This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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ISBN-10: 1542048680

ISBN-13: 9781542048682

eISBN: 9781542098687

Series design by Jeff Miller, Faceout Studio

CONTENTS

BOOK 1

BOOK 2

BOOK 3

BOOK 4

BOOK 5

BOOK 6

BOOK 7

BOOK 8

BOOK 9

BOOK 10

BOOK 11

BOOK 12

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BOOK 1

	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
5	Restore 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
10	Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
	Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed
	Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
	Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
	That with no middle flight intends to soar
15	Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues
	Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
	And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
	Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure,
	Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first
20	Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
	Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast Abyss,
	And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark

	Illumine, what is low raise and support;
	That, to the height of this great argument,
25	I may assert Eternal Providence,
	And justify the ways of God to men.
	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,
30	Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off
	From their Creator, and transgress his will
	For one restraint, lords of the World besides.
	Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
	Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,
35	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,
40	He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
	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
45	Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky,
	With hideous ruin and combustion, down
	To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
	In adamantine chains and penal fire,
	Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.
50	Nine times the space that measures day and night
	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

55	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
60	The dismal situation waste and wild.
	A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,
	As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
	No light; but rather darkness visible
	Served only to discover sights of woe,
65	Regions 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.
70	Such place Eternal Justice has prepared
	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 th’ utmost pole.
75	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,
80	Long after known in Palestine, and named
	Beelzebub. To whom th’ Arch-Enemy,
	And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words
	Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:—
	“If thou beest he—but O how fallen! how changed
85	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
90	Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
	In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest
	From what height 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,
95	Nor what the potent Victor in his rage
	Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,
	Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
	And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
	That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
100	And to the fierce contentions brought along
	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,
105	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?
110	That glory never shall his wrath or might
	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;
115	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,
120	We may with more successful hope resolve
	To wage by force or guile eternal war,
	Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,
	Who now triumphs, and in th’ excess of joy
	Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven.”
125	So spake th’ apostate Angel, though in pain,
	Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair;
	And him thus answered soon his bold compeer:—
	“O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers
	That led th’ embattled Seraphim to war
130	Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds
	Fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual King,
	And put to proof his high supremacy,
	Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate,
	Too well I see and rue the dire event
135	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
140	Invincible, and vigour soon returns,
	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
145	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
150	By right of war, whate’er his business be,

	Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
	Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep?
	What can it the avail though yet we feel
	Strength undiminished, or eternal being
155	To undergo eternal punishment?”
	Whereto with speedy words th’ 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,
160	But ever to do ill our sole delight,
	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 labour must be to pervert that end,
165	And out of good still to find means of evil;
	Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps
	Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
	His inmost counsels from their destined aim.
	But see! the angry Victor hath recalled
170	His ministers of vengeance and pursuit
	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,
175	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 th’ occasion, whether scorn
	Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
180	Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
	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;
185	There rest, if any rest can harbour there;
	And, re-assembling our afflicted powers,
	Consult how we may henceforth most offend
	Our enemy, our own loss how repair,
	How overcome this dire calamity,
190	What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
	If not, what resolution from despair.”
	Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,
	With head uplift above the wave, and eyes
	That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides
195	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
200	By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast
	Leviathan, which God of all his works
	Created hugest that swim th’ ocean-stream.
	Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam,
	The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,
205	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,
210	Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence
	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

215	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
220	Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured.
	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 i’ th’ midst a horrid vale.
225	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,
230	And such appeared in hue as when the force
	Of subterranean wind transports a hill
	Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side
	Of thundering Etna, whose combustible
	And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire,
235	Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
	And leave a singed bottom all involved
	With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole
	Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate;
	Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood
240	As gods, and by their own recovered strength,
	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
245	For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
	Who now is sovereign 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,
250	Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
	Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,
	Receive thy new possessor—one who brings
	A mind not to be changed by place or time.
	The mind is its own place, and in itself
255	Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
	What matter where, if I be still the same,
	And what I should be, all but less than he
	Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
	We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
260	Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
	Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice,
	To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
	Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
	But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
265	Th’ associates and co-partners of our loss,
	Lie thus astonished 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
270	Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?”
	So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub
	Thus answered:—“Leader of those armies bright
	Which, but th’ Omnipotent, none could have foiled!
	If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
275	Of hope in fears and dangers—heard so oft
	In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
	Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults
	Their surest signal—they will soon resume

	New courage and revive, though now they lie
280	Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,
	As we erewhile, astounded and amazed;
	No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!”
	He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend
	Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,
285	Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
	Behind him cast. The broad circumference
	Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
	Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
	At evening, from the top of Fesole,
290	Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
	Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
	His spear—to equal which the tallest pine
	Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
	Of some great ammiral, were but a wand—
295	He walked with, to support uneasy steps
	Over the burning marl, 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
300	Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called
	His legions—Angel Forms, who lay entranced
	Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
	In Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shades
	High over-arched embower; or scattered sedge
305	Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed
	Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew
	Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,
	While with perfidious hatred they pursued
	The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
310	From the safe shore their floating carcases

	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
315	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
320	Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
	To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
	Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
	To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds
	Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
325	With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon
	His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern
	Th’ advantage, and, descending, tread us down
	Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
	Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf ?
330	Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!”
	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,
	Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.
335	Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
	In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
	Yet to their General’s voice they soon obeyed
	Innumerable. As when the potent rod
	Of Amram’s son, in Egypt’s evil day,
340	Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud
	Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,
	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
345	Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell,
	’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;
	Till, as a signal given, th’ uplifted spear
	Of their great Sultan waving to direct
	Their course, in even balance down they light
350	On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain:
	A multitude like which the populous North
	Poured never from her frozen loins to pass
	Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons
	Came like a deluge on the South, and spread
355	Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands.
	Forthwith, form every squadron and each band,
	The heads and leaders thither haste where stood
	Their great Commander—godlike Shapes, and Forms
	Excelling human; princely Dignities;
360	And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones,
	Though on 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
365	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 th’ invisible
370	Glory of him that made them to transform
	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,

