PARADISE LOST
��Equal in strength, and rather than be less Cared not to be at all; with that care lost Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or
worse, He recked not, and these words thereafter
��" My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, More nnexpert, I boast not: them let those Contrive who need, or when they need;
not now. For, while they sit contriving, shall the
rest Millions that stand in arms, and longing
wait
The signal to ascend sit lingering here, Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling- place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, The prison of His tyranny who reigns By our delay ? No ! let us rather choose, 60 Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at
once
O'er Heaven's high towers to force resist- less way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms Against the Torturer; when, to meet the
noise
Of his almighty engine, he shall hear Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see Black fire and horror shot with equal rage Among his Angels, and his throne itself Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange
fire, 69
His own invented torments. But perhaps The way seems difficult, and steep to scale With upright wing against a higher foe ! Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench Of that forgetful lake benumb not still, That in our proper motion we ascend Up to our native seat; descent and fall To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, When the fierce foe hung on our broken
rear Insulting, and pursued us through the
Deep,
With what compulsion and laborious flight We sunk thus low ? The ascent is easy,
then; 81
The event is feared ! Should we again
provoke Our stronger, some worse way his wrath
may find
To our destruction, if there be in Hell Fear to be worse destroyed ! What can
be worse
��Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss,
condemned
In this abhorred deep to utter woe; Where pain of unextinguishable fire Must exercise us without hope of end The vassals of his anger, when the scourge Inexorably, and the torturing hour, 91
Calls us to penance ? More destroyed than
thus,
We should be quite abolished, and expire. What fear we then ? what doubt we to in- cense
His utmost ire ? which, to the highth en- raged,
Will either quite consume us, and reduce To nothing this essential happier far Than miserable to have eternal being ! Or, if our substance be indeed divine, And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 100 On this side nothing; and by proof we feel Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, And with perpetual inroads to alarm, Though inaccessible, his fatal Throne: Which, if not victory, is yet revenge." He ended frowning, and his look de- nounced
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous To less than gods. On the other side up
rose
Belial, in act more graceful and humane. A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed 1 10
For dignity composed, and high exploit. But all was false and hollow; though his
tongue Dropt manna, and could make the worse
appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were
low
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the
ear,
And with persuasive accent thus began: " I should be much for open war, O Peers, "9
As not behind in hate, if what was urged Main reason to persuade immediate war Did not dissuade me most, and seem to
cast
Ominous conjecture on the whole success; When he who most excels in fact of arms, In what he counsels and in what excels Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair And utter dissolution, as the scope
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