Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (13 page)

And leave a singèd 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
²³⁹

As gods,
²⁴⁰
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
²⁴⁴
for Heav’n, this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

Who now is sov’reign can dispose and bid

What shall be right: farthest from him is best

Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme

Above his equals. Farewell happy fields

Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

Receive thy new possessor
²⁵²
: one who brings

A mind
²⁵³
not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself
²⁵⁴

Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less than
²⁵⁷
he

Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built

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
²⁶³
reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

Th’ associates and copartners
²⁶⁵
of our loss

Lie thus astonished
²⁶⁶
on th’ oblivious pool,

And call them not to share with us their part

In this unhappy mansion
²⁶⁸
, or once more

With rallied arms to try what may be yet

Regained in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?”

   So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

Thus answered. “Leader of those armies bright,

Which but th’ Omnipotent none could have foiled,

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
²⁷⁶

Of battle when it raged, in all assaults

Their surest signal, they will soon resume

New courage and revive, though now they lie

Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

As we erewhile
²⁸¹
, astounded and amazed,

No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth.”

   He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend

Was moving
²⁸⁴
toward the shore; his ponderous shield

Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,

Behind him cast; the broad circumference

Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
²⁸⁸

At evening from the top of Fesole,

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

His spear,
²⁹²
to equal which the tallest pine

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

Of some great ammiral
²⁹⁴
, were but a wand,

He walked with to support uneasy steps

Over the burning marl
²⁹⁶
, not like those steps

On Heaven’s azure, and the torrid clime

Smote on him sore besides, vaulted
²⁹⁸
with fire;

Nathless
²⁹⁹
he so endured, till on the beach

Of that inflamèd sea, he stood and called

His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced

Thick as autumnal leaves
³⁰²
that strow the brooks

In Vallombrosa
³⁰³
, where th’ Etrurian shades

High overarched embow’r; or scattered sedge
³⁰⁴

Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed
³⁰⁵

Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew

Busiris
³⁰⁷
and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued

The sojourners of Goshen
³⁰⁹
, who beheld

From the safe shore their floating carcasses

And broken chariot wheels. So thick bestrown

Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood,

Under amazement of their hideous change.

He called so loud, that all the hollow deep

Of Hell resounded. “Princes, potentates,

Warriors, the flow’r of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,

If such astonishment as this can seize

Eternal spirits; or have ye chos’n this place

After the toil of battle to repose

Your wearied virtue
³²⁰
, for the ease you find

To slumber here, as in the vales of Heav’n?

Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

To adore the conqueror, who now beholds

Cherub and Seraph
³²⁴
rolling in the flood

With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon
³²⁵

His swift pursuers from Heav’n gates discern

Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down
³²⁷

Thus drooping, or with linkèd thunderbolts

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf?

Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.”

   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.

Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

Yet to
³³⁷
their general’s voice they soon obeyed

Innumerable. As when the potent rod

Of Amram’s son
³³⁹
in Egypt’s evil day

Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud

Of locusts, warping
³⁴¹
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

Hovering on wing under the cope
³⁴⁵
of Hell

’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;

Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted spear

Of their great sultan
³⁴⁸
waving to direct

Their course, in even balance down they light

On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain;

A multitude, like which the populous north
³⁵¹

Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass

Rhene or the Danaw
³⁵³
, when her barbarous sons

Came like a deluge on the south, and spread

Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands.

Forthwith from every squadron and each band

The heads and leaders thither haste where stood

Their great commander; godlike shapes and forms

Excelling human, princely dignities,

And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones;

Though of their names in Heav’nly records now

Be no memorial, blotted out and razed

By their rebellion, from the Books
³⁶³
of Life.

Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve

Got them new names, till wand’ring 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

Glory of him that made them to transform

Oft to the image of a brute, adorned

With gay
³⁷²
religions full of pomp and gold,

And devils
³⁷³
to adore for deities:

Then were they known to men by various names,

And various idols through the heathen world.

Say, Muse,
³⁷⁶
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,

While the promiscuous
³⁸⁰
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

Among the nations round, and durst abide

Jehovah thund’ring out of Sion, throned
³⁸⁶

Between the Cherubim
³⁸⁶
; yea, often placed

Within his sanctuary itself their shrines,

Abominations
³⁸⁹
; and with cursèd things

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

Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire

To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite

Worshipped in Rabba
³⁹⁷
and her wat’ry plain,

In Argob and in Basan, to the stream

Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such

Audacious neighborhood, 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
⁴⁰⁴
valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence

And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.

Next Chemos
⁴⁰⁶
, th’ obscene dread of Moab’s sons,

From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild

Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon

And Horonaim, Seon’s realm, beyond

The flow’ry 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.

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
⁴¹⁸
drove them thence to Hell.

With these came they, who from the bord’ring flood
⁴¹⁹

Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names

Of Baälim and Ashtaroth
⁴²²
, those male,

These feminine. For spirits when they please

Can either sex assume, or both; so soft

And uncompounded
⁴²⁵
is their essence pure,

Nor tied or manacled with joint or limb,

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose

Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,

Can execute their airy purposes,

And works of love or enmity fulfill.

For those the race of Israel oft forsook

Their Living Strength
⁴³³
, and unfrequented left

His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

To bestial gods; for which their heads as low

Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear

Of despicable foes. With these in troop

Came Astoreth,
⁴³⁸
whom the Phoenicians called

Astarte, Queen of Heav’n, with crescent horns;

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,

Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell

To idols foul
⁴⁴⁴
. Thammuz came next behind,
⁴⁴⁶

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured

The Syrian damsels to lament his fate

In amorous ditties all a summer’s day,

While smooth Adonis from his native rock

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

Ezekiel
⁴⁵⁵
saw, when by the vision led

His eye surveyed the dark idolatries

Of alienated Judah. Next came one
⁴⁵⁷

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped off

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

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.

He also against the house of God was bold:

A leper once he lost and gained a king
⁴⁷¹
,

Ahaz his sottish
⁴⁷²
conqueror, whom he drew

God’s altar to disparage and displace

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn

His odious off’rings, and adore the gods

Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared

A crew who under names of old renown,

Osiris
⁴⁷⁸
, Isis, Orus and their train

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused

Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek

Their wand’ring gods disguised in brutish forms