[29/51] [partial] orc git commit: ORC-204 Update and use CMake External Project to build C++ compression libraries.

[om...@apache.org]

http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/orc/blob/590245a0/c++/libs/snappy-1.1.2/testdata/plrabn12.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/c++/libs/snappy-1.1.2/testdata/plrabn12.txt b/c++/libs/snappy-1.1.2/testdata/plrabn12.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 34088b8..0000000
--- a/c++/libs/snappy-1.1.2/testdata/plrabn12.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10699 +0,0 @@
-
-This is the February 1992 Project Gutenberg release of: 
- 
-Paradise Lost by John Milton 
- 
-The oldest etext known to Project Gutenberg (ca. 1964-1965) 
-(If you know of any older ones, please let us know.) 
- 
- 
-Introduction  (one page) 
- 
-This etext was originally created in 1964-1965 according to Dr. 
-Joseph Raben of Queens College, NY, to whom it is attributed by 
-Project Gutenberg.  We had heard of this etext for years but it 
-was not until 1991 that we actually managed to track it down to 
-a specific location, and then it took months to convince people 
-to let us have a copy, then more months for them actually to do 
-the copying and get it to us.  Then another month to convert to 
-something we could massage with our favorite 486 in DOS.  After 
-that is was only a matter of days to get it into this shape you 
-will see below.  The original was, of course, in CAPS only, and 
-so were all the other etexts of the 60's and early 70's.  Don't 
-let anyone fool you into thinking any etext with both upper and 
-lower case is an original; all those original Project Gutenberg 
-etexts were also in upper case and were translated or rewritten 
-many times to get them into their current condition.  They have 
-been worked on by many people throughout the world. 
- 
-In the course of our searches for Professor Raben and his etext 
-we were never able to determine where copies were or which of a 
-variety of editions he may have used as a source.  We did get a 
-little information here and there, but even after we received a 
-copy of the etext we were unwilling to release it without first 
-determining that it was in fact Public Domain and finding Raben 
-to verify this and get his permission.  Interested enough, in a 
-totally unrelated action to our searches for him, the professor 
-subscribed to the Project Gutenberg listserver and we happened, 
-by accident, to notice his name. (We don't really look at every 
-subscription request as the computers usually handle them.) The 
-etext was then properly identified, copyright analyzed, and the 
-current edition prepared. 
- 
-To give you an estimation of the difference in the original and 
-what we have today:  the original was probably entered on cards 
-commonly known at the time as "IBM cards" (Do Not Fold, Spindle 
-or Mutilate) and probably took in excess of 100,000 of them.  A 
-single card could hold 80 characters (hence 80 characters is an 
-accepted standard for so many computer margins), and the entire 
-original edition we received in all caps was over 800,000 chars 
-in length, including line enumeration, symbols for caps and the 
-punctuation marks, etc., since they were not available keyboard 
-characters at the time (probably the keyboards operated at baud 
-rates of around 113, meaning the typists had to type slowly for 
-the keyboard to keep up). 
- 
-This is the second version of Paradise Lost released by Project 
-Gutenberg.  The first was released as our October, 1991 etext. 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
-Paradise Lost 
- 
- 
- 
- 
-Book I 
- 
- 
-Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
-Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
-Brought death into the World, and all our woe, 
-With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
-Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 
-Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top 
-Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
-That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed 
-In the beginning how the heavens and earth 
-Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill 
-Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
-Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 
-Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, 
-That with no middle flight intends to soar 
-Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues 
-Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 
-And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer 
-Before all temples th' upright heart and pure, 
-Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first 
-Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 
-Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
-And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark 
-Illumine, what is low raise and support; 
-That, to the height of this great argument, 
-I may assert Eternal Providence, 
-And justify the ways of God to men. 
-  Say first--for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, 
-Nor the deep tract of Hell--say first what cause 
-Moved our grand parents, in that happy state, 
-Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off 
-From their Creator, and transgress his will 
-For one restraint, lords of the World besides. 
-Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? 
-  Th' infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, 
-Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 
-The mother of mankind, what time his pride 
-Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host 
-Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring 
-To set himself in glory above his peers, 
-He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 
-If he opposed, and with ambitious aim 
-Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
-Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud, 
-With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
-Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky, 
-With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
-To bottomless perdition, there to dwell 
-In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
-Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms. 
-  Nine times the space that measures day and night 
-To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew, 
-Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
-Confounded, though immortal. But his doom 
-Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought 
-Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 
-Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes, 
-That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, 
-Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 
-At once, as far as Angels ken, he views 
-The dismal situation waste and wild. 
-A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, 
-As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames 
-No light; but rather darkness visible 
-Served only to discover sights of woe, 
-Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
-And rest can never dwell, hope never comes 
-That comes to all, but torture without end 
-Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 
-With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. 
-Such place Eternal Justice has prepared 
-For those rebellious; here their prison ordained 
-In utter darkness, and their portion set, 
-As far removed from God and light of Heaven 
-As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole. 
-Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell! 
-There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 
-With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 
-He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side, 
-One next himself in power, and next in crime, 
-Long after known in Palestine, and named 
-Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy, 
-And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words 
-Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:-- 
-  "If thou beest he--but O how fallen! how changed 
-From him who, in the happy realms of light 
-Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
-Myriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league, 
-United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
-And hazard in the glorious enterprise 
-Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 
-In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest 
-From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved 
-He with his thunder; and till then who knew 
-The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, 
-Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 
-Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, 
-Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, 
-And high disdain from sense of injured merit, 
-That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, 
-And to the fierce contentions brought along 
-Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 
-That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 
-His utmost power with adverse power opposed 
-In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
-And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? 
