Paradise Lost - Milton John - Страница 3

Th' advantage, and descending tread us down

Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts

Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.

Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.

They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung

Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch

On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,

Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.

Nor did they not perceave the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

Yet to their Generals Voyce they soon obeyd

Innumerable. As when the potent Rod

Of AMRAMS Son in EGYPTS evill day

Wav'd round the Coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud

Of LOCUSTS, warping on the Eastern Wind,

That ore the Realm of impious PHAROAH hung

Like Night, and darken'd all the Land of NILE:

So numberless were those bad Angels seen

Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell

'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;

Till, as a signal giv'n, th' uplifted Spear

Of their great Sultan waving to direct

Thir course, in even ballance down they light

On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain;

A multitude, like which the populous North

Pour'd never from her frozen loyns, to pass

RHENE or the DANAW, when her barbarous Sons

Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread

Beneath GIBRALTAR to the LYBIAN sands.

Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band

The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood

Their great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms

Excelling human, Princely Dignities,

And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;

Though of their Names in heav'nly Records now

Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd

By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.

Nor had they yet among the Sons of EVE

Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth,

Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,

By falsities and lyes the greatest part

Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake

God their Creator, and th' invisible

Glory of him, that made them, to transform

Oft to the Image of a Brute, adorn'd

With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,

And Devils to adore for Deities:

Then were they known to men by various Names,

And various Idols through the Heathen World.

Say, Muse, their Names then known, who first, who last,

Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,

At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth

Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,

While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof?

The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell

Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix

Their Seats long after next the Seat of God,

Their Altars by his Altar, Gods ador'd

Among the Nations round, and durst abide

JEHOVAH thundring out of SION, thron'd

Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd

Within his Sanctuary it self their Shrines,

Abominations; and with cursed things

His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan'd,

And with their darkness durst affront his light.

First MOLOCH, horrid King besmear'd with blood

Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,

Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud

Their childrens cries unheard, that past through fire

To his grim Idol. Him the AMMONITE

Worshipt in RABBA and her watry Plain,

In ARGOB and in BASAN, to the stream

Of utmost ARNON. Nor content with such

Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart

Of SOLOMON he led by fraud to build

His Temple right against the Temple of God

On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove

The pleasant Vally of HINNOM, TOPHET thence

And black GEHENNA call'd, the Type of Hell.

Next CHEMOS, th' obscene dread of MOABS Sons,

From AROER to NEBO, and the wild

Of Southmost ABARIM; in HESEBON

And HERONAIM, SEONS Realm, beyond

The flowry Dale of SIBMA clad with Vines,

And ELEALE to th' ASPHALTICK Pool.

PEOR his other Name, when he entic'd

ISRAEL in SITTIM on their march from NILE

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.

Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg'd

Even to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove

Of MOLOCH homicide, lust hard by hate;

Till good JOSIAH drove them thence to Hell.

With these came they, who from the bordring flood

Of old EUPHRATES to the Brook that parts

EGYPT from SYRIAN ground, had general Names

Of BAALIM and ASHTAROTH, those male,

These Feminine. For Spirits when they please

Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft

And uncompounded is their Essence pure,

Not ti'd or manacl'd with joynt or limb,

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose

Dilated or condens't, bright or obscure,

Can execute their aerie purposes,

And works of love or enmity fulfill.

For those the Race of ISRAEL oft forsook

Their living strength, and unfrequented left

His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down

To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low

Bow'd down in Battel, sunk before the Spear

Of despicable foes. With these in troop

Came ASTORETH, whom the PHOENICIANS call'd

ASTARTE, Queen of Heav'n, with crescent Horns;

To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon

SIDONIAN Virgins paid their Vows and Songs,

In SION also not unsung, where stood

Her Temple on th' offensive Mountain, built

By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,

Beguil'd by fair Idolatresses, fell

To Idols foul. THAMMUZ came next behind,

Whose annual wound in LEBANON allur'd

The SYRIAN Damsels to lament his fate

In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,

While smooth ADONIS from his native Rock

Ran purple to the Sea, suppos'd with blood

Of THAMMUZ yearly wounded: the Love-tale

Infected SIONS daughters with like heat,

Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch

EZEKIEL saw, when by the Vision led

His eye survay'd the dark Idolatries

Of alienated JUDAH. Next came one

Who mourn'd in earnest, when the Captive Ark

Maim'd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off

In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge,

Where he fell flat, and sham'd his Worshipers:

DAGON his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man

And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high

Rear'd in AZOTUS, dreaded through the Coast

Of PALESTINE, in GATH and ASCALON,

And ACCARON and GAZA's frontier bounds.

Him follow'd RIMMON, whose delightful Seat

Was fair DAMASCUS, on the fertil Banks

Of ABBANA and PHARPHAR, lucid streams.

He also against the house of God was bold:

A Leper once he lost and gain'd a King,

AHAZ his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew

Gods Altar to disparage and displace

For one of SYRIAN mode, whereon to burn

His odious offrings, and adore the Gods

Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear'd

A crew who under Names of old Renown,

OSIRIS, ISIS, ORUS and their Train

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus'd

Fanatic EGYPT and her Priests, to seek

Thir wandring Gods disguis'd in brutish forms

Rather then human. Nor did ISRAEL scape

Th' infection when their borrow'd Gold compos'd

The Calf in OREB: and the Rebel King

Doubl'd that sin in BETHEL and in DAN,

Lik'ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,

JEHOVAH, who in one Night when he pass'd

From EGYPT marching, equal'd with one stroke

Both her first born and all her bleating Gods.

BELIAL came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd

Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love

Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood

Or Altar smoak'd; yet who more oft then hee