Paradise Lost

by John Milton

That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth 10 Rose out of Chaos:

what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That, to the height of this great argument, 25 I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.

Such place Eternal Justice has prepared For those rebellious; here their prison ordained In utter darkness, and their portion set, As far removed from God and light of Heaven As from the centre thrice to th’ utmost pole.

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?

Heaven’s perpetual King, And put to proof his high supremacy, Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate,

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, Or do him mightier service as his thralls

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;

Jove,

Jove = Jupiter in Roman myth = Zeus in Greek mythology= King of the Gods = god of sky and thunder

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, shewn On Man by him seduced, but on himself 220 Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured.

Receive thy new possessor—one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself 255 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same,

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

Be no memorial, blotted out and rased By their rebellion from the Books of Life.

By falsities and lies the greatest part Of mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator,

Nor content with such 400 Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple of God

Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul.

His odious offerings, and adore the gods Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared A crew who, under names of old renown— Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train— With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 480 Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape Th’ infection, when their borrowed gold composed The calf in Oreb;

In temples and at altars, when the priest 495 Turns atheist, as did Eli’s sons, who filled With lust and violence the house of God?

Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds: At which the universal host up-sent A shout that tore Hell’s concave, and beyond Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.

For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th’ Abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 660 Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired; For who can think submission? War, then, war Open or understood, must be resolved.” He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 665 Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.

Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on— Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell 680 From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed In vision beatific. By him first 685 Men also, and by his suggestion taught, Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound, 690 And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best Deserve the precious bane. And here let those Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, 695 Learn how their greatest monuments of fame And strength, and art, are easily outdone By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour What in an age they, with incessant toil And hands innumerable, scarce perform.

A solemn council forthwith to be held At Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called From every band and squared regiment By place or choice the worthiest: they anon

Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus, We should be quite abolished, and expire. What fear we then? what doubt we to incense 95 His utmost ire? which, to the height enraged, 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, 100 And cannot cease to be, we are at worst On this side nothing;

Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, And with perpetual inroads to alarm, Though inaccessible, his fatal throne: 105 Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.”

With armed watch, that render all access 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 way 135 By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise With blackest insurrection to confound Heaven’s purest light, yet our great Enemy, All incorruptible, would on his throne Sit unpolluted, and th’ ethereal mould, 140 Incapable of stain, would soon expel Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair: we must exasperate Th’ Almighty Victor to spend all his rage; 145 And that must end us; that must be our cure— To be no more.

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?

Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse. War, therefore, open or concealed, alike My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile With him,

who deceive his mind, whose eye 190 Views all things at one view? He from Heaven’s height All these our motions vain sees and derides, Not more almighty to resist our might Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles.

what place can be for us Within Heaven’s bound, unless Heaven’s Lord supreme We overpower? Suppose he should relent And publish grace to all, on promise made Of new subjection; with what eyes could we 240 Stand in his presence humble, and receive Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits Our envied sovereign, and his altar breathes 245 Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers, Our servile offerings? This must be our task In Heaven, this our delight. How wearisome Eternity so spent in worship paid To whom we hate!

Let us not then pursue, 250 By force impossible, by leave obtained Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state Of splendid vassalage; but rather seek Our own good from ourselves, and from our own Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 255 Free and to none accountable, preferring Hard liberty before the easy yoke Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear

After the tempest. Such applause was heard As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased, Advising peace: for such another field They dreaded worse than Hell; so much the fear Of thunder and the sword of Michael 295 Wrought still within them;

Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, Or ambush from the Deep.

What if we find 345 Some easier enterprise? There is a place (If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven Err not)—another World, the happy seat Of some new race, called Man, about this time To be created like to us, though less 350 In power and excellence, but favoured more Of him who rules above; so was his will Pronounced among the Gods, and by an oath That shook Heaven’s whole circumference confirmed.

Though Heaven be shut, And Heaven’s high Arbitrator sit secure 360 In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, The utmost border of his kingdom, left To their defence who hold it:

here, perhaps, Some advantageous act may be achieved By sudden onset—either with Hell-fire 365 To waste his whole creation, or possess 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 370 Abolish his own works. This would surpass ...

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 385 The great Creator?

But their spite still serves His glory to augment.

Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized All th’ host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid 760 At first, and called me Sin,

Into my hands was given, with charge to keep These gates for ever shut, which none can pass Without my opening. Pensive here I sat Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb, Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, 780 Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,

and cried out Death! Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed From all her caves, and back resounded Death!

Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread Th’ unfounded Deep, and through the void immense 830 To search, with wandering quest, a place foretold Should be—and, by concurring signs, ere now Created vast and round—a place of bliss In the purlieus of Heaven; and therein placed A race of upstart creatures,

“The key of this infernal Pit, by due And by command of Heaven’s all-powerful King, I keep, by him forbidden to unlock These adamantine gates; against all force Death ready stands to interpose his dart,

then in the key-hole turns Th’ intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens. On a sudden open fly,

With horse and chariots ranked in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth

Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more embroils the fray By which he reigns: next him, high arbiter, 910 Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 915 Unless th’ Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds—

In mutiny had from her axle torn The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans He spread for flight,

Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world 1005 Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell!

he once passed, soon after, when Man fell, Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain, 1025 Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) Paved after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, From Hell continued, reaching th’ utmost orb 1030 Of this frail World;

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good Angels guard by special grace.

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, As from her outmost works, a broken foe,