Lucifer adopts this disdainful suggestion, and, great magician as he is, exclaims--
"A golden palace let be raised on high, To imitate--no, to outshine the sky! All mines are ours, and gold above the rest; Let this be done, and _quick as 'twas exprest_."
"A palace rises, where sit as in council, LUCIFER, Asmoday, Moloch, Belial, Beelzebub, and SATAN." Who _he_ may be, deuce take us if we can tell. Up to the very moment of his making his appearance, we in our simple faith had believed Lucifer and Satan to be one devil--nay, the devil. We were taken quite aback by this unexplained phenomenon of Satan's acting the part of his own tail. In this capacity he makes but one speech--but it is the speech of the evening. One seldom hears such eloquence. Moloch having proposed battle, the mysterious stranger rises to second the motion.
"_Satan._ I agree With this brave vote; and if in Hell there be _Ten more such spirits_, heaven is our own again. We venture nothing, and may all obtain. Yet, who can hope but well, since our success Makes foes secure, and makes our dangers less? _Seraph and Cherub, careless of their charge And wanton, in full ease now live at large; Unguarded leave the passes of the sky, And all dissolved in hallelujahs lie._"
In the "grand consult," as recorded by Milton, Beelzebub, after proposing the "perilous attempt," asks,
"But, first, whom we shall send In search of this new world? Whom shall we find Sufficient? who shall tempt with wandering feet The dark, unbottom'd, infinite abyss, And through the palpable obscure find out His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, Upborne with indefatigable wings Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive The happy isle?"
And Satan is the self-chosen missionary of the religion of Hell. In Dryden Asmoday suggests the enterprise, and
"_Moloch._ This glorious enterprise--(_rising up._) _Lucifer._ Rash angel, stay. (_Rising, and laying his sceptre on Moloch's head._) That palm is mine, which none shall take away. _Hot braves like thee may fight_, but know not well To manage this, the last great stake of hell."
The council comes to a close--and Lucifer promises to be with them again,
"Before yon brimstone lake thrice ebb and flow."
Tides in the Mediterranean! a touch beyond Milton.