Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th' associates and copartners of our loss,
Lie thus aftonish'd on th' oblivious pool,
And call them not to fhare with us their part
In this unhappy mansion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more loft in Hell
So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

Thus answer'd. Leader of those armies bright,
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledg
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard fo oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all affaults
Their fureft fignal, they will foon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lie
Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,
As we ere while, aftounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend
Was moving tow'ard the fhore; his pond'rous f
Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round,
Behind him caft; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fefolé,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.
His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
of fome great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with to fupport uneafy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire:
Nathlefs he fo indur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he stood, and call'd
His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian fhades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd fedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew
Bufiris and his Memphían chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The fojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore their floting carcafes
And broken chariot wheels: fo thick beftrown
Abject and loft lay these, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell refounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once your's, now loft,
If such astonishment as this can seise

Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place

After the toil of battel to repofe

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To flumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

To'

'To' adore the conqueror ? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon
His swift purfuers from Heav'n gates difcern
Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.

They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and beftir 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 foon obey'd
Innumerable. As when the potent rod

Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud
Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad Angels feen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell
'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;
Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted fpear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their course, in even balance down they light
On the firm brimftone, and fill all the plain;
A multitude, like which the populous north
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass

Rhene

Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Bencath Gibraltar to the Libyan fands.
Forthwith from every squadron and each band
The heads and leaders thither hafte where stood
Their great commander; Godlike fhapes and forms
Excelling human, princely Dignities,

And Pow'rs that erst in Heaven fat on thrones;
Though of their names in heav'nly records now
Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
By their rebellion from the books of life.

Nor had they yet among the fons of Eve

Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth,
Through God's high fufferance for the tri'al of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part

Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator, and th' invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
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, Mufe, their names then known, who first, who laft
Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof.
The chief were those who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durft fix
VOL. I.

C

Their

Their feats long after next the feat of God,
Their altars by his altar, Gods ador'd
Among the nations round, and durft abide
Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd
Within his fanctuary itself their shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy rites and folemn feafts profan'd,
And with their darkness durst affront his ligh
First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with bl
Of human facrifice, and parents tears,

Though for the noife of drums and timbrels 1
Their childrens cries unheard, that pafs'd thr
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry plain,
In Argob and in Bafan, to the ftream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with fuch
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart.*
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build

His temple right againft the temple' of God
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
The pleasant valley' of Hinnom, Tophet then
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of Hell.
Next Chemos, th' óbfcene dread of Moab's fo
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild

Of fouthmoft Abarim; in Hefebon
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond

The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,,
And Eleälé to the Asphaltic pool.

Peor his other name, when he entic'd