BOOK FIRST
��in
��Put forth at full, but still his strength con- cealed 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 provoked: our better part re- mains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not; that he no less At length from us may find, Who over- comes
By force hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife 650
There went a fame in Heaven that He ere
long
Intended to create, and therein plant A generation whom his choice regard Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven. Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps Our first eruption thither, or elsewhere; For this infernal pit shall never hold Caelestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss Long under darkness cover. But these
thoughts
Full counsel must mature. Peace is de- spaired; 660 For who can think submission ? War, then,
war
Open or understood, must be resolved." He spake; and, to confirm his words,
out-flew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from
the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim ; the sudden blaze Far round illumined Hell. Highly they
raged Against the Highest and fierce with
grasped arms Clashed on their sounding shields the din
of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of
Heaven.
There stood a hill not far, whose griesly
top 670
Belched fire and rowling smoke; the rest
entire
Shon with a glossy scurf undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore, The work of sulphur. Thither, winged
with speed,
A numerous brigad hastened: as when bands
��Of piouers, with spade and pickaxe armed, Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them
on
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell From Heaven; for even in Heaven his
looks and thoughts 680
Were always downward bent, admiring
more The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden
gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed In vision beatific. By him first Men also, and by his suggestion taught, Ransacked the Centre, and with impious
hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his
crew
Opened into the hill a spacious wound, And digged out ribs of gold. Let none
admire 690
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may
best Deserve the pretious bane. And here let
those Who boast in mortal things, and wondering
tell Of Babel, and the works of Memphian
kings, Learn how their greatest monuments of
fame,
And strength, and art, are easily outdone 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 prepared, That underneath had veins of liquid fire 701 Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude With wondrous art founded the massy ore, Severing each kind, and scummed the bul- lion-dross. A third as soon had formed within the
ground
A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance filled each hollow
nook;
As in an organ, from one blast of wind, To many a row of pipes the sound-board
breathes.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge T Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
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