The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, 95 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, I 100 And to the fierce contention 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,] 105 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 ; 110 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 terrour of this arm so late

Doubted his empire ; that were low indeed) 115 That were an ignominy, and shame beneath

This downfall ;) since, by fate, the strength of Gods
And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; !
Since, through experience of this great event,

In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 120 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 the excess of joy

Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of Heaven.) 125 So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain,

Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair :
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer. |

[O Prince ! 0 Chief of many thronëd Powers,]

That led the embattled Seraphim to war 130 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, | 135 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 140 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 145 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, 1

Or do him mightier service, as his thralls 150 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 then avail,) though yet we feel

Strength undiminished, or eternal being 155 To undergo eternal punishment ?

Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied. I

[Fallen Cherub !] to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering : | but of this be sure,

To do aught good never will be our task, 160 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,
165 And out of good still to find means of evil ; |

Which oft-times 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 170 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, 175 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 the occasion,] whether scorn,

Or satiate fury, yield it from our Foe. |
180 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 ;] 185 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 ;]
190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope ; )

If not,] what resolution from despair.]

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes

That sparkling blazed ;] his other parts besides, 195 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
200 By ancient Tarsus held ; , or that sea-beast

Leviathan,) which God of all his works

176. His is used for the Neuter as well as Mascul. gender. The pronoun its rarely occurs in Milton, and never in the English Bible. It is of comparatively recent introduction. Ree Trench, English Past and Present ; Craig, The English of Shakspere.

177. Vast and boundless.-The attribute boundless, coming immediately after vast, destroys all the specific power of the latter.

192. Supply spake after Satan.
194. His other parts besides-A pleonasm.

195. Prone means properly lying forward on one's front; the opposite is supine.

197. The relative whom has Titanian, or Earth-born, for its antecedent, an order borrowed from the Latin.

199. Briareos or Typhon.-One of the Titans.

201. Leviathan, which.-Leviathan is bere of the neuter gender, but v. 203, it is mas. culine. Thus, with reference to ship, wo use she and which.

E

Created hugest | that swim the ocean stream : 1
Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 205 Deeming some island, oft) as seamen tell, I

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind
Moors by his side under the lee,) while night
Invests the sea, and wishëd morn delays :]

So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay, 210 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
215 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, shown

On Man by him seduced ; | but on himself
220 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' the midst a horrid vale.] 225 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 :]