Page:Milton - Milton's Paradise Lost, tra il 1882 e il 1891.djvu/36

20 Hateful to utter! But what power of mind, Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth Of knowledge past or present, could have feared, How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse? For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied heaven, shall fail to re-ascend Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat? For me, be witness all the host of heaven, If counsels different, or dangers shunned By me, have lost our hopes. But He who reigns Monarch in heaven, till then as one secure Sat on His throne, upheld by old repute, Consent or custom, and His regal state Put forth at full, but still His strength concealed, Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. Henceforth His might we know, and know our own; So as not either to provoke, or dread New war provoked. Our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not, that He no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in heaven that he ere long Intended to create, and therein plant A generation whom his choice regard Should favour equal to the sons of heaven. Thither, if but to pry, should be perhaps Our first eruption. Thither or elsewhere, For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial spirits in bondage, nor the abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts