Paradise Lost

  Nor what the potent victor in his rage

  Can else inflict, do I repent or change,

  Though changed in outward luster; that fixed mind

  And high disdain98, from sense of injured merit,

  That with the mightiest raised me to contend,

  And to the fierce contention brought along

  Innumerable force of spirits armed

  That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,

  His utmost103 power with adverse power opposed

  In dubious battle on the plains of Heav’n,

  And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

  All is not lost; the unconquerable will,

  And study107 of revenge, immortal hate,

  And courage never to submit or yield:

  And what109 is else not to be overcome?

  That glory never shall his wrath or might

  Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace

  With suppliant knee, and deify his power,

  Who from the terror of this arm so late

  Doubted114 his empire, that were low indeed,

  That were an ignominy115 and shame beneath

  This downfall; since by fate116 the strength of gods

  And this empyreal substance117 cannot fail,

  Since through experience of this great event

  In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,

  We may with more successful hope resolve

  To wage by force or guile eternal war

  Irreconcilable, to our grand foe,

  Who now triumphs123, and in th’ excess of joy

  Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heav’n.”

  So spake th’ apostate angel, though in pain,125

  Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair:

  And him thus answered soon his bold compeer.

  “O Prince, O chief of many thronèd powers128,

  That led th’ embattled Seraphim to war

  Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds

  Fearless, endangered Heav’n’s perpetual King,

  And put to proof his high supremacy,

  Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate,

  Too well I see and rue the dire event134,

  That with sad overthrow and foul defeat

  Hath lost us Heav’n, and all this mighty host

  In horrible destruction laid thus low,

  As far as gods and Heav’nly essences

  Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains

  Invincible, and vigor soon returns,

  Though all our glory141 extinct, and happy state

  Here swallowed up in endless misery.

  But what if he our conqueror (whom I now

  Of force144 believe almighty, since no less

  Than such could have o’erpow’red such force as ours)

  Have left us this our spirit and strength entire

  Strongly to suffer and support147 our pains,

  That we may so suffice148 his vengeful ire,

  Or do him mightier service as his thralls149

  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 deep152;

  What can153 it then avail though yet we feel

  Strength undiminished, or eternal being

  To undergo eternal punishment?”

  Whereto with speedy words th’ Arch-Fiend replied.

  “Fall’n cherub, to be weak is miserable

  Doing or suffering158: but of this be sure,

  To do aught good never will be our task,

  But ever to do ill our sole delight,

  As being the contrary to his high will

  Whom we resist. If then his providence

  Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,

  Our labor must be to pervert that end,

  And out of good still to find means of evil;

  Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps

  Shall grieve him, if I fail167 not, and disturb

  His inmost counsels from their destined aim.

  But see the angry victor hath recalled

  His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

  Back to the gates of Heav’n: the sulfurous hail

  Shot after us in storm, o’erblown hath laid172

  The fiery surge, that from the precipice

  Of Heav’n received us falling, and the thunder,

  Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,

  Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now

  To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

  Let us not slip178 th’ occasion, whether scorn,

  Or satiate fury yield it from our foe.

  Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,

  The seat of desolation, void of light,

  Save what the glimmering of these livid182 flames

  Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend

  From off the tossing of these fiery waves,

  There rest, if any rest can harbor there,

  And reassembling our afflicted186 powers,

  Consult how we may henceforth most offend

  Our enemy, our own loss how repair,

  How overcome this dire calamity,

  What reinforcement we may gain from hope,

  If not what resolution from despair.”

  Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate

  With head uplift above the wave, and eyes

  That sparkling blazed, his other parts besides

  Prone on the flood, extended long and large

  Lay floating many a rood196, in bulk as huge

  As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

  Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,198

  Briareos or Typhon198, whom the den

  By ancient Tarsus200 held, or that sea beast

  Leviathan201, which God of all his works

  Created hugest that swim th’ ocean stream:

  Him haply slumb’ring on the Norway foam203

  The pilot of some small night-foundered204 skiff,

  Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,

  With fixèd anchor in his scaly rind

  Moors by his side under the lee207, while night

  Invests208 the sea, and wishèd morn delays:

  So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay

  Chained210 on the burning lake, nor ever thence

  Had ris’n or heaved his head, but that the will

  And high permission of all-ruling Heaven

  Left him at large to his own dark designs,

  That with reiterated crimes he might

  Heap on himself damnation, while he sought

  Evil to others, and enraged might see

  How all his malice served but to bring forth

  Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown

  On man by him seduced, but on himself

  Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured.

  Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool

  His mighty stature; on each hand the flames

  Driv’n backward slope their pointing spires, and rolled

  In billows, leave i’ th’ midst a horrid224 vale.