-All is not lost--the unconquerable will, 
-And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
-And courage never to submit or yield: 
-And what is else not to be overcome? 
-That glory never shall his wrath or might 
-Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 
-With suppliant knee, and deify his power 
-Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 
-Doubted his empire--that were low indeed; 
-That were an ignominy and shame beneath 
-This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods, 
-And this empyreal sybstance, cannot fail; 
-Since, through experience of this great event, 
-In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 
-We may with more successful hope resolve 
-To wage by force or guile eternal war, 
-Irreconcilable to our grand Foe, 
-Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy 
-Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven." 
-  So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain, 
-Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair; 
-And him thus answered soon his bold compeer:-- 
-  "O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers 
-That led th' embattled Seraphim to war 
-Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 
-Fearless, endangered Heaven's 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 
-That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat, 
-Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 
-In horrible destruction laid thus low, 
-As far as Gods and heavenly Essences 
-Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains 
-Invincible, and vigour soon returns, 
-Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 
-Here swallowed up in endless misery. 
-But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now 
-Of force believe almighty, since no less 
-Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 
-Have left us this our spirit 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 
-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 the avail though yet we feel 
-Strength undiminished, or eternal being 
-To undergo eternal punishment?" 
-  Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied:-- 
-"Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, 
-Doing or suffering: but of this be sure-- 
-To do aught good never will be our task, 
-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, 
-And out of good still to find means of evil; 
-Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps 
-Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 
-His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 
-But see! the angry Victor hath recalled 
-His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 
-Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail, 
-Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid 
-The fiery surge that from the precipice 
-Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder, 
-Winged 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. 
-Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 
-The seat of desolation, void of light, 
-Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 
-Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend 
-From off the tossing of these fiery waves; 
-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, 
-What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 
-If not, what resolution from despair." 
-  Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, 
-With head uplift above the wave, and eyes 
-That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides 
-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 warred on Jove, 
-Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 
-By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 
-Leviathan, which God of all his works 
-Created hugest that swim th' ocean-stream. 
-Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam, 
-The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, 
-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. 
-So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay, 
-Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence 
-Had risen, or heaved 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 
-Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
-Evil to others, and enraged might see 
-How all his malice served but to bring forth 
-Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn 
-On Man by him seduced, but on himself 
-Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 
-  Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
-His mighty stature; on each hand the flames 
-Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and,rolled 
-In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale. 
-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 burned 
-With solid, as the lake with liquid fire, 
-And such appeared in hue as when the force 
-Of subterranean wind transprots a hill 
-Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 
-Of thundering Etna, whose combustible 
-And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire, 
-Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, 
-And leave a singed bottom all involved 
-With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole 
-Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate; 
-Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood 
-As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 
-Not by the sufferance of supernal Power. 
-  "Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," 
-Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat 
-That we must change for Heaven?--this mournful gloom 
-For that celestial light? Be it so, since he 
-Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid 
-What shall be right: farthest from him is best 
-Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 
-Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, 
-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 changed by place or time. 
-The mind is its own place, and in itself 
-Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. 
-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 
-Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: 
-Here we may reigh secure; and, in my choice, 
-To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: 
-Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. 
-But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 
-Th' associates and co-partners of our loss, 
-Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool, 
-And call them not to share with us their part 
-In this unhappy mansion, or once more 
-With rallied arms to try what may be yet 
-Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?" 
-  So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub 
-Thus answered:--"Leader of those armies bright 
-Which, but th' Omnipotent, none could have foiled! 
-If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 
-Of hope in fears and dangers--heard so oft 
-In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
-Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults 
-Their surest signal--they will soon resume 
-New courage and revive, though now they lie 
-Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 
-As we erewhile, astounded and amazed; 
-No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!" 
-  He scare had ceased when the superior Fiend 
-Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, 
-Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 
-Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
-Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
-Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
-At evening, from the top of Fesole, 
-Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 
-Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 
-His spear--to equal which the tallest pine 
-Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
-Of some great ammiral, were but a wand-- 
-He walked with, to support uneasy steps 
-Over the burning marl, not like those steps 
-On Heaven's azure; and the torrid clime 
-Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 
-Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 
-Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 
-His legions--Angel Forms, who lay entranced 
-Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
-In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades 
-High over-arched embower; or scattered sedge 
-Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 
-Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew 
-Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 
-While with perfidious hatred they pursued 
-The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 
-From the safe shore their floating carcases 
-And broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown, 
-Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, 
-Under amazement of their hideous change. 
-He called so loud that all the hollow deep 
-Of Hell resounded:--"Princes, Potentates, 
-Warriors, the Flower of Heaven--once yours; now lost, 
-If such astonishment as this can seize 
-Eternal Spirits! Or have ye chosen this place 
-After the toil of battle to repose 
-Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 
-To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? 
-Or in this abject posture have ye sworn 
-To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds 
-Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood 
-With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 
-His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern 
-Th' advantage, and, descending, tread us down 
-Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts 
-Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? 
-Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!" 
-  They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung 
-Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch 
-On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, 
-Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
-Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 
-In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; 
-Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed 
-Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
-Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, 
-Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud 
-Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
-That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
-Like Night, and darkened all the land of Nile; 
-So numberless were those bad Angels seen 
-Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, 
-'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; 
-Till, as a signal given, th' uplifted spear 
-Of their great Sultan waving to direct 
-Their course, in even balance down they light 
-On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain: 
-A multitude like which the populous North 
-Poured never from her frozen loins to pass 
-Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 
-Came like a deluge on the South, and spread 
-Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 
-Forthwith, form every squadron and each band, 
-The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 
-Their great Commander--godlike Shapes, and Forms 
-Excelling human; princely Dignities; 
-And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones, 
-Though on their names in Heavenly records now 
-Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 
-By their rebellion from the Books of Life. 
-Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 
-Got them new names, till, wandering o'er the earth, 
-Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 
-By falsities and lies the greatest part 
-Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 
-God their Creator, and th' invisible 
-Glory of him that made them to transform 
-Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 
-With gay religions full of pomp and gold, 
-And devils to adore for deities: 
-Then were they known to men by various names, 
-And various idols through the heathen world. 
-  Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, 
-Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, 
-At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth 
-Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 
-While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof? 
-  The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell 
-Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix 
-Their seats, long after, next the seat of God, 
-Their altars by his altar, gods adored 
-Among the nations round, and durst abide 
-Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
-Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed 
-Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
-Abominations; and with cursed things 
-His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 
-And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
-First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
-Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears; 
-Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
-Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire 
-To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
-Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain, 
-In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
-Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
-Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart 
-Of Solomon he led by fraoud to build 
-His temple right against the temple of God 
-On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 
-The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
-And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. 
-Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's sons, 
-From Aroar to Nebo and the wild 
-Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon 
-And Horonaim, Seon's real, beyond 
-The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 
-And Eleale to th' Asphaltic Pool: 
-Peor his other name, when he enticed 
-Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 
-To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 
-Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 
-Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 
-Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate, 
-Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. 
-With these came they who, from the bordering flood 
-Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 
-Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 
-Of Baalim and Ashtaroth--those male, 
-These feminine. For Spirits, when they please, 
-Can either sex assume, or both; so soft 
-And uncompounded is their essence pure, 
-Not tried or manacled with joint or limb, 
-Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, 
-Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose, 
-Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 
-Can execute their airy purposes, 
-And works of love or enmity fulfil. 
-For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
-Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 
-His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
-To bestial gods; for which their heads as low 
-Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 
-Of despicable foes. With these in troop 
-Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 
-Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns; 
-To whose bright image nigntly by the moon 
-Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs; 
-In Sion also not unsung, where stood 
-Her temple on th' offensive mountain, built 
-By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, 
-Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 
-To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, 
-Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
-The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
-In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 
-While smooth Adonis from his native rock 
-Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
-Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale 
-Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, 
-Whose wanton passions in the sacred proch 
-Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 
-His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 
-Of alienated Judah. Next came one 
-Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 
-Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off, 
-In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge, 
-Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers: 
-Dagon his name, sea-monster,upward man 
-And downward fish; yet had his temple high 
-Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 
-Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 
-And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 
-Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat 
-Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 
-Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 
-He also against the house of God was bold: 
-A leper once he lost, and gained a king-- 
-Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 
-God's altar to disparage and displace 
-For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 
-His odious offerings, and adore the gods 
-Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 
-A crew who, under names of old renown-- 
-Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train-- 
-With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 
-Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek 
-Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 
-Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape 
-Th' infection, when their borrowed gold composed 
-The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king 
-Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 
-Likening his Maker to the grazed ox-- 
-Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed 
-From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke 
-Both her first-born and all her bleating gods. 
-Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd 
-Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 
-Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 
-Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he 
-In temples and at altars, when the priest 
-Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 
-With lust and violence the house of God? 
-In courts and palaces he also reigns, 
-And in luxurious cities, where the noise 
-Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, 
-And injury and outrage; and, when night 
-Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 
-Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 
-Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 
-In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 
-Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 
-  These were the prime in order and in might: 
-The rest were long to tell; though far renowned 
-Th' Ionian gods--of Javan's issue held 
-Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
-Their boasted parents;--Titan, Heaven's first-born, 
-With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
-By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove, 
-His own and Rhea's son, like measure found; 
-So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
-And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 
-Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 
-Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff, 
-Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 
-Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old 
-Fled over Adria to th' Hesperian fields, 
-And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost Isles. 
-  All these and more came flocking; but with looks 
-Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared 
-Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their Chief 
-Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 
-In loss itself; which on his countenance cast 
-Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
-Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
-Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
-Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears. 
-Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound 
-Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
-His mighty standard. That proud honour claimed 
-Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall: 
-Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
-Th' imperial ensign; which, full high advanced, 
-Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
-With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed, 
-Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while 
-Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds: 
-At which the universal host up-sent 
-A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond 
-Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. 
-All in a moment through the gloom were seen 
-Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 
-With orient colours waving: with them rose 
-A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms 
-Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 
-Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 
-In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 
-Of flutes and soft recorders--such as raised 
-To height of noblest temper heroes old 
-Arming to battle, and instead of rage 
-Deliberate valour breathed, firm, and unmoved 
-With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; 
-Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage 
-With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase 
-Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 
-From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 
-Breathing united force with fixed thought, 
-Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 
-Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil. And now 
-Advanced in view they stand--a horrid front 
-Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 
-Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 
-Awaiting what command their mighty Chief 
-Had to impose. He through the armed files 
-Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 
-The whole battalion views--their order due, 
-Their visages and stature as of gods; 
-Their number last he sums. And now his heart 
-Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength, 
-Glories: for never, since created Man, 
-Met such embodied force as, named with these, 
-Could merit more than that small infantry 
-Warred on by cranes--though all the giant brood 
-Of Phlegra with th' heroic race were joined 
-That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 
-Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds 
-In fable or romance of Uther's son, 
-Begirt with British and Armoric knights; 
-And all who since, baptized or infidel, 
-Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 
-Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond, 
-Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 
-When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 
-By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 
-Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 
-Their dread Commander. He, above the rest 
-In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 
-Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost 
-All her original brightness, nor appeared 
-Less than Archangel ruined, and th' excess 
-Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen 
-Looks through the horizontal misty air 
-Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, 
-In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
-On half the nations, and with fear of change 
-Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 
-Above them all th' Archangel: but his face 
-Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care 
-Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 
-Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 
-Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 
-Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 
-The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 
-(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 
-For ever now to have their lot in pain-- 
-Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced 
-Of Heaven, and from eteranl splendours flung 
-For his revolt--yet faithful how they stood, 
-Their glory withered; as, when heaven's fire 
-Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, 
-With singed top their stately growth, though bare, 
-Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 
-To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 
-From wing to wing, and half enclose him round 
-With all his peers: attention held them mute. 
-Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, 
-Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last 
-Words interwove with sighs found out their way:-- 
-  "O myriads of immortal Spirits! O Powers 
-Matchless, but with th' Almighth!--and that strife 
-Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire, 
-As this place testifies, and this dire change, 
-Hateful to utter. But what power of mind, 
-Forseeing or presaging, from the depth 
-Of knowledge past or present, could have feared 
-How such united force of gods, how such 
-As stood like these, could ever know repulse? 
-For who can yet believe, though after loss, 
-That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
-Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend, 
-Self-raised, and repossess their native seat? 
-For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, 
-If counsels different, or danger shunned 
-By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 
-Monarch in Heaven till then as one secure 
-Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
-Consent or custom, and his regal state 
-Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed-- 
-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 remains 
-To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 
-What force effected not; that he no less 
-At length from us may find, who overcomes 
-By force hath overcome but half his foe. 
-Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife 
-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 
-Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th' Abyss 
-Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 
-Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired; 
-For who can think submission? War, then, war 
-Open or understood, must be resolved." 
-  He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew 
-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 grisly top 
-Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire 
-Shone with a glossy scurf--undoubted sign 
-That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 
-The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
-A numerous brigade hastened: as when bands 
-Of pioneers, 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 
-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 
-That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best 
-Deserve the precious 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 
-Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 
-With wondrous art founded the massy ore, 
-Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-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 
-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 
-With golden architrave; nor did there want 
-Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven; 
-The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon 
-Nor great Alcairo such magnificence 
-Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 
-Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 
-Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 
-In wealth and luxury. Th' ascending pile 
-Stood fixed her stately height, and straight the doors, 
-Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
-Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 
-And level pavement: from the arched roof, 
-Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
-Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
-With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light 
-As from a sky. The hasty multitude 
-Admiring entered; and the work some praise, 
-And some the architect. His hand was known 
-In Heaven by many a towered structure high, 
-Where sceptred Angels held their residence, 
-And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King 
-Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 
-Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright. 
-Nor was his name unheard or unadored 
-In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land 
-Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell 
-From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 
-Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn 
-To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
-A summer's day, and with the setting sun 
-Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star, 
-On Lemnos, th' Aegaean isle. Thus they relate, 
-Erring; for he with this rebellious rout 
-Fell long before; nor aught aviled him now 
-To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he scape 
-By all his engines, but was headlong sent, 
-With his industrious crew, to build in Hell. 
-  Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command 
-Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony 
-And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim 
-A solemn council forthwith to be held 
-At Pandemonium, the high capital 
-Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 
-From every band and squared regiment 
-By place or choice the worthiest: they anon 
-With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 
-Attended. All access was thronged; the gates 
-And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 
-(Though like a covered field, where champions bold 
-Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 
-Defied the best of Paynim chivalry 
-To mortal combat, or career with lance), 
-Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, 
-Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 
-In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides. 
-Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 
-In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers 
-Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, 
-The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 
-New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer 
-Their state-affairs: so thick the airy crowd 
-Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given, 
-Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed 
-In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 
-Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 
-Throng numberless--like that pygmean race 
-Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves, 
-Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side 
-Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 
-Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon 
-Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth 
-Wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance 
-Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; 
-At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 
-Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms 
-Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 
-Though without number still, amidst the hall 
-Of that infernal court. But far within, 
-And in their own dimensions like themselves, 
-The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim 
-In close recess and secret conclave sat, 
-A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, 
-Frequent and full. After short silence then, 
-And summons read, the great consult began. 
- 
- 
- 
-Book II                                                          
- 
-  
-High on a throne of royal state, which far 
-Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind, 
-Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
-Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
-Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 
-To that bad eminence; and, from despair 
-Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 
-Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 
-Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught, 
-His proud imaginations thus displayed:-- 
-  "Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven!-- 
-For, since no deep within her gulf can hold 
-Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen, 
-I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent 
-Celestial Virtues rising will appear 
-More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
-And trust themselves to fear no second fate!-- 
-Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven, 
-Did first create your leader--next, free choice 
-With what besides in council or in fight 
-Hath been achieved of merit--yet this loss, 
-Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
-Established in a safe, unenvied throne, 
-Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
-In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 
-Envy from each inferior; but who here 
-Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
-Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 
-Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
-Of endless pain? Where there is, then, no good 
-For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
-From faction: for none sure will claim in Hell 
-Precedence; none whose portion is so small 
-Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
-Will covet more! With this advantage, then, 
-To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, 
-More than can be in Heaven, we now return 
-To claim our just inheritance of old, 
-Surer to prosper than prosperity 
-Could have assured us; and by what best way, 
-Whether of open war or covert guile, 
-We now debate. Who can advise may speak." 
