Of knowledge past or present, could have fear'd,
How such united force of gods, how such
As stood like these, could ever know repulse? 630
For who can yet believe, though after loss,
That all these puissant legions, whose exile
Hath emptied heaven, shall fail to reascend
Self-rais'd, and repossess their native seat?
For me, be witness all the host of heaven,
If counsels different or danger shunn'd
By me have lost our hopes: but he, who reigns
Monarch in heaven, till then as one secure
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent, or custom, and his regal state
Put forth at full, but still his strength conceal'd,
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 war, provok'd; our better part remains 645
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 650
There went a fame in heaven, 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
642 tempted] Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 827.
'She dared, and did attempt to tempt me too.' Todd.
VOL. I.
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere;
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial spirits in bondage, nor th' abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counsel must mature: peace is despair'd; 660
For who can think submission? war then, war
Open or understood, must be resolv'd.
He spake and to confirm his words outflew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty cherubim; the sudden blaze Far round illumin'd hell: highly they rag'd Against the highest, and fierce with grasped arms Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of heaven.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore, The work of sulphur. Thither, wing'd with speed, A numerous brigad hasten'd; as when bands Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe arm'd, Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on,
669 vault of heaven] Doctor Pearce approves Bentley's conjecture, 'walls of heaven,' and says the emendation is good. But I must differ from the opinions of both critics, and consider that this reading would much impair the beauty of the passage.
• Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war.
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heaven,'
which collected and reverberated the clash of the shields.
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven; for ev'n in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific. By him first
Men also and by his suggestion taught
Ransack'd the center, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth
For treasures better hid.
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,
And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690
That riches grow in hell: that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame
In strength and art are easily outdone
By spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluic'd from the lake, a second multitude
With wond'rous art founded the massy ore,
687 Rifled] v. Ovid Met. i. 138.
'Itum est in viscera terræ,
Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque admoverat umbris,
Effodiunter opes.' Hume.
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross.
A third as soon had form'd within the ground 705
A various mould, and from the boiling cells
By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook:
As in an organ from one blast of wind
Το many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.
Anon out of the earth a fabric 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 grav'n;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equall'd in all their glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat
Their kings, when Ægypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. Th' ascending pile
Stood fixt her stately highth, and straight the doors,
Op'ning their brazen folds, discover, wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof,
Pendant by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
706 A various mould] 'capacious mould.' Bentl. MS.
711 Rose] 'Did like a shooting exhalation glide.'
See Marlowe's Hero and Leander, p. 81.
There findest thou some stately Doric frame.'
See Hall's Satires, ed. Singer, p. 133.
With Naptha and Asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was known
In heaven by many a tower'd structure high,
Where scepter'd angels held their residence,
And sat as princes; whom the supreme King 735
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos th' Ægean isle; thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor aught avail'd him now
To have built in heaven high tow'rs; nor did he
By all his engines, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell.
742 crystal battlements] See Beaumont's Psyche, cxx. 110. 'Much higher than the proudest battlement of the old heavens.'
See Don Quixote, vol. 3. p. 156, (trans. Shelton, 12mo. 1731.) 'I saw a princely and sumptuous palace, whose walls and battlements seemed to be made of transparent crystal ;' and Miltoni Sylv. p. 323 (ed. Todd, ver. 63.)
' ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam.'
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