PARADISE LOST.

With warbled hymns, and to his godhead sing
Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits

Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes
Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers,

Our servile offerings? This must be our task
In heaven, this our delight. How wearisome
Eternity so spent in worship paid

To whom we hate! Let us not, then, pursue

245

By force impossible, by leave obtained

250

Unacceptable, though in heaven, our state

Of splendid vassalage; but rather seek

Our own good from ourselves, and from our own

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,

Free, and to none accountable, preferring

255

Hard liberty before the easy yoke

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear

Then most conspicuous when great things of small,
Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse,

We can create, and in what place soe'er

260

Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain

Through labor and endurance. This deep world
Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst
Thick clouds and dark doth heaven's all-ruling sire
Choose to reside, his glory unobscured,
And with the majesty of darkness round

265

Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar
Mustering their rage, and heaven resembles hell!

-

'Fate shall yield'? Latter. 'Regain' or 'Chaos judge'? Argues, proves.241. Celebrate. It is not necessary to take this word in its orig. Lat. sense of frequent, throng around; but may it not be the meaning?243. Literal meaning of the Hebrew word hallelujah? 244. Breathes. Exhales the breath of?-249. Pursue. Seek (to regain)? - 250. Impossible. What is impossible? what unacceptable? — 252. Vassalage. See 1. 90. — 253. From our own resources. Lat. e nostro. - 254. Live to ourselves. So ut mihi vivam, that I may live to myself. Hor. Ep. I. 18, 1. 107. - 255. As Prometheus would not exchange his hard lot for the servitude of Hermes. Prom. Vinct. 974.-263. How oft, etc. See the sublime passages to this effect in Ps. xviii. 11-13; xevii. 2; 1 Kings viii. 12; Rev. iv. 5.— 268.

As he our darkness, cannot we his light
Imitate when we please? This desert soil
Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can heaven show more?
Our torments also may in length of time
Become our elements, these piercing fires
As soft as now severe, our temper changed
Into their temper; which must needs remove
The sensible of pain. All things invite
To peaceful counsels and the settled state
Of order, how in safety best we may
Compose our present evils, with regard
Of what we are and where, dismissing quite
All thoughts of war.

Ye have what I advise."

270

275

280

He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled

The assembly as when hollow rocks retain

285

The sound of blustering winds, which all night long
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance,
Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay

After the tempest. Such applause was heard
As Mammon ended; and his sentence pleased,
Advising peace for such another field

They dreaded worse than hell: so much the fear
Of thunder and the sword of Michael

290

Mustering (Lat. monstrare, to point out; Fr. montrer, to show; It. mostrando, mustering), collecting for display. - 275. "Milton may have dictated 'element." No: heat and cold were both among the 'elements' of their torments. II. 600.-278. Sensible of, sense of? or sensibility to? or sensible property of? See 1. 97.-280. How, i. e. as to how (or, to consider how). — 281. Compose, arrange, make the best of. Mammon wanders from the question put by Satan?-284. Such murmur. The critics cite Il. II. 144; Æn. X. 98; Claud. in Rufin. I. 70.-287. Cadence, sounds dying away. 288. O'erwatched, weary with being too long awake. 289. Pinnace. Kind of vessel?-291. Sentence ? See 51 and note. What is Mammon's ruling passion? What three kinds of statesmanship are represented by Moloch, Belial, and Mammon? Illustrate. - 294. Sword. VI. 250.

PARADISE LOST.

Wrought still within them; and no less desire
To found this nether empire, which might rise
By policy, and long process of time,
In emulation opposite to heaven.

Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom,
Satan except, none higher sat, with grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed

A pillar of state. Deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat, and public care;

295

300

And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Majestic though in ruin. Sage he stood,
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear

305

The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look

Drew audience and attention still as night

Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake :

“Thrones and imperial powers, offspring of heaven, 310 Ethereal virtues! or these titles now

Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called
Princes of hell? for so the popular vote

Inclines, here to continue, and build up here
A growing empire; doubtless! while we dream,
And know not that the king of heaven hath doomed

