So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub

Thus answer'd: Leader of those armies bright, Which but th' Omnipotent none could have

foil'd,

If once they hear that voice, their livelieft pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft 275
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all assaults
Their fureft fignal, they will foon refume
New courage and revive, tho' now they lie
Groveling and proftrate on yon lake of fire, 280
As we ere while, aftounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious height.

He fcarce had ceas'd, when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore; his pond'rous shield,

Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round, 285 Behind him caft; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose

290

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fefolé,
Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.
His spear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand
He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps 295

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Over the burning marle not like those steps
On heaven's azure and the torrid clime'
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire:
Nathlefs he fo endur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he ftood, and call'd 300
His legions, Angel-forms, who lay entranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves, that strow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian fhades
High over-arch'd embow'r; or scatter'd sedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd 305
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves
o'erthrew

Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they perfued
The fojourners of Gofhen, who beheld
From the safe shore their floating carcases 310
And broken chariot wheels: fo thick bestrown
Abject and loft lay these, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change,
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of hell refounded. Princes, Potentates, 315
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once your's,
now loft,

If fuch aftonishment as this can feize
Eternal Spirits; or have ye chos'n this place
After the toil of battel to repofe

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320

To flumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?

Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

To adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood,
With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon 325°
His swift pursuers from Heav'n gates difcern
Th' advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf,
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n,

330

They heard, and were abash'd," and up they
Sprung

Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread,
Roufe and beftir themselves ere well awake.
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight, 335
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their General's voice they foon obey'd
Innumerable. As when the potent' Rod
Of Amram's Son, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy
cloud

340

Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell 345
'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;
Till, as a fignal giv'n, th'up-lifted spear
Of their great Sultan wawing to direct
Their course, in even ballance down they light

On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain; 350 A multitude! like which the populous north Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan fands. 355 Forthwith from ev'ry squadron and each band The heads and leaders thither hafte, where stood Their great commander; God-like shapes and forms

Excelling human, princely Dignities,

And Pow'rs, that earft in heaven fat on

thrones;

360 Though of their names in heav'nly records now

Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
By their rebellion, from the books of life,
Nor had they yet among the fons of Eve

Got then new names, till wand'ring o'er the

Thro' God's high sufferance for the tryal of man,

By falfities and lies the greatest part

Of mankind they corrupted to forfake

God their creator, and th’invisible

Glory of him that made them to transform 370
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd

With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:

Then were they known to men by various names,

And various Idols thro' the Heathen world. 375

Say, Muse, their names then known; who
firft, who laft,

Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great emperor's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof. 380
The chief were those, who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durft fix
Their feats long after next the seat of God,
Their altars by his altar, Gods ador'd
Among the nations round, and durft abide 385
Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd
Within his fanctuary itself their fhrines,
Abominations; and with curfed things

His holy rites and folemn feafts profan'd 390
And with their darkness durft affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood
Of human facrifice, and parents tears,

Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children cries unheard, that pass'd
through fire

To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worship'd in Rabba and her watry plain,
In Argob and in Bafan, to the stream

Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such

395

Audacious neighbourhood, the wifeft heart 400
Of Solomon he led by fraud, to build

His temple right against the temple of God

On