Yielded with full confent. The happier state
In Heav'n, which follows dignity, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thund'rer's aim
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
Of endless pain? where there is then no good
For which to ftrive, no strife can grow up there
From faction; for none fure will clame 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 Heav'n, we now return
To clame our juft inheritance of old,
Surer to profper than profperity
Could have affur'd us; and by what best way,
Whether of open war or covert guile,
We now debate; who can advise, may speak.
He ceas'd, and next him Moloch, scepter'd king,
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit -
That fought in Heav'n, now fiercer by despair:
His truft was with th' Eternal to be deem'd
Equal in ftrength, and rather than be less
Car'd not to be at all; with that care loft
Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worfe
He reck'd not, and thefe words thereafter spake.
My fentence 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 fit contriving, fhall the reft,
Millions that ftand in arms, and longing wait
The fignal to afcend, fit ling'ring here.
Heav'n's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of fhame,
The prifon of his tyranny who reigns
By our delay? no, let us rather choose,
Arm'd with Hell flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heav'n's high tow'rs to force refistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the torturer; when to meet the noise
Of his almighty engin he fhall hear
Infernal thunder, and for lightning fee
Black fire and horror fhot with equal rage
Among his Angels, and his throne itself
Mix'd with Tartarean fulphur, and ftrange fire,
His own invented torments. But perhaps
The way seems difficult and fteep to scale
With upright wing against a higher foe.
Let fuch bethink them, if the fleepy drench
Of that forgetful lake benumm not still,
That in our proper motion we afcend
Up to our native feat: defcent and fall
To us is adverse. Who but felt of late,
When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
Infulting, and pursued us through the deep,
With what compulsion and laborious flight
We funk thus low? Th' afcent is easy then;
Th' event is fear'd; fhould we again provoke
Our stronger, fome worfe way his wrath may find
Than ought divine or holy elfe enjoy'd
In vifion beatific: by him first
Men alfo, and by his fuggeftion taught,
Ranfack'd the center, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth
For treasures better hid.
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,
Let none admire that soil may best And here let those
And digg'd out ribs of gold.
That riches grow in Hell;
Deferve the precious bane.
Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,
And strength, and art, are easily out-done
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with inceffant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the lake, a fecond multitude
With wond'rous art founded the maffy ore,
Seve ng each kind, and scumm'd the bullion drofs:
A third as foon had form'd within the ground
A various mould, and from the boiling cells
By ftrange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook,
As in an organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of pipes the found-board breathes.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rofe like an exhalation, with the found
Of dulcet fymphonies and voices fweet,
Built like a temple, where pilasters round
Were fet, and Doric pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or freeze, with boffy fculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo fuch magnificence
Equal'd in all their glories, to infhrine
Belus or Serapis their Gods, or feat
Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria strove
In wealth and luxury. Th' afcending pile
Stood fix'd her stately highth, and strait the doors
Opening their brazen folds difcover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendent by subtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing creffets fed
With Naphtha and Afphaltus yielded light
As from a sky. The hafty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work fome praise,
And fome the architect: his hand was known
In Heav'n by many a tow'red structure high,
Where scepter'd Angels held their refidence,
And fat as princes, whom the fúpreme King
Exalted to fuch pow'r, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From Heav'n, 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 th' 'gean ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now
T'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scape
By all his engins, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in Hell.
Mean while the winged heralds by command
Of forran pow'r, with awful ceremony
And trumpet's found, throughout the host proclame A folemn council forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium, the high capital
Of Satan and his peers: their fummons call'd
From every band and fquared regiment
By place or choice the worthieft; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
Attended: all accefs was throng'd, the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair
Defy'd the best of Panim chivalry
To mortal combat, or career with lance)
Thick fwarm'd, both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd with the hifs of rufling winds. As bees
In fpring time, when the fun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the imoothed plank,
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