I may assert Eternal Providence,
memange And justify the ways of God to men.
Say first for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
Cause of the Nor the deep tract of Hell - say first what cause Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state, Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress His will For one restraint, lords of the World besides. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
Satan; his overthrow
and its
result.
The infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host Of rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equaled the Most High, If He opposed, and, with ambitious aim Against the throne and monarchy of God, Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud, With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 45 With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space that measures day and
To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew,
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded, though immortal.
Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes, That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. At once, as far as Angel's ken, he views The dismal situation waste and wild.
A dungeon horrible on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those
No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 65 And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
For those rebellious; here their prison ordained In utter darkness, and their portion set, As far removed from God and light of Heaven, As.from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell! There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side, One next himself in power, and next in crime, Long after known in Palestine, and named Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold Satan's near
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:
If thou beest he- but oh how fallen! how
From him who, in the happy realms of light, Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst out-
Myriads, though bright!—if he, whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise,
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
From what highth fallen so much the stronger
He with His thunder; and till then who knew The force of those dire arms?
Satan reveals Nor what the potent Victor in His rage his character. Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
And high disdain from sense of injured merit That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along Innumerable force of spirits armed,
That durst dislike His reign, and, me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
And courage never to submit or yield, And what is else not to be overcome; That glory never shall His wrath or might Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee, and deify His power Who, from the terror of this arm, so late Doubted His empire - that were low indeed; That were an ignominy and shame beneath This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods, And this empyreal substance, cannot fail; Since, through experience of this great event, In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, with more successful hope resolve To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven.'
So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, 125 Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair; And him thus answered soon his bold compeer:
'O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers That led the embattled Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, And put to proof His high supremacy,
Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate! Too well I see and rue the, dire event That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat, Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,
As far as Gods and Heavenly Essences
Can perish for the mind and spirit remains
Satan's
indomitable purpose.
Invincible, and vigor soon returns,
Though all our glory extinct, and happy state Here swallowed up in endless misery. But what if He our Conqueror (whom I now Of force believe almighty, since no less
Than such could have o'erpowered such force as
ours) Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, Strongly to suffer and support our pains, That we may so suffice His vengeful ire, Or do him mightier service as His thralls By right of war, whate'er His business be, Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, Or do His errands in the gloomy Deep? What can it then avail, though yet we feel Strength undiminished, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment?'
Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied:-
6 Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering; but of this be sure To do aught good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being the contrary to His high will Whom we resist. If then His providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labor must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil; Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps Shall grieve Him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmost counsels from their destined aim. But see! the angry Victor hath recalled
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