صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

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

250

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,

255

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,

260

265

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?

270

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

275

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

280

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

285

290

295

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

300

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

305

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

310

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,

315

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

320

325

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.

330

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;

335

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

340

345

350

355

360

Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth, 365 Through God's high sufferance for the tri'al of man,

C

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

370

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.

375

380

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.

385

39.

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

396

« السابقةمتابعة »