Nor the deep tract of Hell-say first what cause Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state, Favour'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the World besides. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? Th' infernal serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Such place Eternal Justice had prepared For those rebellious; here their prison ordained In utter darkness, and their portion set, As far removed from God and light of Heaven, As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole." O how unlike the place from whence they fell! 75 There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
According to the old astronomy, the earth was the center of the physical universe. Milton declares that the distance from hell to heaven is thrice the distance from the earth to the outer limit of the physical universe, or the "utmost pole."
The name Satan means in Hebrew an enemy, or adversary.
Myriads, though bright-If he whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise, Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest From what height fallen; so much the stronger proved
He with his thunder: and till then who knew The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, Nor what the potent Victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
And high disdain from sense of injured merit, That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along 100 Innumerable force of Spirits armed,
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
All is not lost- the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee, and deify his power Who, from the terror of his arm, so late Doubted his empire-that were low indeed; That were an ignominy and shame beneath 115 This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods,
And this empyreal substance, cannot fail;
Since, through experience of this great event, In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, We e may with more successful hope resolve 120 To wage by force or guile eternal war, Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven." So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, 125 Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair; And him thus answered soon his bold com- peer:-
"O Prince, O chief of many-throned Powers, That led the embattled Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, And put to proof his high supremacy, Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate! Too well I see and rue the dire event That, with sad overthrow, and foul defeat, Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host In horrible destruction laid thus low, As far as Gods and Heavenly Essences Can perish: for the mind and spirit remain Invincible, and vigour soon returns,
Have left us in this our spirit and strength entire,
Strongly to suffer and support our pains, That we may so suffice his vengeful ire, Or do him mightier service as his thralls By right of war, whate'er his business be, Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep? What can it then avail, though yet we feel Strength undiminished, or eternal being To undergo eternal punishment?" Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied:-
"Fallen Cherub! to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering: but of this be sure— To do aught good, never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being the contrary to His high will Whom we resist. If then his providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil; Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmost counsels from their destined aim. But see! the angry Victor hath recalled His ministers of vengeance and pursuit Back to the gates of Heaven; the sulphurous hail,
Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid The fiery surge that from the precipice
Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder, Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.
Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn. Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe. Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves; There rest, if any rest can harbour there; And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, Consult how we may henceforth most offend Our enemy, our own loss how repair, How overcome this dire calamity, What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190 If not, what resolution from despair."
7 The Titans, in Greek mythology, were the children of heaven and Earth. Of gigantic size, the Titans typify strength and lawlessness.
8 A giant, with a hundred arms and fifty heads. A giant brought forth by the Earth to contend with the Gods. Overcome by Jupiter, he was placed beneath Etna, or according to others under the "serboniar bog."
Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam, The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay,
Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence Had risen, or heaved his head, but that the will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 215 Evil to others, and enraged might see How all his malice served but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown On Man by him seduced, but on himself Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames, Driv'n backward, slope their pointing spires, and rolled
In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, That felt unusual weight; till on dry land He lights-if it were land that ever burned With solid, as the lake with liquid fire, And such appeared in hue: as when the force Of subterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus, 10 or the shattered side Of thundering Etna, whose combustible And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire, 234 Sublimed" with mineral fury, aid the winds, And leave a singèd bottom all involved
With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate; Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood As gods, and by their own recovered strength, Not by the sufferance of supernal power.
"Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat That we must change for Heaven?-this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he Who now is sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from Him is best, Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free: the 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, The associates and co-partners of our loss, Lie thus astonished on the 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 Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?" So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub Thus answered:-"Leader of those armies
Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled!
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers-heard so oft 275 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults Their surest signal-they will soon resume New courage and revive, though now they lie Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 As we erewhile, astounded and amazed No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!"
He scarce had ceased, 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 artist12 views At evening, from the top of Fesolè,13 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 ammiral14 were but a wand- He walked 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 endured, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called His legions-Angel Forms, who lay entranced, Thick as autumnal leaves, that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa,15 where the Etrurian shades, High over-arched embower; or scattered sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 305 Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'er threw
Busiris 16 and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcasses
12 Galileo. Artist, one versed in the liberal arts.
13 Fesole is a hill near Florence, and Valdarno the valley of the Arno, in which Florence is situated.
14 Ammiral admiral, hence the admiral's ship, the flag-ship.
15 Vallombrosa (i. e. "shady valley"), a valley about 18 miles from Florence.
16 An Egyptian King, here wrongly identified with the Pharoah who oppressed the Israelites. Memphian, here used in the general sense of Egyptian.
They heard, and were abashed, 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 obeyed Innumerable. As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, 17 in Egypt's evil day, Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like Night, and darkened 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, th' uplifted 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: 350 A multitude like which the populous North Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene18 or the Danaw, 19 when her barbarous
God their Creator, and the invisible Glory of Him that made them to transform 370 Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 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,
Roused 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 adored Among the nations round, and durst abide 385 Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed Within His sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
From 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 the Asphaltic24 pool: Peor his other name, when he enticed Israel in Sittim, 25 on their march from Nile, To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;
20 "City of Waters," capital of the land of the Ammorites.
21 The Mount of Olives. I Kings, xi. 7.
22 Hinnom (Tophet, or Gehenna) a beautiful valley near Jerusalem, which, after it had been defiled by the sacrificial worship of Moloch, was converted into a repulsive place where the refuse of the city was cast and burnt. 23 The chief god, or Baal of the Moabites, and worshipped as Moloch by the Ammonites. He is spoken of as Baal Peor (Numb. xxv. 3) i. e. the Baal who was worshipped at Mt. Peor, in Moab.
25 A valley in the land of Moab. Numb. xxv.
Till good Josiah 26 drove them thence to Hell. With these came they, who, from the bordering flood
Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim and Ashtoroth--those male, These feminine: For Spirits, when they please, Can either sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose,
Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their aery purposes, And works of love or enmity fulfil. For those the race of Israel oft forsook
Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down To bestial gods; for which their heads as low 435 Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop, Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns; To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs: In Sion also not unsung, where stood Her temple on the offensive mountain, built By that uxorious king whose heart, though large,
Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell
To idols foul. Thammuz 28 came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer's day, While smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, His eye survey'd the dark idolatries' Of alienated Judah. Next came one
Of Belial, flown34 with insolence and wine. Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night In Gibeah, when the hospitable door Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape.
These were the prime in order and in might: The rest were long to tell; though far re
The Ionian gods-of Javan's issue35 held Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth,
Their boasted parents;-Titan, Heaven's firstborn,
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized By younger Saturn; he from mightier Jove, His own and Rhea's son, like measure found; So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air,
32 Jeroboam. I Kings, xii. 26-29.
33 The spirit of evil, or worthlessness, here personified by Milton: Cf. the scriptural "sons of Belial," wickedness," "children of the devil."
35 Javan's issue, i. e. the Ionians, or Greeks, who were among those supposed to be descended from Javan, the son of Japhet. Gen. x. 2-4.
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