This passage from the first book of John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, tells of the imagined experience of that place of eternal damnation and the absolute refusal of Satan even in this condition to bend his will to God’s. It encourages me always be on guard for the stiffening of the neck that the prophets decried so heartily.
At once as far as Angel’s ken he views
The dismal Situation waste and wild,
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv’d only to discover sights of woe,
65 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes—48-49
106 [Satan’s thoughts] All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
110 That Glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and defy his power
Who from the terror of this Arm so late
Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,
115 That were an ignominy and shame beneath
This downfall.
John Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained ed. Christopher Ricks (New York: New American Library, 1968), 50.
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