"And trust themselves to fear no second fate.

"Me though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven
"Did first create your leader; next, free choice,
"With what besides, in council or in fight,
"Hath been achieved of merit; yet this loss,
"Thus far at least recovered, hath much more
"Established in a safe unenvied throne,
"Yielded with full consent. The happier state
"In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here
"Will envy whom the highest place exposes
"Foremost to stand, against the Thunderer's aim
"Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
"Of endless pain? Where there is then no good
"For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
"From faction; for none, sure, will claim in Hell
"Precedence; none, whose portion is so small
"Of present pain, that with ambitious mind
"Will covet more. With this advantage then
"To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
"More than can be in Heaven, we now return
"To claim our just inheritance of old;
"Surer to prosper than prosperity

"Could have assured us; and by what best way,
"Whether of open war or covert guile,
"We now debate: who can advise, may speak."
He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king,

Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit
That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair:
His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength; and rather than be less
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost
Went all his fear of God, or Hell, or worse,
He reck'd not: and these words thereafter spake :
"My sentence is for open war: of wiles,

"More unexpert, I boast not; them let those

"Contrive who need, or when they need,—not now.

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For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest,

"Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait "The signal to ascend, sit lingering here

"Heaven's fugitives; and for their dwelling-place

"Accept this dark, opprobrious den of shame, "The prison of his tyranny who reigns

By our delay? no; let us rather choose,

"Arm'd with Hell-flames and fury, all at once

"O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way,
"Turning our tortures into horrid arms

"Against the Torturer; when, to meet the noise
"Of his almighty engine he shall hear
"Infernal thunder; and, for lightning, see
"Black fire and horror shot with equal rage

Among his angels: and his throne itself

"Mixed with Tartarean sulphur, and strange fire,
"His own invented torments. But perhaps
"The way seems difficult and steep, to scale
"With upright wing against a higher foe.
"Let such bethink them, (if the sleepy drench
"Of that forgetful lake benumb not still),
"That in our proper motion we ascend

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Up to our native seat: descent and fall "To us is adverse. Who but felt of late,

"When the fierce Foe hung on our broken rear

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Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, With what compulsion and laborious flight "We sunk thus low? The ascent is easy then; "The event is feared: should we again provoke "Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find "To our destruction; if there be in Hell

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"Fear to be worse destroyed: what can be worse
"Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned
"In this abhorred deep to utter woe;

"Where pain of unextinguishable fire
"Must exercise us without hope of end,
"The vassals of his anger, when the scourge

66 Inexorable, and the torturing hour
"Calls us to penance? more destroyed than thus,
"We should be quite abolished, and expire.
"What fear we then? what doubt we to incense
"His utmost ire? which, to the height enraged,
"Will either quite consume us, and reduce

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"To nothing this essential ;-happier far
"Than miserable to have eternal being!
"Or if our substance be indeed divine,
"And cannot cease to be, we are at worst
"On this side nothing; and by proof we feel
"Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven,
"And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
"Though inaccessible, his fatal throne:
"Which, if not victory, is yet revenge."

He ended frowning, and his look denounced
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous,
To less than gods. On the other side uprose
Besial, in act more graceful and humane :
A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest councils; for his thoughts were low:
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful; yet he pleased the ear,
And with persuasive accent thus began:

"I should be much for open war, O peers!
"As not behind in hate; if what was urged,
"Main reason to persuade immediate war,
"Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast
"Ominous conjecture on the whole success:
"When he who most excels in fact of arms,
"In what he counsels and in what excels

Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair "And utter dissolution, as the scope

"Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.

66 First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are filled "With armed watch, that render all access

'Impregnable: oft on the bordering deep

"Encamp their legions; or, with óbscure wing,

"Scout far and wide into the realm of night,

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Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way

By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise, "With blackest insurrection, to confound

"Heaven's purest light; yet our great enemy,
"All incorruptible, would on his throne
"Sit unpolluted; and the ethereal mould,
"Incapable of stain, would soon expel
"Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
"Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope
"Is flat despair: we must exasperate
"The Almighty Victor to spend all his rage,
"And that must end us ;-that must be our cure,
"To be no more: sad cure! for who would lose,

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Though full of pain, this intellectual being,

"Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
"To perish rather, swallowed up and lost
"In the wide womb of uncreated night,

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"Devoid of sense and motion? and who knows,~ "Let this be good,-whether our angry Foe

"Can give it, or will ever? how he can,
"Is doubtful; that he never will, is sure.
"Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire,
"Belike through impotence, or unaware,
"To give his enemies their wish, and end
"Them in his anger, whom his anger saves
"To punish endless? 'Wherefore cease we then?'
66 Say they who counsel war: 'we are decreed,
"Reserved, and destined to eternal woe;
"Whatever doing, what can we suffer more,
"What can we suffer worse?' Is this then worst,
"Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms?
"What! when we fled amain, pursued and struck
"With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought
"The deep to shelter us? this Hell then seemed
"A refuge from those wounds: or when we lay
"Chained on the burning lake? That, sure, was worse.
"What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,

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Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, "And plunge us in the flames? or, from above, "Should intermitted vengeance arm again "His red right hand to plague us? What, if all "Her stores were opened, and this firmament "Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,

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“Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall
"One day upon our heads? while we, perhaps,
"Designing or exhorting glorious war,
"Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled
"Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey
"Of wracking whirlwinds; or for ever sunk
"Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
"There to converse with everlasting groans,
Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved,

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Ages of hopeless end! This would be worse. "War therefore, open or concealed, alike

"My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile "With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye

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“Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's height 190 "All these our motions vain sees, and derides;

"Not more almighty to resist our might,

"Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles.

"Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven,

"Thus trampled, thus expelled, to suffer here

"Chains and these torments? Better these than worse,

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By my advice; since fate inevitable

"Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,
"The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do,
"Our strength is equal; nor the law unjust
"That so ordains: this was at first resolved,
"If we were wise, against so great a foe

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Contending, and so doubtful what might fall.

I laugh, when those, who at the spear are bold "And venturous, if that fail them, shrink and fear, "What yet they know must follow, to endure

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Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain, "The sentence of their conqueror.

This is now

"Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear,

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"Our súpreme foe, in time, may much remit "His anger; and perhaps, thus far removed, "Not mind us not offending, satisfied

"With what is punished; whence these raging fires "Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames.

"Our purer essence then will overcome

"Their noxious vapour; or, inured, not feel;

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