good men below.

"Think you that they in safety can remain,
"When I my self who o'er Immortals reign,
"Who send the lightning, and Heaven's empire sway,
"The stern [4] Lycaon practis'd to betray.

_ib._ p. 10.

Since then so much poetic liberty is taken with the Devil, relating to
his most early state, and the time before his fall, give me leave to
make an excursion of the like kind, relating to his History immediately
after the fall, and till the creation of man; an interval which I think
much of the Devil's story is to be seen in, and which Mr. _Milton_ has
taken little notice of, at least it does not seem compleatly fill'd up;
after which I shall return to honest Prose again, and persue the duty of
an Historian.

_Satan_, with hideous ruin thus supprest
_Expell'd_ the seat of blessedness and rest,
Look'd back and saw the _high eternal mound_,
Where all _his rebel host_ their _outlet_ found
_Restor'd impregnable_: The breach made up,
And garrisons of Angels rang'd a top;
In front a hundred thousand thunders roll,
And lightnings temper'd to transfix a soul,
Terror of _Devils_. _Satan_ and his host,
Now to themselves _as well as station lost_,
Unable to support the hated sight, }
Expand _seraphic wings_, and swift as light }
Seek for new safety in _eternal Night_. }

In the remotest gulphs _of dark_ they land,
Here vengeance gives them leave to make their stand,
Not that to _steps_ and _measures_ they pretend,
_Councils_ and _schemes_ their station to defend;
But broken, disconcerted and _dismay'd_,
By guilt and fright to guilt and fright _betray'd_;
Rage and confusion ev'ry Spirit possess'd,
And _shame_ and _horror_ swell'd in ev'ry breast;
Transforming envy to their essentials burns,
And _the bright_ Angel to a _frightful Devil_ turns.
_Thus Hell began_; the fire of conscious rage
No years can quench, no length of time asswage.
_Material Fire_, with its intensest flame,
Compar'd _with this_ can scarce deserve a Name;
How should it up to _immaterials_ rise,
When we're _all flame_, we shall _all fire_ despise.
This fire outrageous and its heat intense
Turns all the pain _of loss_ to pain _of sense_.
The folding flames _concave_ and _inward_ roll,
Act _upon spirit_ and penetrate _the soul_:
Not force of _Devils_ can its new powers repel,
Where'er it burns _it finds_ or _makes_ a