« 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 co-partners 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 Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?»>
So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

Thus answer'd : « Leader of those armies bright,
Which but the' 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 erewhile, astounded and amaz'd;

No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height!

He scarce had ceas'd, when the superior 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 evening from the top of Fcsolé,

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 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, angel-forms, who lay intranc'd,
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades,
High over-arch'd, imbower; 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. a Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can seize

Eternal spirits; or have ye chosen 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
T'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 Heaven-gates discern
The 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 Pharaon 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 given, the' 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 Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones;
Though of their names in heavenly 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, wandering o'er the earth,
Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
By falsities and lies 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, 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 emperor'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 thundering 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, pass'd through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon: nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Salomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God,
On that opprobrious hill; and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of Hell.

Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons,

For Aroar to Nebo, and the wild

Of southmost Abarim, in Hesebon

And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond

The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines,
And Eleale to th' Asphaltic pool.

Peor his other name, when he entic'd
Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarg'd,
Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;