Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured.
In his contests with Michael in Heaven and with Gabriel on Earth he never falls below himself:--
"If I must contend," said he,
"Best with the best--the sender, not the sent;
Or all at once."
But his motive passions, it is objected, were envy, ambition, and hate, and his end was a crime. To which objection a modern poet has replied that a crime will serve as a measure for the spirit. Certainly to Satan there could never be imputed the sin of "the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin." And Milton has not left him devoid of the gentlest passion, the passion of pity:--
Cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion, to behold
The fellows of his crime, the followers rather