  Then with expanded wings he steers his flight

  Aloft, incumbent226 on the dusky air

  That felt unusual weight, till on dry land

  He lights, if it were land that ever burned

  With solid, as the lake with liquid fire,

  And such appeared in hue, as when the force230

  Of subterranean wind transports a hill

  Torn from Pelorus232, or the shattered side

  Of thund’ring Etna, whose combustible

  And fueled entrails thence conceiving fire234,

  Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,

  And leave a singèd bottom all involved

  With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole

  Of unblest feet. Him f
ollowed his next mate,

  Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood239

  As gods,240 and by their own recovered strength,

  Not by the sufferance of supernal power.

  “Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,”

  Said then the lost Archangel, “this the seat

  That we must change244 for Heav’n, this mournful gloom

  For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

  Who now is sov’reign can dispose and bid

  What shall be right: farthest from him is best

  Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme

  Above his equals. Farewell happy fields

  Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail

  Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

  Receive thy new possessor252: one who brings

  A mind253 not to be changed by place or time.

  The mind is its own place, and in itself254

  Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

  What matter where, if I be still the same,

  And what I should be, all but less than257 he

  Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

  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 to263 reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.

  But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

  Th’ associates and copartners265 of our loss

  Lie thus astonished266 on th’ oblivious pool,

  And call them not to share with us their part

  In this unhappy mansion268, or once more

  With rallied arms to try what may be yet

  Regained in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?”

  So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

  Thus answered. “Leader of those armies bright,

  Which but th’ Omnipotent none could have foiled,

  If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

  Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

  In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge276

  Of battle when it raged, in all assaults

  Their surest signal, they will soon resume

  New courage and revive, though now they lie

  Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

  As we erewhile281, astounded and amazed,

  No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth.”

  He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend

  Was moving284 toward 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 views288

  At evening from the top of Fesole,

  Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

  Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

  His spear,292 to equal which the tallest pine

  Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

  Of some great ammiral294, were but a wand,

  He walked with to support uneasy steps

  Over the burning marl296, not like those steps

  On Heaven’s azure, and the torrid clime

  Smote on him sore besides, vaulted298 with fire;

  Nathless299 he so endured, till on the beach

  Of that inflamèd sea, he stood and called

  His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced

  Thick as autumnal leaves302 that strow the brooks

  In Vallombrosa303, where th’ Etrurian shades

  High overarched embow’r; or scattered sedge304

  Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed305

  Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew

  Busiris307 and his Memphian chivalry,

  While with perfidious hatred they pursued

  The sojourners of Goshen309, who beheld

  From the safe shore their floating carcasses

  And broken chariot wheels. So thick bestrown

  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 flow’r of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,

  If such astonishment as this can seize

  Eternal spirits; or have ye chos’n this place

  After the toil of battle to repose

  Your wearied virtue320, for the ease you find

  To slumber here, as in the vales of Heav’n?

  Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

  To adore the conqueror, who now beholds

  Cherub and Seraph324 rolling in the flood

  With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon325

  His swift pursuers from Heav’n gates discern

  Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down327

  Thus drooping, or with linkèd thunderbolts

  Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf?

  Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.”

  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 to337 their general’s voice they soon obeyed

  Innumerable. As when the potent rod

  Of Amram’s son339 in Egypt’s evil day

  Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud

  Of locusts, warping341 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 cope345 of Hell

  ’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;

  Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted spear

  Of their great sultan348 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 north351

  Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass

  Rhene or the Danaw353, 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 Heav’nly records now

  Be no memorial, blotted out and razed

  By their rebellion, from the Books363 of Life.

  Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve

  Got them new names, till wand’ring 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 th’ invisible

  Glory of him that made them to transform

  Oft to the image of a brute, adorned

  With gay372 religions full of pomp and gold,

  And devils373 to adore for deities:

  Then were they known to men by various names,

  And various idols through the heathen world.

  Say, Muse,376 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 promiscuous380 crowd stood yet aloof?

  The chief were those who from the pit of Hell

  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 thund’ring out of Sion, throned386

  Between the Cherubim386; yea, often placed

  Within his sanctuary itself their shrines,

  Abominations389; and with cursèd 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

  Worshipped in Rabba397 and her wat’ry 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 pleasant404 valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence

  And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.

  Next Chemos406, th’ obscene dread of Moab’s sons,

  From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild

  Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon

  And Horonaim, Seon’s realm, beyond

  The flow’ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,

  And Eleale to th’ 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 Josiah418 drove them thence to Hell.

  With these came they, who from the bord’ring flood419

  Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts

  Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names

  Of Baälim and Ashtaroth422, those male,

  These feminine. For spirits when they please

  Can either sex assume, or both; so soft

  And uncompounded425 is their essence pure,

  Nor 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 airy purposes,

  And works of love or enmity fulfill.

  For those the race of Israel oft forsook

  Their Living Strength433, and unfrequented left