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When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know. 895

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So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found Among the faithless, faithful only he; Among innumerable false, unmoved, Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal; Nor number, nor example, with him wrought To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, Though single. From amidst them forth he pass'd, Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustain'd Superior, nor of violence fear'd aught;

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And with retorted scorn his back he turn'd
On those proud tow'rs to swift destruction doom'd.

BOOK VI.

THE ARGUMENT.

Raphael continues to relate how Michael and Gabriel were sent forth to battle against Satan and his Angels. The first fight described: Satan and his Powers retire under night: He calls a council, invents devilish engines, which in the second day's fight put Michael and his Angels to some disorder; but they at length pulling up mountains, overwhelmed both the force and machines of Satan: Yet the tumult not so ending, God on the third day sends Messiah his Son, for whom he had reserved the glory of that victory: He, in the power of his Father, coming to the place, and causing his legions to stand still on either side, with his chariot and thunder driving into the midst of his enemies, pursues them, unable to resist, towards the wall of Heaven; which opening, they leap down with horror and confusion into the place of punishment prepared for them in the deep: Messiah returns with triumph to his Father.

ALL night the dreadless Angel, unpursued,
Through Heav'n's wide champain held his way, till
Waked by the circling hours, with rosy hand [morn,
Unbarr'd the gates of light. There is a cave
Within the mount of God, fast by his throne,

Where light and darkness in perpetual round

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[Heav'n

Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through
Grateful vicissitude, like day and night;
Light issues forth, and at the other door

896. The character of Abdiel thus introduced has a very beautiful effect.

2. Copied from Homer, Il. v. 749.

6. A passage of Hesiod is pointed out by Warburton as the or ginal of this.-Theog. 748.

Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour

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To veil the Heav'n, though darkness there might well
Seem twilight here: and now went forth the morn
Such as in highest Heav'n, array'd in gold
Empyreal; from before her vanish'd night,

Shot through with orient beams; when all the plain,
Cover'd with thick embattled squadrons bright,
Chariots and flaming arms, and fiery steeds,
Reflecting blaze on blaze, first met his view.
War he perceived, war in procinct, and found
Already known what he for news had thought
To have reported. Gladly then he mix'd
Among those friendly Pow'rs, who him received
With joy and acclamations loud, that one,
That of so many myriads fall'n, yet one
Return'd not lost. On to the sacred hill
They led him, high applauded, and present

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Before the seat supreme; from whence a voice

From midst a golden cloud thus mild was heard:

Servant of God, well done! well hast thou fought

The better fight, who singly hast maintain'd
Against revolted multitudes the cause

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Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms;

And for the testimony' of truth hast borne
Universal reproach (far worse to bear

Than violence); for this was all thy care

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To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds

Judged thee perverse: the easier conquest now
Remains thee, aided by this host of friends,
Back on thy foes more glorious to return
Than scorn'd thou didst depart, and to subdue
By force, who reason for their law refuse,
Right reason for their law, and for their king
Messiah, who by right of merit reigns.
Go Michael, of celestial armies prince,
And thou in military prowess next

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Gabriel, lead forth to battle these my sons
Invincible, lead forth my armed Saints,

By thousands and by millions ranged for fight,

18. See Maccabees vi. 39.

19. War in procinct, in allusion to the soldiers girding them.

selves up before the battle.

29. Abdiel in Hebrew means servant of God.

Rev. xii. 7, 8.

Equal in number to that Godless crew

Rebellious; them with fire and hostile arms
Fearless assault, and to the brow of Heav'n
Pursuing, drive them out from God and bliss
Into their place of punishment, the gulf
Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide
His fiery Chaos to receive their fall.

