Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/186

Not merely titular, since by decree
Another now hath to himself engrossed
All power, and us eclipsed, under the name
Of King, anointed; for whom all this haste
Of midnight-march, and hurried meeting here,
This only to consult how we may best,
With what may be devised of honors new,780
Receive him, coming to receive from us
Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile,
Too much to one, but double how endured
To one and to his image now proclaimed?
But what if better counsels might erect
Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke!
Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend
The supple knee?—ye will not, if I trust
To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves,
Natives and sons of Heaven, possessed before790
By none; and if not equal all, yet free,
Equally free; for orders and degrees
Jar not with liberty, but well consist.
Who can in reason then, or right, assume
Monarchy over such as live by right
His equals, if in power and splendor less,
In freedom equal? or can introduce
Law and edict on us, who without law
Err not? much less for this to be our Lord,
And look for adoration, to the abuse800
Of those imperial titles, which assert