Of battle when it rag'd, 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, 280 As we ere while, astounded and amaz'd, No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height. He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore; his pond'rous 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 views At evening from the top of Fesolé, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers or mountains on her spotty globe. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand, He walk'd with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle, not like those steps On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire: Nathless he so endur'd, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranc'd Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases
And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrown, Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, 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 virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from Heav'n gates discern Th' advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf. Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.
They heard, and were abash'd, 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 to their general's voice they soon obey'd Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,
Way'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud 340 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 1 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like right, and darken'd all the land of Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels seen Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; Till, as a signal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain; 350 A multitude, like which the populous north Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian 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 pow'rs that erst in Heaven sat on thrones; 360 Though of their names in heav'nly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd By their rebellion from the books 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 forṣake God their Creator, and the invisible Glory of him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd With gay religions full of pomp and gold, And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various names, And various idols through the Heathen world. Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery couch, At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 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 ador'd Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profan'd, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their childrens cries unheard, that pass'd through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watry plain, In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple' of God On that opprobious hill, and made his grove The pleasant valley' of Hinnom, Tophet thence And black Gehenna call'd, 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 realm, beyond The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines, And Eleälé to th' Asphaltic pool.
Peor his other name, when he entic'd
Israel in Sittim on their march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarg'd Ev'n 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 bord'ring flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baälim 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 ty'd or manacled with joint or limb,
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