,
Or cast a Rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From heavn, for evn in heavn his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heavns pavement, trodn Gold,
Then aught divine or holy else enjoyd
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransackd the Center, and with impious hands
Rifld the bowels of thir mother Earth
For Treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Opnd into the Hill a spacious wound
And digd out ribs of Gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best
Deserve the pretious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wondring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian Kings,
Learn how thir greatest Monuments of Fame,
And Strength and Art are easily outdone
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toyle
And hands innumerable scarce perform
Nigh on the Plain in many cells prepard,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Slucd from the Lake, a second multitude
With wondrous Art founded the massie Ore,
Severing each kinde, and scumd the Bullion dross:
A third as soon had formd within the ground
A various mould, and from the boyling cells
By strange conveyance filld each hollow nook,
As in an Organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.
Anon out of the earth a Fabrick huge
Rose like an Exhalation, with the sound
Of Dulcet Symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a Temple, where Pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
With Golden Architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or Freeze, with bossy Sculptures gravn,
The Roof was fretted Gold. Not Babilon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equald in all thir glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis thir Gods, or seat
Thir Kings, when Aegypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxurie. Th ascending pile
Stood fixt her stately highth, and strait the dores
Opning thir brazen foulds discover wide
Within, her ample spaces, ore the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendant by suttle Magic many a row
Of Starry Lamps and blazing Cressets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus yeilded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enterd, and the work some praise
And some the Architect: his hand was known
In Heavn by many a Towred structure high,
Where Scepterd Angels held thir residence,
And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his Hierarchie, the Orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unadord
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men calld him Mulciber; and how he fell
From Heavn, they fabld, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer ore the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn
To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve,
A Summers day; and with the setting Sun
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling Star,
On Lemnos th gaean Ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor aught availd him now
To have built in Heavn high Towrs; nor did he scape
By all his Engins, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell.
Mean while the winged Haralds by command
Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony
And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held
At Pandmonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons calld
From every Band and squared Regiment
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
Attended: all access was throngd, the Gates
And Porches wide, but chief the spacious Hall
(Though like a coverd field, where Champions bold
Wont ride in armd, and at the Soldans chair
Defid the best of Panim chivalry
To mortal combat or carreer with Lance)
Thick swarmd, both on the ground and in the air,
Brusht with the hiss of russling wings. As Bees
In spring time, when the Sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth thir populous youth about the Hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Flie to and fro, or on the smoothed Plank,
The suburb of thir Straw-built Cittadel,
New rubd with Baume, expatiate and confer
Thir State affairs. So thick the aerie crowd
Swarmd and were straitnd; till the Signal givn,
Behold a wonder! they but now who seemd
In bigness to surpass Earths Giant Sons
Now less then smallest Dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that Pigmean Race
Beyond the Indian Mount, or Faerie Elves,
Whose midnight Revels, by a Forrest side
Or Fountain some belated Peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while over head the Moon
Sits Arbitress, and neerer to the Earth
Wheels her pale course, they on thir mirth and dance
Intent, with jocond Music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms
Reducd thir shapes immense, and were at large,
Though without number still amidst the Hall
Of that infernal Court. But far within
And in thir own dimensions like themselves
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat
A thousand Demy-Gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full. After short silence then
And summons read, the great consult began.