Tt\e ACADe^Y seRfes of eNGLISH CLASSICS Milton Paradise Lost Books I. and II. it EDITED BY HENRY W. BOYNTON o ALLYN AND BACON I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Cliap....}..-- Copyright No,. Shelf.._.i??J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. / 1^ W^t acatiems Series of lEnglisi) Classics PARADISE LOST Books 1 and II y 1 ^- EDITED BY HENRY Wj^ BOYNTON ^ •l'^^V^ - C '^ Boston ALLYN AND BACON 1897 \ \ 5'° fi^'V'i Copyright, 1897, by HENRY W. BOYNTON. . . i ^•^■■■^ 1 rr^ Nortoaoli ^rt53 J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. PREFACE. Any excuse which may be needed for the existence of this new edition of the first two books of Paradise Lost will be found, not in the Notes so much as in the Introduction and Conclusion. The present volume aims to present, in form at once compact and continuous, and mainly in Milton's own words, the story of Paradise Lost, and especially the story of Satan. It is expected that the quoted passages will not only set forth the narrative with some clearness, but will afford something more than a glimpse of the poet at his best. The editor recommends that the Introduction, the first two Books, and the Conclusion, be first read from beginning to end, with a view to getting the perspective of the story ; after which the student may take up more prof- itably a detailed study of Books I. and II. In the preparation of the Notes, constant use has been made of other editions. Special acknowledgment is due first, of course, to Masson ; and in hardly less degree to the editions of Verity and Hale. H. W. B. Andover, April, 1897. INTRODUCTION. It is doubtless possible to study the first two books of Paradise Lost by themselves with some degree of profit. They have a unity of their own. The limited field of action, the strength and simplicity of the conception which we here get of Satan and his followers, the dramatic quality of the dialogue (which seldom lapses into mere declamation), — all these characteristics of this fragment give it an interest of its own. And yet, after all, it is only a fragment. We must go back of, and forward of, these events in order to grasp their full meaning. Here is pictured the noblest phase of Satan's nature, but it is a phase which is to be succeeded by other developments of no less interest. The episode of the interview with Sin and Death is mainly sig- nificant as a prophecy : these monsters become of impor- tance only in the sequel. Hell is here the stage of action ; but there was a former and more varied action on the greater stage of Heaven, and there is to be a later (and again more active) series of events on the lesser stage of Earth. We shall attempt to trace from beginning to end the course of that great story of which the first two books con- stitute an intermediate episode. And we shall begin by quoting somewhat freely from Masson, the greatest of Mil- ton's editors (Introduction to Paradise Lost, pp. 26-30) : — ^Paradise Lost is an epic. But it is not, like the Iliad or the ^neid, a national epic ; nor is it an epic after any other of the known types. It is an epic of the whole human B 1 2 Paradise Lost. species, an epic of our entire planet, or indeed of the entire astronomical universe. The title of the poem, though per- haps the best that could have been chosen, hardly indicates beforehand the full nature or extent of the theme ; nor are the opening lines, by themselves, sufficiently descriptive of what is to follow. According to them, the story is to be " Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden." This is a true enough description, because the whole story bears on this point. But it is the vast comprehension of the story, both in space and in time, as leading to this point, that makes it unique among epics, and entitles Milton to speak of it as involving " Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." It is, in short, a poetical representation, on the authority of hints from the Book of Genesis, of the historical connection between Human Time and Aboriginal or Eternal Infinity, or between our created World a,nd the immeasurable and in- conceivable Universe of Pre-human Existence. So far as our World is concerned, the poem starts from that moment when our newly-created Earth, with all the newly-created starry depths about it, had as yet but two human beings upon it ; and these consequently are, on this side of the pre- supposed Infinite Eternity, the main persons of the epic. But we are carried back into this pre-supposed Infinite Eternity, and the grand purpose of the poem is to connect, by a stupendous imagination, certain events or courses of the inconceivable history that had been unfolding itself there with the first fortunes of that new azure World which is familiar to us, and more particularly with the first fort- unes of that favored ball at the centre whereon those two human creatures walked. Now the person of the epic Introduction. 3 through the narration of whose acts this connection is estab- lished is Satan. He, as all critics have perceived, and in a wider sense than most of them have perceived, is the real hero of the poem. He and his actions are the link between that new World of Man the infancy of which we behold in the poem, and that boundless antecedent Universe of Pre- human Existence which the poem assumes. For he was a native of that Pre-human Universe, — one of its greatest and most conspicuous natives; and what we follow in the poem, when its story is taken chronologically, is the life of this great being, from the time of his yet unimpaired primacy or archangelship among the Celestials, on to that time when, in pursuit of a scheme of revenge, he flings himself into the new experimental World, tries the strength of the new race at its fountain-head, and, by success in his attempt, vitiates Man's portion of space to his own nature, and wins posses- sion of it for a season. ' Aboriginally, or in primeval Eternity, before the creation of our Earth or the Starry Universe to which it belongs, universal space is to be considered, according to the requi- sites of the poem, not as containing stars or starry systems at all, but as, so to say, a sphere of infinite radius, divided equatorially into two hemispheres, thus : The upper of these two hemispheres of primeval Infinity is Heaven, or The Empyrean, — a boundless, unimaginable 4 Paradise Lost. region of Light, Freedom, Happiness, and Glory, in the midst whereof Deity, though omnipresent, has His imme- diate and visible dwelling, and where He is surrounded by a vast population of beings, called '^ the Angels," or " Sons of God," who draw near to His throne in worship, derive thence their nurture and their delight, and yet live dispersed through all the ranges and recesses of the region, leading severally their mighty lives and performing the behests of Deity, but organized into companies, orders, and hierar- chies. Milton is careful to explain that all he says of Heaven is said symbolically, and in order to make conceivable by the human imagination what in its own nature is inconceiv- able; but, this explained, he is bold enough in his use of terrestrial analogies. Eound the immediate throne of Deity, indeed, there is kept a blazing mist of vagueness, which words are hardly permitted to pierce, though the Angels are represented as from time to time assembling within it, beholding the Divine Presence and hearing the Divine Voice. But Heaven at large, or portions of it, are figured as tracts of a celestial Earth, with plain, hill, and valley, wherein the myriads of the Sons of God expatiate, in their two orders of Seraphim and Cherubim, and in their descending ranks as Archangels or Chiefs, Princes of various degrees, and individual Powers and Intelligences. Certain differences, however, are implied as distinguishing these Celestials from the subsequent race of Mankind. As they are of infinitely greater prowess, immortal, and of more purely spiritual nature, so their ways even of physical existence and action transcend all that is within human experience. Their forms are dilatable or contractible at jDleasure ; they move with incredible swiftness ; and as they are not subject to any law of gravitation, their motion, though ordinarily represented as horizontal over the Heavenly ground, may as well be ver- tical or in any other direction, and their aggregations need not, like those of men, be in squares, oblongs, or other Introduction, 5 plane figures, but may be in cubes, or other rectangular or oblique solids, or in spherical masses. ... As respects the other half or hemisphere of the primeval Infinity, though it too is inconceivable in its nature, and has to be described by words which are at best symbolical, less needs be said. For it is Chaos, or the Uninhabited, — a huge, limitless ocean, abyss, or quagmire, of universal darkness and life- lessness, wherein are jumbled in blustering confusion the elements of all matter, or rather the crude embryons of all the elements, ere as yet they are distinguishable. There is no light there, nor properly Earth, Water, Air, or Fire, but only a vast pulp or welter of unformed matter, in which all these lie tempestuously intermixed. Though the presence of Deity is there potentially too, it is still, as it were, actu- ally retracted thence, as from a realm unorganized and left to Night and Anarchy; nor do any of the Angels wing down into its repulsive obscurities. The crystal floor or wall of Heaven divides them from it ; underneath which, and unvisited of light, save what may glimmer through upon its nearer strata, it howls and rages and stagnates eternally. — Such is and has been the constitution of the Universal Infinitude from ages immemorial in the Angelic reckoning.' But such was not to be the final constitution either of the cosmogony or of the Heavenly society ; for on a day, On such day As Heaven's great year brings forth, the empyreal host Of Angels, by imperial summons called, Innumerable before the Almighty's throne Forthwith from all the ends of Heaven appeared Under their Hierarchs in order bright : Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced, Standards and gonfalons, 'twixt van and rear Stream in the air, and for distinction serve Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees ; 6 Paradise Lost, Or in their glittering tissues bear emblazed Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs Of circuit inexpressible they stood, Orb within orb, the Father Infinite, By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son, Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top Brightness had made invisible, thus spake : — * Hear, all ye Angels, progeny of light, Thrones, Domhiations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand : This day I have begot whom I declare My only Son ; and on this holy hill Him have anointed, whom ye now behold At my right hand. Your Head I him appoint; And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord : Under his great vicegerent reign abide. United as one individual soul. Forever happy. Him who disobeys, Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls Into utter darkness, deep engulfed, his place Ordained without redemption, without end.' So spake the Omnipotent ; and with his words All seemed well pleased ; all seemed, but were not all. (V. 582-617.) The day which follows is employed, like all former Heavenly days, in songs, dancing, and feasting: Secure Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds Excess, before the All-bounteous King, who showered With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy. Now when ambrosial Night, with clouds exhaled From that high mount of God, whence light and shade Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven had changed To grateful twilight (for Night comes not there Introduction. 7 In darker veil), and roseate dews disposed All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest : Wide over all the plain, and wider far Than all this globous Earth in plain outspread (Such are the courts of God), the Angelic throng. Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend By living streams among the trees of life : Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared, Celestial tabernacles, where they slept Fanned with cool winds ; save those who in their course Melodious hymns about the sovran throne Alternate all night long. But not so waked Satan ; so call him now, his former name Is heard no more in Heaven. He of the first, If not the first Archangel, great in power, In favor, and pre-eminence, yet fraught With envy against the Son of God, that day Honored by his great Father, and proclaimed Messiah, King Anointed, could not bear Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired. Deep malice thence conceiving, and disdain, Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved With all his legions to dislodge, and leave Unworshipped, unobeyed the Throne supreme, Contemptuous. (V. 638-671.) He awakes his ^next subordinate/ Beelzebub, and, plainly insinuating his purpose of rebellion, pro^DOses that an as- sembly be made 'of all those myriads which we lead in chief,' ostensibly to prepare for the reception of the son (called in this passage ' the great Messiah '), who is soon to make his initial progress of royal pomp through his dominions. Beelzebub is instantly at work. He advises ' the regent powers, under him regent,' of Satan's will : Tells the suggested cause, and casts between Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound 8 Paradise Lost. Or taint integrity. But all obeyed The wonted signal and superior voice Of their great potentate ; for great indeed His name, and high was his degree in Heaven : His countenance as the morning star that guides The starry flock, allured them, and with lies Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host. Meanwhile the Eternal Eye, whose sight discerns Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount, And from within the golden lamps that burn Nightly before him, saw without their light Rebellion rising ; saw in whom, how spread Among the Sons of Morn, what multitudes Were banded to oppose his high decree. (V. 702-717.) The Father and the Son commune with regard to the threatened uprising, and we are given to know at the out- set that it is all a part of the divine plan. In the mean- time Satan's host is assembling. Innumerable as the stars of night. Or stars of morning, dewdrops, which the sun Impearls on every leaf and every flower. (V. 745-747.) At last they come into the far north, and to the abode of Satan, which Milton himself calls a ' royal seat ' : High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold. (V. 757-759.) Satan from his throne addresses them, at first in a stately strain not unlike that in which the Father himself has spoken ; but soon with a rush of feeling : ' Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, — If these magnific titles yet remain Introduction. 9 Not merely titular, since by decree Another now hath to himself ingrossed All power, and us eclipsed under the name Of King Anointed ; for whom all this haste Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here, This only to consult, how we may best. With what may be devised of honors new, Receive him coming to receive from us Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile ! Too much to one ! but double how endured — To one and to his image now proclaimed ? But what if better counsels might erect Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke? Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust To know ye rigTit; or if ye know yourselves Natives and Sons of Heaven possessed before By none, and, if not equal all, yet free, Equally free ; for orders and degrees Jar not with liberty, but well consist. Who can in reason then or right assume Monarchy over such as live by right His equals — if in power and splendor less, In freedom equal ? or can introduce Law and edict on us, who without law Err not ? much less for this to be our Lord, And look for adoration, to the abuse Of those imperial titles which assert Our being ordained to govern, not to serve ! ' (V. 772-802.) The appeal is heard with favor by all but one, the Seraph Abdiel, who, after a fiery protest against Satan's infidelity, and a strict defence of the divine right, finds himself still alone in his position. Satan inquires ironically for proof that the angels owe their being to God : ' Remember'st thou Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being ? 10 Paradise Lost. We know no time when we were not as now ; Know none before us, self -begot, self-raised By our own quickening power, when fatal course Had circled his full orb ; the birth mature Of this our native Heaven, Ethereal Sons. Our puissance is our own ; our own right hand Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try Who is our equal : then thou shalt behold Whether by supplication we intend Address, and to begirt the Almighty Throne Beseeching or besieging. This report. These tidings, carry to the Anointed King ; And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.' He said ; and as the sound of waters deep, Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause Through the infinite host. (V. 857-874.) The challenge is given. Abdiel, flinging them a prophecy of their fall, goes out from tliem : Among the faithless, faithful only he ; Among innumerable false, unmoved. Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; Nor numbers, nor example, with him wrought To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, Though single. From amidst them forth he passed, Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustained Superior, nor of violence feared aught ; And with retorted scorn his back he turned On those proud towers, to swift destruction doomed. (V. 897-907.) He pursues his way to the sacred regions of God's nearer presence, and finds his news already known, and prepara- tions for war already made. From the cloud which hangs over the sacred hill comes the mild voice of God in com- mendation of his faithful servant, to whom he promises Introduction, 11 an easier task in the subduing by force of the rebellious crew. Michael is made commander-in-chief, with Gabriel as his lieutenant, and bidden drive Satan and his followers out of Heaven * Into their place of punishment, the gulf Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide His fiery Chaos to receive their fall.' So spake the Sovran Voice ; and clouds began To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll In dusky wreaths reluctant flames, the sign Of wrath awaked ; nor with less dread the loud Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow : At which command the powers militant That stood for Heaven, in mighty quadrate joined Of union irresistible, moved on In silence their bright legions, to the sound Of instrumental harmony, that breathed Heroic ardor to adventurous deeds Under their godlike leaders, in the cause Of God and his Messiah. On they move Indissolubly firm : nor obvious hill. Nor straitening vale, nor wood, nor stream, divides Their perfect ranks ; for high above the ground Their march was, and the passive air upbore Their nimble tread. As when the total kind Of birds, in orderly array on wing, Came summoned over Eden, to receive Their names of thee * ; so over many a tract Of Heaven they marched, and many a province wide Tenfold the length of this terrene. At last, Far in the horizon to the north appeared From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched In battailous aspect, and nearer view Bristled with upright beams innumerable Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shields Various, with boastful argument portrayed ; * Kaphael is telling the story to Adam. 12 Paradise Lost. The banded Powers of Satan hasting on With furious expedition ; for they weened That self-same day, by fight or by surprise, To win the Mount of God, and on his throne To set the envier of his state, the proud Aspirer ; but their thoughts proved fond and vain In the mid-way. Though strange to us it seemed At first, that Angel should with Angel war, And in fierce hosting meet, who wont to meet So oft in festivals of joy and love Unanimous, as sons of one great Sire, Hymning the Eternal Father ; but the shout Of battle now began, and rushing sound Of onset ended soon each milder thought. High in the midst, exalted as a God, The Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat, Idol of majesty divine, enclosed With flaming Cherubim and golden shields; Then lighted from his gorgeous throne ; for now 'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left (A dreadful interval), and front to front Presented stood, in terrible array. Of hideous length. Before the cloudy van, On the rough edge of battle ere it joined, Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced, Came towering, armed in adamant and gold. (VI. 53-110.) Satan is at once confronted by the faithful Abdiel, whose words of contempt and defiance are flung back by the rebel Angel with bitter scorn. Abdiel answers his charges of ser- vility and meanness of spirit, with magnificent firmness, concluding triumphantly : ' This is servitude. To serve the unwise, or him who hath rebelled Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee, Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled ; Introduction. 13 Yet lewdly darest our ministering upbraid. Reign thou in Hell, thy kingdom ; let me serve In Heaven God ever blest, and his divine Behests obey, worthiest to be obeyed ; Yet chains in Hell, not realms expect : meanwhile From me returned, as erst thou saidst, from flight, This greeting on thy impious crest receive.' So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high, Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight, ISTor motion of swift thought, less could his shield Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge He back recoiled ; the tenth on bended knee His massy spear upstayed: as if on earth Winds under ground, or waters forcing way Sidelong, had pushed a mountain from his seat. Half sunk with all his pines. Amazement seized The rebel Thrones, but greater rage, to see Thus foiled their mightiest ; ours joy filled and shout. Presage of victory and fierce desire Of battle; whereat Mich" 1 bid sound The Archangel trumpet : through the vast of Heaven It sounded, and the faithful armies rung Hosannah to the Highest : nor stood at gaze The adverse legions, nor less hideous joined The horrid shock. Now storming fury rose. And clamor such as heard in Heaven till now Was never; arms on armor clashing brayed Horrible discord, and the madding wheels Of brazen chariots raged ; dire was the noise Of conflict ; overhead the dismal hiss \ Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew, And flying vaulted either host with fire. So under fiery cope together rushed Both battles main with ruinous assault And inextinguishable rage. All Heaven Resounded; and had Earth been then, all Earth Had to her centre shook. (YI. 178-219.) 14 Paradise Lost. The hosts of Satan advance in apparently impregnable array : Each warrior single as in chief ; expert When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway Of battle, open when, and when to close The ridges of grim war : no thought of flight, None of retreat ; no unbecoming deed That argued fear : each on himself relied As only in his arm the moment lay Of victory. Deeds of eternal fame Were done, but infinite ; for wide was spread That war, and various : sometimes on firm ground A standing fight; then, soaring on main wing. Tormented all the air ; all air seemed then Conflicting fire. Long time in even scale The battle hung ; till Satan, who that day Prodigious power had shown, and met in arms No equal, ranging through the dire attack Of fighting Seraphim confused, at length Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and felled Squadrons at once ; with huge two-handed sway Brandished aloft, the horrid edge came down Wide wasting : such destruction to withstand He hasted, and opposed the rocky orb Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield, A vast circumference. (VI. 233-256.) The armies withdraw, and leave the champions face to face. There is another wordy war, and at last They ended parle, and both addressed for fight Unspeakable ; for who, though with the tongue Of Angels, can relate, or to what things Liken on Earth conspicuous, that may lift Human imagination to such highth Of godlike power ? for likest gods they seemed. Stood they or moved, in stature, motion, arms ; Introductio7i. 16 Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven. Now waved their fiery swords, and in the air Made horrid circles : two broad suns their shields Blazed opposite, while Expectation stood In horror : from each hand with speed retired, Where erst was thickest fight, the Angelic throng. And left large field, unsafe within the wind Of such commotion ; such as, to set forth Great things by small, if Nature's concord broke. Among the constellations war were sprung. Two planets rushing from aspect malign Of fiercest opposition in mid-sky Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound. Together both, with next to almighty arm Uplifted imminent, one stroke they aimed That might determine, and not need repeat. As not of power at once ; nor odds appeared In might or swift prevention. But the sword Of Michael from the armory of God, Was given him tempered so, that neither keen Nor solid might resist that edge : it met The sword of Satan with steep force to smite Descending, and in half cut sheer; nor stayed, But with swift wheel reverse, deep entering shared All his right side. Then Satan first knew pain. And writhed him to and fro convolved ; so sore The griding sword with discontinuous wound Passed through him : but the ethereal substance closed, Not long divisible ; and from the gash A stream of nectarous humor, issuing, flowed Sanguine, such as celestial Spirits may bleed. And all his armor stained, erewhile so bright. Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run By Angels many and strong, who interposed Defence, while others bore him on their shields Back to his chariot, where it stood retired From off the files of war : there they him laid Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame, To find himself not matchless, and his pride 16 Paradise Lost. Humbled in that rebuke, so far beneath His confidence to equal God in power. (VI. 296-343.) Satan is disabled for the moment : his followers share his reverse of fortune, and the first day closes with a nominal victory for the hosts of God. The second day's struggle assumes Titanic proportions. It is no longer to be an orderly hand-to-hand struggle. Satan calls in the use of artillery. The army of God in desperation throw aside their arms . . . And to the hills, Light as the lightning-glimpse, they ran, they flew : From their foundations, loosening to and fro. They plucked the seated hills, with all their load. Rocks, wa'ters, woods, and by their shaggy tops Uplifting, bore them in their hands. (VI. 639-647.) Satan's artillery is overwhelmed; and his followers, des- perate in their turn, have recourse to the same tremendous weapons : Infernal noise ! War seemed a civil game To this uproar : horrid confusion heaped Upon confusion rose : and now all Heaven Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread, Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure, Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen This tumult, and permitted all, advised ; That his great purpose he might so fulfil, To honor his Anointed Son, avenged Upon his enemies, and to declare All power on him transferred. (VI. 667-678.) Introduction. 17 The Son, endued with God's own omnipotence, pledges his willing service in the restoration of peace to Heaven by the overthrow and expulsion of the rebel crew. And the third sacred morn began to shine, Dawning thro' Heaven. Forth rushed with whirlwind sound The chariot of Paternal Deity. (VI. 748-751.) ******** He, in celestial panoply all armed Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought, Ascended. At his right hand victory Sat eagle-winged ; beside him hung his bow And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored ; And from about him fierce effusion rolled Of smoke and bickering flame and sparkles dire : Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints, He onward came ; far off his coming shone ; And twenty thousand (I their number heard) Chariots of God, half on each hand, were seen. He on the wings of Cherub rode sublime On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned. Illustrious far and wide, but by his own First seen ; them unexpected joy surprised. When the great ensign of Messiah blazed Aloft, by Angels borne, his sign in Heaven ; . Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced His army, circumfused on either wing. Under their Head embodied all in one. Before him power divine his way prepared : At his command the uprooted hills retired Each to his place ; they heard his voice, and went Obsequious ; Heaven his wonted face renewed, And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled. (VI. 760-784.) The rebel host perceive his coming with dismay, but stand resolute, determined to maintain their cause to the end. The Messiah addresses the faithful army of God; com- 18 Paradise Lost, mends them for their fidelity and zeal, and shows them that it is fitting for him, the cause of the rebellion, the object of Satan's enmity, to be the instrument of God's power in restoring order and unanimity in Heaven. So spake the Son, and into terror changed His countenance, too severe to be beheld. And full of wrath bent on his enemies. At once the Four spread out their starry wings With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs Of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. He on his impious foes right onward drove, Gloomy as night : under his burning wheels The steadfast Empyrean shook throughout, All but the throne itself of God. Full soon Among them he arrived ; in his right hand Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent Before him, such as in their souls infixed Plagues. They, astonished, all resistance lost. All courage ; down their idle weapons dropt ; O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate. That wished the mountains now might be again Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire. Nor less on either side tempestuous fell His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged Four, Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels Distinct alike with multitude of eyes ; One Spirit in them ruled, and every eye Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire Among the accursed, that withered all their strength, And of their wonted vigor left them drained, , Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen : Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked His thunder in mid-volley ; for he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven. The overthrown he raised, and, as a herd Of goats or timorous flock together thronged. Introduction. 19 Drove them before him thunder struck, pursued With terrors and with furies to the bounds And crystal wall of Heaven ; which opening wide, Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed Into the wasteful Deep. The monstrous sight Struck them with horror backward ; but far worse Urged them behind ; headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of Heaven ; eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. Hell heard the unsufferable noise : Hell saw Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled Affrighted ; but strict Fate had cast too deep Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. Nine days they fell : confounded Chaos roared, And felt tenfold confusion in their fall Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout Incumbered him with ruin. Hell at last, Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed : Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain. Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled. (VI. 824-879.) The Messiah returns in triumph to the paternal throne, and is greeted with acclamations by the rejoicing myriads who remain in Heaven. The first act in the great drama is finished. ^Eor the moment, therefore, there are three divisions of Universal Space, — Heaven, Chaos, and Hell. Almost immediately, however, there is a fourth. Not only have the expelled Angels been nine days and nights in falling through Chaos to reach Hell ; but, after they have reached Hell and it has closed over them, they lie for another period of nine days and nights (I. 50-53), stupefied and bewildered in the fiery gulf. It is during this second nine days that there 20 Paradise Lost. takes place a great event, wliicli farther modifies the map of Infinitude. Long had there been talk in Heaven of a new race of beings to be created at some time by the Almighty, inferior in some respects to the Angels, but in the history of whom, and of God's dealings with them, there was to be a display of the divine power and love which even the Angels might contemplate with wonder (VII. 139-183). The time for the creation of this new race of beings has now arrived. Scarcely have the Rebel Angels been enclosed in Hell, and Chaos has recovered from the turmoil of the descent of such a rout through its depths, when the Paternal Deity, address- ing the Son, tells him that, in order to repair the loss caused to Heaven, the predetermined creation of Man and of the "World of Man shall now take effect. It is for the Son to execute the will of the Father. Straightway he goes forth on his creating errand. The everlasting gates of Heaven open wide to let him pass forth; and, clothed with majesty, and accompanied with thousands of Seraphim and Cheru- bim, anxious to behold the great work to be done, he does pass forth — far into that very Chaos through which the Rebel Angels have so recently fallen, and which now inter- venes between Heaven and Hell. At length he stays his fervid wheels, and, taking the golden compasses in his hands, centres one point of them where he stands, and turns the other through the obscure profundity around (VII. 224-231). Thus are marked out, or cut out, through the body of Chaos, the limits of the new Universe of Man, — that Starry Uni- verse which to us seems measureless and the same as Infinity itself, but which is really only a beautiful azure sphere or drop, insolated in Chaos, and hung at its topmost point or zenith from the Empyrean. But, though the limits of the new experimental Creation are thus at once marked out, the completion of the Creation is a work of Six Days (VII. 242, 550). On the last of these, to crown the work, the happy Earth received its first human pair — the appointed Introduction. 21 lords of the entire new Creation. And so, resting from his labors, and beholding all that he had made, that it was good, the Messiah returned to his Father, reascending through the golden gates, which were now just over the zenith of the new World, and were its point of suspension from the Em- pyrean Heaven ; and the Seventh Day or Sabbath was spent in songs of praise by all the Heavenly hosts over the finished work, and in contemplation of it as it hung beneath them, another Heaven, From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view On the clear hyaline. And now, accordingly, this Avas the diagram of the Uni- versal Infinitude: There are the three regions of Heaven, Chaos, and Hell as before ; but there is now also a fourth region, hung drop- like into Chaos by an attachment to Heaven at the north pole or zenith. This is the New World, or the Starry Universe, — all that Universe of orbs and galaxies which man's vision can reach by utmost power of telescope, and which even to his imagination is illimitable. And yet as to the proportions of this World to the total map Milton dares to be exact. The distance from its nadir or lowest point to the upper boss of Hell is exactly equal to its own radius : or, in other words, the distance of Hell-gate from 22 Paradise Lost. Heaven-gate is exactly three semidiameters of the Human or Starry Universe (I. 73, 74).' (Masson, Introduction to Paradise Lost, pp. 32-34.) We have thus followed the events which make up the first part of the threefold story. We have been with Satan in that normal state of peace and innocence ^hich he had shared for ages with the other Sons of God; in his first fault of rebellious pride ; and in the overthrow of his over- weening ambition. Before we proceed to the study of his character in its next stage of development, we may linger a moment over the first scene of that human life which has just begun, and which is to constitute a main, if not a para- mount, interest throughout the rest of the poem. ' As new waked from soundest sleep, Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid In balmy sweat, which with his beams the Sun Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed. Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned, And gazed awhile the ample sky, till, raised By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung, As thitherward endeavoring, and upright Stood on my feet. About me round I saw Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, And liquid lapse of murmuring streams : by these, Creatures that lived and moved, and walked or flew; Birds on the branches warbling : all things smiled ; With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed. Myself I then perused, and limb by limb Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran With supple joints, as lively vigor led : But who I was, or where, or from what cause, Knew not. To speak I tried, and forthwith spake ; My tongue obeyed, and readily could name Whate'er I saw. " Thou Sun," said I, " fair light, And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay ; Introduction. 