375	And various idols through the heathen world.
	Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last,
	Roused 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,
380	While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof?
	The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell
	Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix
	Their seats, long after, next the seat of God,
	Their altars by his altar, gods adored
385	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
390	His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned,
	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,
395	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
400	Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
	Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
	His temple right against the temple of God
	On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
	The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
405	And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.
	Next Chemos, th’ obscene dread of Moab’s sons,

	From Aroar to Nebo and the wild
	Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
	And Horonaim, Seon’s real, beyond
410	The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines,
	And Eleale to th’ Asphaltic Pool:
	Peor his other name, when he enticed
	Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
	To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
415	Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged
	Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove
	Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate,
	Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.
	With these came they who, from the bordering flood
420	Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
	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
425	And uncompounded is their essence pure,
	Not tried 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,
430	Can execute their airy purposes,
	And works of love or enmity fulfil.
	For those the race of Israel oft forsook
	Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left
	His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
435	To bestial gods; for which their heads as low
	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, with crescent horns;
440	To whose bright image nightly by the moon
	Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs;
	In Sion also not unsung, where stood
	Her temple on th’ offensive mountain, built
	By that uxorious king whose heart, though large,
445	Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell
	To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
	Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
	The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
	In amorous ditties all a summer’s day,
450	While smooth Adonis from his native rock
	Ran 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
455	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,
460	In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge,
	Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers:
	Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
	And downward fish; yet had his temple high
	Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
465	Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
	And Accaron and Gaza’s frontier bounds.
	Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat
	Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
	Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
470	He also against the house of God was bold:

	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
475	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
480	Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek
	Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms
	Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape
	Th’ infection, when their borrowed gold composed
	The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king
485	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.
490	Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd
	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
495	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,
500	And injury and outrage; and, when night
	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
505	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
	Th’ Ionian gods—of Javan’s issue held
	Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth,
510	Their boasted parents;—Titan, Heaven’s first-born,
	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
515	And Ida known, thence on the snowy top
	Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air,
	Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff,
	Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
	Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old
520	Fled over Adria to th’ Hesperian fields,
	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
525	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
530	Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears.
	Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound
	Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared
	His mighty standard. That proud honour claimed
	Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall:

535	Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled
	Th’ 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
540	Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds:
	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
545	Ten thousand banners rise into the air,
	With orient colours 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
550	In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood
	Of flutes and soft recorders—such as raised
	To height of noblest temper heroes old
	Arming to battle, and instead of rage
	Deliberate valour breathed, firm, and unmoved
555	With dread of death to flight or foul retreat;
	Nor wanting power to mitigate 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,
560	Breathing united force with fixed thought,
	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
565	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 whole battalion views—their order due,
570	Their visages and stature as of gods;
	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,
575	Could merit more than that small infantry
	Warred on by cranes—though all the giant brood
	Of Phlegra with th’ heroic race were joined
	That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side
	Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds
580	In fable or romance of Uther’s son,
	Begirt with British and Armoric knights;
	And all who since, baptized or infidel,
	Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban,
	Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,
585	Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore
	When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
	By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond
	Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed
	Their dread Commander. He, above the rest
590	In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
	Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost
	All her original brightness, nor appeared
	Less than Archangel ruined, and th’ excess
	Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen
595	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
600	Above them all th’ Archangel: but his face
	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
605	Signs of remorse and passion, to behold
	The fellows of his crime, the followers rather
	(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned
	For ever now to have their lot in pain—
	Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced
610	Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung
	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,
615	Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared
	To speak; 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,
620	Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last
	Words interwove with sighs found out their way:—
	“O myriads of immortal Spirits! O Powers
	Matchless, but with th’ Almighty!—and that strife
	Was not inglorious, though th’ event was dire,
625	As this place testifies, and this dire change,
	Hateful to utter. But what power of mind,
	Forseeing or presaging, from the depth
	Of knowledge past or present, could have feared
	How such united force of gods, how such
630	As stood like these, could ever know repulse?

	For who can yet believe, though after loss,
	That all these puissant legions, whose exile
	Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend,
	Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?
635	For me, be witness all the host of Heaven,
	If counsels different, or danger 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,
640	Consent or custom, and his regal state
	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
645	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.
650	Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife
	There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long
	Intended to create, and therein plant
	A generation whom his choice regard
	Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven.
655	Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
	Our first eruption—thither, or elsewhere;
	For this infernal pit shall never hold
	Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th’ Abyss
	Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
660	Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired;
	For who can think submission? War, then, war
	Open or understood, must be resolved.”

	He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew
	Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
665	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.
670	There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top
	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 speed,
675	A numerous brigade hastened: as when bands
	Of pioneers, 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
680	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
685	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,
690	And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire
	That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
	Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
	Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell
	Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,

695	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.
700	Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,
	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.
705	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 row of pipes the sound-board breathes.
710	Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
	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
715	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
720	Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat
	Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
	In wealth and luxury. Th’ ascending pile
	Stood fixed her stately height, and straight the doors,
	Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide
725	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 cressets, fed
	With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light
730	As from a sky. The hasty multitude
	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,
735	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
740	Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
	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
745	Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star,
	On Lemnos, th’ Aegaean 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
750	By all his engines, but was headlong sent,
	With his industrious crew, to build in Hell.
	Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command
	Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony
	And trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaim
755	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
760	With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
	Attended. All access was thronged; the gates
	And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
	(Though like a covered field, where champions bold
	Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan’s chair
765	Defied the best of Paynim 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.
770	Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
	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
775	Their state-affairs: so thick the airy crowd
	Swarmed and were straitened; 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
780	Throng numberless—like that pygmean race
	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
785	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
790	Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large,

	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
795	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.

