The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low;
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful; yet he pleas'd 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 urg'd
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
Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair
And utter dissolution, as the scope

Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.

First, what revenge? the tow'rs of heav'n are fill'd
With armed watch, that render all access
Impregnable; oft on the bord'ring deep
Encamp their legions, or with óbscure 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

expression, but applied differently in Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act v.

Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way

Of starved people.

113. and could make the

worse appear The better reason,] Word for word, from the known profession of the ancient Sophists, Τον λογον τον ηττω κρειττω WLY. Bentley.

115

120

125

130

135

124. in fact of arms,] Dr. Heylin says it is from the Italian Fatto d'arme a battle; or else we should read here feats of arms, as in ver. 537.

-with feats of arms

From either end of heav'n the welkin burns.

Or possibly the author might have given it in facts of arms, such errors of the press being very common and easy.

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,

140

145

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,

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,

150

155

seems better; they should be deprived not only of all sense but of all motion, not only of all the intellectual but of all vital functions.

156. impotence,] It is here meant for the opposite to wisdom, and is used frequently by the Latin authors to signify a weakness of mind, an unsteadiness in the government of our passions, or the conduct of our designs. In this sense Cicero in Epist. ad Fam. ix. 9. says Victoria ferociores impotentioresque

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?
What when we fled amain, pursued and struck
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,
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

reddidit. And in Tusc. Disp. iv. 23. we read Impotentia dictorum et factorum: hence we often meet with impotens animi, iræ, doloris &c. and Horace in Od. i. xxxvii. 10. has Quidlibet impotens sperare. Pearce.

159. Wherefore cease we then? &c.] Belial is here proposing what is urged by those who counsel war; and then replies to it, Is this then worst, &c. and shews that they had been in a worse condition 165-169. that sure was worse; and might be so again 170-186. this would be

worse.

170. What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,] 【s. xxx.

160

165

170

33. For Tophet is ordained of old, the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

174. His red right hand] So Horace says of Jupiter rubente dextera. But being spoken of Vengeance, it must be her right hand, as in the next line her stores. Bentley.

There is something plausible and ingenious in this observation: but by his seems to have been meant God's, who is mentioned so often in the course of the debate, that he might very well be understood without being named; and by her stores in the

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,
Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,

Ages of hopeless end? this would be worse.
War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike

175

180

185

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

All these our motions vain sees and derides ;
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

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.
I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold
And vent'rous, if that fail them, shrink and fear
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
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

the Lord shall have them in derision. Nor let it pass unobserved, that this is constantly Milton's way, and the true way of spelling highth, and not as commonly heighth, where what the e has to do or how it comes in it is not easy to apprehend.

191

195

200

205

210

215

199. To suffer, as to do,] Et facere, et pati. So Scævola boasted that he was a Roman, and knew as well how to suffer as to act. Et facere et pati fortia Romanum est. Liv. ii. 12. So in Horace, Od. iii. xxiv. 43. Quidvis et facere et pati.