Can perish for the mind and spi'rit remains Invincible, and vigour soon returns, Though all our glory' extinct, and happy state Here swallow'd up in endless misery.
But what if he our Conqu'ror (whom I now
Of force believe almighty, since no less
Than such could have o'erpow'r'd such force as ours)
Have left us this our spi'rit and strength entire,
Strongly to suffer and support our pains, That we may so suffice his vengeful ire Or do him mightier service as his thralls By right of war; whate'er his business be, Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, Or do his errands in the gloomy deep: What can it then avail, though yet we feel Strength undiminish'd, or eterual being,
To undergo eternal punishment?"
Whereto with speedy words th' Arch Fiend reply'd. "Fall'n Cherub, to be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering: but of this be sure, To do ought good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight: As be'ing the contrary to his high will Whom we resist. If then his providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil; Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail,
Short after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid
The fiery surge, that from the precipice Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling; and the thunder,
Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves;
There rest, if any rest can harbour there; And, re-assembling our afflicted Powers, Consult how we may henceforth most offend Our enemy, our own loss how repair; How overcome this dire calamity;
What reinforcement we may gain from hope; If not, what resolution from despair."
Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate With head uplift above the wave and eyes That sparkling blaz'd; his other parts besides Prone on the flood, extending long and large, Lay flooting many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom the fables name of monstrous size, Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove; Briareos, or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held; or that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim th' ocean stream: Him, haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam, The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,
Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays :
So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch Fiend lay, Chain'd on the burning lake ; nor ever thence
Had ris'n, or heav'd his head, but that the will And high permission of all ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought Evil to others; and, enrag'd, might see How all his malice serv'd but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown On Man, by him seduc'd; but on himself Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance, pour'd. Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames,
Driv'n backward, slope their pointing spires, aud, roll'd In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air,
That felt unusual weight; till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burn'd With solid, as the lake with liquid fire;
And such appear'd in hue, as when the force Of subterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side Of thund'ring Etna, whose combustible
And fuel'd entrails thence conceiving fire,
Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a singed bottom all involv'd
With stench and smoke; such resting found the sole Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate, Both glorying to have 'scap'd the Stygian flood As gods, and by their own recover'd strength, Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.
"Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,"
Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be' it so, since he
Who now is Sov'reign can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reas'on hath equal'd, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors; hail, Infernal world! and thou profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor; one who brings A mind not to be chang'd by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. 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; th' 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,
Th' 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 Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell?" So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub Thus answer'd. "Leader of those armies bright, Which but th' 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 battle when it rag'd, in all assaults Their surest signal, they will soon resume New courage, and revive, though now they le Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,
As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height.” He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend
Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous shield Etherial 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, on her spotty globe. His spear (to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great admiral, were but a wand) He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle, not like those steps On Heav'n's azure; and the torrid clime Smote on him sove 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 th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbow'r ; or scatter'd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
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 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. 6.6 Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal Spi'rits: or have ye chosen this place
After the toil of battle to repose
Your varied virtue, for the ease you find
To slumber here, as in the vales of Heav'n? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To' adore the Conqueror? who now beholds
« הקודםהמשך » |