-  He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, 
-Stood up--the strongest and the fiercest Spirit 
-That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair. 
-His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed 
-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 spake:-- 
-  "My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, 
-More unexpert, 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 ryranny who reigns 
-By our delay? No! let us rather choose, 
-Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once 
-O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless 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, 
-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 porper 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? Th' ascent is easy, then; 
-Th' 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, 
-Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus, 
-We should be quite abolished, and expire. 
-What fear we then? what doubt we to incense 
-His utmost ire? which, to the height enraged, 
-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 
-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 denounced 
-Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
-To less than gods. On th' other side up rose 
-Belial, in act more graceful and humane. 
-A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed 
-For dignity composed, and high exploit. 
-But all was false and hollow; though his tongue 
-Dropped 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, 
-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 
-Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
-First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are filled 
-With armed watch, that render all access 
-Impregnable: oft on the bodering Deep 
-Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing 
-Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 
-Scorning surprise. Or, could we break our way 
-By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise 
-With blackest insurrection to confound 
-Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy, 
-All incorruptible, would on his throne 
-Sit unpolluted, and th' ethereal mould, 
-Incapable of stain, would soon expel 
-Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 
-Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 
-Is flat despair: we must exasperate 
-Th' Almighty Victor to spend all his rage; 
-And that must end us; that must be our cure-- 
-To be no more. Sad cure! for who would lose, 
-Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 
-Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 
-To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 
-In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 
-Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows, 
-Let this be good, whether our angry Foe 
-Can give it, or will ever? How he can 
-Is doubtful; that he never will is sure. 
-Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 
-Belike through impotence or unaware, 
-To give his enemies their wish, and end 
-Them in his anger whom his anger saves 
-To punish endless? 'Wherefore cease we, then?' 
-Say they who counsel war; 'we are decreed, 
-Reserved, and destined to eternal woe; 
-Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, 
-What can we suffer worse?' Is this, then, worst-- 
-Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms? 
-What when we fled amain, pursued and struck 
-With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 
-The Deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed 
-A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 
-Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse. 
-What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 
-Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 
-And plunge us in the flames; or from above 
-Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
-His red right hand to plague us? What if all 
-Her stores were opened, and this firmament 
-Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 
-Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 
-One day upon our heads; while we perhaps, 
-Designing or exhorting glorious war, 
-Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 
-Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 
-Or racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk 
-Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains, 
-There to converse with everlasting groans, 
-Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 
-Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse. 
-War, therefore, open or concealed, alike 
-My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile 
-With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 
-Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's height 
-All these our motions vain sees and derides, 
-Not more almighty to resist our might 
-Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 
-Shall we, then, live thus vile--the race of Heaven 
-Thus trampled, thus expelled, to suffer here 
-Chains and these torments? Better these than worse, 
-By my advice; since fate inevitable 
-Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, 
-The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 
-Our strength is equal; nor the law unjust 
-That so ordains. This was at first resolved, 
-If we were wise, against so great a foe 
-Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 
-I laugh when those who at the spear are bold 
-And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 
-What yet they know must follow--to endure 
-Exile, or igominy, or bonds, or pain, 
-The sentence of their Conqueror. This is now 
-Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear, 
-Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit 
-His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed, 
-Not mind us not offending, satisfied 
-With what is punished; whence these raging fires 
-Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 
-Our purer essence then will overcome 
-Their noxious vapour; or, inured, not feel; 
-Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 
-In temper and in nature, will receive 
-Familiar the fierce heat; and, void of pain, 
-This horror will grow mild, this darkness light; 
-Besides what hope the never-ending flight 
-Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 
-Worth waiting--since our present lot appears 
-For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, 
-If we procure not to ourselves more woe." 
-  Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
-Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth, 
-Not peace; and after him thus Mammon spake:-- 
-  "Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven 
-We war, if war be best, or to regain 
-Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then 
-May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
-To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
-The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
-The latter; for what place can be for us 
-Within Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord supreme 
-We overpower? Suppose he should relent 
-And publish grace to all, on promise made 
-Of new subjection; with what eyes could we 
-Stand in his presence humble, and receive 
-Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 
-With warbled hyms, and to his Godhead sing 
-Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits 
-Our envied sovereign, and his altar breathes 
-Ambrosial odours 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, 
-By force impossible, by leave obtained 
-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 
-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 
-Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 
-Through labour 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 
-Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar. 
-Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell! 
-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." 
-  He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
-Th' 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 
-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 
-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; 
-And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 
-Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood 
-With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear 
-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, 
-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 
-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 
-In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 
-Under th' inevitable curb, reserved 
-His captive multitude. For he, to be sure, 
-In height 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 
-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? 