So spake the sov'reign voice, and clouds began
To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll
In dusky wreaths, reluctant flames, the sign
Of wrath awaked; nor with less dread the loud
Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow:
At which command the powers militant
That stood for Heav'n, in mighty quadrate join'd
Of union irresistible, moved on

In silence their bright legions, to the sound
Of instrumental harmony, that breath'd
Heroic ardour to advent'rous deeds
Under their God-like leaders, in the cause
Of God and his Messiah. On they move
Indissolubly firm: nor obvious hill,

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Nor strait'ning vale, nor wood, nor stream divides 70
Their perfect ranks; for high above the ground
Their march was, and the passive air upbore
Their nimble tread. As when the total kind
Of birds, in orderly array on wing,

Came summon'd over Eden, to receive

Their names of thee; so over many a tract

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Of Heav'n they march'd, and many a province wide
Tenfold the length of this terrene. At last,
Far in th' horizon to the north appear'd
From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretch'd
In battailous aspect, and nearer view
Bristled with upright beams innumerable

Of rigid spears, and helmets throng'd, and shields
Various, with boastful argument portray'd,
The banded Pow'rs of Satan hasting on
With furious expedition; for they ween'd
That self-same day by fight, or by surprise,

To win the mount of God, and on his throne

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73. So Homer describes the motion of his gods. 84. Boastful argument, in allusion to the designs painted on the shields of knights.

To set the envior of his state, the proud

Aspirer, but their thoughts proved fond and vain 90
In the mid-way: though strange to us it seem'd
At first, that Angel should with Angel war,

And in fierce hosting meet, who wont to meet
So oft in festivals of joy and love
Unanimous, as sons of one great sire
Hymning th' Eternal Father; but the shout
Of battle now began, and rushing sound
Of onset ended soon each milder thought.
High in the midst exalted as a God,

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Th' Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat,
Idol of majesty divine, inclosed

With flaming Cherubim and golden shields;

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Then lighted from his gorgeous throne, for now
Twixt host and host but narrow space was left
(A dreadful interval), and front to front
Presented, stood in terrible array,

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Of hideous length. Before the cloudy van,
On the rough edge of battle ere it join'd,
Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced,
Came tow'ring, arm'd in adamant and gold:
Abdiel that sight endured not, where he stood
Among the mightiest, bent on highest deeds,
And thus his own undaunted heart explores;
O Heav'n! that such resemblance of the High'st
Should yet remain, where faith and reälty
Remain not! wherefore should not strength and might
There fail where virtue fails, or weakest prove
Where boldest, though to sight unconquerable?
His puissance, trusting in th' Almighty's aid,
I mean to try, whose reason I have try'd
Unsound and false; nor is it aught but just
That he who in debate of truth hath won
Should win in arms, in both disputes alike
Victor; though brutish that contést and foul,
When reason hath to deal with force, yet so
Most reason is that reason overcome.

So pondering, and from his armed peers
Forth stepping opposite, half-way he met

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93. Hosting, a word not first used by Milton, as supposed. 115, Realty, not sureness but loyalty, derived from the Italian word reale, loyal..

His daring foe, at this prevention more

Incensed; and thus securely him defy'd:

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Proud, art thou met? Thy hope was to have reach'd

The height of thy aspiring unopposed,

The throne of God unguarded, and his side

Abandon'd at the terror of thy pow'r

Or potent tongue: fool! not to think how vain 135

Against th Omnipotent to rise in arms!

Who out of smallest things could without end
Have raised incessant armies to defeat
Thy folly! or with solitary hand

Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow,

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Unaided, could have finish'd thee, and whelm'd
Thy legions under darkness! but thou seest
All are not of thy train: there be who faith
Prefer, and piety to God, though then
To thee not visible, when I alone
Seem'd in thy world erroneous to dissent
From all; my sect thou seest; now learn, too late,
How few sometimes may know, when thousands err.
Whom the grand foe, with scornful eye askance,
Thus answer'd: Ill for thee, but in wish'd hour 150
Of my revenge, first sought for thou return'st
From flight, seditious Angel, to receive

Thy merited reward, the first assay

Of this right hand provoked, since first that tongue,

Inspired with contradiction, durst oppose

A third part of the Gods, in synod met

Their deities to assert, who while they feel
Vigour divine within them, can allow
Omnipotence to none. But well thou com'st
Before thy fellows, ambitious to win

From me some plume, that thy success may shew
Destruction to the rest. This pause between
(Unanswer'd lest thou boast) to let thee know;
At first I thought that Liberty and Heav'n
To heav'nly souls had been all one; but now
I see that most through sloth had rather serve,
Minist'ring Spirits, train'd up in feast and song:

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147. Sect, not in allusion, as is supposed, to any religious or political party, but according to its primitive sense, a division, from seco.

161. Success, fortune, good or bad, is signified by this word.

167. Heb. i. 14.

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