BOOK 2

	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,
5	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,
10	His proud imaginations thus displayed:—
	“Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven!—
	For, since no deep within her gulf can hold
	Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen,
	I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent
15	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
20	With what besides in council or in fight
	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
25	In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw
	Envy from each inferior; but who here
	Will envy whom the highest place exposes
	Foremost to stand against the Thunderer’s aim
	Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
30	Of endless pain? Where there is, then, no good
	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
35	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
40	Could have assured us; and by what best way,
	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
45	That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair.
	His trust was with th’ 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,
50	He recked not, and these words thereafter spake:—
	“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—

55	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
60	By our delay? No! let us rather choose,
	Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
	O’er Heaven’s high towers to force resistless way,
	Turning our tortures into horrid arms
	Against the Torturer; when, to meet the noise
65	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,
70	His own invented torments. But perhaps
	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,
75	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,
80	With what compulsion and laborious flight
	We sunk thus low? Th’ ascent is easy, then;
	Th’ event is feared! Should we again provoke
	Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find
	To our destruction, if there be in Hell
85	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
90	The vassals of his anger, when the scourge
	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
95	His utmost ire? which, to the height enraged,
	Will either quite consume us, and reduce
	To nothing this essential—happier far
	Than miserable to have eternal being!—
	Or, if our substance be indeed divine,
100	And cannot cease to be, we are at worst
	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:
105	Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.”
	He ended frowning, and his look denounced
	Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous
	To less than gods. On th’ other side up rose
	Belial, in act more graceful and humane.
110	A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
	For dignity composed, and high exploit.
	But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
	Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
	The better reason, to perplex and dash
115	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, O Peers,
120	As not behind in hate, if what was urged
	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,
125	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
130	With armed watch, that render all access
	Impregnable: oft on the bordering Deep
	Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing
	Scout far and wide into the realm of Night,
	Scorning surprise. Or, could we break our way
135	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 th’ ethereal mould,
140	Incapable of stain, would soon expel
	Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
	Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope
	Is flat despair: we must exasperate
	Th’ Almighty Victor to spend all his rage;
145	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
150	In the wide womb of uncreated Night,

	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.
155	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?”
160	Say they who counsel war; “we are decreed,
	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?
165	What when we fled amain, pursued and struck
	With Heaven’s afflicting thunder, and besought
	The Deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed
	A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay
	Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse.
170	What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,
	Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage,
	And plunge us in the flames; or from above
	Should intermitted vengeance arm again
	His red right hand to plague us? What if all
175	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,
180	Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled,
	Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey
	Or racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk

	Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains,
	There to converse with everlasting groans,
185	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
190	Views all things at one view? He from Heaven’s height
	All these our motions vain sees and derides,
	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
195	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,
200	Our strength is equal; nor the law unjust
	That so ordains. This was at first resolved,
	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
205	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,
210	Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit
	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.

215	Our purer essence then will overcome
	Their noxious vapour; or, inured, not feel;
	Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed
	In temper and in nature, will receive
	Familiar the fierce heat; and, void of pain,
220	This horror will grow mild, this darkness light;
	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,
225	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
230	We war, if war be best, or to regain
	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
235	The latter; for what place can be for us
	Within Heaven’s bound, unless Heaven’s Lord supreme
	We overpower? Suppose he should relent
	And publish grace to all, on promise made
	Of new subjection; with what eyes could we
240	Stand in his presence humble, and receive
	Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne
	With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing
	Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits
	Our envied sovereign, and his altar breathes
245	Ambrosial odours 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,
250	By force impossible, by leave obtained
	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,
255	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,
260	We can create, and in what place soe’er
	Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain
	Through labour and endurance. This deep world
	Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst
	Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven’s all-ruling Sire
265	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
270	Imitate when we please? This desert soil
	Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
	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,
275	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
280	Of order, how in safety best we may
	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
285	Th’ 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
290	After the tempest. Such applause was heard
	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
295	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,
300	Satan except, none higher sat—with grave
	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,
305	Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood
	With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
	The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look
	Drew audience and attention still as night
	Or summer’s noontide air, while thus he spake:—
310	“Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven,

	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
315	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
320	Banded against his throne, but to remain
	In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,
	Under th’ inevitable curb, reserved
	His captive multitude. For he, to be sure,
	In height or depth, still first and last will reign
325	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?
330	War hath determined us and foiled with loss
	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
335	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
340	In doing what we most in suffering feel?
	Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need
	With dangerous expedition to invade

	Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege,
	Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find
345	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
350	In power and excellence, but favoured more
	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
355	What creatures there inhabit, of what mould
	Or substance, how endued, and what their power
	And where their weakness: how attempted best,
	By force of subtlety. Though Heaven be shut,
	And Heaven’s high Arbitrator sit secure
360	In his own strength, this place may lie exposed,
	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
365	To waste his whole creation, or possess
	All as our own, and drive, as we were driven,
	The puny habitants; or, if not drive,
	Seduce them to our party, that their God
	May prove their foe, and with repenting hand
370	Abolish his own works. This would surpass
	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

375	Their frail original, and faded bliss—
	Faded so soon! Advise if this be worth
	Attempting, or to sit in darkness here
	Hatching vain empires.” Thus Beelzebub
	Pleaded his devilish counsel—first devised
380	By Satan, and in part proposed: for whence,
	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
385	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:—
390	“Well have ye judged, well ended long debate,
	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
395	Of those bright confines, whence, with neighbouring arms,
	And opportune excursion, we may chance
	Re-enter Heaven; or else in some mild zone
	Dwell, not unvisited of Heaven’s fair light,
	Secure, and at the brightening orient beam
400	Purge off this gloom: the soft delicious air,
	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
405	The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss,
	And through the palpable obscure find out

