It is in the vision of this holy beauty as a lost possession of the soul that the deadly pang of sin lies. In Milton’s later work there is no reference to the power of the chaste soul to change the body to its own pure essence; but his mind still holds to the power of sin to dim the soul’s lustre. This is strikingly exemplified in the character of Satan’s reflection on his faded glory. The one keen regret that he feels, in spite of his indomitable will, is occasioned by the thought that by reason of sinning his form has lost the beauty of its original goodness. Throughout “Paradise Lost” there is repeated emphasis upon the faded lustre of Satan’s form. The very first words that fall from Satan’s lips, in his speech to Beelzebub, as the two lay rolling in the fiery gulf, draw our attention to the great change in their outward forms. “To whom the Arch-Enemy, And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:— ‘If thou beest he—but Oh how fallen! how changed From him!—who, in the happy realms of light, Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine Myriads, though bright.’” (I. 81–87.) And then, as Satan proceeds, his mind is directed to his own departed glory. “Yet not for those [_i.e._ the force of the Almighty’s arms] Nor what the potent Victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, And high disdain from sense of injured merit.” (I. 94–98.) In his address to the Sun Satan expresses his hatred of that bright light because it brings to remembrance the more glorious state from which he fell. “O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned, Look’st from thy sole dominion like the god Of this new World—at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads—to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.” (IV. 32–39.) When the moral significance of this change in his form flashes through his mind, Satan then suffers the deepest regret that could come to him. The episode in which he learns the true effect of his sin is his encounter with the angels, Ithuriel and Zephon. These two have found him “squat like a toad” at the ear of Eve, trying to work upon her mind while she sleeps. At the touch of Ithuriel’s spear Satan springs up in his real form. Ithuriel then asks which of the rebel angels he may be. The lofty pride of Satan is touched to the quick.