"Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, 250"Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, "Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, "Receive thy new possessor!-one who brings "A mind not to be chang'd by place or time: "The mind is its own place, and in itself

255

260

"Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. "What matter where, if I be still the same, "And what I should be,-all but less than 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 to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. "But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 265 "The associates and copartners of our loss, "Lie thus astonish'd on the oblivious pool, "And call them not to share with us their part "In this unhappy mansion; or once more, "With rallied arms, to try what may be yet 270"Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell?” So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

Thus answer'd:

"Leader of those armies bright, "Which but the Omnipotent none could have foil'd! "If once they hear that voice,—their liveliest pledge 275" Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

"In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge "Of battle when it rag'd, in all assaults "Their surest signal,-they will soon resume "New courage and revive; though now they lie 280 Grov'ling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, "As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd:

66

"No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height!"

He scarce had ceas'd, when the superior fiend Was moving tow'rd the shore: his pond'rous shield, 285 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 ev'ning, from the top of Fesolé,
290 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
His spear, to equal which the tallest pine,
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great amiral, were but a wand,—
295 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
300 Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd
His legions, angel forms, who lay entranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades,
High over-arch'd, imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge
305 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 pursu'd
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
310 From the safe shore their floating carcasses
And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrewn,
Abject and lost lay these, cov'ring the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep
315 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

320 "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

325

"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. 330 "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. 335 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their gen'ral's voice they soon obey'd,

Innumerable! As when the potent rod

Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,

340 Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad angels seen
345 Hov'ring on wing under the cope of hell,

'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires:
Till, at a signal giv'n, th' uplifted spear
Of their great sultan waving to direct
Their course, in even balance down they light
350 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain :
A multitude, like which the populous North
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass
Rhene, or the Danaw, when her barb'rous sons
Came like a deluge on the South, and spread
355 Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands.

Forthwith from ev'ry squadron, and each band,
The heads and leaders thither haste, where stood
Their great commander; godlike shapes, and forms
Excelling human, princely dignities,

360 And Pow'rs that erst in heaven sat on thrones!

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

365 Got them new names; till wand'ring o'er the earth,
Through God's high suff'rance for the trial of man,
By falsities and lies, the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator, and th' invisible
270 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, 375 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,
380 While the promiscuous 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 ador'd
385 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
390 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, 395 Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite

Worshipp'd in Rabba and her wat'ry plain,

In Argob, and in Basan, to the stream

Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 400 Audacious neighbourhood, 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 pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 405 And black Gehenna call'd,-the type of hell.

Next, CHEMOs, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, From Aroër to Nebo, and the wild Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon And Horonaïm, Seön's realm, beyond 410 The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines; And Eleäle to th' asphaltic pool.

Peör his other name, when he entic'd

Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
415 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

420 Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had gen'ral names
Of Baälim and Ashtaroth; those male,
These feminine: For spirits, when they please,
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
425 And uncompounded is their essence pure;
Not 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 condens'd, bright or obscure,

430 Can execute their aery 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.

435 To bestial gods; for which their heads as low