But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, The associates and copartners of our loss, Lie thus astonish'd 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 Regain'd in heaven, or what more lost in hell? So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub Thus answered. Leader of those armies bright, Which but the omnipotent none could have foil'd, If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battel when it raged, in all assaults Their surest signal, they will soon resume New courage and revive, though now they lie Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd, No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd 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 Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesolé, 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 walk'd with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle; not like those steps On heaven's 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 entranc'd Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades High over-arch'd embower; or scatter'd sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd 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 floting carcases
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,
Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can seise
Eternal spirits; or have ye chosen this place
After the toil of battel to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from heaven gates discern The advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulph. Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen.
They heard, and were abash'd, 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 perceive the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; Yet to their general's voice they soon obey'd Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son in Egypt's evil day
Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh 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 given, the uplifted spear Of their great sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance 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 loins, 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 haste where stood Their great commander; godlike shapes and forms Excelling human, princely dignities,
And powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones; Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial; blotted out and ras'd, By their rebellion, from the books of life. Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names, till wandering o'er the earth, Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, By falsities and lies the greatest part Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake God their creator, and the 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 their great emperor's call, as next in worth,
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