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 120 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 125 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 130 Impregnable; oft on the bordering deep Encamp their legions; or, with obscure wing,

Scout far and wide into the realm of night, Scorning surprise. Or could we break our

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, 150 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 155
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,

160

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey

Of racking whirlwinds; or for ever sunk Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains; There to converse with everlasting groans, Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 185

Ages of hopeless end? This would be

worse.

Our purer essence then will overcome
Their noxious vapor; or, inured, not feel;
Or, changed at length, and to the place con-
formed

In temper and in nature, will receive
Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain;

Through labor and endurance. This deep

world

Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst

Thick clouds and dark doth heaven's allruling Sire

Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 265 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 269 Imitate when we please? This desert soil Wants not her hidden luster, 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 re

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 346 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 favored more Of him who rules above; so was his will 351 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 mold Or substance, how endued, and what their 356 And where their weakness, how attempted best,

power,

By force or subtlety. Though heaven be shut,

And heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure
In his own strength, this place may lie ex-
posed,
360
The utmost border of his kingdom, left
To their defense who hold it; here per-
haps

Some advantageous act may be achieved
By sudden onset; either with hell-fire

To waste his whole creation, or possess 365 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

370

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

These royalties, and not refuse to reign,
Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honor, due alike

450

To him who reigns, and so much to him due Of hazard more, as he above the rest 455 High honored 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 461
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 465
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