-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 
-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 favoured more 
-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, 
-By force of 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 
-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 were 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 
-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 curse 
-Their frail original, and faded bliss-- 
-Faded so soon! Advise if this be worth 
-Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 
-Hatching vain empires." Thus beelzebub 
-Pleaded his devilish counsel--first devised 
-By Satan, and in part proposed: for whence, 
-But from the author of all ill, could spring 
-So deep a malice, to confound the race 
-Of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell 
-To mingle and involve, done all to spite 
-The great Creator? But their spite still serves 
-His glory to augment. The bold design 
-Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy 
-Sparkled in all their eyes: with full assent 
-They vote: whereat his speech he thus renews:-- 
-"Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 
-Synod of Gods, and, like to what ye are, 
-Great things resolved, which from the lowest deep 
-Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 
-Nearer our ancient seat--perhaps in view 
-Of those bright confines, whence, with neighbouring arms, 
-And opportune excursion, we may chance 
-Re-enter Heaven; or else in some mild zone 
-Dwell, not unvisited of Heaven's fair light, 
-Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
-Purge off this gloom: the soft delicious air, 
-To heal the scar of these corrosive fires, 
-Shall breathe her balm. But, first, whom shall we send 
-In search of this new World? whom shall we find 
-Sufficient? who shall tempt with wandering feet 
-The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss, 
-And through the palpable obscure find out 
-His uncouth way, or spread his airy flight, 
-Upborne with indefatigable wings 
-Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 
-The happy Isle? What strength, what art, can then 
-Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe, 
-Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
-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, 
-Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; and each 
-In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
-Astonished. None among the choice and prime 
-Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found 
-So hardy as to proffer or accept, 
-Alone, the dreadful voyage; till, at last, 
-Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
-Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
-Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake:-- 
-  "O Progeny of Heaven! Empyreal Thrones! 
-With reason hath deep silence and demur 
-Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
-And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light. 
-Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire, 
-Outrageous to devour, immures us round 
-Ninefold; and gates of burning adamant, 
-Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 
-These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
-Of unessential Night receives him next, 
-Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being 
-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 escape? 
-But I should ill become this throne, O Peers, 
-And this imperial sovereignty, 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 assume 
-These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 
-Refusing to accept as great a share 
-Of hazard as of honour, due alike 
-To him who reigns, and so much to him due 
-Of hazard more as he above the rest 
-High honoured sits? Go, therefore, mighty Powers, 
-Terror of Heaven, though fallen; intend at home, 
-While here shall be our home, what best may ease 
-The present misery, and render Hell 
-More tolerable; if there be cure or charm 
-To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 
-Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch 
-Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 
-Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 
-Deliverance for us all. This enterprise 
-None shall partake with me." Thus saying, rose 
-The Monarch, and prevented all reply; 
-Prudent lest, from his resolution raised, 
-Others among the chief might offer now, 
-Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 
-And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
-His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 
-Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
-Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice 
-Forbidding; and at once with him they rose. 
-Their rising all at once was as the sound 
-Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
-With awful reverence prone, and as a God 
-Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven. 
-Nor failed they to express how much they praised 
-That for the general safety he despised 
-His own: for neither do the Spirits damned 
-Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast 
-Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 
-Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 
-  Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
-Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief: 
-As, when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds 
-Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread 
-Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 
-Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower, 
-If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet, 
-Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, 
-The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
-Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 
-O shame to men! Devil with devil damned 
-Firm concord holds; men only disagree 
-Of creatures rational, though under hope 
-Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace, 
-Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 
-Among themselves, and levy cruel wars 
-Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: 
-As if (which might induce us to accord) 
-Man had not hellish foes enow besides, 
-That day and night for his destruction wait! 
-  The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth 
-In order came the grand infernal Peers: 
-Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed 
-Alone th' antagonist of Heaven, nor less 
-Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme, 
-And god-like imitated state: him round 
-A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed 
-With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
-Then of their session ended they bid cry 
-With trumpet's regal sound the great result: 
-Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim 
-Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy, 
-By herald's voice explained; the hollow Abyss 
-Heard far adn wide, and all the host of Hell 
-With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 
-Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 
-By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers 
-Disband; and, wandering, each his several way 
-Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 
-Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 
-Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 
-The irksome hours, till his great Chief return. 
-Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 
-Upon the wing or in swift race contend, 
-As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields; 
-Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 
-With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form: 
-As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 
-Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 
-To battle in the clouds; before each van 
-Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears, 
-Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms 
-From either end of heaven the welkin burns. 
-Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell, 
-Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 
-In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar:-- 
-As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned 
-With conquest, felt th' envenomed robe, and tore 
-Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 
-And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw 
-Into th' 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. 
-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 sweet 
-(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense) 
-Others apart sat on a hill retired, 
-In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 
-Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate-- 
-Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 
-And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 
-Of good and evil much they argued then, 
-Of happiness and final misery, 
-Passion and apathy, and glory and shame: 
-Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy!-- 
-Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm 
-Pain for a while or anguish, and excite 
-Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast 
-With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 
-Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 
-On bold adventure to discover wide 
-That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 
-Might yield them easier habitation, bend 
-Four ways their flying march, along the banks 
-Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge 
-Into the burning lake their baleful streams-- 
-Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; 
-Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; 
-Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 
-Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton, 
-Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 
-Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 
-Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
-Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks 
-Forthwith his former state and being forgets-- 
-Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 
-Beyond this flood a frozen continent 
-Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
-Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 
-Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 
-Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice, 
-A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 
-Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 
-Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air 
-Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 
-Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled, 
-At certain revolutions all the damned 
-Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change 
-Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
-From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 
-Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine 
-Immovable, infixed, and frozen round 
-Periods of time,--thence hurried back to fire. 
-They ferry over this Lethean sound 
-Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 
-And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 
-The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 
-In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, 
-All in one moment, and so near the brink; 
-But Fate withstands, and, to oppose th' attempt, 
-Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards 
-The ford, and of itself the water flies 
-All taste of living wight, as once it fled 
-The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 
-In confused march forlorn, th' adventurous 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, 
-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, 
-Obominable, inutterable, and worse 
-Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, 
-Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire. 
-  Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, 
-Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 
-Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell 
-Explores his solitary flight: sometimes 
-He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; 
-Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
-Up to the fiery concave towering high. 
