And judged of public moment in the shape Of difficulty or danger, could deter
Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 450 These royalties, and not refuse to reign, Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honour, due alike
To him who reigns, and so much to him due Of hazard more as he above the rest
High honoured sits? Go, therefore, mighty Powers,
Terror of Heaven, though fallen; intend at home, While here shall be our home, what best may ease The present misery, and render Hell
More tolerable; if there be cure or charm 460 To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek Deliverance for us all. This enterprise None shall partake with me.' Thus saying, rose The Monarch, and prevented all reply; Prudent lest, from his resolution raised, Others among the chief might offer now, Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 470 And, so refused, might in opinion stand His rivals, winning cheap the high repute Which he through hazard huge must earn.
Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice Forbidding; and at once with him they rose. Their rising all at once was as the sound Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend
With awful reverence prone, and as a God
The Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven. Stygian Nor failed they to express how much they council praised
dissolves That for the general safety he despised
His own for neither do the Spirits damned Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast Their specious deeds on earth, which glory ex-
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal.
Thus they their doubtful consultations dark Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief: As, when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'er- spread
Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 490 Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or
If chance the radiant sun,
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. O shame to men! Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds; men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enow besides, That day and night for his destruction wait! The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth In order came the grand Infernal Peers: Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed
Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less Than Hell's dread Emperor, with
And god-like imitated state: him round A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. Then of their session ended they bid cry With trumpet's regal sound the great result: Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy, By harald's voice explained; the hollow Abyss Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell With deafening shout returned them loud ac- claim.
Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised
By false presumptuous hope, the rangèd Powers Disband; and, wandering, each his several way Pursues, as inclination or sad choice
Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain The irksome hours, till his great Chief return. Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, Upon the wing or in swift race contend, As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields; 530 Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form: As when, to warn proud cities, war appears Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush To battle in the clouds; before each van Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears,
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms From either end of heaven the welkin burns.
with Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell, song or Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 argu: In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild up
As when Alcides, from Echalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, And Lichas from the top of Eta threw Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild, Retreated in a silent valley, sing With notes angelical to many a harp Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall By doom of battle, and complain that Fate 550 Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. Their song was partial; but the harmony (What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?) Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more
(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense)
Others apart sat on a hill retired,
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high OfProvidence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate- Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 560 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. Of good and evil much they argued then, Of happiness and final misery,
Passion and apathy, and glory and shame : Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy!- Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm Pain for a while or anguish, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm the obdurèd breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel.
Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 A de
On bold adventure to discover wide That dismal world, if any clime perhaps Might yield them easier habitation, bend Four ways their flying march, along the banks Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams- Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton, 580 Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks Forthwith his former state and being forgets- Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590 Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice, A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
At certain revolutions all the damned
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infixed, and frozen round
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