Page:Milton - Milton's Paradise Lost, tra il 1882 e il 1891.djvu/44

28 Call us to penance? More destroyed than thus We should be quite abolished, and expire. What fear we, then? What doubt we to incense His utmost ire, which, to the height enraged, Will either quite consume us, and reduce To nothing this essentialhappier far Than miserable to have eternal being Or, if our substance be indeed divine, And cannot cease to be, we are at worst On this side nothing; and by proof we feel Our power sufficient to disturb his heaven, And with perpetual inroads to alarm, Though inaccessible, his fatal throne, Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. He ended, frowning, and his look denounced Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous To less than gods. On the other side up rose Belial, in act more graceful and humane; A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed For dignity composed, and high exploit: But all was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 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 pleased 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 urged 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,