...mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair : We must exasperate The almighty Victor to spend all his...thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion ? And who knows,...

...exasperate Th' Almighty Victor to spend all his rage, And that must end us ; that must be our cure, 145 To be no more : sad cure ! for who would lose, Though...thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost , i jecture," then, Belial means to say, — to in his mind when he wrote the...

...preference of continued existence, even in despair and pain, rather than the cure by annihilation. " And that must end us; that must be our cure, To be...being, Those thoughts that wander through eternity f" But the absence of God from the soul, and an eternal banishment from Him, could not be compatible...

...mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair: we must exasperate The almighty Victor to spend all his...thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion ? And who knows....

...off the baser fire. Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair. We must exasperate Th' Almighty victor to spend all his rage, And that must...cure, To be no more. Sad cure! for who would lose, Tli. ni;1 h full of pain, Ibis intellectual being, Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To...

...mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair : we must exasperate The Almighty Victor to spend all his...thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated Night, Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows,...

...his irony and raillery, his exquisite love of life and pleasure, would win any audience — but this. That must be our cure To be no more; sad cure; for...lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 7 See below, p. 944. Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallow'd up and...

...Divine" - are seconded, but far more eloquently, by Belial, in an infernal version of Hamlet's soliloquy: To be no more; sad cure; for who would lose, Though...womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion? ... (II. 146-51) Given the fundamental tenet of angelology, the invulnerability and immortality of...

...masculinist or any other. The question is a perennial one, and it is posed by Belial when he asks, "who would lose, / Though full of pain, this intellectual...Eternity, / To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost?" (PL 11.146-9). One answer is that Milton would, at least at those times when he expresses a desire...

...off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope Is flat despair: we must exasperate Th' Almighty Victor to spend all his rage; And that must...thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 150 Devoid of sense and motion? And who...