Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers toit 490
And flutter'd into rags, then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, σεὶ
The sport of winds: all these upwhirl'd aloft
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off
Into a Limbo large and broad, fince call'd
The Paradife of Fools, to sew unknown
Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.
All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam di
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in haste 500
His travel'd steps: far distant he defcries
Afcending by degrees magnificentialgnsso
Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high; boo
At top whereof, but far more rich appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontifpiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by shading pencil drawn.
The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels afcending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven. 515
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heav'n sometimes
Viewless; and underneath a bright fea flow'd
Of jafper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth, failing arriv'd
Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lakefr
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds. OD
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare উ The Fiend by easy' afcent, or aggravatedigin
His fad exclufion from the doors of blifs:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful feat of Paradife,
A paffage down to the Earth, a paffage wide, S
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over mount Sion, and, though that were large, 530
Over the Promis'd Land to God so dear,
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his Angels to and fro
Pafs'd frequent, and his eye with choice regardo
From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood
To Beërfaba, where the Holy Land,
Borders on Egypt and th' Arabian shore;
So wide the opening seem'd, where bounds were fet
To darkness, fuch as bound the ocean wave.
Satan from hence, now on the lower stair
That scal'd by steps of gold to Heaven gate xignonl
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this world at once. As when a cout
Through dark and defert ways with peril gone
All night, at laft by break of chearful dawn 545
Obtains the brow of fome high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye difcovers unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen, or fome renown'd metropolis
With glift'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd
Which new the rifing fun gilds with his beams:
Such wonder feis'd, though after Heaven seen,
The Spirit malign, but much more envy seis'd,s
At fight of all this world beheld fo fair.
Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopyr / 556 Of night's extended shade) from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bearstvo bun Tz Andromeda far off Atlanticseas
αραιονία Beyond th' horizon; then from pole to pole 560 Hé views in breadth, and without longer paufe Down right into the world's first region throwsw
His flight precipitant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seem'd other worlds;
Or other worlds they seem'd, or happy iles,
Like those Hesperian gardens fam'd of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flow'ry vales,
Thrice happy iles, but who dwelt happy there 570 He stay'd not to inquire above them all
The golden fun in splendor likest Heaven
Allur'd his eye: thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament, (but up or down,
By center, or eccentric, hard to tell,
Or longitude,) where the great luminary
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,
That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses light from far; they as they move...
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days months and years, towards his all-chearing lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turn'd
By his magnetic beam, that gently warıms
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen
Shoots invisible virtue, ev'n to the deep:
So wondroufly was set his station bright.
There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Aftronomer in the fun's lucent orb
Through his glaz'd optic tube yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expreffion bright, ed H
Compar'd with ought on earth, metal or stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike inform'd
With radiant light, as glowing ir'on with fire;
If metal, part feem'd gold, part silver clear; 595
If stone, carbuncle most or chryfolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone
In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides
Imagin'd rather oft than elfewhere seen,
That stone, or like tho that, which hete below 600
Philosophers in vain so long have fought,
In vain, though by their pow'rful art they bind
Volatil Hermes, and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the fea, Drain'd through a limbec to his native form. What wonder then if fields and regions herein Breathe forth Elixir pure, and rivers run
Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch
Th' arch-chemic fun, fo far from us remote
Produces, with terrestrial humor mix'd,
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of color glorious, and effect so rare?
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazled; far and wide his eye commands;
For fight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
But all fun-fhine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from th' equator, as they now
Shot upward itill direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall; and th' air
No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray
To objects distant far, whereby he foon
|