	His uncouth way, or spread his airy flight,
	Upborne with indefatigable wings
	Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive
410	The happy Isle? What strength, what art, can then
	Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe,
	Through the strict senteries and stations thick
	Of Angels watching round? Here he had need
	All circumspection: and we now no less
415	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
420	The perilous attempt. But all sat mute,
	Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; and each
	In other’s countenance read his own dismay,
	Astonished. None among the choice and prime
	Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found
425	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:—
430	“O Progeny of Heaven! Empyreal Thrones!
	With reason hath deep silence and demur
	Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way
	And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
	Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire,
435	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,
440	Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being
	Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf.
	If thence he scape, into whatever world,
	Or unknown region, what remains him less
	Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape?
445	But I should ill become this throne, O Peers,
	And this imperial sovereignty, adorned
	With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed
	And judged of public moment in the shape
	Of difficulty or danger, could deter
450	Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume
	These royalties, and not refuse to reign,
	Refusing to accept as great a share
	Of hazard as of honour, due alike
	To him who reigns, and so much to him due
455	Of hazard more as he above the rest
	High honoured sits? Go, therefore, mighty Powers,
	Terror of Heaven, though fallen; intend at home,
	While here shall be our home, what best may ease
	The present misery, and render Hell
460	More tolerable; if there be cure or charm
	To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain
	Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch
	Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad
	Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek
465	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,
470	Certain to be refused, what erst they feared,

	And, so refused, might in opinion stand
	His rivals, winning cheap the high repute
	Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they
	Dreaded not more th’ adventure than his voice
475	Forbidding; and at once with him they rose.
	Their rising all at once was as the sound
	Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend
	With awful reverence prone, and as a God
	Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.
480	Nor failed they to express how much they praised
	That for the general safety he despised
	His own: for neither do the Spirits damned
	Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast
	Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
485	Or close ambition varnished o’er with zeal.
	Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
	Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief:
	As, when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
	Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o’erspread
490	Heaven’s cheerful face, the louring element
	Scowls o’er the darkened landscape 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
495	Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
	O shame to men! Devil with devil damned
	Firm concord holds; men only disagree
	Of creatures rational, though under hope
	Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace,
500	Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife
	Among themselves, and levy cruel wars
	Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:

	As if (which might induce us to accord)
	Man had not hellish foes enow besides,
505	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 th’ antagonist of Heaven, nor less
510	Than Hell’s dread Emperor, with pomp supreme,
	And god-like imitated state: him round
	A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed
	With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms.
	Then of their session ended they bid cry
515	With trumpet’s regal sound the great result:
	Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
	Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy,
	By herald’s voice explained; the hollow Abyss
	Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell
520	With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim.
	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
525	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,
530	As at th’ Olympian games or Pythian fields;
	Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
	With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form:
	As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
	Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush

535	To battle in the clouds; before each van
	Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears,
	Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms
	From either end of heaven the welkin burns.
	Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell,
540	Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
	In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar:—
	As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
	With conquest, felt th’ envenomed robe, and tore
	Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines,
545	And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
	Into th’ 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
550	By doom of battle, and complain that Fate
	Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance.
	Their song was partial; but the harmony
	(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?)
	Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment
555	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—
560	Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
	And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.
	Of good and evil much they argued then,
	Of happiness and final misery,
	Passion and apathy, and glory and shame:
565	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 th’ obdured breast
	With stubborn patience as with triple steel.
570	Another part, in squadrons and gross bands,
	On bold adventure to discover wide
	That dismal world, if any clime perhaps
	Might yield them easier habitation, bend
	Four ways their flying march, along the banks
575	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
580	Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton,
	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
585	Forthwith his former state and being forgets—
	Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
	Beyond this flood a frozen continent
	Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
	Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
590	Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
	Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,
	A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
	Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
	Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
595	Burns frore, and cold performs th’ 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,
600	From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
	Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
	Immovable, infixed, and frozen round
	Periods of time,—thence hurried back to fire.
	They ferry over this Lethean sound
605	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;
610	But Fate withstands, and, to oppose th’ attempt,
	Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
	The ford, and of itself the water flies
	All taste of living wight, as once it fled
	The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
615	In confused march forlorn, th’ 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,
620	O’er many a frozen, many a fiery alp,
	Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death—
	A universe of death, which God by curse
	Created evil, for evil only good;
	Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
625	Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
	Obominable, inutterable, and worse
	Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived,
	Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
	Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man,
630	Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design,

	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
635	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
640	Their spicy drugs; they on the trading flood,
	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,
645	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.
650	The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair,
	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
655	With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
	A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,
	If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,
	And kennel there; yet there still barked and howled
	Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these
660	Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
	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
665	With Lapland witches, while the labouring 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,
670	For each seemed either—black it stood as Night,
	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
675	The monster moving onward came as fast
	With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode.
	Th’ undaunted Fiend what this might be admired—
	Admired, not feared (God and his Son except,
	Created thing naught valued he nor shunned),
680	And with disdainful look thus first began:—
	“Whence and what art thou, execrable Shape,
	That dar’st, though grim and terrible, advance
	Thy miscreated front athwart my way
	To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass,
685	That be assured, without leave asked of thee.
	Retire; 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,
690	Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then
	Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms
	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

695	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,
700	False fugitive; and to thy speed add wings,
	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,
705	So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold,
	More dreadful and deform. On th’ other side,
	Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
	Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
	That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
710	In th’ arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
	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 th’ other as when two black clouds,
715	With heaven’s artillery fraught, came 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
720	Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood;
	For never but once more was wither 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
725	Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key,
	Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between.

