Page images
PDF
EPUB

Matchless but with the Almighty! and that strife
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire,
As this place testifies, and this dire change
Hateful to utter: but what power of mind,
Foreseeing, or presaging, from the depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have fear'd
How such united force of gods, how such
As stood like these, could ever know repulse?
For who can yet believe, though after loss,
That all these puissant legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend
Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?
For me, be witness all the host of Heaven,
If counsels different, or dangers shunn'd
By me, have lost our hopes. But he, who reigns
Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent, or custom; and his regal state

Put forth at full, but still his strength conceal'd,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own;
So as not either to provoke, or dread

New war provok'd: our better part remains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
What force effected not that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heaven that he erelong
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 the abyss

Long under darkness cover.

Full counsel must mature:

But these thoughts

Peace is despair'd;

For who can think submission? War then, War,
Open or understood, must be resolv'd.

He spake and, to confirm his words, out flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze

Far round illumined Hell: Highly they rag'd
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms,
Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top
Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire
Shone with a glossy scurf; undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallick ore,

The work of sulphur.1 Thither, wing'd with speed,
A numerous brigad hasten'd: as when bands
Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe arm'd,
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or cast a rampart. Mammon2 led them on;
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell

From Heaven; for e'en in Heaven his looks and thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold,

Than aught, divine or holy, else enjoy'd

In vision beatifick by him first

Men also, and by his suggestion taught,

Ransack'd the center, and with impious hands

Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth,

For treasures, better hid.

Soon had his crew

1The work of sulphur:' sulphur in ancient days was thought the genetrix of gold.—2 Mammon:' the word is Syriac, and signifies riches.

Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,

And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,
And strength, and art, are easily outdone
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude
With wonderous art, founded the massy ore,
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross:
A third as soon had form'd within the ground
A various mould, and from the boiling cells
By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook;
As in an organ, from one blast of wind,

To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.
Anon, out of the earth, a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a temple, where pilasters round
Were set, and Dorick pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or freeze, with bossy sculptures graven :
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence
Equall'd in all their glories, to enshrine
Belus or Sérapis,1 their gods; or seat
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove

1 Sérapis:' an Egyptian god.

In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile

Stood fix'd her stately highth: and straight the doors,
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magick, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets,1 fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd; and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was known
In Heaven by many a tower'd structure high,
Where scepter'd Angels held their residence,
And sat as princes; whom the Supreme King
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the Orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian 2 land
Men called him Mulciber; 3 and how he fell
From Heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos, the 'gean isle: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with his rebellious rout

Fell long before; nor aught avail'd him now

To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he 'scape

By all his engines, but was headlong sent

With his industrious crew to build in Hell.

Meanwhile, the winged heralds, by command

Of sovran power, with awful ceremony

1Cressets:' beacon lights, which anciently had a cross on their top, and were called croisettes.'—2 Ausonian :' Italian.-3Mulciber:' Vulcan.

And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim
A solemn council, forthwith to be held

At Pandemonium; the high capital

Of Satan and his peers: their summons call'd
From every band and squared regiment,

By place or choice the worthiest; they anon,
With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came,
Attended all access was throng'd; the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's1 chair
Defied the best of Panim2 chivalry

To mortal combat, or career with lance),

Thick swarm'd both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings. As becs
In spring-time, when the sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters they among fresh dews and flowers,
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank,
The suburb of their straw-built citadel,
New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So thick the aery crowd
Swarm'd, and were straiten'd; till, the signal given,
Behold a wonder! They but now who seem'd
In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons,
Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that Pygmean race
Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves,
Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,

Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon

[ocr errors]

Soldan:' Sultan.-2 Panim :' Pagan; referring to ancient single combats between the Christians and Saracens.- Taurus:' the Bull--the sign of April.

« PreviousContinue »