What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
If not, what refolution from despair.
Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling, blaz'd; his other parts befides
Prone on the flood, extended long and large,
Lay floting many a rood; in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monftrous fize,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarfus held, or that sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th'ocean stream:
Him, haply flumb'ring on the Norway foam,
The pilot of fome fmall night-founder'd fkiff
Deeming fome iland, oft, as fea-men tell,
With fixed anchor in his fkaly rind
Moors by his fide under the lee, while night
Invests the fea, and wished morn delays:
So ftretch'd out,huge in length,the Arch-Fiend lay
Chain'd on the burning lake; nor ever thence
Had ris'n or heav'd his head, but that the will
And high permiffion of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs;
That, with reiterated crimes, he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he fought
Evil to others; and,enrag'd,might fee
How all his malice ferv'd but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown
On Man,by him feduc'd, but on himself
Treble confufion, wrath and vengeance pour'd. 220
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature; on each hand the flames,
Driv'n backward flope their pointing spires, and roll'd
In billows, leave i'th'midft a horrid vale.
Then, with expanded wings, he fteers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight; 'till on dry land
He lights, if it were land, that ever burn'd
With folid, as the lake with liquid fire;
And fuch appear'd in hue, as when the force
Of fubterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the fhatter'd fide
Of thund'ring Aetna, whofe combuftible
And fuel'd entrails thence conceiving fire,
Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a finged bottom all involv'd
With stench and smoke: Such resting found the fole
Of unbleft feet. Him follow'd his next mate,
Both glorying to have 'scap'd the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by their own recover'd ftrength, 240
Not by the fufferance of fupernal Power.
Is this the region, this the foil, the clime,
Said then the loft Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celeftial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: fartheft from him is best,
Whom reas on hath equal'd, force hath made fupreme Above his equals. Farewel happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new poffeffor; one who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be ftill the fame,
And what I fhould be, all but lefs than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th'Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign fecure; and, in my choice,
To reign, is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign, in Hell; than serve, in Heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th'affociates and copartners of our lofs,
Lie thus aftonish'd on th'oblivious pool;
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion; or once more,
With rallied arms, to try what may be yet
Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more loft in Hell?
So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub Thus answer'd. Leader of those armies bright, Which, but th'Omnipotent,none could have foil'd,
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard fo oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all assaults
Their surest signal, they will foon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lie
Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,
As we erewhile, aftounded and amaz'd;
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd, when the fuperior Fiend Was moving toward the fhore; his pond'rous fhield, Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,
Behind him caft, the broad circumference
Hung on his fhoulders like the moon, whose orb,
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
Over the burning marle, not like those fleps
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore besides, vaulted with fire;
Nathlefs he fo indur'd; till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he stood, and call'd
His legions; Angel forms, who lay intranc'd-
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th'Etrurian fhades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge
Aflote, when,with fierce winds,Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew
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,
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now loft,
If fuch astonishment as this can seise
Eternal Spi rits; or have ye chos'n this place,
After the toil of battel to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To flumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
Or in this abject posture have ye fworn
To adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood,
With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon,
His swift purfuers from Heav'n gates,difcern
Th'advantage, and,defcending,tread us down,
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf,
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