Page images
PDF
EPUB

Satan, assured of

eminence in danger and suffering, invites counsel from his associates.

Moloch's

fierceness.

In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 25
Envy from each inferior; but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
Of endless pain? Where there is, then, no good 30
For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
From faction; for none sure will claim in Hell
Precedence; none whose portion is so small
Of present pain that with ambitious mind
Will covet more. With this advantage, then,
To union and firm faith and firm accord,
More than can be in Heaven, we now return
To claim our just inheritance of old,

Surer to prosper than prosperity

35

Could have assured us; and by what best way, 40
Whether of open war or covert guile,

[ocr errors]

We now debate. Who can advise may speak.'
He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king,
Stood up-
the strongest and the fiercest spirit
That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair. 45
His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength, and, rather than be less,
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost
Went all his fear; of God, or Hell, or worse,
He recked not, and these words thereafter
spake :-

My sentence is for open war. Of wiles,
More unexpert, I boast not; them let those
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.
advises open For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest

Moloch

war.

50

Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait 55

sit lingering here

The signal to ascend
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of His tyranny who reigns

60

65

70

By our delay? No, let us rather choose,
Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the Torturer; when, to meet the noise
Of His almighty engine, He shall hear
Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see
Black fire and horror shot with equal rage
Among His Angels, and His throne itself
Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire,
His own invented torments. But perhaps
The way seems difficult, and steep to scale
With upright wing against a higher Foe!
Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench
Of that forgetful lake benumb not still,
That in our proper motion we ascend
Up to our native seat; descent and fall
To us is adverse. Who but felt of late,
When the fierce Foe hung on our broken rear
Insulting, and pursued us through the Deep,
With what compulsion and laborious flight
We sunk thus low? The ascent is easy, then ;
The event is feared! Should we again provoke
Our Stronger, some worse way His wrath may find
To our destruction, if there be in Hell

75

80

Fear to be worse destroyed! What can be worse 85 Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, con

demned

Belial's suavity and duplicity.

In this abhorrèd Deep to utter woe
Where pain of unextinguishable fire
Must exercise us without hope of end,
The vassals of His anger, when the scourge
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,

Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus,
We should be quite abolished, and expire.
What fear we then? what doubt we to incense

90

His utmost ire? which, to the highth enraged, 95
Will either quite consume us, and reduce
To nothing this essential - happier far
Than miserable to have eternal being!
Or, if our substance be indeed divine,
And cannot cease to be, we are at worst
On this side nothing; and by proof we feel
Our power sufficient to disturb His Heaven,
And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
Though inaccessible, His fatal throne;
Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.'

100

105

110

He ended frowning, and his look denounced
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous
To less than gods. On the other side uprose
Belial, in act more graceful and humane.
A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
For dignity composed, and high exploit,
But all was false and hollow, though his tongue
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low-
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful; yet he pleased the ear,
And with persuasive accent thus began:

115

'I should be much for open war, O Peers,
As not behind in hate, if what was urged
Main reason to persuade immediate war
Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast
Ominous conjecture on the whole success
When he who most excels in fact of arms,
In what he counsels and in what excels
Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair
And utter dissolution, as the scope

Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.

120

125

First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are

filled

With armed watch, that render all access
Impregnable; oft on the bordering Deep
Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing
Scout far and wide into the realm of Night,
Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way
By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise
With blackest insurrection, to confound
Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy,
All incorruptible, would on His throne
Sit unpolluted, and the ethereal mold,
Incapable of stain, would soon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope
Is flat despair; we must exasperate
The Almighty Victor to spend all His rage,
And that must end us; that must be our cure
To be no more. Sad cure for who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, swallowed up and lost

130

135

140

145

150

155

In the wide womb of uncreated Night,
Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows,
Let this be good, whether our angry Foe
Can give it, or will ever? How He can
Is doubtful; that He never will is sure.
Will He, so wise, let loose at once His ire,
Belike through impotence, or unaware,
To give His enemies their wish, and end
Them in His anger whom His anger saves
To punish endless? "Wherefore cease we then?"
Say they who counsel war; "we are decreed, 160
Reserved, and destined to eternal woe;

Whatever doing, what can we suffer more,
What can we suffer worse?" Is this then worst
Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms?
What when we fled amain, pursued and struck 165
With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought
The Deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed
A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay
Chained on the burning lake? That sure was

worse.

What if the breath that kindled those grim

fires,

Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage,
And plunge us in the flames? or from above
Should intermitted vengeance arm again
His red right hand to plague us? What if all
Her stores were opened, and this firmament
Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall
One day upon our heads; while we perhaps,
Designing or exhorting glorious war,

170

175

« PreviousContinue »