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 denounced Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous To less than gods. On the other side up rose Belial, in act more graceful and humane; A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed For dignity composed, and high exploit: But all was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropt 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 pleased 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 urged Main reason to persuade immediate war, 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. First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are filled 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 Heaven's purest light; yet our great Enemy, All incorruptible, would on his throne Sit unpolluted, and the ethereal mold, Incapable of stain, would soon expel Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair: we must exasperate The 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, Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows, Let this be good, whether our angry Foe Can give it, or will ever? How He can, Is doubtful: that He never will, is sure. Will He, so wise, let loose at once His ire, Belike through impotence, or unaware, To give His enemies their wish, and end Them in His anger, whom His anger saves To punish endless? Wherefore cease we then? Say they who counsel war-We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe: Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, What can we suffer worse? Is this then worst, Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ? What! when we fled amain, pursued, and struck With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought The deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed A refuge from those wounds, or when we lay Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse What if the breath that kindled those grim fires Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, And plunge us in the flames? Or, from above, Should intermitted vengeance arm again His red right hand to plague us? What if all Her stores were opened, and this firmament Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall One day upon our heads, while we, perhaps, Designing or exhorting glorious war, Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey Of racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk Under yon boiling ocean, wrapped in chains, There to converse with everlasting groans, Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved,
Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse. War, therefore, open or concealed, alike My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile With Him, or who deceive His mind, whose eye Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's height All these our motions vain sees, and derides;
Not more almighty to resist our might,
Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven Thus trampled, thus expelled to suffer here
Chains and these torments? Better these than worse, By my advice; since fate inevitable
Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,
The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do, Our strength is equal, nor the law unjust That so ordains: this was at first resolved, If we were wise, against so great a Foe Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold And venturous, if that fail them, shrink and fear
What yet they know must follow, to endure Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain,
The sentence of their Conqueror. This is now Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear,
Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed, Not mind us not offending, satisfied
With what is punished; whence these raging fires Will slacken, if His breath stir not their flames.
Our purer essence then will overcome
Tneir noxious vapor; or, inured, not feel ;
Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed In temper and in nature, will receive
Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain,
This horror will grow mild, this darkness light: Besides what hope the never-ending flight
Of future days may bring, what chance, what change Worth waiting: since our present lot appears For happy, though but ill; for ill not worst; If we procure not to ourselves more woe.
Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, Counseled ignoble ease, and peacefu! sloth, Not peace: And after him thus Mammon spake:
Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven We war, if war be best, or to regain Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. The former, vain to hope, argues as vain The latter; for what place can be for us Within Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord supreme We overpower? Suppose He should relent, And publish grace to all, on promise made Of new subjection; with what eyes could we Stand in His presence humble, and receive Strict laws imposed, to celebrate His throne
« PreviousContinue » |