23 Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains, And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell, Tell if ye saw, how came I thus? how here? Not of myself ; by some great Maker then. In goodness and in power pre-eminent ! Tell me, how may I know him, how adore, From whom I have that thus I move and live. And feel that I am happier than I know ! " While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither, From where I first drew air, and first beheld This happy light, when answer none returned, On a green shady bank profuse of flowers. Pensive I sat me down. There gentle sleep First found me, and with soft oppression seized My drowsed sense, untroubled.' (VI 11. 253-289.) PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. The Printer to the Reader. Courteous Reader, there was no Argument at first intended to the book ; but for the satisfaction of many that have desired it, I have procured it, and withal a reason of that which stumbled many others, why the poem rimes not. — S. Simmons. THE VERSE. The measure is English heroic verse, without rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin ; rime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre ; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse, than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rime both in longer and shorter works, as have also, long since, our best English trage- dies ; as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight ; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quan- tity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good ora- tory. This neglect then of rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of riming. THE ARGUMENT. This First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject : Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed : then touches the prime cause of his fall — the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent ; who, revolting from God, and draw- ing to his side many legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the great Deep. Which action passed over, the Poem hastens into the midst of things ; presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell — described here, not in the Centre (for heaven and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos : here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion ; calls up him who, next in order and dignity, lay by him ; they confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner con- founded. They rise : their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech ; comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven ; but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven ; for that Angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of the Deep : the infernal Peers there sit in council. PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Eestore us, and regain the blissful seat. Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth E-ose out of Chaos : or, if Sion hill lo Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed East by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song. That with no middle flight intends to soar Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. And chiefly Thou, Spirit, that dost i^refer Before all temples the upright heart and pure. Instruct me, for Thou know'st ; Thou from- the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 20 Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, And madest it pregnant : what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support ; That to the highth of this great argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men. 29 30 Pa7'adise Lost. Say first — for Heaven hides nothing from Thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell — say first what cause Moved our grand parents, in that happy state. Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off • 30 Fr-om their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? The infernal Serpent ; he it was, whose guile. Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The Mother of Mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 40 If he opposed ; and with ambitious aim Against the throne and monarchy of God Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle proud, With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell In adamantine chains and j)enal fire. Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. Nine times the space that measures day and night 50 To mortal men, he with his horrid crew Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf. Confounded, though immortal. But his doom Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him ; round he throws his baleful eyes. That witnessed huge affliction and dismay. Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. At once, as far as Angels ken, he views The dismal situation waste and wild : 60 A dungeon horrible on all sides round Book L 31 As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 'No light ; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe, E-egions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all ; but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Such place Eternal Justice had prepared 70 For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained In utter darkness, and their portion set. As far removed from God and light of Heaven As from the Centre thrice to the utmost pole. Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell ! There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side. One next himself in power, and next in crime. Long after known in Palestine, and named 80 Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy, And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — ^ If thou beest he — but Oh how fallen ! how changed From him, — who in the happy realms of light. Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine Myriads, though bright ! if he whom mutual league, United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise. Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 In equal ruin : into what pit thou seest From what highth fallen ; so much the stronger proved He with his thunder : and till then who knew The force of those dire arms ? Yet not for those, Nor what the potent Victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent, or change. 32 Paradise Lost. Though changed in outward histre, that fixed mind, And high disdain from sense of injured merit, That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along lOO Innumerable force of Spirits armed, That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring. His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, And shook his throne. What though the field be lost ? All is not lost : the unconquerable will. And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield : And what is else not to be overcome ? That glory never shall his wrath or might no Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee, and deify his power Who, from the terror of this arm, so late Doubted his empire — that were low indeed ; That were an ignominy and shame beneath This downfall ; since by fate the strength of gods And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; Since, through experience of this great event. In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, We may with more successful hope resolve 120 To wage by force or guile eternal war. Irreconcilable to our grand foe. Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven.' So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain. Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair ; And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : — < Prince ! Chief of many throned Powers ! That led the embattled Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 130 Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, Book L 33 And put to proof his high supremacy, Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! Too well I see and rue the dire event That with sad overthrow and foul defeat Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host In horrible destruction laid thus low. As far as gods and Heavenly essences Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 140 Though all our glory extinct, and happy state Here swallowed up in endless misery. But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now Of force believe almighty, since no less Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) Have left us this our spirit and strength entire. Strongly to suffer and support our pains, That we may so suffice his vengeful ire ; Or do him mightier service, as his thralls By right of war, whate'er his business be, 150 Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire. Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep ? What can it then avail, though yet we feel Strength undiminished, or eternal being To undergo eternal punishment ? ' Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied : — ' Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering : but of this be sure — To do aught good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight, 160 As being the contrary to his high will Whom we resist. If then his providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labor must be to pervert that end. And out of good still to find means of evil ; Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps 34 Paradise Lost. Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmost counsels from their destined aim. But see ! the angry Victor hath recalled His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 170 Back to the gates of Heaven ; the sulphurous hail, Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid The fiery surge that from the precipice Of Heaven received us falling ; and the thunder, Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep. Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 180 The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful ? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; And, reassembling our afflicted powers, Consult how we may henceforth most offend Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, How overcome this dire calamity, What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190 If not what resolution from despair.' Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, ^^^ith head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides, Prone on the flood, extended long and large. Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom the fables name of monstrous size, Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, Briareos or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 200 Leviathan, which God of all his works Book I. 35 Created hiigest that swim the ocean-stream. Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam. The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell. With fixed anchor in his scaly rind. Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay. Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 210 Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation, while he sought Evil to others, and enraged might see How all his malice served but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn On Man by him seduced ; but on himself Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 220 Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and, rolled In billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air. That felt unusual weight ; till on dry land He lights — if it were land that ever burned With solid, as the lake with liquid fire. And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 Of subterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side Of thundering ^tna, whose combustible And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire, Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds. And leave a singed bottom all involved 36 Paradise Lost. With stench and smoke : such resting fonnd the sole Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate, Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 Not by the sufferance of supernal power. ' Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,' Said then the lost Archangel, ' this the seat That we must change for Heaven ? this mournful gloom For that celestial light ? Be it so, since he Who now is sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right : farthest from him is best, Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, 250 Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor, one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself 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 ; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence : 260 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, The associates and co-partners of our loss, Lie thus astonished 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 Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell ? ' 270 So Satan spake ; and him Beelzebub Boole I. 37 Thus answered: — 'Leader of those armies bright Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled, If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers — heard so oft In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle when it raged, in all assaults Their surest signal — they will soon resume New courage and revive, though now they lie Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 As we erewhile, astounded and amazed : No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth ! ' He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous 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 Fesole, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 Hivers, 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 ammiral, were but a wand — He walked with, to support uneasy steps Over the burning marie, not like those steps On Heaven's azure ; and the torrid clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. Nathless he so endured, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 300 His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranced, Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades High over-arched embower ; or scattered sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed Hath vexed the Eed-Sea coast, whose waves overthrew 38 Paradise Lost. Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases 310 And broken chariot-wheels : so thick bestrown. Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He called so loud that all the hollow deep Of Hell resounded: — 'Princes, Potentates, Warriors ! the Flower of Heaven, once yours ; now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize Eternal Spirits ! Or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 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 scattered arms and ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern The advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf ? Awake, arise, or be forever fallen ! ^ 330 They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch. On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, Eouse 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 t6 their General's voice they soon obeyed Innumerable. As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day. Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 340 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, Book L 39 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darkened 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 hres ; Till, as a signal given, the uplifted 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 Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass E,hene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the South, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan 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 Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones ; 360 Though of their names in Heavenly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and rased By their rebellion from the Books of Life. Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve Got them new names, till, wandering 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 forsake God their Creator ; and the invisible Glory of him that made them, to transform 370 Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 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, 40 Paradise Lost. E-oiised from the slumber on that fiery couch, At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the x^romiscuous 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 adored Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned Between the Cherubim ; yea, often placed Within his sanctuary itself their shrines. Abominations ; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 And with their darkness durst affront his light. First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears, Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 400 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 And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. Next Chemos, the 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 flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool. Book I. 41 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 ^loloch 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 420 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 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 condensed, bright or obscure. Can execute their aery purposes, 430 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, Avith crescent horns; To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; In Sion also not unsung, where stood Her temple on the offensive mountain, built By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul. Thammiiz came next behind. 42 Paradise Lost, 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 450 Ban 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 porch 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, 460 Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshipers : 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 Bimmon, 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 : 470 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 480 Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms Booh L 43 Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape The 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 490 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 500 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 The Ionian gods — of Javan's issue held Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, Their boasted parents — Titan, Heaven's first-born, 5io 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, 44 Paradue Lost. 