Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise Magnificence; and what can Heaven shew 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 re

move

280

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."

He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled

The assembly as when hollow rocks retain

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

290

Irreparable; terms of peace yet none Voutsafed or sought; for what peace will be given

To us enslaved, but custody severe,
And stripes and arbitrary punishment
Inflicted? and what peace can we return,
But, to our power, hostility and hate,
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? 340 Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need With dangerous expedition to invade 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

best,

By force or subtlety. Though Heaven be shut,

And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure In his own strength, this place may lie exposed,

360 The utmost border of his kingdom, left 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 All as our own, and drive, as we are driven, The puny habitants; or, if not drive, Seduce them to our party, that their God May prove their foe, and with repenting hand

Abolish his own works. This would surpass

370

Common revenge, and interrupt His joy
In our confusion, and our joy upraise
In His disturbance; when his darling sons,
Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall

Of Angels watching round? Here he had need

All circumspection: and we now no less Choice in our suffrage; for on whom we send

The weight of all, and our last hope, relies."
This said, he sat; and expectation held
His look suspense, awaiting who appeared
To second, or oppose, or undertake
The perilous attempt. But all sat mute, 420
Pondering the danger with deep thoughts;
and each

In other's countenance read his own dismay,

Astonished. None among the choice and prime

440

Of unessential Night receives him next,
Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of be-
ing
Threatens him, plunged in that abortive
gulf.

If thence he scape, into whatever world,
Or unknown region, what remains him less
Than unknown dangers, and as hard es-
cape?

But I should ill become this throne, O Peers,
And this imperial sovranty, adorned
With splendour, armed with power, if
aught proposed

And judged of public moment in the shape
Of difficulty or danger, could deter
Me from attempting. Wherefore do I as-

In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar:

As when Alcides, from Echalia crowned With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore

Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines,

And Lichas from the top of ta threw
Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild,
Retreated in a silent valley, sing
With notes angelical to many a harp
Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall
By doom of battle, and complain that Fate
Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or
Chance.
551

Their song was partial; but the harmony
(What could it less when Spirits immortal
sing ?)

Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more

All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In confused march forlorn, the adventrous
bands,

With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast,

Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found

No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale

They passed, and many a region dolorous, O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death

A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good;

Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,

Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived,

Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire. Meanwhile the Adversary of God and

Man,