Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels seen Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell ’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain: A multitude, like which the populous North Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the South, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. Forthwith from every squadron and each band, The heads and leaders thither haste where stood Their great Commander; godlike shapes, and forms Excelling human, princely dignities, And powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones; Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and rased By their rebellion from the Books of Life. Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve Got them new names, till, wandering o’er the Earth, Through God’s high sufferance for the trial of Man, By falsities and lies the greatest part Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator, and the invisible Glory of him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorned With gay religions full of pomp and gold, And devils to adore for deities. Then were they known to men by various names, And various idols through the heathen world.
Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, At their great Emperor’s call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof.
The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix Their seats long after next the seat of God, Their altars by his altar, gods adored Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thundering out of Zion, throned Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites, and solemn feasts profaned, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First, Moloch, horrid king,