, the Holy Lord, created by the
might of His hand, whom He well trusted to work His will in full
allegiance to Him, for He had given them understanding and made them
with His hands, the Lord Most Holy.

"He had set them in such blessedness. One thereof had He made so strong,
so mighty in his intellect; to him did He grant great sway, next to
Himself in the Kingdom of Heaven. So bright had He made him, so
beautiful was his form in Heaven that was given him by the Lord of
Hosts. He was like unto the stars of light. His duty was to praise the
Lord, to laud Him because of his share of the gift of light. Dear was he
to our Lord."

But it could not be hidden from God how pride had taken hold of His
angel. And Satan resolves in that pride not to serve God. Bright and
beautiful in his form, he will not obey the Almighty. He thinks within
himself that he has more might and strength than the Holy God could find
among his fellows. "Why should I toil, seeing there is no need that I
should have a lord? With my hands I can work marvels as many as He.
Great power have I to make ready a goodlier throne, a higher one in
Heaven. Why must I serve Him in liegedom, bow to Him in service? I am
able to be God even as He. Strong comrades stand by me, who will not
fail me in the strife; stout-hearted heroes."

And so does Satan resolve to be the foe of God.

Surely we must be reminded of Milton's great poem when we read how
Satan, ruined and cast into hell, speaks to his comrades, lost with him.
He compares the "narrow place" with the seat he had once known in
Heaven, and denies the right doing of the Almighty in casting him down.
He says too that the chief of his sorrows is that Adam, made out of
earth, shall possess the strong throne that once was his; Adam, made
after God's likeness, from whom Heaven will be peopled with pure souls.
And he plans revenge on God by striving to destroy Adam and his
offspring.

All this, and the appeal to one of his followers to go upward where Adam
and Eve are, and bring about that they should forsake God's teaching and
break His Commandments, so that weal might depart from them and
punishment await them, may be compared with "Paradise Lost," Books I,
II.

It is needless to say that the English were a war-like race. They loved
the clash of swords, the whizzing of the arrow in its flight, the fierce
combat, the struggle to keep the battle-stead, as they phrased the
gaining of a victory. We shall see more