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PARADISE LOST.

BOOK II.

ARGUMENT.

The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: Some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creatore, equal or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search. Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage; is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations led them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hell gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the gulf between Hell and Heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought.

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK II.

HIGH on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous east with richest hand
Show'rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merits rais'd

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To that bad eminence; and, from despair

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires

Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue

Vain war with Heav'n; and, by success untaught,
His proud imaginations, thus display'd.

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Pow'rs and Dominions, Deities of Heav'n!
For, since no deep within her gulf can hold
Immortal vigour, though oppress'd and fall'n,
I give not Heav'n for lost. From this descent
Celestial virtues, rising, will appear

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More glorious and more dread than from no fall,
And trust themselves to fear no second fate.

Me, though just right and the fix'd laws of Heaven

Did first create your leader, next free choice,

With what besides, in council or in fight,

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Hath been atchiev'd of merit, yet this loss,

BOOK. II.

Thus far at least recover'd, hath much more
Establish'd in a safe unenvied throne,
Yielded with full consent. The happier state
In Heav'n, which follows dignity, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here

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Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thund'rer'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 Heav'n, we now return
To claim our just inheritance of old,
Surer to prosper than prosperity

Could have assur'd us; and by what best way,
Whether of open war or covert guile,

He ceas'd; and next him Moloch, scepter'd king,

We now debate; who can advise may speak."

Stood up; the strongest and fiercest Spirit

That fought in Heav'n, now fiercer by despair:
His trust was with th' Eternal to be deem'd
Equal in strength, and rather than be less,
Car'd not to be at all; with that care lost
Went all his fear of God, or Hell, or worse,
He reck'd 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 ling'ring here
Heav'n's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark opprobious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns

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By our delay? No, let us rather choose,

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Arm'd with Hell-flames and fury, all at once

O'er Heav'n's high tow'rs 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

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Infernal thunder, and for lightning see
Black fire and horror shot with equal rage
Among his Angels, and his throne itself
Mix'd 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 proper 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 fear'd; should we again provoke
Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find
To our destruction, if there be in Hell

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Fear to be worse destroy'd: what can be worse

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Than to dwell here, driv'n out from bliss, condemn'd

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

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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

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His utmost ire? which, to the height enrag'd,
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 pow'r sufficient to disturb his Heaven,
And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
Though inaccessible, his fatal throne;
Which if not victory, is yet revenge,'

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