And left them bound immovable in chains
Of Justice: o'er their heads a bowless cloud
Of indignation hung; a cloud it was
Of thick and utter darkness; rolling, like
An ocean, tides of livid, pitchy flame;
With thunders charged, and lightnings ruinous,
And red with forked vengeance, such as wounds
The soul; and full of angry shapes of wrath;
And eddies, whirling with tumultuous fire;
And forms of terror raving to and fro;
And monsters, unimagined heretofore
By guilty men in dreams before their death,
From horrid to more horrid changing still,
In hideous movement through that stormy gulf:
And evermore the thunders, murmuring, spoke
From out the darkness, uttering loud these words,
Which every guilty conscience echoed back:
'Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not!'
Dread words! that barred excuse, and threw the weight
Of every man's perdition on himself
Directly home. Dread words! heard then, and heard For ever through the wastes of Erebus:
'Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not!'
These were the words which glowed upon the
Whose wrath burned fearfully behind the cursed,
As they were driven away from God to Tophet.
'Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not!'
These are the words to which the harps of grief
Are strung; and, to the chorus of the damned,
The rocks of hell repeat them evermore;
Loud echoed through the caverns of despair,
And poured in thunder on the ear of Wo.
"Nor ruined men alone beneath that cloud
Trembled: there Satan and his legions stood;
Satan, the first and eldest sinner, bound
For judgment: he, by other name, held once
Conspicuous rank in heaven among the sons
Of happiness, rejoicing day and night;
But pride, that was ashamed to bow to God
Most High, his bosom filled with hate, his face
Made black with envy, and in his soul begot
Thoughts guilty of rebellion 'gainst the throne
Of the Eternal Father and the Son,
From everlasting built on righteousness.
"Ask not how pride, in one created pure, Could grow; or sin without example spring, Where holiness alone was sown: esteem 't Enough that he, as every being made By God, was made entirely holy; had The will of God before him set for law And regulation of his life; and power To do as bid; but was, meantime, left free, To prove his worth, his gratitude, his love. How proved besides? for how could service done, That might not else have been withheld, evince The will to serve, which, rather than the deed, God doth require, and virtue counts alone? To stand or fall, to do or leave undone, Is reason's lofty privilege, denied
To all below, by instinct bound to fate,
Unmeriting alike reward or blame.
"Thus free, the Devil chose to disobey
The will of God, and was thrown out from heaven,
And with him all his bad example stained;
Yet not to utter punishment decreed,
But left to fill the measure of his sin,
In tempting and seducing man; too soon,
Too easily seduced! And from the day
He first set foot on earth-of rancor full,
And pride, and hate, and malice, and revenge-
He set himself, with most felonious aim,
And hellish perseverance, to root out
All good, and in its place to plant all ill;
To rob and raze, from all created things,
The fair and holy portraiture divine,
And on them to enstamp his features grim;
To draw all creatures off from loyalty
To their Creator, and to make them bow
The knee to him. Nor failed of great success,
As populous hell this day can testify.
He held, indeed, large empire in the world,
Contending proudly with the King of heaven.
To him temples were built, and sacrifice
Of costly blood upon his altars flowed;
And, what best pleased him-for in show he seemed
Then likest God-whole nations bowing fell
Before him, worshiping, and from his lips
Entreated oracles, which he by priests-
For many were his priests in every age-
Answered, though guessing but at future things,
And erring oft, yet still believed; so well
His ignorance, in ambiguous phrase, he vailed."
THE TEMPTATIONS OF SATAN.
"Nor needs it wonder, that with man once fallen,
His tempting should succeed. Large was his mind
And understanding; though impaired by sin,
Still large; and constant practice, day and night,
In cunning, guile, and all hypocrisy,
From age to age, gave him experience vast
In sin's dark tactics, such as boyish man,
Unarmed by strength divine, could ill withstand.
And well he knew his weaker side; and still
His lures with baits that pleased the senses busked;
To his impatient passions offering terms
Of present joy, and bribing reason's eye
With earthly wealth, and honors near at hand;
Nor failed to misadvise his future hope
And faith, by false unkerneled promises
Of heavens of sensual gluttony and love,
That suited best their grosser appetites.
Into the sinner's heart, who lived secure,
And feared him least, he entered at his will.
But chief he chose his residence in courts,
And conclaves, stirring princes up to acts
Of blood and tyranny; and moving priests
To barter truth, and swap the souls of men
For lusty benefices, and address
Of lofty sounding. Nor the saints elect,
Who walked with God, in virtue's path sublime,
Did he not sometimes venture to molest;
In dreams and moments of unguarded thought,
Suggesting guilty doubts and fears, that God
Would disappoint their hope; and in their way
Bestrewing pleasures, tongued so sweet, and so
In holy garb arrayed, that many stooped,
Believing them of heavenly sort, and fell;
And to their high professions, brought disgrace
And scandal: to themselves, thereafter, long
And bitter nights of sore repentance, vexed
With shame, unwonted sorrow, and remorse.
And more they should have fallen, and more have
wept,
Had not their guardian angels-who, by God
Commissioned, stood beside them in the hour
Of danger, whether craft or fierce attack,
To Satan's deepest skill opposing skill
More deep, and to his strongest arm, an arm
More strong-upborne them in their hands, and
Their souls with all discernment, quick, to pierce His stratagems and fairest shows of sin.
"Now, like a roaring lion, up and down The world, destroying, though unseen, he raged: And now, retiring back to Tartarus,
Far back, beneath the thick of guiltiest dark, Where night ne'er heard of day, in council grim He sat, with ministers whose thoughts were damned, And there such plans devised, as, had not God Checked and restrained, had added earth entire To hell, and uninhabited left heaven,
|