Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause Mov'd our Grand Parents, in that happy state, Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his Will For one restraint, Lords of the World besides ? Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt? Th' infernal Serpent he it was whose guile Stirred up with Envy and Revenge, deceived The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring To set himself in Glory above his Peers, He trusted to have equal'd the most High, If he oppos'd and with ambitious aim Against the Throne and Monarchy of God Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battle proud With vain attempt.
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st Thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support That, to the height of this great Argument I may assert th' Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men. Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top Of OREB, or of SINAI, didst inspire That Shepherd who first taught the chosen Seed, In the Beginning how the Heavens and Earth Rose out of CHAOS : or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and SILOA'S brook that flowed Fast by the Oracle Of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal Peers there sit in Councel.
#Paradise lost full#
To find out the truth of this Prophesie, and what to determin thereon he refers to a full Councel. To these Satan directs his Speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new World and new kind of Creature to be created, according to an ancient Prophesie or report in Heaven for that Angels were long before this visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. Satan awakens all his Legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded They rise, thir Numbers, array of Battel, thir chief Leaders nam'd, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoyning. Which action past over, the Poem hasts into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ'd here, not in the Center (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos'd as yet not made, certainly not yet accurst) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call'd Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in Order and Dignity lay by him they confer of thir miserable fall. THE ARGUMENT This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac't : Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep.
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