"The weight of all, and our last hope, relies."
This said, he sat; and expectation held
His look suspense, awaiting who appeared
To second, or oppose, or undertake
The perilous attempt: but all sat mute,
Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; and each
In other's countenance read his own dismay,
Astonished: none, among the choice and prime
Of those Heaven-warring champions, could be found
So hardy as to proffer, or accept
Alone, the dreadful voyage: till at last,
Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised
Above his fellows, with monarchal pride,
Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake :
"O progeny of Heaven, empyreal Thrones!
"With reason hath deep silence and demur
"Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way,
"And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light;
"Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire,
"Outrageous to devour, immures us round
Ninefold; and gates of burning adamant, "Barred over us, prohibit all egress.
"These passed, (if any pass,) the void profound
"Of unessential Night receives him next,
"Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being
"Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf,
"If thence he 'scape, into whatever world,
"Or unknown region; what remains him less
"Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape?
"But I should ill become this throne, O peers!
"And this imperial sovereignty, adorned
"With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed
"And judged of public moment, in the shape
"Of difficulty or danger, could deter
"Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume
"These royalties, and not refuse to reign,
"Of hazard as of honour, due alike
"To him who reigns,-and so much to him due "Of hazard more, as he above the rest
"High honoured sits? Go, therefore, mighty powers,
"Terror of Heaven, though fallen! intend at home,
"While here shall be our home, what best may ease
"The present misery, and render Hell
"More tolerable; if there be cure, or charm,
"To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain
"Of this ill mansion. Intermit no watch
"Against a wakeful foe; while I, abroad
"Through all the coasts of dark destruction, seek
"Deliverance for us all: this enterprise
"None shall partake with me."
The monarch, and prevented all reply;
Prudent, lest, from his resolution raised,
Others among the chief might offer now
(Certain to be refused) what erst they feared;
And, so refused, might in opinion stand
His rivals; winning cheap the high repute,
Which he, through hazard huge, must earn.
Dreaded not more the adventure, than his voice
Forbidding; and at once with him they rose :
Their rising, all at once, was as the sound
Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend
With awful reverence prone; and as a god
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.
Nor failed they to express how much they praised,
That for the general safety he despised
His own: for neither do the spirits damned
Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast
Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal.
Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief:
As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
Heaven's cheerful face; the lowering element
Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow, or shower:
If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
O shame to men ! devil with devil damned
Firm concord holds: men only disagree
Of creatures rational, though under hope
Of heavenly grace; and, God proclaiming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife,
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy;
As if (which might induce us to accord)
Man had not hellish foes enow besides,
That, day and night, for his destruction wait.
The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth,
In order, came the grand infernal peers:
Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed
Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less
Than Hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme,
And god-like imitated state: him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed,
With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms.
Then of their session ended they bid cry
With trumpets' regal sound the great result:
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy,
By herald's voice explained; the hollow abyss
Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell,
With deafening shout, returned them loud acclaim.
Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised
By false presumptuous hope, the rangèd powers
Disband, and, wandering, each his several way
Pursues, as inclination, or sad choice,
Leads him; perplexed where he may likeliest find
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours, till his great chief return.
Part on the plain, or in the air sublime,
Upon the wing, or in swift race, contend,
As at the Olympian games, or Pythian fields:
Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form.
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds; before each van
Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears,
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms
From either end of Heaven the welkin burns.
Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell,
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
In whirlwind: Hell scarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides, from Echalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
Through pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines.
And Lichas from the top of Eta threw
Into the Euboïc sea. Others, more mild,
Retreated in a silent valley, sing
With notes angelical, to many a harp,
Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall
By doom of battle; and complain that fate
Free virtue should enthral to force or chance.
Their song was partial; but the harmony
(What could it less when spirits immortal sing!)
Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet
(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,)
Others apart sat, on a hill retired,
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate—
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute;
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final misery,
Passion and apathy, and glory and shame;
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy!
Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm
Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope; or arm the obdurèd breast
With stubborn patience, as with triple steel.
Another part, in squadrons and gross bands,
On bold adventure to discover wide
That dismal world,-if any clime perhaps
Might yield them easier habitation,-bend
Four ways their flying march, along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams:
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watery labyrinth; whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,-
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile: all else deep snow and ice;
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
Thither by harpy-footed furies haled,
At certain revolutions, all the damned
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes-extremes by change more fierce:
From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth; and there to pine
Immovable, infixed and frozen round,
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethéan sound
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,—
All in one moment, and so near the brink!
But Fate withstands, and to oppose the attempt
Medusa, with Gorgonian terror, guards
The ford; and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
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