...Yale University Press, 1969), 4:47. 48. Both extremes are encapsulated in Belial's continuing words, "Those thoughts that wander through Eternity / To perish rather, swallowd up and lost / In the wide womb of uncreated night, / Devoid of sense and motion?" Paradise Lost 2.148-51. The ongoing debate...

...of Hell the existence of the fallen angels is preferable to their annihilation as conscious beings: "for who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual...thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion?"'- In Augustine,...

...fairer person lost not Heaven" — offers a Hamlet-like appreciation of life, even with its sorrows: "For who would lose, though full of pain, this intellectual being / Those thoughts that travel through eternity?" Who can fail to be stirred by the very different sentiment embodied in lines...

...fate would be regarded as even worse than endless misery : Sad cure ! for who would lose, Though fall of pain, this intellectual being ? Those thoughts that wander through eternity To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion. So speaks Milton,...