His own; for neither do the Spirits damned
Lose all their virtue, lest bad men should boast
Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal.

490 490

Simile of sun-
set after
storm; the
concord of
devils shames
the dissen-

495 sions of men.

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief:
As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
Heaven's cheerful face, the lowering element
Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower;
If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
O shame to men! devil with devil damned
Firm concord holds; men only disagree
Of creatures rational, though under hope
Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy;
As if which might induce us to accord -
Man had not hellish foes enow besides,
That day and night for his destruction wait!

505

505

The Stygian council thus dissolved, and forth
In order came the grand Infernal Peers;
Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed
Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less

Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme,
And godlike imitated state; him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed

With bright emblazonry and horrent arms.

511

Proclamation

of the result.

The diversions of the fallen Angels.

Then of their session ended they bid cry
With trumpet's regal sound the great result; 515
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy,

By herald's voice explained; the hollow Abyss
Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell
With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim.
Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat
raised

By false presumptuous hope, the rangèd Powers
Disband, and, wandering, each his several way
Pursues, as inclination or sad choice

521

526

530

Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours till his great Chief return.
Part on the plain, or in the air sublime,
Upon the wing or in swift race contend,
As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields;
Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form.
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds, before each van
Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears,
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms
From either end of Heaven the welkin burns.
Others, with vast Typhoan rage, more fell,
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540
In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar; -
As when Alcides from Echalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
Through pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines,

535

And Lichas from the top of Eta threw

Into the Euboic sea.

Others, more mild,

Retreated in a silent valley, sing

With notes angelical to many a harp
Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall

545

550

By doom of battle; and complain that Fate
Free virtue should enthral to Force or Chance.
Their song was partial; but the harmony
(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?)
Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet
(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 556
Others apart sat on a hill retired,

560

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute –
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final misery,
Passion and apathy, and glory and shame
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy;
Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm
Pain for awhile or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm the obdurèd breast
With stubborn patience as with triple steel.
Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570
On bold adventure to discover wide

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps

Might yield them easier habitation, bend

Four ways their flying march, along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge

565

575

The explora

tion of the in

fernal regions.

Into the burning lake their baleful streams
Abhorrèd Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, named of lamentation loud

Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon, 580
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls

Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks

Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 585
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,

590

Where armies whole have sunk; the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 595
Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,

At certain revolutions all the damned

600

Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce :
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round,
Periods of time, - thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean sound
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 610
Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies

All taste of living wight, as once it fled

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands
With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 616
Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found
No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale
They passed, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,

620

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of

A universe of death, which God by curse

Created evil, for evil only good,

Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625
Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

Meanwhile, the Adversary of God and Man, 629

Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design,
Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell Satan's flight.
Explores his solitary flight; sometimes

He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left;

Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds

635