Page:Paradise Lost (1667).djvu/62

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Yet ever plotting how the Conquerour leaſt
May reap his conqueſt, and may leaſt rejoyce
340In doing what we moſt in ſuffering feel?
Nor will occaſion want, nor ſhall we need
With dangerous expedition to invade
Heav’n, whoſe high walls fear no aſſault or Siege,
Or ambuſh from the Deep. What if we find
Some eaſier enterprize? There is a place
(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heav’n
Err not) another World, the happy ſeat
Of ſom new Race call’d Man, about this time
To be created like to us, though leſs
350In power and excellence, but favour’d more
Of him who rules above; ſo was his will
Pronounc’d among the Gods, and by an Oath,
That ſhook Heav’ns whol circumference, confirm’d.
Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn
What creatures there inhabit, of what mould,
Or ſubstance, how endu’d, and what thir Power,
And where their weakneſs, how attempted beſt,
By force or ſuttlety: Though Heav’n be ſhut,
And Heav’ns high Arbitrator ſit ſecure
360In his own ſtrength, this place may lye expos’d
The utmoſt border of his Kingdom, left
To their defence who hold it: here perhaps
Some advantagious act may be achiev’d
By ſudden onſet, either with Hell fire
To waſte his whole Creation, or poſſeſs
All as our own, and drive as we were driven,
The punie habitants, or if not drive,
Seduce them to our Party, that thir God
May prove thir foe, and with repenting hand