"O ye powers
Immortal, valiant, great!
Angels, for lofty, warlike daring born!
I know the grief that gnaws your inmost hearts,
A living death! to see this creature man
Raised to a state so high
That each created being bows to him.
In your minds' depths the rankling fear is wrought
That to heaven's vacant seats, and robes of light,
(Those seats once ours, that pomp by us disdained,)
These earthly minions one day may aspire[186]
With their unnumbered hosts of future sons."
Satan then darkly alludes to the future incarnation of the Son of God; and Lucifer answers:
"And can it be that from so feeble dust
A deity shall rise?
That Flesh—that God—whose power omnipotent
Shall bind us in these chains of hell for ever?
And can it be those who did boast themselves
The adored must stoop in humble suppliance
To such vile clay?
Shall angel bend a worshipper to man?
Shall flesh, born from impurity, surpass
Celestial nature? Must such wonders be,
Nor we divine them, who at price so vast
Have bought the boast of knowledge?
I—I am he who armed your noble minds
With haughty daring; to the distant north
Leading you from the wrathful will of Him
Who boasts to have made the heavens. You I know;
I know your soaring pride; your valor too,
That almost wrung from heaven's reluctant hand
The mighty victory. Yes, the generous love
Of glory fires you still! It cannot be
That He whom you disdained to serve above
Shall now be worshipped in the depths of hell!
Ah! matchless is our insult! grave the wound
If we unite not promptly to avenge it!
Already on your kindled brows I see
The soul's high thirst—and hope, by hate inflamed!
Already I behold your ample wings
Spread to the air, eager to sweep the world
And those stern heavens to the abyss of ruin,
And man, new born, with them to overwhelm!
Satan. Alas! command
And say what thou wouldst do! With hundred tongues
Speak, speak—that with a hundred mighty deeds
Satan may pant, and hell be roused to action."
The conspiracy to draw man into sin and prevent the incarnation is then entered into.
"Lucifer. Most easy is the way of human ruin
Opened by God to his terrestrial work;
Since nature wills with mandate absolute
Man shall his life preserve with various food,
And oft partaken. Ay, it well may chance—
The bitter ruin in sweet food concealed—
That he may taste this day the fruit forbidden,
And by the way of death,
From naught created, unto naught return."