"It would be difficult for me not to conclude that the most perfect type of masculine beauty is Satan, as portrayed by Milton."
Charles Baudelaire
[caption id="attachment_7381" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Satan in Eden (1866), by Gustave Doré[/caption]
“ Farewell happy fields
Where joy for ever dwells: 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.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder bath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the 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 though in hell:
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.”
- John Milton
Extract from Satan’s speech, Paradise Lost book 1
[caption id="attachment_7382" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Gustave Dore - Satan Resting On The Mountain[/caption]
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