Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th' affociates and copartners of our loss,
Lie thus aftonish'd on th' 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
Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more loft in Hell?
So Satan fpake, and him Beëlzebub
Thus answer'd. Leader of those armies bright,
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd,
If once they hear that voice, their livelieft pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard fo oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all affaults
Their fureft fignal, they will foon refume
New courage and revive, though now they lie
Groveling and proftrate on yon lake of fire,
As we ere while, aftounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd when the fuperior Fiend
Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous fhield,
Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round,
Behind him caft; the broad circumference
Hung on his fhoulders like the moon, whofe orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fefolé,
Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.
His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the maft
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with to fupport uneafy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire:
Nathless he fo indur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he stood, and call'd
His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew
Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The fojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the fafe fhore their floting carcafes
And broken chariot wheels: fo thick beftrown
Abject and loft lay thefe, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell refounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once your's, now loft,
If fuch astonishment as this can feife
Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place
After the toil of battel to repofe
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To flumber 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 fcatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon
His fwift purfuers from Heav'n gates difcern
Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.
They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread,
Roufe and beftir themselves ere well awake.
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their general's voice they foon obey'd
Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud
Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and dárken'd all the land of Nile:
So numberless were thofe bad Angels feen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell
Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires;
Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their courfe, in even balance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain;
A multitude, like which the populous north
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pafs
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan fands.
Forthwith from every squadron and each band
The heads and leaders thither hafte where stood
Their great commander; Godlike shapes and formş
Excelling human, princely Dignities,
And Pow'rs that erft in Heaven fat on thrones ;
Though of their names in heav'nly records now
Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
By their rebellion from the books of life.
Nor had they yet among the fons of Eve
Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth,
Through God's high fufferance for the tri`al of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forfake
God their Creator, and th' invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various names,
And various idols through the Heathen world.
Say, Mufe, their names then known, who first, who laft,
Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof.
The chief were those who from the pit of Heli
Roaming to feek their
prey on earth, durft fix
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Their feats long after next the feat of God,
Their altars by his altar, Gods ador'd
Among the nations round, and durft abide
Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd
Within his fanctuary itself their shrines,
Abominations; and with curfed things
His holy rites and folemn feasts profan'd,
And with their darkness durft affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid king, befmear'd with blood
Of human facrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their childrens cries unheard, that pass'd through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmoft Arnon. Nor content with fuch
Audacious neighbourhood, the wifeft heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple' of God
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
The pleasant valley' of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of Hell.
Next Chemos, th' óbfcene dread of Moab's fons
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of fouthmoft Abarim; in Hefebon
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,
And Eleälé to the Asphaltic pool.
Peor his other name, when he entic'd
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