What matter where, if I be still the fame,
And what! should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at leaft
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, 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' associates 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 manfion, 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 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 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 affaults Their surest signal, they will foon refume New courage and revive, though now they lie Grovelling and proftrate on yon lake of fire, As we ere while, astounded, and amaz'd No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd when the fuperior Fiend Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous 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 Fefole,
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 maft
Of fome great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with tofupport uneasy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heav'n's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire:
Nathlefs he so endur'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 strow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian shades
High over arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd fedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-fea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew
Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they purfu'd
The fojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the fafe shore their floating carcafes
And broken chariot wheels: fo thick bestrown
Abject and loft lay these, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd so 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 feife
Eternal Spirits; or have you chos'n this place
After the toil of battel to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the eafe you find
To flumber here, as in the vales of Heav'n?
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 ensigns, till anon
His fwift 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.
Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.
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,
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 foon obey'd
Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud 349
Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That over 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
'Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires;
Till, as a signal giv'n, th' up-lifted 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
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian fands.
Forthwith from every squadron and each band
The heads and leaders thither hafte where stood
Their great commander; Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human, princely Dignities,
And Pow'rs that erst 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 among the fons of Eve
Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth, 365
Through God's high fufferance for the tri'al of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forfake
God their Creator, and the invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
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 through the Heathen world.
Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last,
Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great empe'ror's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he stood on the bare fstrand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof.
The chief were those who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to feek their prey on earth, durft fix
Their feats long after next the feat of God,
Their altars by his altar, Gods ador'd
Among the nations round, and durft abide
Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd
Between the Cherubims; yea, often plac'd
Within his fanctuary itself their shines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy rites and folemn feafts profan'd,
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 childrens cries unheard, they pafs'd through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry plain,
In Argob and in Bafan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with fuch
Audacious neighbourhood, the wifest 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 call'd, the type of Hell.
Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's fons,
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of fouthmost Abarim; in Hefebon
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,
And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool.
Peor his other name, when he entic'd
Ifrael in Sittim on their march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his luftful orgies he inlarg'd
Ev'n to that hill of scandal, by the grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;
Till good Jofiah drove them thence to Hell.
With these came they, who from the bord'ring flood
Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baalim and Afhtaroh, those male,
These feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either sex assume or both; fo foft
And uncompounded is their essence pure,
Not ty'd or manacl'd with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choofe
Dilated or condens'd, bright or obfcure,
Can execute their airy purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil.
For those the race of Ifrael oft forfook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low 435
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