210 So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, That felt unusual height; till on dry land He lights; if it were land, that ever burned With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole "Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Said then the lost archangel, "this the seat 220 230 240 "That we must change for heaven? this mournful gloom "For that celestial light? Be it so! since he, "Who now is Sovereign, can dispose and bid "What shall be right: furthest from him is best, "Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme "Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, "Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, 250 "Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, "Receive thy new possessor! one who brings "A mind not to be changed by place or time. "The mind is its own place, and in itself "Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. "What matter where, if I be still the same, "And what I should be,—all but less than he "Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least “We shall be free; the 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 reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. "But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, "The associates and copartners of our loss, "Lie thus astonished on the 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 66 260 Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?" 270 So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub Thus answered: "Leader of those armies bright, "Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled, "If once they hear that voice,—their liveliest pledge Of hope in fear and dangers, heard so oft "In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge "Of battle when it raged, in all assaults "Their surest signal,-they will soon resume 66 New courage, and revive, though now they lie Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, "As we erewhile, astounded and amazed :"No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height." 66 He scarce had ceased, when the superior 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 280 Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 300 Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcasses 310 And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrewn, "Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost, "If such astonishment as this can seize "Eternal spirits:—or have ye chosen this place "After the toil of battle to repose "Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find "To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven ?— 66 His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern 320 |