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 the Hesperian fields, 520 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 not lost In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride Soon recollecting, with high words that bore Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears : 530 Then straight commands that at the warlike sound Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall : Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed. Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 At which the universal host up-sent A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. All in a moment through the gloom were seen Ten thousand banners rise into the air. With orient colors waving ; with them rose A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms Appeared, and serried shields in thick array Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 550 Of flutes and soft recorders — such as raised Book L 45 To highth of noblest temper heroes old Arming to battle, and instead of rage Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; Nor wanting power to n^itigate and swage With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil ; and now Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, Awaiting what command their mighty chief Had to impose. He through the armed files Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse The Avhole battalion views — their order due. Their visages and stature as of gods ; 570 Their number last he sums. And now his heart Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength Glories ; for never, since created man. Met such embodied force as, named with these, Could merit more than that small infantry Warred on by cranes : though all the giant brood Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son, 580 Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; And all who since, baptized or infidel, Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond ; Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 46 Paradise Lost. By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed Their dread commander. He, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 Stood like a tower ; his form had yet not lost All her original brightness, nor appeared Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured : as when the sun new-risen Looks through the horizontal misty air Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon. In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone Above them all the Archangel : but his face 600 Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast Signs of remorse and passion, to behold The fellows of his crime, the followers rather (Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned Forever now to have their lot in pain ; Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced Of Heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 610 For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood. Their glory withered : as, when Heaven's fire Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, With singed top their stately growth, though bare. Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared To speak 5 whereat their doubled ranks they bend From wing to wing, and half enclose him round With all his peers : attention held them mute. Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn. Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth : at last 620 Words interwove with sighs found out their way : — Book L 47 ' myriads of immortal Spirits ! Powers Matchless, but with the Almighty ! — and that strife Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, As this place testifies, and this dire change. Hateful to utter. But what power of mind, Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth Of knowledge past or present, could have feared How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse ? 630 For who can yet believe, though after loss. That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend. Self-raised, and repossess their native seat ? For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, If counsels different, or dangers shunned By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns Monarch, in Heaven, till then as one secure Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute. Consent or custom, and his regal state 640 Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed ; Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall., Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, So as not either to provoke, or dread New war provoked. Our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile. What force effected not ; that he no less At length from us may find. Who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 There went a fame in Heaven that He erelong Intended to create, and therein plant A generation Avhom his choice regard Should favor equal to the Sons of Heaven. Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps Our first eruption : thither or elsewhere ; 48 Paradise Lost. For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired, 660 For who can think submission ? War, then, war Open or understood, must be resolved.' He spake ; and, to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty Cherubim ; the sudden blaze Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war. Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven. There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 Belched fire and rolling smoke ; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore, The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with sj^eed, A numerous brigad hastened : as when bands Of pioners, with spade and pickaxe armed, Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on, Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell 679 From Heaven, for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed In vision beatific. By him first Men also, and by his suggestion taught. Ransacked the Centre, and with impious hands Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound. And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 That riches grow in Hell ; that soil may best Book I. 49 Deserve the precious bane. And here let those Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings. Learn how their greatest monuments of fame. And strength, and art, are easily outdone By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour What in an age they, with incessant toil And hands innumerable, scarce perform. Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 That underneath had veins of liquid fire Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude With wondrous art founded the massy ore, Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross. A third as soon had formed within the ground A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook : As in an organ, from one blast of wind. To many a roAv of pipes the sound-board breathes. Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 710 Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet — Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid With golden architrave ; nor did there want Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile Stood fixed her stately highth, and straight the doors. Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth And level pavement : from the arched roof, 60 Paradise Lost. Pendent by subtle magic, many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky. The hasty multitude 730 Admiring entered, and the work some praise, And some the architect. His hand was known In Heaven by many a towered structure high, Where sceptred Angels held their residence. And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unadored In ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian land Men called him Mulciber ; and how he fell 740 From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day ; and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star. On Lemnos, the J^gsean isle. Thus they relate, Erring ; for he with this rebellious rout Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now To have built in Heaven high towers ; nor did he scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent 750 With his industrious crew to build in Hell. Meanwhile the winged haralds, by command Of sovran power, with awful ceremony And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council forthwith to be held At Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called From every band and squared regiment By place or choice the worthiest ; they anon With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 Attended. All access was thronged, the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall Book L 51 (Thougli like a covered field, where champions bold Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair Defied the best of Panim chivalry To mortal combat, or career with lance) Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides. Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 770 In clusters ; they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer Their state-affairs. So thick the aery crowd Swarmed and were straightened ; till, the signal given, Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room Throng numberless, like that pygmean race 780 Beyond the Indian mount ; or faery elves, Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth Wheels her pale course ; they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms Eeduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 Though without number still, amidst the hall Of that infernal court. But far within. And in their own dimensions like themselves, The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat, A thousand demi-gods on golden seats. Frequent and full. After short silence then, And summons read, the great consult began. PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT. The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven : some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage ; is honored and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hell-gates, finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them ; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and Heaven ; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new World which he sought. PARADISE LOST. BOOK II. High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence ; and, from despair Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue Vain war with Heaven ; and, by success untaught. His proud imaginations thus displayed : — lo ^ Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven ! Tor since no deep within her gulf can hold Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, I give not Heaven for lost : from this descent Celestial Virtues rising will appear More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 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 counsel or in fight, 20 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 j but who here 55 66 Paradise Lost. 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 30 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, 40 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 recked not, and these words thereafter spake : — 50 ^ 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. 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, 60 Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once Book 11. 67 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 70 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 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 Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, With what compulsion and laborious flight 80 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 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 90 Inexorably, 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 ? w^hich, to the highth enraged, Will either quite consume us, and reduce 58 Paradise Lost. 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 100 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 up rose Belial, in act more graceful and humane ; A fairer person lost not Heaven ; he seemed lio Eor 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 counsels : 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, Peers, As not behind in hate, if what was urged 120 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. First, what revenge ? The towers of Heaven are filled With armed watch, that render all access 130 Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep Book 11. 59 Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 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 140 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, 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, 150 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 ? '' Say they who counsel war ; " we are decreed, 160 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 strook With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 60 Paradise Lost. The Deep to shelter iis ? this Hell then seemed A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay Chained on the burning lake ? that sure Avas worse. What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 170 Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, And plunge us in the jflames ? 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, 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, 180 Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains ; There to converse with everlasting groans, Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved. 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 Views all things at one view ? He from Heaven's highth All these our motions vain sees and derides ; 191 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. 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 200 That so ordains : this was at first resolved, Booh II. 61 If we were wise, against so great a foe 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 Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain. The sentence of their conqueror. This is now Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit 210 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 vapor, or, inured, not feel ; Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed In temper and in nature, Avill receive Familiar the fierce heat ; and, void of pain. This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 220 Besides what hope the never-ending flight Of future days may bring, what chance, what change Worth waiting, — since our present lot appears For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, If we procure not to ourselves more woe.' Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, Counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, Not peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : — ' Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven We war, if war be best, or to regain 230 Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. The former, vain to hope, argues as vain The latter ; for what place can be for us Within Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord Supreme 62 Paradise Lost. We overpower ? Suppose lie should relent, And publish grace to all, on promise made Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we Stand in his presence, humble, and receive 240 Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne AVith warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing Forced Halleluiahs ; while he lordly sits Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers. Our servile offerings ? This must be our task In Heaven, this our delight. How wearisome Eternity so spent in worship paid To whom we hate ! Let us not then pursue. By force impossible, by leave obtained 250 Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek Our own good from ourselves, and from our own Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, Free, and to none accountable, preferring Hard liberty before the easy yoke Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear Then most conspicuous, when great things of small. Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain Through labor and endurance. This deep world Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire Choose to reside, his glory unobscured. And with the majesty of darkness round Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar. Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell ! As he our darkness, cannot we his light Imitate when we please ? This desert soil 270 Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold ; Booh IL 63 Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise Magnificence ; and what can Heaven show more ? Our torments also may in length of time Become our elements, these piercing fires As soft as now severe, our temper changed Into their temper ; which must needs remove The sensible of pain. All things invite To peaceful counsels, and the settled state Of order, how in safety best we may 280 Compose our present evils, with regard Of what we are and where, dismissing quite All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise.' He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain The sound of blustering winds, which all night long Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance. Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay After the tempest : such applause was heard 290 As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased. Advising peace ; for such another field They dreaded worse than Hell ; so much the fear Of thunder and the sword of Michael Wrought still within them ; and no less desire To found this nether empire, which might rise. By policy, and long process of time. In emulation opposite to Heaven. Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven Deliberation sat and public care ; And princely counsel in his face yet shone. Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood. With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 64 Paradise Lost. The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look Drew audience and attention still as night Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake : — ' Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven, 310 Ethereal Virtues ! or these titles now Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called Princes of Hell ? for so the popular vote Inclines — here to continue, and build up here A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 In strictest bondage, though thus far removed. Under the inevitable curb, reserved His captive multitude. For he, be sure. In highth or depth, still first and last will reign Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part By our revolt, but over Hell extend His empire, and with iron sceptre rule Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven. What sit we then projecting peace and war ? War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 330 Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given To us enslaved, but custody severe. And stripes, and arbitrary punishment Inflicted ? and what peace can we return, But, to our power, hostility and hate. Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow. Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice In doing what we most in suffering feel ? 340 Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need Book 11. 65 With dangerous expedition to invade Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find Some easier enterprise ? There is a place (If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven Err not), another World, the happy seat Of some new race called Man, about this time To be created like to us, though less In power and excellence, but favored more 350 Of him who rules above ; so was his will Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath That shook Heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn What creatures there inhabit, of what mould Or substance, how endued, and what their power. And where their weakness : how attempted best, By force or subtlety. Though Heaven be shut, And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 The utmost border of his. kingdom, left To their defence who hold it ; here, perhaps, Some advantageous act may be achieved By sudden onset : either with Hell-fire To waste his whole creation, or possess All as our own, and drive, as we are driven, The puny habitants ; or if not drive. Seduce them to our party, that their God May prove their foe, and with repenting hand Abolish his own works. This would surpass 370 Common revenge, and interrupt his joy In our confusion, and our joy upraise In his disturbance ; when his darling Sons, Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse Their frail original, and faded bliss — Faded so soon ! Advise if this be worth 6Q Paradise Lost. Attempting, or to sit in darkness here Hatching vain empires.' Thus Beelzebub Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 380 But from the author of all ill, could spring So deep a malice, to confound the race Of Mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell To mingle and involve, done all to spite The great Creator ? But their spite still serves His glory to augment. The bold design Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy Sparkled in all their eyes ; with full assent They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews : — ■ ^ Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 390 Synod of gods ! and, like to what ye are. Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate. Nearer our ancient seat — perhaps in view Of those bright confines, whence, with neighboring arms And opportune excursion, we may chance K-e-enter Heaven ; or else in some mild zone Dwell not unvisited of Pleaven's fair light. Secure, and at the brightening orient beam Purge off this gloom ; the soft delicious air, 400 To heal the scar of these corrosive fires. Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we send In search of this new World ? whom shall we find Sufficient ? who shall tempt with wandering feet The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss, And through the palpable obscure find out His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, Upborne with indefatigable wings Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive The happy isle ? What strength, what art, can then 410 Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe Book 11. 67 Through the strict senteries and stations thick Of Angels watching round ? Here he had need All circumspection : and we now no less Choice in our suffrage ; for on whom we send, 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, 420 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 : — ^ Progeny of Heaven ! Empyreal Thrones ! 430 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 440 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, Peers, And this imperial sovranty, adorned 68 Paradise Lost. With splendor, 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 450 These royalties, and not refuse to reign, Refusing to accept as great a share Of hazard as of honor, due alike To him who reigns, and so much to him due Of hazard more, as he above the rest High honored 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 460 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.' Thus saying, rose 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, 470 And, so refused, might in opinion stand His rivals, winning cheap the high repute Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose ; The 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 480 That for the general safety he despised Book 11. 69 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 the mountain-tops the dusky clouds Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'erspread Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 490 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. shame to men ! Devil with devil damned Eirm 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 500 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, 5io 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 trumpet's regal sound the great result : Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim 70 Paradise Lost. Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy, By harald's voice explained ; the hollow Abyss Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 520 Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised By false presumptuous hope, the ranged 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 ; 530 Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads 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 aery 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 540 In whirlwind ; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar : As when Alcides, from Q^chalia crowned With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, And Lichas from the top of CEta threw Into the Euboic 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 550 Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. Book 11. 71 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 ; 560 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 obdured breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel. Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 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, 580 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. 72 Paradise Lost. 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 590 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 600 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 Lethean 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, 6io 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 In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale They passed, and many a region dolorous. O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death — Book IL 73 A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good ; Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds. Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived ; Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimseras dire. Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight ; sometimes He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Up to the fiery concave towering high. As when far off at sea a fleet descried Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, 640 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice threefold the gates ; three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantine rock. Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable Shape. The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 650 But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed With mortal sting. About her middle round A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal ; yet, when they list, would creep, 74 Paradise Lost. If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 660 Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon Eclipses at their charms. The other Shape — If shape it might be called that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ; Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, For each seemed either — black it stood as Night, 670 Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart ; what seemed his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast. With horrid strides ; Hell trembled as he strode. The undaunted Fiend what this might be admired — Admired, not feared ; God and his Son except, Created thing naught valued he nor shunned — And with disdainful look thus first began : — 680 ' Whence and what art thOu, execrable Shape, That darest, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way To yonder gates ? Through them I mean to pass^ That be assured, without leave asked of thee. Eetire ; or taste thy folly, and learn by proof. Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven.' To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied : — ' Art thou that Traitor-Angel, art thou he Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then G90 Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms Book IL 75 Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons, Conjured against the Highest, for which both thou And they, outcast from God, are here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain ? And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here and scorn, Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more. Thy king and lord ? Back to thy punishment. False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, 700 Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.^ So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape. So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold More dreadful and deform. On the other side, Incensed with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burned, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710 Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head Levelled his deadly aim ; "their fatal hands No second stroke intend ; and such a frown Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on Over the Caspian, then stand front to front Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow To join their dark encounter in mid-air : — So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; 720 For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung. Had not the snaky Sorceress that sat East by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key. Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 76 Paradise Lost. ' father, what intends thy hand/ she cried, ' Against thy only son ? What f nry, son. Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart Against thy father's head ? and know'st for whom ? 730 For him who sits above, and laughs^the while At thee ordained his drudge, to execute Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids — His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both ! ' She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest Forbore : then these to her Satan returned : — ' So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand. Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds What it intends, till first I know of thee 740 What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why. In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son. I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable than him and thee.' To whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied : — ' Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem Now in thine eye so foul ? once deemed so fair In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight Of all the Seraphim with thee combined 750 In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, All on a sudden miserable pain Surprised thee ; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed. Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized All the host of Heaven : back they recoiled afraid At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 760 Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, Booh 11. 77 I pleased, and with attractive graces won The most averse ; thee chiefly, who full oft Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing Becamest enamoured ; and such joy thou took'st With me in secret, that my womb conceived A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose, And fields were fought in Heaven ; wherein remained (For what could else ?) to our Almighty Foe Clear victory, to our part loss and rout 770 Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down Into this deep ; and in the general fall I also : at which time this powerful key Into my hands was given, with charge to keep These gates forever shut, which none can pass Without my opening. Pensive here I sat Alone ; but long I sat not, till my womb. Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. 780 At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, Thine own begotten, breaking violent way. Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transformed ; but he, my inbred enemy. Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart. Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death ! Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed From all her caves, and back resounded Death! I fled ; but he pursued (though more, it seems, 790 Inflamed with lust than rage) and, swifter far, Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, And, in embraces forcible and foul Engendering with me, of that rape begot These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceived 78 Paradise Lost. And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me ; for, when they list, into the womb That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw My bowels, their repast ; then^ bursting forth 800 Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round. That rest or intermission none I find. Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on. And me, his parent, would full soon devour For want of other prey, but that he knows His end with mine involved, and knows that I Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane. Whenever that shall be : so Fate pronounced. But thou, father, I forewarn thee, shun 810 His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope To be invulnerable in those bright arms, Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint. Save He who reigns above, none can resist.' She finished ; and the subtle Fiend his lore Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth : — 'Dear daughter — since thou claim'st me for thy sire. And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change 820 Befallen us unforeseen, unthought of — know, I come no enemy, but to set free From out this dark and dismal house of pain Both him and thee, and all the Heavenly host Of Spirits that, in our just pretences armed. Fell with us from on high. From them I go This uncouth errand sole, and one for all Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread The unfounded Deep, and through the void immense To search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 Should be — and by concurring signs, ere now Booh 11. 79 Created vast and round — a place of bliss In the purlieus of Heaven ; and therein placed A race of upstart creatures, to supply Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught Than this more secret, now designed, I haste To know ; and, this once known, shall soon return, And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed With odors : there ye shall be fed and filled Immeasurably ; all things shall be your prey.' He ceased ; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced His mother bad, and thus be spake her sire : — ^ The key of this eternal pit, by due 850 And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, I keep, by Him forbidden to unlock These adamantine gates ; against all force Death ready stands to interpose his dart, Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. But what owe I to His commands above, Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down Into this gloom of Tartarus profound. To sit in hateful office here confined. Inhabitant of Heaven and Heavenly-born, 860 Here in perpetual agony and pain. With terrors and with clamors compassed round Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed ? Thou art my father, thou my author, thou My being gavest me ; whom should I obey But thee ? whom follow ? Thou will bring me soon 80 Paradise Lost. To that new world of light and bliss, among The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.' 870 Thus saying, from her side the fatal key. Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train. Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew. Which but herself not all the Stygian Powers Could once have moved ; then in the key-hole turns The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens : on a sudden open fly. With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She opened ; but to shut Excelled her power : the gates wide open stood. That with extended wings a bannered host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through With horse and chariots ranked in loose array ; So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 The secrets of the hoary Deep, a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound. Without dimension ; where length, breadth, and highth, And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. Eor Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring Their embryon atoms ; they around the flag 900 Of each his faction, in their several clans, Booh 11. 81 Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands Of Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil. Levied to side with warring winds, and poise Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, He rules a moment ; Chaos umpire sits. And by decision more embroils the fray By which he reigns ; next him, high arbiter, Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, 910 The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave. Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight. Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds — Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and looked awhile. Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 With noises loud and ruinous (to compare G-reat things with small) than when Bellona storms With all her battering engines, bent to rase Some capital city ; or less than if this frame Of Heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league, As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 Audacious ; but, that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuity : all unawares. Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour Down had been falling, had not by ill chance The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 82 Paradise Lost. Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him As many miles aloft : that fury stayed — Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares, 940 Treading the crude consistence, half on foot. Half flying ; behoves him now both oar and sail. As when a gryphon through the wilderness With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale. Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloined The guarded gold : so eagerly the Fiend O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare. With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 At length a universal hubbub wild Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 Wide on the wasteful Deep ! With him enthroned Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things. The consort of his reign ; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon ; Rumor next and Chance, And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled. And Discord with a thousand various mouths. To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus : — 'Ye Powers And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss, Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, 970 With purpose to explore or to disturb Book IL 83 The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint Wandering this darksome desert, as my way Lies through your spacious empire up to light, Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds Confine with Heaven ; or if some other place, From your dominion won, the Ethereal King Possesses lately, thither to arrive I travel this profound. Direct my course : 980 Directed, no mean recompense it brings To your behoof, if I that region lost. All usurpation thence expelled, reduce To her original darkness and your sway (Which is my present journey), and once more Erect the standard there of ancient Night. Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! ' Thus Satan ; and him thus the Anarch old, With faltering speech and visage incomposed. Answered : — 'I know thee, stranger, who thou art : 990 That mighty leading Angel, who of late Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded ; and Heaven-gates Poured out by millions her victorious bands, Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Keep residence ; if all I can will serve That little which is left so to defend, 1000 Encroached on still through our intestine broils Weakening the sceptre of old Night : first Hell, Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell. 84 Paradise Lost. If that way be your walk, you have not far ; So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed ! Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.' He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, lOio But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity and force rene\v^ed Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, Into the wild expanse, and through the shock Of fighting elements, on all sides round Environed, wins his way ; harder beset And more endangered, than when Argo passed Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks ; Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered : 1020 So he with difficulty and labor hard Moved on : with difficulty and labor he ; But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell, Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain. Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) Paved after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb Of this frail World ; by which the Spirits perverse 1030 With easy intercourse pass to and fro To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good Angels guard by special grace. But now at last the sacred influence Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, As from her outmost works, a broken foe, With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, Book 11. 85 Wafts on tlie calmer wave by dubious light, And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide In circuit, undetermined square or round. With opal towers, and battlements adorned Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, This pendent World, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge. Accurst, and in a cursed hour, he hies. CONCLUSION. The first two books constitute an interlude, or perhaps rather a link, between the two tragic motives of the poem : the fall of Satan, and the fall of Adam. Interest is to be sustained in the preceding action upon the vast stage of in- finity by the very act of advance towards that limited field of Adam's struggle. The greater portion of the opening books is devoted to the delineation of the character of Satan and of his principal associates ; it is only toward the close of the second book that, in the departure of Satan from Pandemonium, the former action is resumed and the latter assumed. Henceforth the arena of action is to be steadily narrowed, to the stellar universe, to the earth, to the country of Eden, and finally to that fateful garden in which human and heavenly and infernal powers are to meet and make their first sad adjustment. Now had the Almighty Father from above, From the pm-e Empyrean where he sits High throned above all highth, bent down his eye, His own works and their works at once to view : Above him all the Sanctities of Heaven Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received Beatitude past utterance ; on his right The radiant image of his glory sat, His only Son. On Earth he first beheld Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, 87 88 Paradise Lost. Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love, In blissful solitude. He then surveyed Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night, In the dun air sublime, and ready now To stoop with vv^earied wings and willing feet On the bare outside of this World, that seemed Firm land embosomed, without firmament. Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. (III. 56-76.) In point of space, tbe action is to be gradually contracted ; but presently we are given a further vista of its scope in point of time. The Father, communing with the Son, foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created Man free and able enough to have withstood his tempter ; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God ren- ders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards Man ; but God again declares that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine jus- tice ; Man hath offended the Majesty of God by aspiring to God- head, and, therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for Man ; the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth ; commands all the Angels to adore him ; they obey, and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. (Argument, Bk. III.) Thus they in Heaven, above the Starry Sphere, Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent. Meanwhile upon the firm opacous globe Of this round World, whose first convex divides Conclusion. 89 The luminous inferior orbs, enclosed From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old, Satan alighted walks. A globe far off It seemed, now seems a boundless continent. Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky. Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven, Though distant far, some small reflection gains Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud : Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field. As when a vulture on Imaus bred. Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds. Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams ; But in his way lights on the barren plains Of Sericana, where Chineses drive With sails and wind their cany wagons light : So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey : Alone ; for other creature in this place, Living or lifeless, to be found was none. (III. 416-443.) Passing over this vast unpeopled tract, Satan's eye is at last caught by a distant gleam, which, upon nearer approach, he perceives to be the shining gate of Heaven, down from which extends a passage to an opening in the shell of the stellar World, or universe, and farther, to earth itself. Satan from hence, now on the lower stair That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven gate, Looks down with wonder at the sudden view Of all this World at once. As when a scout Through dark and desert ways with peril gone All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn 90 Paradise Lost. Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill, Which to his eye discovers unaware The goodly prospect of some foreign land First seen, or some renowned metropolis With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned. Which now the rising Sim gilds with his beams : Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen. The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized. At sight of all this World beheld so fair. Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood So high above the circling canopy Of Night's extended shade) from eastern point Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears Andromeda far off Atlantic seas Beyond the horizon ; then from pole to pole He views in breadth, and without longer pause Down right into the World's first region throws His flight precipitant, and winds with ease Through the pure marble air his oblique way Amongst innumerable stars, that shone Stars distant, but nigh-hand seemed other worlds ; Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles. Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old. Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales, Thrice happy isles ! But who dwelt happy there He stayed not to inquire : above them all The golden Sun, in splendor likest Heaven, Allured his eye : thither his course he bends Through the calm firmament (but up or down, By centre, or eccentric, hard to tell. Or longitude) where the great luminary Aloof the vulgar constellations thick. That from his lordly eye keep distance due, Dispenses light from far. (III. 540-579.) Here Satan alights, and, scanning the clear landscape, in which is no shadow, he presently descries another being, whom he recognizes as one of the sons of God. Conclusion. 91 His back was turned, but not his brightness hid : Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar Circled his head, nor less his locks behind Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings Lay waving round. On some great charge employed He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep. Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope To find who might direct his wandering flight To Paradise, the happy seat of Man, His journey's end, and our beginning woe. But first he casts to change his proper shape, Which else might work him danger or delay : And now a stripling Cherub he appears. Not of the prime, yet such as in his face Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned : Under a coronet his flowing hair In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore Of many a colored plume, sprinkled with gold ; His habit fit for speed succinct, and held Before his decent steps a silver wand. He drew not nigh unheard : the Angel bright, Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned. Admonished by his ear, and straight was known The Archangel Uriel, one of the seven Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command. ^m 624-650.) Safe in his disguise, Satan boldly accosts his former foe, asserts that lie has wandered from Heaven in the hope of beholding the wonderful new creature of the divine power ; and asks Uriel to direct him to the home of Man. Uriel praises the supposed angel for his zeal, and pictures to him the grandeur of God's might, and its evidencing in the act of creation just accomplished, of which he has been eye-wit- ness : ' I saw when at his word the formless mass. This World's material mould, came to a heap : 92 Paradise Lost. Confusion heard his voice, and wild Uproar Stood ruled, stood vast Infinitude confined ; Till, at his second bidding. Darkness fled. Light shone, and Order from Disorder sprung : Swift to their several quarters hasted then The cumbrous elements, Earth, Flood, Air, Fire ; And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven Flew upward, spirited with various forms, That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move : Each had his place appointed, each his course; The rest in circuit walls this Universe. Look downward on that globe, whose hither side With light from hence, though but reflected, shines ; That place is Earth, the seat of Man ; that light His day, which else, as the other hemisphere, Night would invade ; but there the neighboring moon (So call that opposite fair star) her aid Timely interposes, and her monthly round Still ending, still renewing, through mid-heaven, With borrowed light her countenance triform Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth, And in her pale dominion checks the night. That spot to which I point is Paradise, Adam's abode, those lofty shades his bower. Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.' Thus said, he turned ; and Satan bowing low, As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, Where honor due and reverence none neglects, Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath, Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel, Nor stayed, till on Niphates' top he lights. (III. 708-742.) Success is now at hand ; Satan already feels that the prey is at his mercy. But he has one or two battles yet to fight with his better nature, before the not ignoble pride Avhich Conclusion. 93 inspires his thirst for vengeance becomes degraded into mere malice and foul, because consciously nourished, hatred of everything good and pure and true. He approaches earth and Eden and the pair who are to suffer through him, with confidence : Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold Far off, and fearless ; nor with cause to boast Begins his dire attempt ; which nigh the birth Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast, And like a devilish engine back recoils Upon himself : horror and doubt distract His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir The Hell within him ; for within him Hell He brings, and round about him ; nor from Hell One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place : now Conscience wakes Despair That slumbered ; wakes the bitter memory Of what he was, what is, and what must be Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue. Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad ; Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing Sun, Which now sat high in his meridian tower : Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began : — <0 thou that, with surpassing glory crowned, Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god Of this new World — at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads — to thee I call. But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams. That bring to my remembrance from what state 1 fell, how glorious once above thy sphere ; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down. Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King : Ah wherefore? He deserved no such return From me, whom he created what I w^as In that bright eminence, and with his good 94 Paradise Lost. Upbraided none ; nor was his service hard. What could be less than to afford him praise, The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks. How due ! Yet all his good proved ill in me, And wrought but malice ; lifted up so high, I sdained subjection, and thought one step higher Would set me highest, and in a moment quit The debt immense of endless gratitude. So burdensome still paying, still to owe. Forgetful what from Him I still received. And understood not that a grateful mind By owing owes not, but still pays, at once Indebted and discharged: what burden then? O had his powerful destiny ordained Me some inferior Angel, I had stood Then happy ; no unbounded hope had raised Ambition. Yet, why not ? Some other Power, As great might have aspired, and me, though mean. Drawn to his part ; but other Powers as great Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within Or from without, to all temptations armed. Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand? Thou hadst. Whom hast thou then or what to accuse, But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all ? Be then his love accursed, since, love or hate. To me alike it deals eternal woe. Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will Chose freely what it now so justly rues. Me miserable ! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair ? Which way I fly is Hell ; myself am Hell ; And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide. To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. O then at last relent ! Is there no place Left for repentance, none for pardon left ? None left but by submission ; and that word Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced Conclusion. 95 Witli other promises and otlier vaunts Than to submit, boasting I coukl subdue Tlie Omnipotent. Ay me, they little know How dearly I abide that boast so vain, Under what torments inwardly I groan. While they adore me on the throne of Hell, With diadem and sceptre high advanced, The lower still I fall, only supreme In misery : such joy ambition finds ! But say I could repent, and could obtain, By act of grace, my former state ; how soon Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay What feigned submission swore ! Ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void (For never can true reconcilement grow Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep) ; Which would but lead me to a worse relapse And heavier fall : so should I purchase dear Short intermission, bought with double smart. This knows my Punisher ; therefore as far From granting he, as I from begging, peace. All hope excluded thus, behold, instead Of us, outcast, exiled, his new delight. Mankind, created, and for him this World ! So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse ! All good to me is lost ; Evil, be thou my good : by thee, at least Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold, By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign; As Man erelong, and this new World, shall know.' Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face ; Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair ; Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. For heavenly minds from such distempers foul Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware. Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm, Artificer of fraud ; and was the first That practised falsehood under saintly show, 96 Paradise Lost. Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge : Yet not enough had practised to deceive Uriel once vv^arned ; whose eye pursued him down The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount Saw him disfigured more than could befall " Spirit of happy sort; his gestures fierce He marked and mad demeanor, then alone, As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen. So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden, where delicious Paradise, Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green. As with a rural mound, the champain head Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Access denied ; and overhead up grew Insuperable highth of loftiest shade. Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm ; A sylvan scene ; and as the ranks ascend, Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view. (IV. 16-142.) Satan approaches, and, disdaining to seek an entrance by the gate, bounds over the verdurous wall, and flies at once to the most elevated place in the garden, the topmost branch of the Tree of Life. Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views To all delight of human sense exposed In narrow room Nature's whole wealth ; yea, more, A Heaven on Earth : for blissful Paradise Of God the garden was, by him in the east Of Eden planted ; Eden stretched her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, Or where the sons of Eden long before Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil His far more pleasant garden God ordained ; Conclusion. 97 Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste ; And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold ; and next to life, Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by — Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill. (IV. 205-222.) Nearer at hand are brooks, which, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold. With mazy error under pendent shades Ran nectar, visiting each plant. But none of these scenes of beauty move Satan to pleasure : The Fiend Saw undelighted all delight, all kind Of living creatures, new to sight and strange. Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall. Godlike erect, with native honor clad In naked majesty seemed lords of all, And worthy seemed ; for in their looks divine The image of their glorious Maker shone. Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure (Severe, but in true filial freedom placed). Whence true authority in men : though botli Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed : For contemplation he and valor formed ; For softness she, and sweet attractive grace ; He for God only, she for God in him. His fair large front and eye sublime declared Absolute rule ; and hyacinthine locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad : She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadorned golden tresses wore Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved, H 98 Paradise Lost. As the vine curls her tendrils ; which implied Subjection, but required with gentle sway, And by her yielded, by him best received Yielded, with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. (IV. 285-311.) At sigbt of the pair Satan once more experiences a mo- mentary revulsion from his purpose, but with no real hesi- tation as to his course ; and an easy bit of sophistry very quickly restores him to himself. He is not their foe, after all, he says, apostrophizing them : ' League with you I seek, And mutual amity so strait, so close. That I with you must dwell, or you with me. Henceforth. My dwelling haply may not please. Like this fair Paradise, your sense ; yet such Accept your Maker's work ; he gave it me, Which I as freely give : Hell shall unfold, To entertain you two, her widest gates. And send forth all her kings ; there will be room, Not like these narrow limits, to receive Your numerous offspring ; if no better place, Thank him who puts me, loath, to this revenge On you who wrong me not, for him who wronged. And should I at your harmless innocence Melt, as I do, yet public reason just — Honor and empire with revenge enlarged By conquering this new World — compels me now To do what else, though damned, I should abhor.' So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds. (IV. 375-394.) In the meantime Uriel reports to his superior, Gabriel, the circumstance of the meeting with the stranger, his departure toward earth, and his suspicious behavior upon the moun- Conclusion. 99 tain-top. Gabriel commends Uriel for liis vigilance, and agrees with him that measures must be taken to discover and oust the stranger, if he should prove, as they suspect, to be one of the fallen spirits. Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad ; Silence accompanied : for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale : She all night long her amorous descant sung : Silence was pleased. Now glowed the firmament With living sapphires : Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon. Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light. And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. (IV. 598-609.) G-abriel, to whom has been given main charge of guarding the new creation, and especially Adam and Eve, sends out certain of his subordinates to search in the garden for the suspected stranger. They find Satan squatting in the form of a toad at the ear of the sleeping Eve. Surprised, and for the moment overawed by the splendor and God-given author- ity of the Angels, he suffers himself to be led before Gabriel : To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake : ' Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescribed To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge Of others, who approve not to transgress By thy example, but have power and right To question thy bold entrance on this place ; Employed it seems to violate sleep, and those Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss?' To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow: — * Gabriel, thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise. And such I held thee ; but this question asked 100 Paradise Lost. Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain ? Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell, Though thither doomed? Thou would'st thyself, no doubt, And boldly venture to whatever place Farthest from pain, where thou might'st hope to change Torment with ease, and soonest recompense Dole with delight, which in this place I sought ; To thee no reason, who knowest only good. But evil hast not tried. And wilt object His will who bound us? Let him surer bar His iron gates, if he intends our stay In that dark durance : thus much what was asked. The rest is true ; they found me where they say ; But that implies not violence or harm.' Thus he in scorn. The warlike Angel, moved. Disdainfully, half smiling, thus replied : — ' O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise, Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew. And now returns him from his prison scaped. Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither, Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed! So wise he judges it to fly from pain. However, and to scape his punishment. So judge thou still, presumptuous, till the wrath, Which thou incurrest by flying, meet thy flight Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain Can equal anger infinite provoked. But wherefore thou alone ? Wherefore with thee Came not all Hell broke loose ? Is pain to them Less pain, less to be fled? or thou than they Less hardy to endure? Courageous Chief, The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleged To thy deserted host this cause of flight. Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.' To which the Fiend thus answered, frowning stern: — * Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain. Insulting Angel : well thou knowest I stood Conclusion. 101 Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid The blasting volleyed thnnder made all speed, And seconded thy else not dreaded spear. But still thy words at random, as before, Argue thy inexperience what behoves From hard essays and ill successes past, A faithful leader — not to hazard all Through ways of danger by himself untried : I therefore, I alone, first undertook To wing the desolate Abyss, and spy This new-created World, whereof in Hell Fame is not silent, here in hope to find Better abode, and my afflicted Powers To settle here on earth, or in mid-air; Though for possession put to try once more What thou and thy gay legions dare against ; Whose easier business were to serve their Lord High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne. And practised distances to cringe, not fight.' To whom the warrior Angel soon replied : — ' To say and straight unsay, pretending first Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy, Argues no leader, but a liar traced, Satan; and couldst thou "faithful" add? O name, O sacred name of faithfulness profaned ! Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew? Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head ! Was this your discipline and faith engaged, Your military obedience, to dissolve Allegiance to the acknowledged Power Supreme ? And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem Patron of liberty, who more than thou Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored Heaven's awful Monarch ? wherefore but in hope To dispossess him, and thyself to reign? But mark what I areed thee now : Avaunt! Fly thither whence thou fledd'st : if from this hour Within these hallowed limits thou appear. Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained, 102 Paradise Lost. And seal thee so as henceforth not to scorn The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred.' So threatened he ; but Satan to no threats Gave heed, but, waxing more in rage, replied : — ' Then when I am thy captive, talk of chains, Proud limitary Cherub ; but ere then Far heavier load thyself expect to feel From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers. Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved.' While thus he spake, the angelic squadron bright Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns Their phalanx, and began to hem him round With ported spears, as thick as when a field Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands, Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeful sheaves Prove chaff. On the other side Satan, alarmed, Collecting all his might, dilated stood. Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved : His stature reached the sky, and on his crest Sat Horror plumed ; nor wanted in his grasp What seemed both spear and shield. Now dreadful deeds Might have ensued ; nor only Paradise Li this commotion, but the starry cope Of Heaven perhaps, or all the elements At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn With violence of this conflict, had not soon The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray. Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen Betwixt Astraea and the Scorpion sign. Wherein all things created first he weighed, The pendulous round earth with balanced air In counterpoise ; now ponders all events, Battles, and realms : in these he put two weights. The sequel each of parting and of fight ; The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam; Conclusion. 103 Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend : — 'Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine; Neither our own, but given. What folly then To boast what arms can do ? since thine no more Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now To trample thee as mire : for proof, look up, And read thy lot in yon celestial sign, Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak, If thou resist.' The Fiend looked up, and knew His mounted scale aloft : nor more ; but fled Murmuring ; and with him fled the shades of night. (IV. 87G-1015.) With the morning Eve wakes to tell Adam of a strange dream, in which she has been led to the Tree of Knowledge, and there persuaded by a heavenly visitant (as she sup- poses), to taste its forbidden fruit. Adam comforts and reassures her, and, lifting a hymn of praise, they go about their daily tasks. That there may be no doubt that man is responsible for his fall, God sends the archangel Raphael to warn them explicitly against the wiles of Satan. The Seraph is welcomed by Adam and Eve with wonder and delight; delivers his warning; and, in reply to their ques- tions, rehearses the story of the great strife in Heaven, the defeat and expulsion of the rebel Angels, Satan's persistence in his crime against God, and his consequent enmity to man. In the meantime, Satan, cast out of Eden, wanders rest- lessly about, compassing the globe ; and at length re-enters the garden, in the form of a mist. Casting about for a new disguise fit for the pursuance of his designs against human- ity, he has determined to enter into the form of the serpent ; not without qualms of shame and desperation : — * O foul descent ! that I, who erst contended With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained Into a beast, and, mixed wilh bestial slime, 104 Paradise Lost. This essence to incarnate and imbrute, That to the highth of deity aspired ! But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low As high he soared, obnoxious first or last To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet. Bitter erelong back on itself recoils. Let it : I reck not, so it light well aimed, Since higher I fall short, on him who next Provokes my envy, this new favorite Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite. Whom us the more to spite his Maker raised From dust. Spite then with spite is best repaid.' So saying, through each thicket dank or dry. Like a black mist low creeping, he held on His midnight search, where soonest he might find The serpent : him fast sleeping soon he found, Li labyrinth of many a round self-rolled. His head the midst, well stored with subtle wiles Nor yet in horrid shade or dismal den, Nor nocent yet, but on the grassy herb t'earless, unfeared, he slept. In at his mouth The devil entered; and his brutal sense, In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired With act intelligential ; but his sleep Disturbed not, waiting close the approach of morn. (IX. 163-191.) Dawn comes, and Adam and Eve once more give praise to the Creator, and take up the simple round of their daily life. Eve suggests that their duties make it advisable for them to work separately. Adam holds that they are safer together, and reminds her of the warning to strict vigilance which the Seraph has but now given them. Eve, piqued that she should be considered lacking in strength to with- stand temptation, urges more warmly her preference; and Adam after some debate, and a vain effort to dissuade her, suffers her to leave him. Conclusion. ^ 105 Her long with ardent look his eye pursued, Delighted; but desiring more her stay. Oft he to her his charge of quick return Repeated; she to him as oft engaged To be returned by noon amid the bower, And all things in best order to invite Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve, Of thy presumed return ! event perverse ! Thou never from that hour in Paradise Found'st either sweet repast or sound repose ! Such ambush hid among sweet flowers and shades Waited with hellish rancor imminent To intercept thy way, or send thee back Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss. For now, and since first break of dawn, the Fiend, Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come. And on his quest, where likeliest he might find The only two of mankind, but in them The whole included race ; his purposed prey. In bower and field he sought, where any tuft Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, Their tendance or plantation for delight : By fountain, or by shady rivulet He sought them both ; but wished his hap might find Eve separate ; he wished, but not with hope Of what so seldom chanced, when to his wish. Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies. Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, Plalf spied, so thick the roses blushing round About her glowed, oft stooping to support Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, Hung drooping unsustained : them she upstays Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while Herself, though fairest unsupported flower. From her best prop so far, and storm so nigli. Nearer he drew ; and many a walk traversed Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm, 106 Paradise Lost. Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen Among thick-woven arborets and flowers Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve : Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis, or renowned Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son. Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse. Much he the place admired, the person more, As one who, long in populous city pent, Where houses thick, and sewers, annoy the air. Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe Among the pleasant villages and farms Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight — The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine. Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound — If chance with nymph-like step fair virgin pass, AVhat pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more, She most, and in her look sums all delight ; Such pleasure took the serpent to behold This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve, Thus early, thus alone. Her heavenly form, Angelic, but more soft and feminine. Her graceful innocence, her every air Of gesture or least action, overawed His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought. That space the Evil One abstracted stood From his own evil, and for the time remained Stupidly good ; of enmity disarmed. Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge. But the hot Hell that always in him burns, Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight. And tortures him now more, the more he sees Of pleasure not for him ordained. Then soon Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites : — ' Thoughts, whither have ye led me? With what sweet Compulsion thus transported to forget Conclusion. 107 What hither brought usV hate, not love, nor hope Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste Of pleasure ; but all pleasure to destroy, Save w^hat is in destroying; other joy To me is lost. Then let me not let pass Occasion, which now smiles. Behold alone The woman, opportune to all attempts — Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh. Whose higher intellectual more I shun, Ai>d strength, of courage haughty, and of limb Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould ; Foe not informidable, exempt from wound — I not ; so much hath Hell debased, and pain Enfeebled me, to what 1 was in Heaven. She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods, Not terrible, though terror be in love And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned ; The way which to her ruin now I tend.' So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve Addressed his way, not with indented wave. Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear Circular base of rising folds, that towered Fold above fold a surging maze, his head Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant. Pleasing was his shape. And lovely : never since the serpent kind Lovelier : not those that in Illyria changed Hermione and Cadmus, or the God In Epidaurus ; nor to which transformed Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen ; He with Olympias, this with her who bore Scipio the highth of Rome. With tract oblique At first, as one who sought access, but feared To interrupt, sidelong he works his way. As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought, 108 Paradise Lost. Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail, So varied he, and of his tortuous train Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, To lure her eye : she, busied, heard the sound Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used To such disport before her through the field From every beast ; more duteous at her call Than at Circean call the herd disguised. He bolder now, uncalled, before her stood. But as in gaze admiring, oft he bowed His turret crest and sleek enamelled neck. Fawning, and licked the ground whereon she trod. His gentle dumb expression turned at length The eye of Eve to mark his play. (IX. 397-527.) Satan's object is now within reach. .Having gained the pleased attention of his victim, it is an easy task by adroit flattery first to lead her to the Tree of Knowledge, and then to overcome her scruples and bring her to taste the fatal fruit. Adam, for the moment horror-struck at Eve's deed, before long consents to share her guilt. Satan's end is gained; but it is a costly success. From the pure and lofty spirit, once among the greatest in Heaven, from the still noble rebel, sublimely erring through indomi- table pride and ambition, and still looking back with yearn- ing to his former happy estate, he has now come to be the mean trickster of Eden, contriving foully against the chil- dren of Earth. The rest of the story may be told in Milton's own prose (Arguments of Books X, XI, and XII) : — Man's transgression known, the guardian Angels forsake Para- dise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the transgressors; who desc.ends, and gives sentence accordingly; then, in pity, clothes Conclusion. 109 them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new AVorld, and the sin by INI an there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan, their sire, up to the place of JSIan : to make the way easier from Hell to this world, to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the track which Satan first made ; then, preparing for Earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to Hell: their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium : in full assembly relates, with boasting, his success against Man; instead of applause, is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed, with himself also, suddenly into serpents, according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the Forbidden Tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death : God foretells the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things ; but, for the present, com- mands his Angels to make several alterations in the Heavens and Elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails, rejects the condolement of Eve ; she persists, and at length appeases him ; then, to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways ; which he approves not, but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late prom- ise made them, that her Seed should be revenged on the serpent, and exhorts her, with him, to seek peace of the offended Deity by repentance and supplication. The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents, now repenting, and intercedes for them ; God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them ; but first to reveal to Adam future things; Michael's coming down; Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs ; he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him; the Angel denounces their de- parture ; Eve's lamentation ; Adam pleads, but submits ; the Angel leads him up to a high hill ; sets before him in vision what shall happen till the flood. The Angel Michael continues, from the flood, to relate what shall succeed ; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees to explain who that Seed of the Woman shall be, which was prom- 110 Pm^adise Lost ised Adam and Eve in the fall ; his incarnation, death, resurrec- tion, and ascension ; the state of the Church till his second coming; Adam, greatly satisfied and comforted by these relations and prom- ises, descends the hill with Michael ; wakens Eve, who all this while had slept, but with gentle dreams composed to quietness of mind and submission ; Michael in either hand leads them out of Paradise : They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise (so late their happy seat) Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms. Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon : The world was all before them where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way. (XII. 641-649.) NOTES. BOOK I. 5. seat ; sedes, ' abode.' Cf . Virgil's ' sedes beatas ' {uEneid, VI. 639). 6. secret; sgcreiws, ' remote ' ; hence 'mysterious.' 7. Of Oreb or of Sinai. The poet seems to be in doubt as to the name of the mountain whereon Moses communed with God. For the reason of his uncertainty see Exod. xix. 20 and Deut. iv. 10. See if with the aid of a gazetteer you can determine which name is correct. 10, 11. Sion and Siloa occur naturally to the poet as haunts of the Heavenly Muse (whom he elsewhere calls 'Urania'), just as the ' Aonian mount ' Helicon, with its stream Aganippe, was the traditional dwelling-place of the classic Muses. 12. the oracle of God ; the great temple at Jerusalem, which was built on Mount Sion. 16. rhyme. In making use of this spelling, Milton evidently draws a deliberate distinction between 'rime' (see The Verne, p. 27), the jingle of verse-endings, and 'rhyme,' a general term for verse as distinguished from prose. 25. argument ; argumentum, ' subject.' 26. assert; asserere, ' vindicate.' 27-34. Milton's simplest motive in the poem is to inquire into the reasons for the existence of sin in a race of beings created by Almighty power. The inquiry begins with the ultimate result of Satan's revolt, and the answer contents itself at first with naming the immediate factor of that result — the Serpent. * I am sorry that Milton did not always keep separate the sublime Satan and " the infernal serpent," ' says Landor. Why is it not natural that the poet should connect his first mention of man's 111 112 Paradise Lost. enemy, with our simplest memory of the story in Genesis? It is the gradual degrading transformation of the 'sublime Satan' into the ' infernal Serpent ' which constitutes the absorbing theme of Milton's narrative. 39. his peers ; the other archangels. 40. trusted to have equalled ; long a common construction, even with the most careful writers, but now condemned by gram- marians. Does it not give a full flavor to Satan's confidence which would be lacking in the commoner con.struction ? 45. ethereal sky; the Empyrean, filled with that mysterious substance * aether,' imagined by the Greek philosophers to be an element more closely allied with fire than with the air of our nearer heavens. Macmillan notes that '"empyreal substance" (I. 117) is exactly equivalent to "ethereal mould" (II. 139).' 57. viritnessed ; ' bore witness to,' or ' beheld ' ? 63. darkness visible. For a similar paradox, see II Penseroso, 79, 80. 68. urges; urgere, 'press hard upon.' 72. utter; probably 'outer,' with reference to its distance from the throne of God. 74. See Ini rod net ion, pp. 21, 22. 79. Matt. xii. 24. 83. thence called Satan. Satan in Hebrew means 'the ad- versary.' It should be noted, however, that the Hebrew concep- tion of Satan (as in the story of Job) was not of an adversary of God, but of one of his servants to whom is allotted the duty of testing and disciplining mankind. In Milton's conception, how- ever, Satan is a name of reproach, given to the great rebel after his expulsion from Heaven, when his former glorious name was ' rased from the Books of Life.' 107. study ; studium, ' longing.' 114. empire ; impermm, ' power.' 129. Seraphim. Milton uses the titles Seraph, Cherub, Prince, Power, etc., somewhat loosely, preferring, as Macaulay notes in his Essay on Milton, not to hedge in the imagination by a strictly spe- cific use of details. 152. Deep ; Chaos. Gen. i. 2. Milton always calls the place by this name. 'Chaos' is the personal ruler of the Deep. See II. 960, 961. Notes, Book I. 113 156. Arch-Fiend. We have given the word 'fiend' a much less dignified meaning than it originally had. 167. if I fail not ; nifallor, '• if I mistake not.' 186. afflicted; (^/^/c^w6-, 'overthrown.' 187. offend; o^e/K/ere, 'do violence to.' 193-196. Is it an accident that there is a suggestion of the ser- pent in this first description of Satan ? 198. Earth-born ; the Giants. The relative clause which fol- lows applies only to them. 202. Created hugest, etc. Notice how plainly the unwieldy bulk of the monster is suggested by the lumbering movement of the verse. 208. Invests ; ' clothes,' or ' beleaguers ' ? 215. Heap on himself damnation. 'We miss one of the most important things about Paradise Lost, if we do not see that it has for a subject not only the Fall of Man, but the Fall of Satan, and not merely his first fall from Heaven, but his constant degra- dation lower and lower, until the absolute wreck of his physical beauty was a true index to the utter evil of his character ' (Hale). 228-238. 'All this is too far detailed,' says Ruskin, 'and deals too much with externals ; we feel rather the form of the fire- waves than their fury, we walk upon them too securely, and the fuel, the sublimation, smoke, and singeing, seem to me images only of partial combustion ; they vary and extend the conception, but they lower the thermometer. Look back if you will, and add to the description the glimmering of the livid flames ; the sul- phurous hail and red lightning; yet all together, however they overwhelm us with horror, fail of making us thoroughly unen- durably hot.' The critic goes on to quote that passage from Dante {Purgatorio, xxvi. 4-8) in which the poet, standing between the western sun and the purgatorial fires, ' made, with his shadow, the flames look more white-hot.' ' That is a slight touch : he has not gone to iEtna nor Pelorus for fuel ; but we shall not soon recover from it. He has taken our breath away, and leaves us gasping. No smoke or cinders there. Pure, white, hurtling, formless flame ; very fire crystal ; we cannot make spires nor waves of it, nor divide it, nor walk on it : there is no question about singeing soles of feet. It is " lambent annihilation " ' {Modern Painters, Part in.). Consider in connection with this criticism Macaulay's com- 114 Paradise Lost. parison : < The images which Dante emj)loys speak for themselves ; they stand simply for what they are. Those of Milton have a sig- nification which is often discernible only to the initiated. Their value depends less on what they distinctly represent than on what they remotely suggest' (Essay on Milton). 254. its. Milton uses this word only three times, Shakespeare not more than twice as many. Look up its history. Would it not be preferable to ' his ' in 572 below ? 266. astonished; a«om7i<5, • thunderstruck.' 281. amazed; ' bewildered,' * like one in a maze.' 282. pernicious; pej-niciosus, 'swiftly destructive.' 288. Optic glass was a not uncommon name for the telescope in its early days. In the course of his Italian journey Milton had himself seen the Tuscan artist, Galileo. 290. Valdarno; the valley of the Arno, within which lies Florence, the home of Galileo. 294. ammiral. Milton is fond of using the Italian forms of certain words : e.g. ' ammiral ' (ammwaglio, a flag-ship) ; ' sovran ' (sovra7io); 'scape' (scappare). 303. It is probable that the poet's description of Vallombrosa, a beautiful ' shady vale ' not far from Florence, is from memory. 307. What is the meaning of chivalry in this passage? 307-311. Exod. xiv. 312. abject; aftjec^ws, 'hurled down.' 315-330. Satan cleverly bestows upon his followers the lofty titles they have forfeited, hoping that the stirring sound may re- store to them something of their former confidence ; by the light irony of his opening questions he shows that he himself is una- bashed ; and by a prompt appeal to their soldierly instinct of obe- dience fairly lifts them out of themselves, or rather back to them- selves. The mechanical process of formation in military order is a great help to them in the recovery of their self-possession. 335. nor did they not ; neque non. 339-343. Exod. x. 341. -warping. Does this word suggest the rate of speed, or the method of formation ? Is it possible to exhaust the suggestiveness of such a vivid touch by appeal to synonyms or definitions? 348. Sultan; like 'Emperor' in 378 below, is used by Milton in a large rather that a specific sense. r Notes, Book I. 115 351-355. What historic invasions are alluded to in this simile? The Rhine and the Danube, you must remember, formed the northern boundary of the Roman Empire. Milton has to draw his illustrations from subsequent human events, in order to make his far-off subject significant to human ears. 364-375. Milton here merely appropriates to his use the com- mon belief of the Christian Fathers that the pagan deities were devils in disguise. 372. religions; reUgiones, 'rites.' 384. Their altars by his altar. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 4-7. 388. "Within his sanctuary. 2 Kings xxi. 4, 5. 392-396. For scriptural mention of sacrifices by the Israelites to Moloch, see Jer. vii. 31 ; Psalms, cvi. 36-38. 396-399. 'The Ammonites were a people kindred to the Mo- abites, both tribes being children of Lot. They dwelt to the east of the land of Gilead : Rabba was in the southern part of their territory ; Argob, mentioned in 1 Kings iv. 13 as a part of Bashan, was farther north ; the Arnon rises in the mountains of Gilead, and flows into the Dead Sea. " Utmost " seems to mean near its source ' (Hale). 402. against the temple of God. 1 Kings xi. 4-7. 403-405. 'The southern part of the Mount of Olives is blasted with infamy, and called the " hill of scandal " (1. 416), the " offen- sive mountain" (1. 443), and in the Bible the "mount of corrup- tion" (2 Kings xxiii. 13), because it was disgraced by the shrines of false gods. For the same reason the beautiful valley of Hinnom, after it had been converted into a sacred grove for Moloch, became hateful to the Jews, who made it a receptacle for all the filth of the city. It then came to be known as Tophet (from Hebrew topJi, a drum), because drums were used at the sacrifice to Moloch to drown the children's cries (1. 394), or Gehenna. The word Gehenna is really derived from Hinnom, but obtained a bad meaning, when the valley was defiled, and became a type of hell ' (Macmillan). 406. Chemos (or Chemos) was the national god of the Moab- ites, whose worship, like that of Moloch, was introduced among the Hebrews by Solomon. 411. the Asphaltio pool; the Dead Sea, so called from the asphaltic or bituminous deposits which are found upon its shores. 116 Paradise Lost. 413. Israel in Sittim. Num. xxv. 418. good Josiah. 2 Kings xxiii. 13, 14. 446. Thammuz, the Greek Adonis, according to the fable, was killed on Lebanon by a wild boar, and ever after upon the anni- versary of his death the stream which flows from the mountain side, and which bore his name, was colored with his blood. 452-457. Ezek. viii. 14. 458-461. •when the captive ark, etc. 1 Sam. v. 4. In the succeeding lines the five principal cities of the Philistines are mentioned. 471. A leper once he lost. 2 Kings ix. 17. 472. Ahaz, etc. 2 Kings xvi. 10, 11. 484. The calf in Oreb. Exod. xxxii. the rebel king, Jero- boam. 1 Kings xii. 26-29. 490. Belial. The English translation of the Bible treats this word as a name ; it is properly a common noun, signifying ' base- ness.' The American revisers of the Old Testament recommend the substitution of ' base men ' for ' sons of Belial.' Mammon is also a common noun, signifying 'wealth.' 495. Eli's sons." 1 Sam. ii. 12, 22. 498. luxurious; luxuriosus, 'lewd.' 498-502. In Milton's day and later there were in London certain well-known bands of roistering young bloods, who roamed the streets at night, committing all imaginable outrage upon trades- people and wayfarers. 504. In Gibeah. Judges xix. 22-25. 508. Javan's issue. ' Javan, son of Japhet ' (Gen. x. 2) stands for the Greek race ; the name being the same word as Ion (older form 'lawi/), whence lonians. So Milton in Sarnson Agonistes, 715, 716, calls the Grecian islands 'isles of Javan ' (Verity). The names which follow are to be looked up in the classical reference books. 543. reign ; regmmi, ' realm.' 550. the Dorian mood ; grave, martial music, as distinguished from the lighter Lydian airs (see L' Allegro, 136). 557. solemn touches. Compare Shakespeare's ' the touches of sweet harmony ' (Merchant of Venice, V. 1. 57). 563. horrid; /ion7c?i