	“O father, what intends thy hand,” she cried,
	“Against thy only son? What fury, O son,
	Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart
730	Against thy father’s head? And know’st for whom?
	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!”
735	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
740	What it intends, till first I know of thee
	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
745	Sight more detestable than him and thee.”
	T’ 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 th’ assembly, and in sight
750	Of all the Seraphim with thee combined
	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
755	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 th’ host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid
760	At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign
	Portentous held me; but, familiar grown,
	I pleased, and with attractive graces won
	The most averse—thee chiefly, who, full oft
	Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
765	Becam’st 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
770	Clear victory; to our part loss and rout
	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
775	Into my hands was given, with charge to keep
	These gates for ever 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,
780	Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
	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
785	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!
790	I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems,

	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
795	These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
	Surround me, as thou saw’st—hourly conceived
	And hourly born, with sorrow infinite
	To me; for, when they list, into the womb
	That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw
800	My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth
	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 set them on,
805	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.
810	But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun
	His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
	To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
	Through tempered heavenly; for that mortal dint,
	Save he who reigns above, none can resist.”
815	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
820	Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
	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
825	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
	Th’ unfounded Deep, and through the void immense
830	To search, with wandering quest, a place foretold
	Should be—and, by concurring signs, ere now
	Created vast and round—a place of bliss
	In the purlieus of Heaven; and therein placed
	A race of upstart creatures, to supply
835	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,
840	And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
	Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
	Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed
	With odours. There ye shall be fed and filled
	Immeasurably; all things shall be your prey.”
845	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 bespake her sire:—
850	“The key of this infernal Pit, by due
	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,

855	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,
860	Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly born—
	Here in perpetual agony and pain,
	With terrors and with clamours compassed round
	Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
	Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
865	My being gav’st me; whom should I obey
	But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon
	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
870	Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.”
	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,
875	Which, but herself, not all the Stygian Powers
	Could once have moved; then in the key-hole turns
	Th’ intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
	Of massy iron or solid rock with ease
	Unfastens. On a sudden open fly,
880	With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,
	Th’ 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,
885	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.
890	Before their eyes in sudden view appear
	The secrets of the hoary Deep—a dark
	Illimitable ocean, without bound,
	Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height,
	And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night
895	And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
	Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
	Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
	For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce,
	Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
900	Their embryon atoms: they around the flag
	Of each his faction, in their several clans,
	Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
	Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands
	Of Barca or Cyrene’s torrid soil,
905	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,
910	Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss,
	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,
915	Unless th’ 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 a while,

	Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith
920	He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed
	With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
	Great things with small) than when Bellona storms
	With all her battering engines, bent to rase
	Some capital city; or less than if this frame
925	Of Heaven were falling, and these elements
	In mutiny had from her axle torn
	The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans
	He spread for flight, and, in the surging smoke
	Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league,
930	As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
	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
935	Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,
	The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
	Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
	As many miles aloft. That fury stayed—
	Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
940	Nor good dry land—nigh foundered, on he fares,
	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,
945	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,
950	And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.

	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
955	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
960	Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
	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
965	Of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and Chance,
	And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroiled,
	And Discord with a thousand various mouths.
	T’ whom Satan, turning boldly, thus:—“Ye Powers
	And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss,
970	Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy
	With purpose to explore or to disturb
	The secrets of your realm; but, by constraint
	Wandering this darksome desert, as my way
	Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
975	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, th’ Ethereal King
	Possesses lately, thither to arrive
980	I travel this profound. Direct my course:
	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
985	(Which is my present journey), and once more
	Erect the standard there of ancient Night.
	Yours be th’ advantage all, mine the revenge!”
	Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
	With faltering speech and visage incomposed,
990	Answered: “I know thee, stranger, who thou art—
	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,
995	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
1000	That little which is left so to defend,
	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
1005	Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain
	To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell!
	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.”
1010	He ceased; and Satan stayed not to reply,
	But, glad that now his sea should find a shore,
	With fresh alacrity and force renewed
	Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,
	Into the wild expanse, and through the shock

1015	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
1020	Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered.
	So he with difficulty and labour hard
	Moved on, with difficulty and labour he;
	But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell,
	Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain,
1025	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 th’ utmost orb
1030	Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse
	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
1035	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,
1040	With tumult less and with less hostile din;
	That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
	Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,
	And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds
	Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
1045	Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
	Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold

	Far off th’ empyreal Heaven, extended wide
	In circuit, undetermined square or round,
	With opal towers and battlements adorned
1050	Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
	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,
1055	Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.

BOOK 3

	Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven firstborn,
	Or of the Eternal coeternal beam
	May I express thee unblam’d? since God is light,
	And never but in unapproached light
5	Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee
	Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
	Or hear’st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
	Whose fountain who shall tell? before the sun,
	Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
10	Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest
	The rising world of waters dark and deep,
	Won from the void and formless infinite.
	Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
	Escap’d the Stygian pool, though long detain’d
15	In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight
	Through utter and through middle darkness borne,
	With other notes than to the Orphean lyre
	I sung of Chaos and eternal Night;
	Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down
20	The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,
	Though hard and rare: Thee I revisit safe,
	And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou

	Revisit’st not these eyes, that roll in vain
	To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
25	So thick a drop serene hath quench’d their orbs,
	Or dim suffusion veil’d. Yet not the more
	Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt,
	Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
	Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
30	Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath,
	That wash thy hallow’d feet, and warbling flow,
	Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
	So were I equall’d with them in renown,
	Thy sovran command, that Man should find grace;
35	Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonides,
	And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old:
	Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
	Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
	Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid
40	Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
	Seasons return; but not to me returns
	Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
	Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose,
	Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
45	But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
	Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
	Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
	Presented with a universal blank
	Of nature’s works to me expung’d and ras’d,
50	And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
	So much the rather thou, celestial Light,
	Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
	Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence
	Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

