Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold....
Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urged home....
Who receives them right
Has need from head to foot well understand.
(Liv. VI.)
[527]: Par exemple celle de Raphaël aux portes de l'enfer. Il s'ennuya fort, et fut «très-joyeux» de revenir au ciel.
[528]: Quand Raphaël descend sur la terre, les anges qui montent la garde autour du paradis lui présentent les armes.
Le trait désagréable et marquant de ce paradis, c'est que le moteur universel y est l'obéissance, tandis que chez Dante c'est l'amour.
Lowly reverent
They bow....
Our happy state
Hold, like yours, while our obedience holds.
In this the region, this the soil, the clime,
Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n? this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is sov'reign can dispose and bid
What shall be right; farthest from him is best;
Whom reason has equall'd, force has made supreme
Above his equals.—Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors, hail!
Infernal world, and thou, profoundest hell,
Receive thy new possessor! one who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time:
The mind is its own place; and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same?
And what I should be, all but less than He
Whom thunder has made greater? Here, at least,
We shall be free; th'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 than serve in Heaven.