-As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
-Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
-Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 
-Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
-Their spicy drugs; they on the trading flood, 
-Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 
-Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seemed 
-Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear 
-Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 
-And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, 
-Three iron, three of adamantine rock, 
-Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, 
-Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
-On either side a formidable Shape. 
-The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 
-But ended foul in many a scaly fold, 
-Voluminous and vast--a serpent armed 
-With mortal sting. About her middle round 
-A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
-With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
-A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep, 
-If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, 
-And kennel there; yet there still barked and howled 
-Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these 
-Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 
-Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore; 
-Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called 
-In secret, riding through the air she comes, 
-Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 
-With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon 
-Eclipses at their charms. The other Shape-- 
-If shape it might be called that shape had none 
-Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; 
-Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 
-For each seemed either--black it stood as Night, 
-Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, 
-And shook a dreadful dart: what seemed his head 
-The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 
-Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 
-The monster moving onward came as fast 
-With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode. 
-Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admired-- 
-Admired, not feared (God and his Son except, 
-Created thing naught valued he nor shunned), 
-And with disdainful look thus first began:-- 
-  "Whence and what art thou, execrable Shape, 
-That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 
-Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
-To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, 
-That be assured, without leave asked of thee. 
-Retire; or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, 
-Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven." 
-  To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied:-- 
-"Art thou that traitor Angel? art thou he, 
-Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then 
-Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
-Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons, 
-Conjured against the Highest--for which both thou 
-And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
-To waste eternal days in woe and pain? 
-And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven 
-Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here and scorn, 
-Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 
-Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, 
-False fugitive; and to thy speed add wings, 
-Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
-Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 
-Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before." 
-  So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape, 
-So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold, 
-More dreadful and deform. On th' other side, 
-Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
-Unterrified, and like a comet burned, 
-That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
-In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 
-Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
-Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands 
-No second stroke intend; and such a frown 
-Each cast at th' other as when two black clouds, 
-With heaven's artillery fraught, came rattling on 
-Over the Caspian,--then stand front to front 
-Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
-To join their dark encounter in mid-air. 
-So frowned the mighty combatants that Hell 
-Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; 
-For never but once more was wither like 
-To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 
-Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, 
-Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat 
-Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key, 
-Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 
-  "O father, what intends thy hand," she cried, 
-"Against thy only son? What fury, O son, 
-Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
-Against thy father's head? And know'st for whom? 
-For him who sits above, and laughs the while 
-At thee, ordained his drudge to execute 
-Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids-- 
-His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both!" 
-  She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest 
-Forbore: then these to her Satan returned:-- 
-  "So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
-Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, 
-Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
-What it intends, till first I know of thee 
-What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why, 
-In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st 
-Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son. 
-I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
-Sight more detestable than him and thee." 
-  T' whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied:-- 
-"Hast thou forgot me, then; and do I seem 
-Now in thine eye so foul?--once deemed so fair 
-In Heaven, when at th' assembly, and in sight 
-Of all the Seraphim with thee combined 
-In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, 
-All on a sudden miserable pain 
-Surprised thee, dim thine eyes and dizzy swum 
-In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
-Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 
-Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
-Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, 
-Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
-All th' host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid 
-At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 
-Portentous held me; but, familiar grown, 
-I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
-The most averse--thee chiefly, who, full oft 
-Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing, 
-Becam'st enamoured; and such joy thou took'st 
-With me in secret that my womb conceived 
-A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose, 
-And fields were fought in Heaven: wherein remained 
-(For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe 
-Clear victory; to our part loss and rout 
-Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, 
-Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down 
-Into this Deep; and in the general fall 
-I also: at which time this powerful key 
-Into my hands was given, with charge to keep 
-These gates for ever shut, which none can pass 
-Without my opening. Pensive here I sat 
-Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb, 
-Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, 
-Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. 
-At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, 
-Thine own begotten, breaking violent way, 
-Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain 
-Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 
-Transformed: but he my inbred enemy 
-Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart, 
-Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death! 
-Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 
-From all her caves, and back resounded Death! 
-I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems, 
-Inflamed with lust than rage), and, swifter far, 
-Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, 
-And, in embraces forcible and foul 
-Engendering with me, of that rape begot 
-These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 
-Surround me, as thou saw'st--hourly conceived 
-And hourly born, with sorrow infinite 
-To me; for, when they list, into the womb 
-That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw 
-My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth 
-Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round, 
-That rest or intermission none I find. 
-Before mine eyes in opposition sits 
-Grim Death, my son and foe, who set them on, 
-And me, his parent, would full soon devour 
-For want of other prey, but that he knows 
-His end with mine involved, and knows that I 
-Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane, 
-Whenever that shall be: so Fate pronounced. 
-But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun 
-His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope 
-To be invulnerable in those bright arms, 
-Through tempered heavenly; for that mortal dint, 
-Save he who reigns above, none can resist." 
-  She finished; and the subtle Fiend his lore 
-Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth:-- 
-  "Dear daughter--since thou claim'st me for thy sire, 
-And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge 
-Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys 
-Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change 
-Befallen us unforeseen, unthought-of--know, 
-I come no enemy, but to set free 
-From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
-Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host 
-Of Spirits that, in our just pretences armed, 
-Fell with us from on high. From them I go 
-This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 
-Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
-Th' unfounded Deep, and through the void immense 
-To search, with wandering quest, a place foretold 
-Should be--and, by concurring signs, ere now 
-Created vast and round--a place of bliss 
-In the purlieus of Heaven; and therein placed 
-A race of upstart creatures, to supply 
-Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, 
-Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 
-Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 
-Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 
-To know; and, this once known, shall soon return, 
-And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 
-Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 
-Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed 
-With odours. There ye shall be fed and filled 
-Immeasurably; all things shall be your prey." 
