From faction; for none fure will clame 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 clame our juft inheritance of old,
Surer to profper than profperity

35

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

40

We now debate; who can advife, may speak.
He ceas'd; and next him Moloch, fcepter'd king,
Stood

fury which diftinguish this Spirit from the reft of the fallen Angels. He is defcrib'd in the first book, as befmeared with the blood of human facrifices, and delighted with the tears of parents and the cries of children. In the fecond book he is marked out as the fierceft Spirit that fought in Heaven: and if we confider the figure he makes in the fixth book, where the battel of Angels is described, we find it every way answerable to the same furious enraged character. It may be worth while to obferve, that Milton has reprefented this violent impetuous Spirit, who is hurried on by fuch precipitate paffions, as the firft that rifes in that affembly, to give his opinion upon their prefent pofture of affairs. Accordingly he

declares

Stood

up, the strongest and the fierceft Spirit That fought in Heav'n, now fiercer by defpair: 45

His truft was with th' Eternal to be deem'd
Equal in ftrength, and rather than be lefs

Car'd not to be at all; with that care loft
Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worfe

He reck'd not, and these words thereafter spake. 50
My fentence is for open war: of wiles,

More unexpert, I boaft not: them let thofe
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.
For while they fit contriving, fhall the rest,
Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait

declares himfelf abruptly for war, and appears incenfed at his companions, for lofing fo much time as even to deliberate upon it. All his fentiments are rafh, audacious and defperate. Such is that of arming themselves with their tortures, and turning their punishments upon him who inflicted them. His preferring annihilation to fhame or mifery is alfo highly fuitable to his character; as the comfort he draws from their difturbing the peace of Heaven, that if it be not victory it is revenge, is a fentiment truly diabolical, and becoming the bitterness of this implacable Spirit. Audifon.

55 The

47. and rather than be less Car'd not to be at all;] Dr. Bentley reads He rather than &c. becaufe at prefent the conftruction is and his truft car'd not &c. But fuch fmall faults are not only to be pardon'd but overlook'd in great geniufes. Fabius VIII. 3. fays of Cicero, In vitium fæpe incidit fecurus tam parvæ obfervationis: and in X. 1. Neque id ftatim legenti perfuafum fit omnia, quæ magni auctores dixerint, effe perfecta; nam et labuntur aliquando, et oneri cedunt &c. Pearce.

50. He reck'd not,] He made no account of. To reck much the fame as to reckon. And spake thereafter, that is accordingly, as one who made no account of God or Hell or any thing.

P 3

56 - fit

The fignal to afcend, fit ling'ring here
Heav'n's fugitives, and for their dwelling place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns

By our delay? no, let us rather choose,

Arm'd with Hell flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heav'n's high tow'rs to force refiftlefs way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms

Against the torturer; when to meet the noise

Of his almighty engin he fhall hear

Infernal thunder, and for lightning fee
Black fire and horror fhot with equal rage
Among his Angels, and his throne itself
Mix'd with Tartarean fulphur, and strange fire,
His own invented torments. But perhaps
The way feems difficult and fteep to fcale
With upright wing against a higher foe.

56.-fit ling'ring here] Dr. Bentley reads flay ling'ring here, becaufe we have before fland in arms: but ftand does not always fignify the pofture; fee an inftance of this in John I. 26. To ftand in arms is no more than to be in arms. So in XI. 1. it is faid of Adam and Eve that they food repentant, that is

60

65

70

Let

were repentant; for a little before it is faid that they profirate fell. That fit is right here, may appear from ver. 164, 420, 475. Pearce. Sit ling'ring to anfwer fit contriving before. While they fit contriving, fhall the reft fit ling'ring?

69. Mix'd with Tartarean fulphur,]

པ

Let fuch bethink them, if the fleepy drench
Of that forgetful lake benumm not still,
That in our proper motion we afcend
Up to our native feat: defcent and fall

To us is adverfe. Who but felt of late,
When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
Insulting, and pursued us through the deep,
With what compulfion and laborious flight
We funk thus low? Th'afcent is eafy then;
Th'event is fear'd; fhould we again provoke

Our stronger, fome worse

way

To our deftruction; if there be in Hell

75

8a

85

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

Than to dwell here, driv'n out from blifs, condemn'd
In this abhorred deep to utter woe;
Where pain of unextinguishable fire
Muft exercise us without hope of end

The vaffals of his anger, when the fcourge

Inexorably, and the torturing hour

99

Calls us to penance? More deftroy'd than thus
We should be quite abolish'd and expire.
What fear we then? what doubt we to incenfe
His utmost ire? which to the highth enrag'd,
Will either quite confume us, and reduce
To nothing this effential, happier far
Than miferable to have eternal being:
Or if our fubftance be indeed divine,

90. The vaffals of his anger,] The Devils are the vaffals of the Almighty, thence Mammon fays, II. 252, Our state of Splendid vaffalage. And the vafals of anger is an expreffion confirm'd by Spenfer in his Tears of the Muses,

Ah, wretched world, and all that are therein,

The vafals of God's wrath, and

flaves of fin.

95

And

But yet when I remember St. Paul's
words, Rom. IX. 22. The veffels of
wrath fitted to deftruction, ExeUN
opyns, I fufpect that Milton here,
as perpetually, kept clofe to the in
Scripture file, and leave it to the
reader's choice, vaffals or vejels.
Bentley.

91. Inexorably,] In the firft editions it is Inexorably, in others Inexorable: and it may be either,

we are at worft] We are the worst condition we can be. is upheld by fate, as he elfewhere 104. his fatal throne:] That expreffes it, I. 133.

108. To less than Gods.] He gave it To less than God. For it was dangerous to the Angels. Bentley. This emendation appears very pro

bable