Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/118

Chose freely what it now so justly rues.—
Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite dispair?
Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me opens wide,
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
Oh, then, at last relent! Is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?—80
None left but by submission; and that word
Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain,
Under what torments inwardly I groan.
While they adore me on the throne of Hell,
With diadem and sceptre high advanced,90
The lower still I fall, only supreme
In misery; such joy ambition finds.—
But say I could repent, and could obtain
By act of grace my former state—how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts! how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore! Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void—