Paradise Lost
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th’ associates and copartners of our loss
Lye thus astonisht 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
Regaind in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?
So _Satan_ spake, and him _Beelzebub_
Thus answer’d. Leader of those Armies bright,
Which but th’ Omnipotent none could have foyld,
If once they hear that voyce, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag’d, in all assaults
Their surest signal, they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lye
Groveling and prostrate on yon Lake of Fire,
As we erewhile, astounded and amaz’d,
No wonder, fall’n such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas’t when the superiour Fiend
Was moving 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
At Ev’ning from the top of _Fesole_,
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,
He walkt with to support uneasie steps
Over the burning Marle, not like those steps
On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;
Nathless he so endur’d, till on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In _Vallombrosa_, where th’ _Etrurian_ shades
High overarch’t imbowr; or scatterd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce Winds _Orion_ arm’d
Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew
_Busiris_ and his _Memphian_ Chivalrie,
VVhile with perfidious hatred they pursu’d
The Sojourners of _Goshen_, who beheld
From the safe shore their floating Carkases
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriers, the Flowr of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can sieze
Eternal spirits; or have ye chos’n this place
After the toyl of Battel to repose
Your wearied vertue, 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 Conquerour? who now beholds
Cherube and Seraph rowling in the Flood
With scatter’d Arms and Ensigns, till anon
His swift pursuers from Heav’n Gates discern
Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.
They heard, and were abasht, 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 perceave the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their Generals Voyce they soon obeyd
Innumerable. As when the potent Rod
Of _Amrams_ Son in _Egypts_ evill day
Wav’d round the Coast, up call’d a pitchy cloud
Of _Locusts_, warping on the Eastern Wind,
That ore the Realm of impious _Pharoah_ hung
Like Night, and darken’d all the Land of _Nile_:
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell
’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;
Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted Spear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Thir course, in even ballance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain;
A multitude, like which the populous North
Pour’d never from her frozen loyns, to pass
_Rhene_ or the _Danaw_, when her barbarous Sons
Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread
Beneath _Gibraltar_ to the _Lybian_ sands.
Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band
The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood
Their great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;
Though of their Names in heav’nly Records now
Be no memorial, blotted out and ras’d
By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.
Nor had they yet among the Sons of _Eve_
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth,
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes 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, adorn’d
With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various Names,
And various Idols through the Heathen World.
Say, Muse, their Names then known, who first, who last,
Rous’d from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud 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 ador’d
Among the Nations round, and durst abide
_Jehovah_ thundring out of _Sion_, thron’d
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac’d
Within his Sanctuary it self their Shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan’d,
And with their darkness durst affront his light.
First _Moloch_, horrid King besmear’d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
Their childrens cries unheard, that past through fire
To his grim Idol. Him the _Ammonite_
Worshipt in _Rabba_ and her watry Plain,
In _Argob_ and in _Basan_, to the stream
Of utmost _Arnon_. Nor content with such
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 Vally of _Hinnom_, _Tophet_ thence
And black _Gehenna_ call’d, the Type of Hell.
Next _Chemos_, th’ obscene dread of _Moabs_ Sons,
From _Aroer_ to _Nebo_, and the wild
Of Southmost _Abarim_; in _Hesebon_
And _Heronaim_, _Seons_ Realm, beyond
The flowry Dale of _Sibma_ clad with Vines,
And _Eleale_ to th’ _Asphaltick_ Pool.
_Peor_ his other Name, when he entic’d
_Israel_ in _Sittim_ on their march from _Nile_
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg’d
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 bordring flood
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
And uncompounded is their Essence pure,
Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condens’t, bright or obscure,
Can execute their aerie purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfill.
For those the Race of _Israel_ oft forsook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low
Bow’d down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came _Astoreth_, whom the _Phoenicians_ call’d
_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,
Beguil’d by fair Idolatresses, fell
To Idols foul. _Thammuz_ came next behind,
Whose annual wound in _Lebanon_ allur’d
The _Syrian_ Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth _Adonis_ from his native Rock
Ran purple to the Sea, suppos’d with blood
Of _Thammuz_ yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected _Sions_ daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
_Ezekiel_ saw, when by the Vision led
His eye survay’d the dark Idolatries
Of alienated _Judah_. Next came one
Who mourn’d in earnest, when the Captive Ark
Maim’d his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat, and sham’d his Worshipers:
_Dagon_ his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high
Rear’d in _Azotus_, dreaded through the Coast
Of _Palestine_, in _Gath_ and _Ascalon_,
And _Accaron_ and _Gaza’s_ frontier bounds.
Him follow’d _Rimmon_, whose delightful Seat
Was fair _Damscus_, on the fertil Banks
Of _Abbana_ and _Pharphar_, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold:
A Leper once he lost and gain’d a King,
_Ahaz_ his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
Gods Altar to disparage and displace
For one of _Syrian_ mode, whereon to burn
His odious offrings, and adore the Gods
Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear’d
A crew who under Names of old Renown,
_Osiris_, _Isis_, _Orus_ and their Train
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d
Fanatic _Egypt_ and her Priests, to seek
Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms
Rather then human. Nor did _Israel_ scape
Th’ infection when their borrow’d Gold compos’d
The Calf in _Oreb_: and the Rebel King
Doubl’d that sin in _Bethel_ and in _Dan_,
Lik’ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,
_Jehovah_, who in one Night when he pass’d
From _Egypt_ marching, equal’d with one stroke
Both her first born and all her bleating Gods.
_Belial_ came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood
Or Altar smoak’d; yet who more oft then hee
In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest
Turns Atheist, as did _Ely’s_ Sons, who fill’d
With lust and violence the house of God.
In Courts and Palaces he also Reigns
And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse
Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,
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 hospitable Dores
Yielded thir Matrons to prevent worse rape.
These were the prime in order and in might;
The rest were long to tell, though far renown’d,
Th’ _Ionian_ Gods, of _Javans_ Issue held
Gods, yet confest later then Heav’n and Earth
Thir boasted Parents; _Titan_ Heav’ns first born
With his enormous brood, and birthright seis’d
By younger _Saturn_, he from mightier _Jove_
His own and _Rhea’s_ Son like measure found;
So _Jove_ usurping reign’d: these first in _Creet_
And _Ida_ known, thence on the Snowy top
Of cold _Olympus_ rul’d the middle Air
Thir highest Heav’n; or on the _Delphian_ Cliff,
Or in _Dodona_, and through all the bounds
Of _Doric_ Land; or who with _Saturn_ old
Fled over _Adria_ to th’ _Hesperian_ Fields,
And ore the _Celtic_ roam’d the utmost Isles.
All these and more came flocking; but with looks
Down cast and damp, yet such wherein appear’d
Obscure som glimps of joy, to have found thir chief
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost
In loss it self; which on his count’nance cast
Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth not substance, gently rais’d
Their fainted courage, and dispel’d their fears.
Then strait commands that at the warlike sound
Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard
His mighty Standard; that proud honour claim’d