Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being 440 445 With splendour, arm'd with power, if aught proposed To him who reigns, and so much to him due 455 High honour'd sits? Go, therefore, mighty Powers, 460 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 405 None shall partake with me. Thus saying rose Prudent, lest, from his resolution raised, 470 But they 475 Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend With awful reverence prone; and as a God Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven: Nor fail'd they to express how much they praised, 480 That for the general safety he despised His own: For neither do the Spirits damn'd Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast 485 490 Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 495 Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace: and, God proclaiming peace, 500 Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: That, day and night, for his destruction wait. 505 The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth In order came the grand infernal Peers: Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seem'd Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme 510 And Godlike imitated state him round A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed With bright emblazonry and horrent arms. With trumpets' regal sound the great result : 515 Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim With deafening shout return'd them loud acclaim. 520 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 530 Leads him perplex'd, where he may likeliest find 525 535 Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms 540 With conquest, felt the envenom'd robe, and tore (What could it less when spirits immortal sing?) Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high 560 565 570 That dismal world, if any clime perhaps Might yield them easier habitation, bend Four ways their flying march, along the banks 575 Into the burning lake their baleful streams; 1 Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon, 580 Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, Lothe, the river of oblivion, rolls Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks 585 590 ריון A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: The parching air At certain revolutions, all the damn'd Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change 595 Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice 600 Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 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→ But fate withstands, and to oppose the attempt The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 610 In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, 615 No rest through many a dark and dreary vale 620 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, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceived, Meanwhile the adversary of God and Man, 625 |