55	Of things invisible to mortal sight.
	Now had the Almighty Father from above,
	From the pure empyrean where he sits
	High thron’d above all highth, bent down his eye
	His own works and their works at once to view:
60	About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
	Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv’d
	Beatitude past utterance; on his right
	The radiant image of his glory sat,
	His only son; on earth he first beheld
65	Our two first parents, yet the only two
	Of mankind in the happy garden plac’d
	Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
	Uninterrupted joy, unrivall’d love,
	In blissful solitude; he then survey’d
70	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 wearied wings, and willing feet,
	On the bare outside of this world, that seem’d
75	Firm land imbosom’d, without firmament,
	Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
	Him God beholding from his prospect high,
	Wherein past, present, future, he beholds,
	Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.
80	Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage
	Transports our Adversary? whom no bounds
	Prescrib’d no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
	Heap’d on him there, nor yet the main abyss
	Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems
85	On desperate revenge, that shall redound
	Upon his own rebellious head. And now,

	Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way
	Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light,
	Directly towards the new created world,
90	And man there plac’d, with purpose to assay
	If him by force he can destroy, or, worse,
	By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert;
	For man will hearken to his glozing lies,
	And easily transgress the sole command,
95	Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall
	He and his faithless progeny: Whose fault?
	Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of me
	All he could have; I made him just and right,
	Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
100	Such I created all the ethereal Powers
	And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail’d;
	Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
	Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
	Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
105	Where only what they needs must do appear’d,
	Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
	What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
	When will and reason (reason also is choice)
	Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil’d,
110	Made passive both, had serv’d necessity,
	Not me. They therefore, as to right belong’d,
	So were created, nor can justly accuse
	Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
	As if predestination over-rul’d
115	Their will dispos’d by absolute decree
	Or high foreknowledge they themselves decreed
	Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew,
	Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,

	Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.
120	So without least impulse or shadow of fate,
	Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
	They trespass, authors to themselves in all
	Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so
	I form’d them free: and free they must remain,
125	Till they enthrall themselves; I else must change
	Their nature, and revoke the high decree
	Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain’d
	Their freedom: they themselves ordain’d their fall.
	The first sort by their own suggestion fell,
130	Self-tempted, self-deprav’d: Man falls, deceiv’d
	By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace,
	The other none: In mercy and justice both,
	Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel;
	But Mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine.
135	Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill’d
	All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits elect
	Sense of new joy ineffable diffus’d.
	Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
	Most glorious; in him all his Father shone
140	Substantially express’d; and in his face
	Divine compassion visibly appear’d,
	Love without end, and without measure grace,
	Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake.
	O Father, gracious was that word which clos’d
145	Thy sovran command, that Man should find grace;
	For which both Heaven and earth shall high extol
	Thy praises, with the innumerable sound
	Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne
	Encompass’d shall resound thee ever blest.
150	For should Man finally be lost, should Man,

	Thy creature late so lov’d, thy youngest son,
	Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though join’d
	With his own folly? that be from thee far,
	That far be from thee, Father, who art judge
155	Of all things made, and judgest only right.
	Or shall the Adversary thus obtain
	His end, and frustrate thine? shall he fulfill
	His malice, and thy goodness bring to nought,
	Or proud return, though to his heavier doom,
160	Yet with revenge accomplish’d, and to Hell
	Draw after him the whole race of mankind,
	By him corrupted? or wilt thou thyself
	Abolish thy creation, and unmake
	For him, what for thy glory thou hast made?
165	So should thy goodness and thy greatness both
	Be question’d and blasphem’d without defence.
	To whom the great Creator thus replied.
	O son, in whom my soul hath chief delight,
	Son of my bosom, Son who art alone.
170	My word, my wisdom, and effectual might,
	All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all
	As my eternal purpose hath decreed;
	Man shall not quite be lost, but sav’d who will;
	Yet not of will in him, but grace in me
175	Freely vouchsaf’d; once more I will renew
	His lapsed powers, though forfeit; and enthrall’d
	By sin to foul exorbitant desires;
	Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand
	On even ground against his mortal foe;
180	By me upheld, that he may know how frail
	His fallen condition is, and to me owe
	All his deliverance, and to none but me.

	Some I have chosen of peculiar grace,
	Elect above the rest; so is my will:
185	The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn’d
	Their sinful state, and to appease betimes
	The incensed Deity, while offer’d grace
	Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,
	What may suffice, and soften stony hearts
190	To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.
	To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,
	Though but endeavour’d with sincere intent,
	Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut.
	And I will place within them as a guide,
195	My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear,
	Light after light, well us’d, they shall attain,
	And to the end, persisting, safe arrive.
	This my long sufferance, and my day of grace,
	They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste;
200	But hard be harden’d, blind be blinded more,
	That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;
	And none but such from mercy I exclude.
	But yet all is not done; Man disobeying,
	Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins
205	Against the high supremacy of Heaven,
	Affecting God-head, and, so losing all,
	To expiate his treason hath nought left,
	But to destruction sacred and devote,
	He, with his whole posterity, must die,
210	Die he or justice must; unless for him
	Some other able, and as willing, pay
	The rigid satisfaction, death for death.
	Say, heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love?
	Which of you will be mortal, to redeem

215	Man’s mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?
	Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?
	He ask’d, but all the heavenly quire stood mute,
	And silence was in Heaven: on Man’s behalf
	Patron or intercessour none appear’d,
220	Much less that durst upon his own head draw
	The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
	And now without redemption all mankind
	Must have been lost, adjudg’d to Death and Hell
	By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
225	In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
	His dearest mediation thus renew’d.
	Father, thy word is past, Man shall find grace;
	And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,
	The speediest of thy winged messengers,
230	To visit all thy creatures, and to all
	Comes unprevented, unimplor’d, unsought?
	Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid
	Can never seek, once dead in sins, and lost;
	Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
235	Indebted and undone, hath none to bring;
	Behold me then: me for him, life for life
	I offer: on me let thine anger fall;
	Account me Man; I for his sake will leave
	Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
240	Freely put off, and for him lastly die
	Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage.
	Under his gloomy power I shall not long
	Lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to possess
	Life in myself for ever; by thee I live;
245	Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,
	All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid,

	Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
	His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
	For ever with corruption there to dwell;
250	But I shall rise victorious, and subdue
	My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.
	Death his death’s wound shall then receive, and stoop
	Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed;
	I through the ample air in triumph high
255	Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show
	The powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight
	Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,
	While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes;
	Death last, and with his carcase glut the grave;
260	Then, with the multitude of my redeemed,
	Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return,
	Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
	Of anger shall remain, but peace assured
	And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more
265	Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.
	His words here ended; but his meek aspect
	Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
	To mortal men, above which only shone
	Filial obedience: as a sacrifice
270	Glad to be offered, he attends the will
	Of his great Father. Admiration seized
	All Heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend,
	Wondering; but soon th’ Almighty thus replied:
	O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace
275	Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou
	My sole complacence! Well thou know’st how dear
	To me are all my works; nor Man the least,
	Though last created, that for him I spare

	Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,
280	By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.
	Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,
	Their nature also to thy nature join;
	And be thyself Man among men on Earth,
	Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
285	By wondrous birth; be thou in Adam’s room
	The head of all mankind, though Adam’s son.
	As in him perish all men, so in thee,
	As from a second root, shall be restored
	As many as are restored, without thee none.
290	His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit,
	Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce
	Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
	And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
	Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
295	Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die,
	And dying rise, and rising with him raise
	His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.
	So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,
	Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
300	So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
	So easily destroyed, and still destroys
	In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
	Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume
	Man’s nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
305	Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss
	Equal to God, and equally enjoying
	God-like fruition, quitted all, to save
	A world from utter loss, and hast been found
	By merit more than birthright Son of God,
310	Found worthiest to be so by being good,

	Far more than great or high; because in thee
	Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;
	Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
	With thee thy manhood also to this throne:
315	Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign
	Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
	Anointed universal King; all power
	I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
	Thy merits; under thee, as head supreme,
320	Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce:
	All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
	In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
	When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,
	Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
325	The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim
	Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds,
	The living, and forthwith the cited dead
	Of all past ages, to the general doom
	Shall hasten; such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
330	Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
	Bad Men and Angels; they, arraigned, shall sink
	Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
	Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while
	The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
335	New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
	And, after all their tribulations long,
	See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
	With joy and peace triumphing, and fair truth.
	Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,
340	For regal scepter then no more shall need,
	God shall be all in all. But, all ye Gods,
	Adore him, who to compass all this dies;

	Adore the Son, and honour him as me.
	No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all
345	The multitude of Angels, with a shout
	Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
	As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung
	With jubilee, and loud Hosannas filled
	The eternal regions: Lowly reverent
350	Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
	With solemn adoration down they cast
	Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;
	Immortal amarant, a flower which once
	In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
355	Began to bloom; but soon for man’s offence
	To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,
	And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,
	And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven
	Rolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream;
360	With these that never fade the Spirits elect
	Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams;
	Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
	Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
	Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.
365	Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took,
	Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side
	Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
	Of charming symphony they introduce
	Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
370	No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
	Melodious part, such concord is in Heaven.
	Thee, Father, first they sung Omnipotent,
	Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,
	Eternal King; the Author of all being,

375	Fountain of light, thyself invisible
	Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit’st
	Throned inaccessible, but when thou shadest
	The full blaze of thy beams, and, through a cloud
	Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine,
380	Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
	Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim
	Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.
	Thee next they sang of all creation first,
	Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,
385	In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud
	Made visible, the Almighty Father shines,
	Whom else no creature can behold; on thee
	Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides,
	Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests.
390	He Heaven of Heavens and all the Powers therein
	By thee created; and by thee threw down
	The aspiring Dominations: Thou that day
	Thy Father’s dreadful thunder didst not spare,
	Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook
395	Heaven’s everlasting frame, while o’er the necks
	Thou drovest of warring Angels disarrayed.
	Back from pursuit thy Powers with loud acclaim
	Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father’s might,
	To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,
400	Not so on Man: Him through their malice fallen,
	Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom
	So strictly, but much more to pity incline:
	No sooner did thy dear and only Son
	Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail Man
405	So strictly, but much more to pity inclined,
	He to appease thy wrath, and end the strife

	Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned,
	Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat
	Second to thee, offered himself to die
410	For Man’s offence. O unexampled love,
	Love no where to be found less than Divine!
	Hail, Son of God, Saviour of Men! Thy name
	Shall be the copious matter of my song
	Henceforth, and never shall my heart thy praise
415	Forget, nor from thy Father’s praise disjoin.
	Thus they in Heaven, above the starry sphere,
	Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.
	Mean while upon the firm opacous globe
	Of this round world, whose first convex divides
420	The luminous inferiour 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
425	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:
430	Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field.
	As when a vultur 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,
435	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 waggons light:
440	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;
	None yet, but store hereafter from the earth
445	Up hither like aereal vapours flew
	Of all things transitory and vain, when sin
	With vanity had filled the works of men:
	Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
	Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,
450	Or happiness in this or the other life;
	All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
	Of painful superstition and blind zeal,
	Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find
	Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;
455	All the unaccomplished works of Nature’s hand,
	Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,
	Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,
	Till final dissolution, wander here;
	Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed;
460	Those argent fields more likely habitants,
	Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold
	Betwixt the angelical and human kind.
	Hither of ill-joined sons and daughters born
	First from the ancient world those giants came
465	With many a vain exploit, though then renowned:
	The builders next of Babel on the plain
	Of Sennaar, and still with vain design,
	New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build:
	Others came single; he, who, to be deemed
470	A God, leaped fondly into Aetna flames,