315

Michaël, trisyl. ? He personates justice?—296. Nether. Etymology?297. Process. Note the accent of words ending in cess, in Milton; as access, recess, process, success. - 299. Beëlzebub. The Ulysses of the infernal peers, deep in the confidence and counsels of Satan? In what respect is his plan a compromise? Than whom. "Than' is here a preposition. Thus, 'No mightier than thyself or me.' Shakes. Jul. Cæsar. So in Proverbs xxvii. 3, "A fool's wrath is heavier than them both."-301. Aspect. Acc. last syl. So always in Shakes. – 302. Pillar of state. Shakespearian, 2 Henry V., I. 1; and Scriptural, Gal. ii. 9; Rev. iii. 12. -305. Majestic. Face? or counsel ?-306. Atlantean. Like those of Atlas who bore up the heavens. Odys. I. 52; Æn. IV. 482. See Class. Dict. 303-8. We search literature in vain for so grand a picture of an orator. What are its main features? Noontide (A. S. nōntid. Tide is time; Ger. zeit). Is the noontide air noted for stillness? — 310. Heaven is emphatic by antithesis to hell, 313? Observe how promptly and vigorously he grapples with Mammon's argument! Most resembles Demosthenes? Chatham? Cicero? Burke? Webster? Mirabeau?-315. Doubtless. Ironical?-318. Retreat in which to live (we

This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt
From heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league
Banded against his throne, but to remain

320

In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,
Under the inevitable curb, reserved

His captive multitude. For he, be sure,

In highth or depth, still first and last will reign
Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part
By our revolt; but over hell extend
His empire, and with iron sceptre rule
Us here, as with his golden those in heaven.
What sit we then projecting peace and war?
War hath determined us, and foiled with loss
Irreparable; terms of peace yet none

Vouchsafed or sought; for what peace will be given

To us enslaved, but custody severe,

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment

325

330

Inflicted? and what peace can we return,
But, to our power, hostility and hate,

335

Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow,
Yet ever plotting how the conqueror least

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice
In doing what we most in suffering feel?
Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need
With dangerous expedition to invade

=

340

may live). R. C. Browne says of this passage, "Milton appears to have been thinking of Alsatia and its sanctuary privileges." Probable? — 321. Thus far answers 1. 211. See I. 74.-324. Be sure. Like Gr. σάφ' ἴσθι, know well. Eur. Hipp. 1327; more like Ps. c 3, " Be ye sure that the Lord, he is God."-324. Highth or depth heaven or hell? First and last forever?-327. Iron. "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron." Ps. ii. 9. -329. What why, as in 1. 94.330. Determined us limited us? settled our case? fixed our determination? or ended our hopes? Which? Ground of your opinion?-333-36. Custody . . . hostility, etc. The lines seem half sarcastic, like, "This, forsooth, is the sort of peace!" To our power to the extent of our power. -337. Reluctance (Lat. reluctari, struggle against), resistance, active opposition.-341. Want, be wanting. "Nor

=

=

=

PARADISE LOST.

Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege,
Or ambush from the deep. What if we find
Some easier enterprise? There is a place,
If ancient and prophetic fame in heaven
Err not, another world, the happy seat

Of some new race called Man, about this time
To be created like to us, though less

In

power and excellence, but favored more

345

350

Of him who rules above: so was his will

Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath,

That shook heaven's whole circumference, confirmed.
Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn
What creatures there inhabit, of what mould
Or substance, how endued, and what their power,
And where their weakness, how attempted best,

355

By force or subtlety. Though heaven be shut,
And heaven's high arbitrator sit secure

In his own strength, this place may lie exposed,
The utmost border of his kingdom, left

360

To their defence who hold it: here perhaps
Some advantageous act may be achieved
By sudden onset, either with hell fire

To waste his whole creation, or possess

365

All as our own, and drive, as we were driven,

The puny habitants; or, if not drive,

Seduce them to our party, that their God

did there want cornice," etc., I. 715, 716.-345. A place See I. 650-55. Again attention is concentrated upon our earth as a post to be captured, and made possibly a base of operations against heaven. hast made him a little lower than the angels." Ps. viii. 5. —351-53. -349. Less. "Thou

"God

confirmed it by an oath." Heb. vi. 17. Zeus (I. I. 530; Æn. IX. 106), by his nod makes vast Olympus tremble. - 355. Mould. Shape, pattern? or matter, as almost always in Milton? I. 706; II. 139. — 357. Attempted (Lat. attentāre, strive after, attack). tried, assailed. Whether by force, etc. -359. Arbitrator (late Latin), ruler. - 365. Creation, our own universe (earth, sun, moon, and stars), then just created from Chaos. It is called 'this pendent world,' 1. 1052.-367. Puny (Fr. puis né, later-born). Little? or later