Of endless pain? Where there is then no good
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

Could have assur'd us; and by what best way,
Whether of open war or covert guile,

We now debate; who can advise, may speak.
He ceas'd; and next him Moloch, scepter'd king,
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit
That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair:
His trust was with th' Eternal to be deem'd
Equal in strength, and rather than be less
Car'd not to be at all; with that care lost
Went all his fear: of God, or hell, or worse,

He reck'd not; and these words thereafter spake :

38

our just inheritance] See Crashaw's Steps to the Temple, p. 64.

(1646.)

'And for the never fading fields of light,

My fair inheritance, he confines me here :'

and Beaumont's Psyche, c. i. st. 24.

'Was't not enough against the righteous law

Of primogeniture to throw us down,

From that bright home which all the world does know

Was by confest inheritance our own.'

40 best way] Compare Spenser's F. Queen, vii. vi. 21. and ii. xi. 7. Todd.

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: For while they sit contriving, shall the rest, Millions that stand in arms and longing wait The signal to ascend, sit lingering here Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, The prison of his tyranny who reigns By our delay? no, let us rather choose, Arm'd with hell flames and fury, all at once O'er heaven's high tow'rs 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 Mixt with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire,

54 sit contriving] See Milton's Prose Works, vol. ii. 380. iii. 24. 'But to sit contriving.'

67 Black fire] See Eschyli Prometheus, ver. 930.

*Ος δὴ κεραυνοῦ κρέισσον ευρήσει φλόγα,

Βροντῆς θ' ὑπερβάλλοντα καρτερὸν κτύπον.

and see Statii Theb. iv. 133. 'furiarum lampade nigra.' Silv. i. iv. 64. fulminis atri.' Lucan Ph. ii. 301. 'ignes atros.'

'I talk of flames, and yet I call hell dark;
Flames I confess they are, but black.'

See M. Stevenson's Poems (1654), p. 113, (A Guesse at Hell.)
69 strange fire] See Nonni Dionysiaca, lib. xliv. ver. 153.
Εἰ δέ κε πειρήσαιτο καὶ ἡμετέροιο κεραυνοῦ,
γνωσέται, οἷον ἔχω χθόνιος σέλας· οὐρανίου γὰρ
Θερμοτέρους σπινθῆρας ἐμοῦ λαχἐν ἀντίτυπον πῦρ.

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 pursu'd us through the deep,
With what compulsion and laborious flight
We sunk thus low? th' ascent is easy then;
Th' event is fear'd; should we again provoke
Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find
To our destruction: if there be in hell

70

75

80

Fear to be worse destroy'd: what can be worse 85 Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemn'd In this abhorred deep to utter woe;

Where pain of unextinguishable fire

Must exercise us without hope of end,
The vassals of his anger, when the scourge
Inexorable, and the torturing hour

Calls us to penance? more destroy'd than thus
We should be quite abolish'd and expire.

What fear we then? what doubt we to incense
His utmost ire? which, to the highth enrag'd,
Will either quite consume us, and reduce
To nothing this essential; happier far,

89 exercise] Vex, trouble: v. Virg. Georg. iv. 453.

'Non te nullius exercent numinis iræ.' Newton.

90

35

95

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.

He ended frowning, and his look denounc'd
Desperate revenge and battle dangerous
To less than gods. On th' other side up rose
Belial, in act more graceful and humane;

A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem'd
For dignity compos'd and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropp'd 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 pleas'd the ear,
And with persuasive accent thus began.

I should be much for open war, O Peers,
As not behind in hate, if what was urg'd
Main reason to persuade immediate war,

113 worse] Val. Flacc. Arg. lib. iii. ver. 645

-Rursum instimulat, ducitque faventes
Magnanimus Calydone satus; potioribus ille
Deteriora fovens, semperque inversa tueri
Durus.'

114 better] Tov λóyov tòv httw ngelттw лoliv. Bentley.

100

105

110

115

120

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.

125

130

First, what revenge? the tow'rs of heaven are fill'd
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
Heav'n's purest light, yet our great enemy
All incorruptible would on his throne
Sit unpolluted; and th' ethereal mould
Incapable of stain would soon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
Victorious. Thus repuls'd, our final hope
Is flat despair: we must exasperate
Th' 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,

131 bordering deep] See Wither's Campo Musæ, p. 25. 'And to possess the bordering hills.'

142 our hope] Shakesp. K. Hen. VI. act ii. scene iii.

'Our hap is loss, our hope but sad despair.' Malone.

135

140

145