Exclamation:

“Farewell, happy fields, 

Were joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail 

Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell 

Receive they 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.”

(Lines 249-255)

Answer: These lines are taken from ‘Paradise Lost’ Book I, composed by Milton, the great epic poet of England in the seventeenth century. In these lines, Satan, with a deep sense of shock for losing the eternal joys of Heaven, is welcoming the horrors of hell and declares that he will rule in this kingdom with a steadfast mind.

In the preceding lines, Satan has felt shocked at the “mournful gloom” of hell which he has to exchange for the celestial light of heaven from where he and his followers have been overthrown. But he has the inclination and capacity to conceal his sense of shock. His infernal mind and stubborn pride prevent him from showing any submissiveness to God. Instead of going back to God, he decides to draw himself farther from Him: “Farthest from Him is best”. In the lines under reference, Satan bids farewell to the joyful realms of Heaven and commands the horrors of Hell to welcome and assures his Kingdom that his mind is steadfast. It is not going to be changed by the ugliness of Hell. In fact, he professes that his mind is independent of the influences of place or time. The implication is that he was a devilish mind even in Heaven and it would make no difference to him he is now in Hell. His wickedness is eternal as well as universal.

Satan’s view that heaven and hell are states of mind was prevalent in the seventeenth-century accounts of atheism. Modern psychology bears out Satan’s assertion about the power of the mind. We are as we think. The mind depends upon itself for happiness, or unhappiness, not on its circumstances which are material factors.