130 Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds
Fearless, endanger'd Heav'ns perpetual King;
And put to proof his high supremacy,

Whether upheld by strength, or Chance, or Fate;
Too well I see and rue the dire event,

135 That with sad overthrow and foul defeat
Hath lost us Heav'n, and all this mighty host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,
As far as gods and Heav'nly essences
Can perish for the mind and spi'rit remains
140 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 Conque'ror, (whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, since no less

145 Than such could have o'er-pow'rd 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 150 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 undiminisht, or eternal being

155 To undergo eternal punishment?'

Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend repli’d.

Satan rejoins: 'At least we can frustrate our enemy's schemes.

'Fall'n Cherub, to be weak is miserable,

Doing or suffering: but of this be sure, To do aught good never will be our task, 160 But ever to do ill our sole delight,

As being 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,
165 And out of good still to find means of evil;
Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destin'd aim.

The storm is over, let us make for shore and consult.

But see! the angry Victor hath recall'd

170 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

Back to the gates of Heav'n; the sulphu'rous hail
Shot 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,
175 Wing'd 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.

180 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation, void of light,

Save what the glimmeʼring of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves, 185 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,

190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not what resolution from despair.'

Satan's vastness compared.

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate With head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blaz'd; his other parts besides 195 Prone on the flood, extended long and large,

Lay floating many a rood; in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,
Briarios or Typhon, whom the den

200 By ancient Tarsus held; or that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim th' ocean stream; Him haply slumbring on the Norway foam, The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff 205 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:

His rise from the burning lake permitted.

So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay 210 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

215 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 shewn
On man by him seduc't; but on himself
220 Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour'd.

The two angels fly to land. The land described.
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature; on each hand the flames
Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires, and roll'd
In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.
225 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,

230 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 thundring Etna, whose combustible
And fuell'd entrals thence conceiving fire,

235 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't the Stygian flood 240 As gods, and by their own recover'd strength, Not by the suffe'rance of supernal Power.

Satan salutes his new dwelling-place.

'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 245 For that celestial light? Be' it so, since he

Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reason' hath equall'd, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy fields

250 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 255 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

260 Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice