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With armed watch, that render all access
Impregnable: oft on the bord'ring 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
Heav'n'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 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,

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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, swallow'd up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night,

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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,
Reserv'd, and destin'd, 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?

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What, when we fled amain, pursued, and struck 165
With heav'n's afflicting thunder, and besought
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 sure was worse.
What if the breath, that kindled those grim fires,

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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 stores were open'd, and this firmament
Of hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threat'ning hideous fall
One day upon our heads; while we perhaps,
Designing or exhorting glorious war,
Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurl'd
Each on his rock transfix'd, the sport and prey
Of wracking whirlwinds; or for ever sunk
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
There to converse with everlasting groans,

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Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,

Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse.
War therefore, open or conceal'd, 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 heav'n's highth 190
All these our motions vain sees and derides;

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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 expell'd to suffer here

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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 resolv'd,
If we were wise, against so great a foe
Contending, and so doubtful what might fall.

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I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold

And vent'rous, if that fail them, shrink and fear

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What yet they know must follow, to endure

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain,

The sentence of their conqu'ror: this is now

Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear,

Our supreme foe in time may much remit

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His anger and perhaps, thus far remov'd,

Not mind us not offending, satisfied

With what is punish'd; whence these raging fires

Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames.

Our purer essence then will overcome

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Their noxious vapour: or, inur'd, not feel;

Or, chang'd at length, and to the place conform'd

In temper and in nature, will receive

Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain;

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light; 220 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.'

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Thus Belial, with words cloth'd in reason's garb,

Counsell'd 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

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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

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Within heav'n's bound, unless heav'n's Lord supreme

We overpow'r? 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

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Strict laws impos'd, to celebrate his throne
With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing
Forc'd hallelujahs; while he lordly sits
Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes
Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,
Our servile offerings? This must be our task
In heav'n, this our delight; how wearisome
Eternity so spent, in worship paid

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To whom we hate! Let us not then pursue
By force impossible, by leave obtain❜d

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Our own good from ourselves, and from our own

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,

Free, and to none accountable, preferring

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Hard liberty before the easy yoke

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear

Then most conspicuous, when great things of small,

Useful of hurtful, prosp'rous of adverse,

We can create; and in what place soe'er

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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 heav'n's all-ruling Sire
Choose to reside, his glory unobscur'd,

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And with the majesty of darkness round

Covers his throne; from whence deep thunders roar

Must'ring their rage, and heav'n resembles hell.

As he our darkness, cannot we his light

Imitate when we please? This desert soil

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Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;

Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can heav'n show more?
Our torments also may in length of time
Become our elements; these piercing fires
As soft as now severe, our temper chang'd
Into their temper; which must needs remove
The sensible of pain. All things invite

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To peaceful counsels, and the settled state
Of order, how in safety best we may
Compose our present evils, with regard

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Of what we are, and where: dismissing quite

All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise.'

He scarce had finish'd, when such murmur fill'd
Th' assembly, as when hollow rocks retain
The sound of blust'ring winds, which all night long
Had rous'd the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
Seafaring men o'er-watch'd, whose bark by chance
Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay

After the tempest: such applause was heard
As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleas'd
Advising peace: for such another field

They dreaded worse than hell: so much the fear
Of thunder and the sword of Michaël

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Wrought still within them, and no less desire

To found this nether empire, which might rise
By policy, and long procéss of time,
In emulation opposite to heaven.

Which when Beelzebub perceiv'd, than whom,
Satan except, none higher sat, with grave
Aspéct he rose, and in his rising seem'd
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:

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'Thrones and Imperial Pow'rs, Offspring of Heaven, 310 Ethereal Virtues; or these titles now

Must we renounce, and, changing style, be call'd
Princes of Hell? for so the popular vote

Inclines here to continue, and build up here

A growing empire: doubtless, while we dream,

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And know not that the King of heav'n hath doom'd

This place our dungeon; not our safe retreat

Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt

From heav'n's high jurisdiction, in new league

Banded against his throne, but to remain

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In strictest bondage, though thus far remov❜d
Under th' inevitable curb, reserv'd

His captive multitude: for he, be sure,

In highth or depth, still first and last will reign

Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part

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By our revolt; but over hell extend

His empire, and with iron scepter rule

Us here, as with his golden those in heaven.
What sit we then projecting peace and war?
War hath determin'd us, and foil'd with loss
Irreparable; terms of peace yet none

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Vouchsaf'd or sought; for what peace will be given
To us enslav'd, but custody severe

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment

Inflicted? and what peace can we return,

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But to our pow'r hostility and hate,

Untam'd reluctance, and revenge, though slow,

Yet ever plotting how the conqu'ror least

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice

In doing what we most in suffering feel?

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Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need

With dang'rous expedition to invade

Heav'n, whose high walls fear no assault or siege,

Or ambush from the deep. What if we find

Some easier enterprise? There is a place

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(If ancient and prophetic fame in heaven

Err not), another world, the happy seat

Of some new race, call'd Man, about this time
To be created like to us, though less

In pow'r and excellence, but favour'd more
Of him who rules above; so was his will

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Pronounc'd among the gods; and by an oath,
That shook heav'n's whole circumference, confirm'd.
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 or subtlety. Though heav'n be shut,
And heav'n's high Arbitrator sit secure

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In his own strength, this place may lie expos'd,

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The utmost border of his kingdom, left

To their defence who hold it: here perhaps

Some advantageous act may be achiev'd
By sudden onset; either with hell fire

To waste his whole creation, or possess

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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

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In our confusion, and our joy upraise

In his disturbance; when his darling sons,

Hurl'd headlong to partake with us, shall curse

Their frail original, and faded bliss,

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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 devis'd
By Satan, and in part propos'd: 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
Pleas'd 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 judg'd, well ended long debate,

Synod of gods, and like to what ye are,

Great things resolv'd, which, from the lowest deep,
Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate,

Nearer our ancient seat; perhaps in view

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Of those bright confines, whence, with neighb'ring arms
And opportune excursion, we may chance
Re-enter heav'n; or else in some mild zone
Dwell, not unvisited of heav'n's fair light,
Secure; and at the bright'ning orient beam
Purge off this gloom: the soft delicious air,
To heal the scar of these corrosive fires,

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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 wand'ring feet

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