The British Essayists, Volume 10 |
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Page 238
... We shall be free ! th ' 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 heav'n .
... We shall be free ! th ' 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 heav'n .
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Popular passages
Page 238 - 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.
Page 275 - 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 th' Abyss Long under darkness cover.
Page 237 - 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...
Page 242 - A shout, that tore Hell's concave, and beyond Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. All in a moment through the gloom were seen Ten thousand banners rise into the air...
Page 238 - Hail, horrors! hail, Infernal world! And thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor! one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time!
Page 123 - For joy of offer'd peace : but I suppose, If our proposals once again were heard, We should compel them to a quick result.
Page 237 - Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood Under amazement of their hideous change. He call'd so loud that all the hollow deep Of Hell resounded.
Page 151 - But first, whom shall we send In search of this new world ? whom shall we find Sufficient ? who shall tempt with wandering feet The dark, unbottom'd, infinite abyss, And through the palpable obscure find out His uncouth way...
Page 240 - Thammuz 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...
Page 238 - Their dread commander ; he, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Stood like a tower ; his form had yet not lost All her original brightness, nor appeared Less than archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The British Essayists, Volume 10 The British Essayists, Alexander Chalmers Volume 10 of The British Essayists: With Prefaces, Historical and Biographical, by Alexander Chalmers, Alexander Chalmers |
| Editor | Alexander Chalmers |
| Publisher | J. Johnson, 1808 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | May 5, 2005 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |