Thus Satan talking to his nearest Mate,
  With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
  That sparkling blazed, his other parts beside
  Prone on the Flood, extended long and large,
  Lay floating many a rood—­

  Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
  His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames
  Drivn backward slope their pointing Spires, and roared
  In Billows, leave i’th midst a horrid vale. 
  Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
  Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air
  That felt unusual weight—­

 —­His pondrous Shield
  Ethereal temper, massie, large and round,
  Behind him cast; the broad circumference
  Hung on his Shoulders like the Moon, whose orb
  Thro Optick Glass the Tuscan Artist views
  At Evning, from the top of Fesole,
  Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands,
  Rivers, or Mountains, on her spotted Globe. 
  His Spear (to equal which the tallest pine
  Hewn on Norwegian Hills to be the Mast
  Of some great Admiral, were but a wand)
  He walk’d with, to support uneasie Steps
  Over the burning Marl—­

To which we may add his Call to the fallen Angels that lay plunged and stupified in the Sea of Fire.

  He call’d so loud, that all the hollow deep
  Of Hell resounded—­

But there is no single Passage in the whole Poem worked up to a greater Sublimity, than that wherein his Person is described in those celebrated Lines: 

 —­He, above the rest
  In shape and gesture proudly eminent
  Stood like a Tower, &c.

His Sentiments are every way answerable to his Character, and suitable to a created Being of the most exalted and most depraved Nature.  Such is that in which he takes Possession of his Place of Torments.

 —­Hail Horrors! hail
  Infernal World! and thou profoundest Hell
  Receive thy new Possessor, one who brings
  A mind not to be changed by place or time.

And Afterwards,

 —­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, tho in Hell: 
  Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heavn.

Amidst those Impieties which this Enraged Spirit utters in other places of the Poem, the Author has taken care to introduce none that is not big with absurdity, and incapable of shocking a Religious Reader; his Words, as the Poet himself describes them, bearing only a Semblance of Worth, not Substance.  He is likewise with great Art described as owning his Adversary to be Almighty.  Whatever perverse Interpretation he puts on the Justice, Mercy, and other Attributes of the Supreme Being, he frequently confesses his Omnipotence, that being the Perfection he was forced to allow him, and the only Consideration which could support his Pride under the Shame of his Defeat.