Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/32

26 From wing to wing, and half enclose him round With all his peers; attention held them mute. Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth; at last Words interwove with sighs found out their way.
 * "O myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers

Matchless, but with the Almighty; and that strife Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, As this place testifies, and this dire change 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 repossess their native seat? For me be witness all the host of Heaven If counsels different, or danger 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,