The Complete Poetry of John Milton (62 page)

   635     
For mee be witness all the Host of Heav’n,

               
If counsels different, or danger shun’d

               
By mee, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns

               
Monarch in Heav’n, 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 conceal’d,

               
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 warr, provok’t; 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
⁷⁵
in Heav’n that he ere long

               
Intended to create, and therein plant

               
A generation, whom his choice regard

               
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heav’n:

   655     
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps

               
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:

               
For this Infernal Pit shall never hold

               
Cælestial Spirits in Bondage, nor th’ Abyss

               
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts

   660     
Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird,

               
For who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr

               
Open or understood must be resolv’d.

           
      
       He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew

               
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs

   665     
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze

               
Far round illumin’d hell: highly they rag’d

               
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped Arms

               
Clash’d on thir sounding Shields the din of war,

               
Hurling defiance toward the Vault of Heav’n.

   670  
      
       There stood a Hill not far whose griesly top

               
Belch’d fire and rowling smoak; the rest entire

               
Shon with a glossie scurff, undoubted sign

               
That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,

               
The work of Sulphur. Thither wing’d with speed

   675     
A numerous Brigad hasten’d. As when Bands

               
Of Pioners with Spade and Pickax arm’d

               
Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field,

               
Or cast a Rampart.
Mammon
⁷⁶
led them on,

               
Mammon
, the least erected Spirit that fell

   680     
From heav’n, for ev’n in heav’n his looks and thoughts

               
Were always downward bent, admiring more

               
The riches of Heav’ns pavement, trod’n Gold,

               
Then aught divine or holy else enjoy’d

               
In vision beatific: by him first

   685     
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,

               
Ransack’d the Center, and with impious hands

               
Rifl’d the bowels of thir mother Earth

               
For Treasures better hid. Soon had his crew

               
Op’nd into the Hill a spacious wound

   690     
And dig’d out ribs of Gold. Let none admire

               
That riches grow in Hell; that soyl may best

               
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those

               
Who boast in mortal things, and wondring tell

               
Of
Babel
,
⁷⁷
and the works
⁷⁸
of
Memphian
Kings

   695     
Learn how thir 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 toyl

               
And hands innumerable scarce perform.

   700     
Nigh on the Plain in many cells prepar’d,

               
That underneath had veins of liquid fire

               
Sluic’d from the Lake, a second multitude

               
With wondrous Art founded the massie Ore,

               
Severing each kind, and scum’d the Bullion dross:

   705     
A third as soon had form’d within the ground

               
A various mould, and from the boyling cells

               
By strange conveyance fill’d each hollow nook,

               
As in an Organ from one blast of wind

               
To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.

   710     
Anon out of the earth a Fabrick 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 Freeze, with bossy
⁷⁹
Sculptures grav’n,

               
The Roof was fretted Gold. Not
Babilon
,

               
Nor great
Alcairo
⁸⁰
such magnificence

               
Equal’d in all thir glories, to inshrine

   720     
Belus
or
Serapis
⁸¹
thir Gods, or seat

               
Thir Kings, when
Ægypt
with
Assyria
strove

               
In wealth and luxurie. Th’ ascending pile

               
Stood fixt her stately highth, and strait the dores

               
Op’ning thir brazen foulds discover wide

   725     
Within, her ample spaces, o’re the smooth

               
And level pavement: from the arched roof

               
Pendant by suttle Magic many a row

               
Of Starry Lamps and blazing Cressets fed

               
With
Naphtha
and
Asphaltus
yeilded light

   730     
As from a sky. The hasty multitude

               
Admiring enter’d, and the work some praise

               
And some the Architect: his hand was known

               
In Heav’n by many a Towred structure high,

               
Where Scepter’d Angels held thir residence,

   735     
And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King

               
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,

               
Each in his Hierarchie, the Orders bright

               
Nor was his name unheard or unador’d

               
In ancient
Greece;
and in
Ausonian
⁸²
land

   740     
Men call’d him
Mulciber;
⁸³
and how he fell

               
From Heav’n, they fabl’d, thrown by angry
Jove

               
Sheer o’re the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn

               
To Noon
⁸⁴
he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve,

               
A Summers day; and with the setting Sun

   745     
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling Star,

               
On
Lemnos
th’
Ægæan
Ile: thus they relate,

               
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

               
Fell long before; nor aught avail’d him now

               
To have built in Heav’n high Towrs; nor did he scape

   750     
By all his Engins, but was headlong sent

               
With his industrious crew to build in hell.

               
Mean while the winged Haralds by command

               
Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony

               
And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim

   755     
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held

               
At
Pandæmonium
,
⁸⁵
the high Capitol

               
Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons call’d

               
From every Band and squared Regiment

               
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon

   760     
With hunderds and with thousands trooping came

               
Attended: all access was throng’d, the Gates

               
And Porches wide, but chief the spacious Hall

               
(Though like a cover’d field, where Champions bold

               
Wont ride in arm’d, and at the Soldans chair

   765     
Defi’d the best of
Paynim
⁸⁶
chivalry

               
To mortal combat or carreer with Lance)

               
Thick swarm’d, both on the ground and in the air,

               
Brusht with the hiss of russling wings. As Bees

               
In spring time, when the Sun with
Taurus
⁸⁷
rides,

   770     
Pour forth thir populous youth about the Hive

               
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers

               
Flie to and fro, or on the smoothed Plank,

               
The suburb of thir Straw-built Gittadel,

               
New rub’d with Baum, expatiate
⁸⁸
and confer

   775     
Thir State affairs. So thick the aerie crowd

               
Swarm’d and were strait’n’d; till the Signal giv’n.

               
Behold a wonder! they but now who seemd

               
In bigness to surpass Earths Giant Sons

               
Now less than smallest Dwarfs, in narrow room

   780     
Throng numberless, like that Pigmean Race

               
Beyond the
Indian
Mount, or Faerie Elves,

               
Whose midnight Revels, by a Forrest side

               
Or Fountain some belated Peasant sees,

               
Or dreams he
sees
, while over-head the Moon

   785     
Sits Arbitress, and neerer to the Earth

               
Wheels her pale course, they on thir mirth and dance

               
Intent, with jocond Music charm his ear;

               
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.

               
Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms