Paradise Lost | Page 4

highly, to fall off?From their Creator, and transgress his will?For one restraint, lords of the World besides.?Who first seduced them to that foul revolt??Th' infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,?Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived?The mother of mankind, what time his pride?Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host?Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring?To set himself in glory above his peers,?He trusted to have equalled the Most High,?If he opposed, and with ambitious aim?Against the throne and monarchy of God,?Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,?With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power?Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,?With hideous ruin and combustion, down?To bottomless perdition, there to dwell?In adamantine chains and penal fire,?Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.?Nine times the space that measures day and night?To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew,?Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,?Confounded, though immortal. But his doom?Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought?Both of lost happiness and lasting pain?Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes,?That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,?Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.?At once, as far as Angels ken, he views?The dismal situation waste and wild.?A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,?As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames?No light; but rather darkness visible?Served only to discover sights of woe,?Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace?And rest can never dwell, hope never comes?That comes to all, but torture without end?Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed?With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.?Such place Eternal Justice has prepared?For those rebellious; here their prison ordained?In utter darkness, and their portion set,?As far removed from God and light of Heaven?As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole.?Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell!?There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed?With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,?He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side,?One next himself in power, and next in crime,?Long after known in Palestine, and named?Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,?And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words?Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:--?"If thou beest he--but O how fallen! how changed?From him who, in the happy realms of light?Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine?Myriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league,?United thoughts and counsels, equal hope?And hazard in the glorious enterprise?Joined with me once, now misery hath joined?In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest?From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved?He with his thunder; and till then who knew?The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,?Nor what the potent Victor in his rage?Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,?Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,?And high disdain from sense of injured merit,?That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,?And to the fierce contentions brought along?Innumerable force of Spirits armed,?That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,?His utmost power with adverse power opposed?In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,?And shook his throne. What though the field be lost??All is not lost--the unconquerable will,?And study of revenge, immortal hate,?And courage never to submit or yield:?And what 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?Doubted his empire--that were low indeed;?That were an ignominy and shame beneath?This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods,?And this empyreal sybstance, 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 triumphs, and in th' excess of joy?Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."?So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain,?Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair;?And him thus answered soon his bold compeer:--?"O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers?That led th' embattled Seraphim to war?Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds?Fearless, endangered Heaven'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 event?That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat,?Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host?In horrible destruction laid thus low,?As far as Gods and heavenly Essences?Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains?Invincible, and vigour soon returns,?Though all our glory extinct, and happy state?Here swallowed up in endless misery.?But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now?Of force believe almighty, since no less?Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours)?Have left us this our spirit and strength entire,?Strongly to suffer and support our pains,?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 the avail