But I should ill become this throne, O peers, And this imperial sovereignty adorn'd
With splendour, arm'd with power, if aught proposed And judged of public moment, in the shape
Of difficulty or danger, could deter
Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 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 honour'd 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 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 enterprize
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 fear'd; And, so refused, might in opinion stand His rivals; winning cheap the high repute, Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 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
Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven: Nor fail'd they to express how much they praised, That for the general safety he despised
His own for neither do the spirits damn'd
Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast
Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, Or close ambition, varnish'd 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'erspread Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element
Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow, or shower; If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet, 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 damn'd 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 seem'd Alone the antagonist of heaven, nor less Than hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme, 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 alchemy, By herald's voice explain'd; the hollow abyss Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell With deafening shout return'd them loud acclaim. Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers Disband, and, wandering, each his several way Pursues, as inclination or sad choice
Leads him, perplex'd 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; Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades 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 aëry knights, and couch their spears, Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms From either end of heaven the welkin burns. Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell, Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air In whirlwind; hell scarce holds the wild uproar. As when Alcides, from Echalia crown'd
With conquest, felt the envenom'd 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 Free virtue should inthral 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 sweet (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense), Others apart sat on a hill retired,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of providence, fore-knowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 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 awhile, or anguish, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast With stubborn patience, as with triple steel. Another part, in squadrons and gross bands,
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 Phlegethon, Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Par 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 Of ancient pile: or 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 effects of fire. Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
At certain revolutions, all the damn'd
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce : From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire. They ferry o'er this Lethean sound
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, All in one moment, and so near the brink; But fate withstands, and to oppose the attempt Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The ford, and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In cónfused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, View'd first their lamentable lot, and found No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of A universe of death; which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good;'
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceived, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
Meanwhile, the adversary of God and man, Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight: sometimes
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried Hangs in the clouds, by equinoxial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood, Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape,
Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd Far off the flying fiend. At last appear
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantine rock
Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,
Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair; But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round A cry of hell-hounds never-ceasing bark'd,
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