Lines 215-263

Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
Evil to others, and enraged might see
How all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown
On Man by him seduced, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured. 
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature; on each hand the flames
Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and rolled
In billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight, till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burned
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire;
And such appeared in hue, as when the force 
Of subterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side
Of thundering Etna, whose combustible
And fueled entrails thence conceiving Fire,
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the Winds, 
And leave a singed  bottom all involved
With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate,
Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood 
As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 
Not by the sufferance  of supernal power. 
“Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,”
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, “this the seat
That we must change for Heaven, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he 
Who now is sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell, happy Fields
Where Joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors! hail 
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heaven.” 

Works Cited

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Related Works

Odyssey
Iliad
Aeneid

General References to the Bible

Christ's Exaltation in Heaven
Satan's Rebellion and War in Heaven
The Creation of the World
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
Noah's Ark