There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He foon difcerns, and welt'ring by his fide
One next himself in pow'r, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd
Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid filence thus began.

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If thou beeft he; but O how fall'n! how chang'd From him who in the happy realms of light Cloth'd with transcendent brightness didst outshine Myriads though bright! If he whom mutual league, United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprize, Join'd with me once, now misery hath join'd In equal ru'in: into what pit thou feeft From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger prov'd He with his thunder: and till then who knew The force of those dire arms? yet not for those,

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Nor what the potent victor in his rage

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Can elfe inflict, do I repent or change,

Though chang'd in outward luftre, that fix'd mind,
And high difdain from fenfe of injur'd merit,
That with the Mightiest rais'd me to contend,

And to the fierce contention brought along

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anumerable force of Spirits arm'd,

In dubious battel on the plains of Heaven,

That durft diflike his reign, and me preferring,
His utmost pow'r with adverse pow'r oppos'd

And thook his throne. What though the field be loft?

All is not loft; th'unconquerable will,

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And ftudy of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to fubmit or yield,

And what is elfe not to be overcome;

That glory never shall his wrath or might

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Extort from me, To bow and sue for grace

With fuppliant knee, and deify his power,
Who from the terror of this arm so late
Doubted his empire; that were low indeed,
That were an ignominy' and shame beneath
This downfal; since by fate the strengh of Gods
And this empyreal substance cannot fail,
Since through experience of this great event
In arms not worse, forefight much advanc'd,
We may with more fuccessful hope refolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war,

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Irreconcileable to our grand foe,

Who now triumphs, and in th' excefs of joy
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven.

So spake th' Apostate Angel, though in pain, 125 Vaunting aloud, but rack'd with deep despair: And him thus answered foon his bold compeer. O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers, That led th' imbattell'd Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds Fearless, indanger'd Heav'n's perpetual king, And put to proof his high fupremacy,

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Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate;

Too well I fee and rue the dire event,

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That with fad overthrow and foul defeat
Hath loft us Heav'n, and all this mighty hoft

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In horrible deftruction laid thus low,
As far as Gods and heav'nly effences
Can perish: for the mind and spi'rit remains
Invincible, and vigor foon returns,
Though all our glory' extinct, and happy state
Here fwallow'd up in endless mifery.
But what if he our conqu'ror (whom I now
Of force believe almighty, since no less
Than fuch could have o'erpow'r'd such force as ours)
Have left us this our fpirit and strength entire 146
Strongly to fuffer and fupport our pains,

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That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of war, whate'er his business be
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
Or do his errands in the gloomy deep;
What can it then avail, though yet we feel
Strength undiminish'd, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment?
Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend reply'd.

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Fall'n Cherub, to be weak is miferable Doing or fuffering: but of this be fure, To do ought good never will be our tafk, But ever to do ill our fole delight, As bei'ng the contrary to his high will Whom we refift. If then his providence Out of our evil feek to bring forth good, Our labor must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil; Which oft-times may fucceed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and difturb His inmoft counsels from their destin'd aim. But fee the angry victor hath recall'd His minifters of vengeance and pursuit Back to the gates of Heav'n: the fulphurous hail Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid The fiery furge, that from the precipice Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling; and the thunder, Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rage, 175 Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now To bellow through the vaft and boundlefs deep.

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Let us flip th' occafion, whether scorn,

Or fatiate fury yield it from our foe.

Seeft thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild.

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The feat of defolation, void of light,

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames

Cafts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend

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From off the toffing of these fiery waves,
There reft, if any reft can harbour there,
And re-assembling our afflicted Powers,
Confult how we may henceforth most offend
Our enemy, our own lofs how repair,
How overcome this dire calamity,
What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
If not what refolution from despair.

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Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blaz'd, his other parts besides
Prone on the flood, extended long and large
Lay floting many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By antient Tarsus held, or that fea-beaft
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugeft that fwim th' ocean stream:
Him haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam
The pilot of fome small night-founder'd skiff
Deeming some island, oft, as fea-men tell,
With fixed anchor in his skaly rind
Moors by his fide under the lee, while night
Invests the fea, and wished morn delays :
So stretch'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 himfelf 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

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Treble confufion, wrath and vengeance pour'd. 220
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty ftature; on each hand the flames
Driv'n backward flope their pointed spires, and roll'd
In billows, leave i'th' midst a horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 225
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 shatter'd fide
Of thund'ring Ætna, whose combustible
And fuel'd entrails thence conceiving fire,
Sublin'd with mineral fury, aid the winds,

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And leave a finged bottom all involv'd

With stench and smoke: Such refting found the fole Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate,

Both glorying to have scap'd the Stygian flood

As Gods, and by their own recover'd strength, 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 feat That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light! Be'it so, fince he Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best. Whom reas'on hath equall'd, force hath made fupreme

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Above his equals. Farewell happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail

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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.

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