-  He ceased; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death 
-Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 
-His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
-Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
-His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire:-- 
-  "The key of this infernal Pit, by due 
-And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, 
-I keep, by him forbidden to unlock 
-These adamantine gates; against all force 
-Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
-Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 
-But what owe I to his commands above, 
-Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
-Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, 
-To sit in hateful office here confined, 
-Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly born-- 
-Here in perpetual agony and pain, 
-With terrors and with clamours compassed round 
-Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed? 
-Thou art my father, thou my author, thou 
-My being gav'st me; whom should I obey 
-But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon 
-To that new world of light and bliss, among 
-The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 
-At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 
-Thy daughter and thy darling, without end." 
-  Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, 
-Sad instrument of all our woe, she took; 
-And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
-Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew, 
-Which, but herself, not all the Stygian Powers 
-Could once have moved; then in the key-hole turns 
-Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
-Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
-Unfastens. On a sudden open fly, 
-With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 
-Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
-Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
-Of Erebus. She opened; but to shut 
-Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood, 
-That with extended wings a bannered host, 
-Under spread ensigns marching, mibht pass through 
-With horse and chariots ranked in loose array; 
-So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 
-Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 
-Before their eyes in sudden view appear 
-The secrets of the hoary Deep--a dark 
-Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
-Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height, 
-And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night 
-And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 
-Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
-Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
-For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, 
-Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
-Their embryon atoms: they around the flag 
-Of each his faction, in their several clans, 
-Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, 
-Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 
-Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil, 
-Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 
-Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere 
-He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits, 
-And by decision more embroils the fray 
-By which he reigns: next him, high arbiter, 
-Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, 
-The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, 
-Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 
-But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 
-Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 
-Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain 
-His dark materials to create more worlds-- 
-Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend 
-Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while, 
-Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith 
-He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 
-With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 
-Great things with small) than when Bellona storms 
-With all her battering engines, bent to rase 
-Some capital city; or less than if this frame 
-Of Heaven were falling, and these elements 
-In mutiny had from her axle torn 
-The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans 
-He spread for flight, and, in the surging smoke 
-Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league, 
-As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 
-Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets 
-A vast vacuity. All unawares, 
-Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops 
-Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 
-Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance, 
-The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 
-Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 
-As many miles aloft. That fury stayed-- 
-Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, 
-Nor good dry land--nigh foundered, on he fares, 
-Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 
-Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail. 
-As when a gryphon through the wilderness 
-With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, 
-Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 
-Had from his wakeful custody purloined 
-The guarded gold; so eagerly the Fiend 
-O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
-With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
-And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 
-At length a universal hubbub wild 
-Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused, 
-Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 
-With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 
-Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power 
-Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss 
-Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 
-Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 
-Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne 
-Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
-Wide on the wasteful Deep! With him enthroned 
-Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, 
-The consort of his reign; and by them stood 
-Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
-Of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and Chance, 
-And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroiled, 
-And Discord with a thousand various mouths. 
-  T' whom Satan, turning boldly, thus:--"Ye Powers 
-And Spirtis of this nethermost Abyss, 
-Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy 
-With purpose to explore or to disturb 
-The secrets of your realm; but, by constraint 
-Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
-Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 
-Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek, 
-What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
-Confine with Heaven; or, if some other place, 
-From your dominion won, th' Ethereal King 
-Possesses lately, thither to arrive 
-I travel this profound. Direct my course: 
-Directed, no mean recompense it brings 
-To your behoof, if I that region lost, 
-All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
-To her original darkness and your sway 
-(Which is my present journey), and once more 
-Erect the standard there of ancient Night. 
-Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge!" 
-  Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, 
-With faltering speech and visage incomposed, 
-Answered:  "I know thee, stranger, who thou art--  *** 
-That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
-Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 
-I saw and heard; for such a numerous host 
-Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep, 
-With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 
-Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates 
-Poured out by millions her victorious bands, 
-Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
-Keep residence; if all I can will serve 
-That little which is left so to defend, 
-Encroached on still through our intestine broils 
-Weakening the sceptre of old Night: first, Hell, 
-Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath; 
-Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world 
-Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 
-To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell! 
-If that way be your walk, you have not far; 
-So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed; 
-Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain." 
-  He ceased; and Satan stayed not to reply, 
-But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
-With fresh alacrity and force renewed 
-Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
-Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
-Of fighting elements, on all sides round 
-Environed, wins his way; harder beset 
-And more endangered than when Argo passed 
-Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, 
-Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
-Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steered. 
-So he with difficulty and labour hard 
-Moved on, with difficulty and labour he; 
-But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell, 
-Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain, 
-Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) 
-Paved after him a broad and beaten way 
-Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf 
-Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, 
-From Hell continued, reaching th' utmost orb 
-Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse 
-With easy intercourse pass to and fro 
-To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
-God and good Angels guard by special grace. 
-  But now at last the sacred influence 
-Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 
-Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
-A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
-Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, 
-As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 
-With tumult less and with less hostile din; 
-That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 
-Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 
-And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 
-Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; 
-Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 
-Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 
-Far off th' empyreal Heaven, extended wide 
-In circuit, undetermined square or round, 
-With opal towers and battlements adorned 
-Of living sapphire, once his native seat; 
-And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 
-This pendent World, in bigness as a star 
-Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 
-Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, 
-Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies. 
- 
- 
- 
-Book III                                                         
- 

<TRUNCATED>