When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear,
Infulting, and pursued us through the deep,
With what compulsion, and laborious flight,
We funk thus low? Th'ascent is easy then;
Th'event is fear'd; fhould we again provoke
Our stronger, fome worse way his wrath
To our deftruction; if there be in Hell
Fear to be worse destroy'd: what can be worse
Than to dwell here, driv'n out from blifs, condemn'd
In this abhorred deep to utter woe;
Where pain of unextinguishable fire
Muft exercise us,without hope of end,
The vaffals of his anger, when the fcourge
Inexorably, and the torturing hour
Calls us to penance? More destroy'd than thus,
We should be quite abolish'd, and expire.
What fear we then? what doubt we to incense
His utmost ire? which, to the highth enrag'd,
Will either quite confume us, and reduce
To nothing this effential, happier far,
Than miferable, to have eternal being:
Or if our substance be indeed divine,
And cannot ceafe to be, we are at worst
On this fide nothing; and by proof we feel
Our pow'r fufficient to disturb his Heaven,
And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
Though inacceffible, his fatal throne:
Which if not victory, is yet revenge.
He ended, frowning; and his look denounc’d
Desperate revenge, and battel dangerous
To less than Gods. On th'other fide up
Belial, in act more graceful and humane;
A fairer perfon loft not Heav'n; he seem'd
For dignity compos'd,and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropt Manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Matureft counfels: for his thoughts were low;
To vice induftrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and flothful: yet he pleas'd 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 urg'd
Main reason to persuade immediate war,
Did not diffuade me, most, and seem to cast
Ominous conjecture on the whole fuccefs:
When he, who most excels in fact of arms,
In what he counfels, and in what excels,
Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair
And utter dissolution, as the scope
Of all his aim, after fome dire revenge.
First, what revenge? the tow'rs of Heav'n are fill'd
With armed watch, that render all access
Impregnable; oft on the bord'ring deep
Incamp their legions, or, with obfcure 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 fhould rife,
With blackest insurrection, to confound
Heav'n's pureft light; yet our great enemy,
All incorruptible, would on his throne
Sit unpolluted, and th’ethereal mold,
Incapable of flain, would foon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
Victorious. Thus repuls'd, 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; fad cure; for who would lofe,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night,
Devoid of fenfe 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, fo wife, 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 faves
To punish endless? Wherefore cease we then,
Say they who counsel war, we are decreed,
Referv'd, and deftin'd to eternal woe;
Whatever doing, what can we fuffer more,
What can we fuffer worfe? Is this then worst,
Thus fitting, thus confulting, thus in arms?
What, when we fled amain, pursued and ftruck 165
With Heav'n's afflicting thunder, and befought
The deep to shelter us? this Hell then seem'd
A refuge from those wounds: or when we lay
Chain'd on the burning lake? that, fure,was worse.
What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,
Awak'd should blow them into sev'nfold 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 ftores were open'd, and this firmament
Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threatning hideous fall
One day upon our heads, while we, perhaps,
Designing, or exhorting glorious war,
Caught in a fiery tempeft, shall be hurl'd
Each on his rock transfix'd, the sport and prey
Of wracking whirlwinds, or for ever funk
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
There to converse with everlasting groans,
Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,
Ages of hopeless end? this would be worse.
War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike
My voice diffuades; for what can force or guile
With him, or who deceive his mind, whose
Views all things at one view? he, from Heav'n's highth,
All these our motions vain fees,and derides;
Not more almighty to refift our might,
Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles.
Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven
Thus trampled, thus expell'd,to fuffer here
Chains and these torments? better these than worse
By my advice; fince fate inevitable
Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,
The victor's will. To fuffer, as to do,
Our ftrength is equal, nor the law unjust
That fo ordains: this was at firft refolv'd,
If we were wise, against so great a foe
Contending, and fo doubtful what might fall.
I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold
And ventrous, if that fail them, fhrink, and fear 205
What yet they know must follow, to indure
Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain,
The sentence of their conqu'ror: this is now
Our doom; which if we can fuftain and bear,
Our fupreme foe in time may much remit
His anger; and, perhaps, thus far remov'd,
Not mind us, not offending, fatisfy'd
With what is punish'd; whence these raging fires
Will flacken, if his breath ftir not their flames.
Our purer effence then will overcome
Their noxious vapor; or inur'd, not feel,
Or chang'd at length, and to the place conform'd
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