War That all these puissant legions, whose exile must be Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend, resolved' Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat ? For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, If counsels different, or danger shunned 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 concealed- Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our
Henceforth his might we know, and know our
So as not either to provoke, or dread New war provoked: our better part remains 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 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 Our first eruption-thither, or elsewhere; For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired; 660 For who can think submission? War, then,
Open or understood, must be resolved.'
He spake; and, to confirm his words, out- Mammon digs
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs metals Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged Against the Highest, and fierce with graspèd
Clashed 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 Belched 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, winged with
A numerous brigad hastened: as when bands Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on- Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks
Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed In vision beatific. By him first Men also, and by his suggestion taught, Ransacked the Centre, and with impious hands Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound, And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best And here let those
Deserve the precious bane.
A fabric Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell huge Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, arises Learn how their greatest monuments of fame And 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 prepared, 700 That underneath had veins of liquid fire Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude With wondrous art founded the massy ore, Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-
A third as soon had formed within the ground A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook; As in an organ, from one blast of wind, To 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 frieze, with bossy sculptures graven; The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon Nor great Alcairo such magnificence Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile Stood fixed her stately highth; and straight the
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide
Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth And level pavement: from the arched roof, Pendent by subtle magic, many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky. The hasty multitude Admiring entered; and the work some praise, And some the architect. His hand was known In Heaven by many a towered structure high, Where sceptred Angels held their residence, And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the Orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unadored In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell 740 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, the Ægæan isle. Thus they relate, Erring; for he with this rebellious rout Fell long before; nor aught availed him now To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did
By all his engines, but was headlong sent, With his industrious crew, to build in Hell.
Meanwhile the winged Haralds, by command Of sovran power, with awful ceremony And trumpet's sound, throughout the host pro-
Thick Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called as bees From every band and squared regiment
they By place or choice the worthiest: they anon swarm With hundreds and with thousands trooping
Attended. All access was thronged; the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall (Though like a covered field, where champions
Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair Defied the best of Panim chivalry To mortal combat, or career with lance), Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the
Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees
In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 770 In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothèd plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer Their state-affairs: so thick the aery crowd Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal
Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room Throng numberless-like that pygmean race 780 Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves, Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth
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