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