Arming to battle, and instead of rage Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved

With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; 555

Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage,1 With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase

Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain

From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they,

Breathing united force with fixèd thought, Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed

561 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

Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 565 Awaiting what command their mighty Chief

Had to impose. He through the armèd files

Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse2

The whole battalion views their order due,

Their visages and stature as of gods; 570 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, named3 with these,

Could merit more than that small infantry 575

Warred on by cranes: though all the giant brood

Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side

Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds

Words interwove with sighs found out their way:

"O myriads of immortal Spirits! O Powers

Matchless, but with the Almighty!-and that strife

Was not inglorious, though the event1 was dire,

As this place testifies, and this dire change, Hateful to utter. But what power of

mind,

626 Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth Of knowledge past or present, could have feared

How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse?

630 For who can yet believe, though after loss,

That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend,

Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, If counsels different, or danger shunned 636 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, Consent or custom, and his regal state 640 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 New war provoked. Our better part remains 645 To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not; that he no less At length from us may find, who over

There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long

Intended to create, and therein plant

A generation whom his choice regard Should favor equal to the Sons of Heaven. Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 655 Our first eruption;3 thither, or elsewhere; For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts

Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired, 660

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

Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze 665 Far round illumined Hell; highly they raged

Against the Highest, and fierce with graspèd arms

Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,

Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.

Were always downward bent, admiring

The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan-to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage; is honored and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hell-gates, finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and Heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new World which he sought.

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand

More than can be in Heaven, we now return

Satan exalted sat, by merit raised

5

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, 69

His own invented torments. But perhaps The way seems difficult and steep to scale With upright wing against a higher foe?

2 judgment.