Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell? So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub Thus answered: Leader of those armies bright, Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled! If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft In worse extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults
Their surest signals, they will soon resume New courage and revive, though now they lie Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, As we erewhile, astounded and amazed.
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height.
He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving towards the shore, his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast. The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine, Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mas On some great ammiral, were but a wand He walked with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marl, not like those steps On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. Nathless he so endured, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Vallambrosa, where the Etrurian shades High overarched embower, or scattered sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed
Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrewn, Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He called so loud, that all the hollow deep Of Hell resounded: Princes, potentates, Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal spirits. Or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber 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 scattered arms and ensigns; till anon His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern The 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 fallen!
They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung Upon the wing—as when men, wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel. Yet to their general's voice they soon obeyed Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels seen, Hovering on wing, under the cope of Hell, 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires,— Till, at a signal given, the uplifted spear Of their great sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain, A multitude, like which the populous North Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. Forthwith from every squadron and each band, The heads and leaders thither haste where stood Their great commander. Godlike shapes, and forms Excelling human; princely dignities;
And powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones, Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and rased By their rebellion from the Book of Life. Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names; till, wandering o'er the earth, Through God's high sufferance, for the trial of man, By falsities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator, and the invisible
Glory of Him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorned
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 through the heathen world.
Say, Muse, their names then known. Who first, who last,
Roused from the slumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great emperor's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. The chief were those, who, from the pit of Heli, Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix Their seats long after next the seat of God, Their altars by His altar; gods adored Among the nations round; and durst abide Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned Between the cherubim; yea, often placed Within His sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations, and with cursed things
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, And with their darkness durst affront His light. First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshlpped in Rabba and her watery plain, In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple of God, On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon And Horonáim, Seon's realm, beyond The flowery dale of Sibma, clad with vines, And Eleälé to the asphaltic pool. Peor his other name, when he enticed
Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove Of Moloch homicide; lust hard by hate; Till good Josiah drove them hence to Hell. With these came they, who from the bordering flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim and Ashtaroth; those male,
These feminine; for spirits, when they please, Can either sex assume, or both, so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh, but, in what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their aery purposes, And works of love or enmity fulfill. For those the race of Israel oft forsook Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down To bestial gods; for which their heads as low Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop Came Astoreth, whom the Phœnicians called Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns, To whose bright image nightly by the moon Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs; In Sion also not unsung, where stood Her temple on the offensive mountain, built By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell
To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound, to Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer's day,
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