Paradise Lost | Page 7

to the stream?Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such?Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart?Of Solomon he led by fraoud 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 called, the type of Hell.?Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's sons,?From Aroar to Nebo and the wild?Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon?And Horonaim, Seon's real, beyond?The flowery 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 Josiah drove them thence to Hell.?With these came they who, from the bordering flood?Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts?Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names?Of Baalim and Ashtaroth--those male,?These feminine. For Spirits, when they please,?Can either sex assume, or both; so soft?And uncompounded is their essence pure,?Not tried 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 fulfil.?For those the race of Israel oft forsook?Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left?His righteous altar, bowing lowly down?To bestial gods; for which their heads as low?Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear?Of despicable foes. With these in troop?Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called?Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns;?To whose bright image nigntly by the moon?Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs;?In Sion also not unsung, where stood?Her temple on th' offensive mountain, built?By that uxorious king whose heart, though large,?Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell?To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,?Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured?The Syrian damsels to lament his fate?In amorous ditties all a summer's day,?While smooth Adonis from his native rock?Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood?Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale?Infected Sion's daughters with like heat,?Whose wanton passions in the sacred proch?Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,?His eye surveyed the dark idolatries?Of alienated Judah. Next came one?Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark?Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off,?In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge,?Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers:?Dagon his name, sea-monster,upward man?And downward fish; yet had his temple high?Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast?Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,?And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.?Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat?Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks?Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.?He also against the house of God was bold:?A leper once he lost, and gained a king--?Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew?God's altar to disparage and displace?For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn?His odious offerings, and adore the gods?Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared?A crew who, under names of old renown--?Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train--?With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused?Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek?Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms?Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape?Th' infection, when their borrowed gold composed?The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king?Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,?Likening his Maker to the grazed ox--?Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed?From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke?Both her first-born and all her bleating gods.?Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd?Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love?Vice for itself. To him no temple stood?Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he?In temples and at altars, when the priest?Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled?With lust and violence the house of God??In courts and palaces he also reigns,?And in luxurious cities, where the noise?Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,?And injury and outrage; and, when night?Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons?Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.?Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night?In Gibeah, when the hospitable door?Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape.?These were the prime in order and in might:?The rest were long to tell; though far renowned?Th' Ionian gods--of Javan's issue held?Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth,?Their boasted parents;--Titan, Heaven's first-born,?With his enormous brood, and birthright seized?By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove,?His own and Rhea's son, like measure found;?So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete?And Ida known, thence on the snowy top?Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air,?Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff,?Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds?Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old?Fled over Adria to th' Hesperian fields,?And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost Isles.?All these and more came flocking; but with looks?Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared?Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their Chief?Not in despair, to have found themselves