ven, and consequently that he might be
one of the highest in dignity there, before that Rebellion.

The higher his station, the lower, and with the greater precipitation,
was his overthrow; and therefore, those words, tho' taken in another
sense, may very well be apply'd to him: _How art thou fallen_, O
Lucifer! _Son of the Morning!_

Having granted the dignity of his Person, and the high station in which
he was placed among the heavenly Host; it would come then necessarily to
inquire into the nature of his fall, and _above all_, a little into the
reason of it; certain it is, _he did fall_, was guilty of Rebellion and
Disobedience, the just effect of Pride; sins, which, in that holy place,
might well be call'd wonderful.

But what to me is more wonderful, and which, I think, will be very ill
accounted for, is, how came seeds of crime to rise in the Angelic
Nature? created in a state of perfect, unspotted holiness? how was it
first found in a place where no unclean thing can enter? how came
ambition, pride, or envy to generate there? could there be offence where
there was no crime? could untainted purity breed corruption? could that
nature contaminate and infect, which was always Drinking in principles
of perfection?

Happy 'tis to me, _that_ writing the History, _not_ solving the
Difficulties of _Satan_'s Affairs, is my province in this Work; that I
am to relate the Fact, not give reasons for it, or sign causes; if it
was otherwise, I should break off at this difficulty, for I acknowledge
I do not see thro' it; neither do I think that the great _Milton_, after
all his fine Images and lofty Excursions upon the Subject, has left it
one jot clearer than he found it: Some are of opinion, and among them
the great Dr. _B----s_, that crime broke in upon them at some interval,
when they omitted but one moment fixing their eyes and thoughts on the
glories of the divine face, to admire and adore, which is the full
employment of Angels; but even this, tho' it goes as high as imagination
can carry us, does not reach it, nor, to me, make it one jot more
comprehensible than it was before; all I can say to it here, is, that
_so it was_, the fact was upon Record, and the rejected Troop are in
being, whose circumstances confess the Guilt, and still groan under the
Punishment.

If you will bear with a poetic excursion upon the subject, not to solve
but to illustrate the difficulty; take it in a few lines, thus,

Thou sin of Witc