To fpeak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half inclose him round
With all his peers: attention held them mute.
Thrice he affay'd, and thrice in spite of scorn
Tears, fuch as Angels weep, burst forth: at last 620
Words interwove with fighs found out their way.
O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers
Matchless, but with th' Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire
As this place teftifies, and this dire change 625
Hateful to utter: but what pow'r of mind
Foreseeing or prefaging, from the depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have fear'd,
How such united force of Gods, how fuch
As stood like these, could ever know repulse?
For who can yet believe, though after lofs,
That all these puissant legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heav'n, shall fail to re-afcend
Self rais'd, and repossess their native feat?
For me be witness all the Host of Heaven,
If counsels different, or danger shunn'd
By me, have loft our hopes. But he who reigns
Monarch in Heav'n till then as one fecure
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
Confent or custom, and his regal state
Put forth at full, but still his strength conceal'd,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own,
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New war, provok'd; our better part remains
To work in close design by fraud or guile,
What force effected not; that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife 650
There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favor equal to the fons of Heav'n:
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere :
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celeftial Spirits in bondage, nor th' abyfs
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counfel muft mature: Peace is defpair'd,
For who can think fubmiffion? War then, War
Open or understood must be resolv'd.
He fpake: and to confirm his words, outflew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the fudden blaze
Far round illumin'd Hell: highly they rag'd
Against the High'eft, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash'd on their founding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance tow'ard the vault of Heaven.
There stood a hill not far, whose grifly top Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurff, undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
The work of fulphur. Thither wing'd with speed
A numerous brigad hafsten'd: as when bands
Of pioneers with spade and pickax arm'd
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or caft a rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heav'n, for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold,
Than ought divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beautific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransack'd the center, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth
For treafures better hid. Soon had his crew
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,
And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 That riches grow in Hell; that foil may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boaft in mortal things, and wond ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame
And ftrength and art are easily out-done
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the lake, a second multitude
W'ith wondrous art founded the maffy ore,
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross:
A third as foon had form'd within the ground
A various mold, and from the boiling cells
By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook,
As in an organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of pipes the found-board breathes.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rofe like an exhalation, with the round
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a temple, where pilasters round
Were fet, and Doric pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did their want
Cornice or freeze, with bossy sculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equall'd in all their glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis their Gods, or feat
Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria strove
In wealth and luxury, Th'ascending pile
Stood fix'd her stately highth, and strait the doors
Opening their brazen folds discover wide Within, her ample spaces, o'er the finooth And level pavement: from the arched roof Pendent by fubtle magic many a row Of starry lamps and blazing creffets fed With Naptha and Asphaltus yielded light As from a sky. The hafty multitude Admiring enter'd, and the work fome praise And fome the architect: his hand was known In Heav'n by many a towering structure high, Where fcepter'd Angels held their refidence, And fat as princes, whom the fupreme King Exalted to fuch pow'r, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unador'd In ancient Greece; And in Aufonian land Men call'd him Mulciber; and how hefell From Heav'n, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the fetting fun Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, On Lemos th' Ægean ifle: thus they relate, Erring; for he with this rebellious rout Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now T'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scape By all his engines, but was headlong fent With his industrious crew to build in Hell.
Mean while the winged heralds by command
Of fov'ran pow'r, with awful ceremony
And trumpets found, throughout the host proclame
A folemn council forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium, the high capital
Of Satan and his peers; their fummons call'd
From every band and squared regiment
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 | Attended: all access was throng'd, the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall (Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair
Defy'd the best of Panin chivalry
To mortal combat, or carreer with lance)
Thick swarm'd, both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd with the hiss of rusling wings. As bees
In spring time when the fun in Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters: they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, on the smoothed plank,
The fuburb of their straw-built citadel,
New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So thick the aery croud
Swarm'd and were straiten'; till the signal given,
Behold a wonder! they but now who feem'd
In bigness to furpass earth's giant fons,
Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that pigmean race
Beyond the Indian mount, of faery elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest side
Or fountain some belated peasant fees,
Or dreams he fees, while over-head the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale course, they on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocond music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart reboun s.
Thus incorporeal Spi'rit to smallest forms
Reduc'd their shapes immenfe, and were at large, 790 Though without number still amidst the hall
Of that infernal court. But far within,
And in their own dimensions like themselves,
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
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