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Matchlefs, but with th' Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire,
As this place teftifies, and this dire change
Hateful to utter: but what pow'r of mind
Foreseeing or prefaging, from the depth
Of knowledge paft or prefent, could have fear'd,
How fuch united force of Gods, how fuch
As stood like thefe, could ever know repulfe?
For who can yet believe, though after loss,
That all these puiffant legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heav'n, fhall fail to re-ascend
Self-rais'd, and repoffefs their native seat ?
For me be witness all the host of Heaven,
If counfels different, or danger fhunn'd
By me, have loft our hopes. But he who reigns
Monarch in Heav'n, till then as one fecure
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
Confent or custom, and his regal state

Put forth at full, but ftill his ftrength conceal'd,
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, provok'd; our better part remains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
What force effected not: that he no lefs
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant

A ge

A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favor equal to the fons of Heaven:
Thither, if but to pry, fhall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this infernal pit fhall never hold
Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th' abyfs
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counsel muft mature: Peace is despair'd,
For who can think fubmiffion? War then, War
Open or understood must be refolv'd.

He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming fwords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the fudden blaze

Far round illumin'd Hell: highly they rag'd
Against the High'eft, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash'd on their founding fhields the din of war,
Hurling defiance tow'ard the vault of Heaven.

There stood a hill not far, whofe grifly top
Belch'd fire and rolling fmoke; the rest entire
Shone with a gloffy fcurf, undoubted fign
That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
The work of fulphur. Thither wing'd with speed
A numerous brigad haften'd: as when bands
Of pioneers with spade and pickax arm'd
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or caft a rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the leaft erected Spi'rit that fell

From Heav'n, for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thoughts ^. Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold,

Than

Than ought divine or holy elfe enjoy'd

In vifion beatific: by him first

Men alfo, and by his fuggeftion taught,

Ranfack'd the center, and with impious hands

Rifled the bowels of their mother earth

For treafures better hid.

Soon had his crew

Open'd into the hill a fpacious wound,

And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deferve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,
And strength, and art, are easily out-done
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the lake, a fecond multitude
With wond'rous art founded the maffy ore,
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion drofs:
A third as foon had form'd within the ground
A various mould, and from the boiling cells
By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook,
As in an organ from one blaft of wind

To many a row of pipes the found-board breathes.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rofe like an exhalation, with the found
Of dulcet fymphonies and voices sweet,

Built like a temple, where pilafters round
Were fet, and Doric pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or freeze, with boffy sculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo fuch magnificence
Equal'd in all their glories, to infhrine
Belus or Serapis their Gods, or feat
Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria ftrove
In wealth and luxury. Th' afcending pile
Stood fix'd her ftately highth, and strait the doors
Opening their brazen folds difcover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendent by fubtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing creffets fed
With Naphtha and Afphaltus yielded light
As from a sky. The hafty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise,
And fome the architect: his hand was known
In Heav'n by many a tow'red structure high,
Where scepter'd Angels held their refidence,
And fat as princes, whom the fúpreme King
Exalted to fuch pow'r, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From Heav'n, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn

To

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A fummer's day; and with the setting fun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos th' 'gean ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now
T'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scape
By all his engins, but was headlong fent

With his industrious crew to build in Hell.

Mean while the winged heralds by command Of fovran pow'r, with awful ceremony

And trumpet's found, throughout the hoft proclame A folemn council forthwith to be held

At Pandemonium, the high capital

Of Satan and his peers: their summons call'd
From every band and fquared regiment

By place or choice the worthieft; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
Attended: all accefs was throng'd, the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair
Defy'd the beft of Panim chivalry

To mortal combat, or career with lance)
Thick fwarm'd, both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd with the hifs of rufling winds. As bees
In fpring time, when the fun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the imoothed plank,

The

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