	Empedocles; and he, who, to enjoy
	Plato’s Elysium, leaped into the sea,
	Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
	Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars
475	White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery.
	Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek
	In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heaven;
	And they, who to be sure of Paradise,
	Dying, put on the weeds of Dominick,
480	Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;
	They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,
	And that crystalling sphere whose balance weighs
	The trepidation talked, and that first moved;
	And now Saint Peter at Heaven’s wicket seems
485	To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
	Of Heaven’s ascent they lift their feet, when lo
	A violent cross wind from either coast
	Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry
	Into the devious air: Then might ye see
490	Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost
	And fluttered into rags; then reliques, beads,
	Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
	The sport of winds: All these, upwhirled aloft,
	Fly o’er the backside of the world far off
495	Into a Limbo large and broad, since called
	The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown
	Long after; now unpeopled, and untrod.
	All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed,
	And long he wandered, till at last a gleam
500	Of dawning light turned thither-ward in haste
	His travelled steps: far distant he descries
	Ascending by degrees magnificent

	Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high;
	At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared
505	The work as of a kingly palace-gate,
	With frontispiece of diamond and gold
	Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems
	The portal shone, inimitable on earth
	By model, or by shading pencil, drawn.
510	These stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
	Angels ascending and descending, bands
	Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
	To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz
	Dreaming by night under the open sky
515	And waking cried, This is the gate of Heaven.
	Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
	There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes
	Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flowed
	Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
520	Who after came from earth, failing arrived
	Wafted by Angels, or flew o’er the lake
	Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
	The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
	The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
525	His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:
	Direct against which opened from beneath,
	Just o’er the blissful seat of Paradise,
	A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide,
	Wider by far than that of after-times
530	Over mount Sion, and, though that were large,
	Over the Promised Land to God so dear;
	By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
	On high behests his angels to and fro
	Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard

535	From Paneas, the fount of Jordan’s flood,
	To Beersaba, where the Holy Land
	Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;
	So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set
	To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
540	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
545	All night; at last by break of cheerful dawn
	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
550	With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
	Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:
	Such wonder seised, though after Heaven seen,
	The Spirit malign, but much more envy seised,
	At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
555	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 Atlantick seas
560	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
565	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,
570	Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there
	He staid not to inquire: Above them all
	The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven,
	Allured his eye; thither his course he bends
	Through the calm firmament, (but up or down,
575	By center, or eccentrick, 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; they, as they move
580	Their starry dance in numbers that compute
	Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
	Turn swift their various motions, or are turned
	By his magnetick beam, that gently warms
	The universe, and to each inward part
585	With gentle penetration, though unseen,
	Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep;
	So wonderously was set his station bright.
	There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
	Astronomer in the sun’s lucent orb
590	Through his glazed optick tube yet never saw.
	The place he found beyond expression bright,
	Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone;
	Not all parts like, but all alike informed
	With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
595	If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;
	If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,
	Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone
	In Aaron’s breast-plate, and a stone besides

	Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen,
600	That stone, or like to that which here below
	Philosophers in vain so long have sought,
	In vain, though by their powerful art they bind
	Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
	In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
605	Drained through a limbeck to his native form.
	What wonder then if fields and regions here
	Breathe forth Elixir pure, and rivers run
	Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch
	The arch-chemick sun, so far from us remote,
610	Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,
	Here in the dark so many precious things
	Of colour glorious, and effect so rare?
	Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
	Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands;
615	For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
	But all sun-shine, as when his beams at noon
	Culminate from the equator, as they now
	Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
	Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,
620	No where so clear, sharpened his visual ray
	To objects distant far, whereby he soon
	Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,
	The same whom John saw also in the sun:
	His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;
625	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.
630	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,
635	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:
640	Under a coronet his flowing hair
	In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore
	Of many a coloured plume, sprinkled with gold;
	His habit fit for speed succinct, and held
	Before his decent steps a silver wand.
645	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 Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the seven
	Who in God’s presence, nearest to his throne,
650	Stand ready at command, and are his eyes
	That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth
	Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,
	O’er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts.
	Uriel, for thou of those seven Spirits that stand
655	In sight of God’s high throne, gloriously bright,
	The first art wont his great authentick will
	Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring,
	Where all his sons thy embassy attend;
	And here art likeliest by supreme decree
660	Like honour to obtain, and as his eye
	To visit oft this new creation round;
	Unspeakable desire to see, and know

	All these his wonderous works, but chiefly Man,
	His chief delight and favour, him for whom
665	All these his works so wonderous he ordained,
	Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim
	Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph, tell
	In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
	His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none,
670	But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
	That I may find him, and with secret gaze
	Or open admiration him behold,
	On whom the great Creator hath bestowed
	Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured;
675	That both in him and all things, as is meet,
	The universal Maker we may praise;
	Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
	To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,
	Created this new happy race of Men
680	To serve him better: Wise are all his ways.
	So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
	For neither Man nor Angel can discern
	Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
	Invisible, except to God alone,
685	By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth:
	And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
	At wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity
	Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
	Where no ill seems: Which now for once beguiled
690	Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
	The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven;
	Who to the fraudulent impostor foul,
	In his uprightness, answer thus returned.
	Fair Angel, thy desire, which tends to know

695	The works of God, thereby to glorify
	The great Work-master, leads to no excess
	That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
	The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
	From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
700	To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps,
	Contented with report, hear only in Heaven:
	For wonderful indeed are all his works,
	Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
	Had in remembrance always with delight;
705	But what created mind can comprehend
	Their number, or the wisdom infinite
	That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep?
	I saw when at his word the formless mass,
	This world’s material mould, came to a heap:
710	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
715	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;
720	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
725	His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,
	Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon

	(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
	Timely interposes, and her monthly round
	Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven,
730	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.
735	Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.
	Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low,
	As to superiour Spirits is wont in Heaven,
	Where honour due and reverence none neglects,
	Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath,
740	Down from the ecliptick, sped with hoped success,
	Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel;
	Nor staid, till on Niphates’ top he lights.