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The fignal to afcend, fit ling'ring here
Heav'n's fugitives, and for their dwelling place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns

By our delay? no, let us rather choose,
Arm'd with Hell flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heav'n's high tow'rs to force refiftlefs way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the torturer; when to meet the noife
Of his almighty engin he fhall hear
Infernal thunder, and for lightning fee
Black fire and horror fhot with equal rage
Among his Angels, and his throne itself
Mix'd with Tartarean fulphur, and strange fire,
His own invented torments. But perhaps

The

way feems difficult and fteep to fcale With upright wing against a against a higher foe.

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65

70

Let

56.-fit ling'ring here] Dr. Bentley reads ftay ling'ring here, because we have before fand in arms: but ftand does not always fignify the pofture; fee an inftance of this in John I. 26. To ftand in arms is no more than to be in arms. So in XI. 1. it is faid of Adam and Eve that they food repentant, that is

were repentant; for a little before it is faid that they proftrate fell. That fit is right here, may appear from ver. 164, 420, 475. Pearce. Sit ling'ring to anfwer fit contriving before. While they fit contriving, thall the reft fit ling'ring?

69.Mix'd withTariarean fulphur,]

Mix'd

Let fuch bethink them, if the fleepy drench
Of that forgetful lake benumm not still,
That in our proper motion we ascend
Up to our native feat: defcent and fall
To us is adverfe. Who but felt of late,
When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
Infulting, and pursued us through the deep,
With what compulsion and laborious flight
We funk thus low? Th' afcent is eafy then;
Th' event is fear'd; fhould we again provoke
Our stronger, fome worse way his wrath may find
To our destruction; if there be in Hell

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80

Fear to be worse destroy'd: what can be worfe 85
Then to dwell here, driv'n out from blifs, condemn'd
In this abhorred deep to utter woe;
Where pain of unextinguishable fire
Must exercise us without hope of end

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The vaffals of his anger, when the scourge
Inexorably, and the torturing hour

Calls us to penance? More deftroy'd than thus
We should be quite abolish'd and expire.
What fear we then? what doubt we to incenfe
His utmost ire? which to the highth enrag'd,
Will either quite confume us, and reduce
To nothing this effential, happier far

Than miserable to have eternal being:
Or if our fubftance be indeed divine,

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90. The vaffals of his anger,] The Devils are the vaffals of the Almighty, thence Mammon fays, II. 252. Our state of Splendid valjalage. And the vaffals of anger is an expreffion confirm'd by Spenfer in his Tears of the Mufes,

Ah, wretched world, and all that are therein,

The vaffals of God's wrath, and flaves of fin.

But yet when I remember St. Paul's words, Rom. IX. 22. The vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,Ensun ofyns, I fufpect that Milton here, as perpetually, kept clofe to the Scripture ftile, and leave it to the reader's choice, vaffals or vesels.

Bentley.

91. Inexorably.] In the firft editions it is Inexorably, in others Inexorable: and it may be either,

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And cannot ceafe to be, we are at worst
On this fide nothing; and by proof we feel
Our pow'r fufficient to disturb his Heaven,
And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
Though inacceffible, his fatal throne:
Which if not victory is yet revenge.

He ended frowning, and his look denounc'd
Defp'rate revenge, and battel dangerous
To less than Gods. On th' other fide up
Belial, in act more graceful and humane;

bable at firft view: but the Angels
though often called Gods, yet fome-
times are only compar'd or faid to
be like the Gods, as in I. 570.

Their vifages and ftature as of
Gods:

and of the two chief, Michael and
Satan, it is faid VI. 301, that

likeft Gods they feem'd: and of two others we read, 366.

VI.

rofe

100

105

A

and therefore the prefent reading To lefs than Gods may be juftified.

109. Belial, in act more graceful

and humane;] Belial is defcribed in the first book as the idol of the lewd and luxurious. He is

in the fecond book, pursuant to that defcription, characterized as timorous and flothful; and if we look into the fixth book, we find him celebrated in the battel of Angels for nothing but that fcoffing Speech which he makes to Satan, on their fuppofed advantage over the enemy. As his appearance is uniform and of a piece in thefe three feveral views, we find his fentiments in the infernal affembly every way conformable to his charafter. Such are his apprehenfions of a fecond battel, his horrors of annihilation, his preferring to be But to be Gods, or Angels Demi- miferable rather than not to be. I

Two potent Thrones, that to be
lefs than Gods
Difdain'd:

and in another place a manifeft di-
ftinction is made between Gods and
Angels who are called Demi-Gods,

IX. 937.

Gods:

VOL. I.

need not obferve, that the contrast

H

of

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A fairer perfon loft not Heav'n; he seem'd
For dignity compos'd and high exploit :*
But all was falfe and hollow; though his tongue
Dropt Manna, and could make the worfe appear
The better reafon, to perplex and dash
Matureft counfels: for his thoughts were low; 115
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and flothful: yet he pleas'd the ear,
And with perfuafive accent thus began.

I thould be much for open war, O Peers,
As not behind in hate; if what was urg'd
Main reason to persuade immediate war,
Did not diffuade me moft, and feem to caft
Ominous conjecture on the whole fuccefs :
When he who moft excels in fact of arms,
In what he counfels and in what excels

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