Direct against which opened from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,
A passage down to the earth-a passage wide-
Wider by far than that of after-times
Over Mount Sion, and, though that were large,
Over the Promised Land to God so dear;
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his angels to and fro
Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard,
From Paneäs, the fount of Jordan's flood,
To Beërsaba, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore:
So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set
To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,
That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven gate,
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this world at once. As when a scout,
Through dark and desert ways with peril gone
All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers, unaware,
The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen, or some renowned metropolis,
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:
Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen,
The spirit malign; but much more envy seized,
At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopy
Of night's extended shade), from eastern point
Of Libra, to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda, far off Atlantic seas,
Beyond the horizon: then from pole to pole
He views in breadth; and, without longer pause,
Downright into the world's first region throws
His flight precipitant; and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his óblique way,
Amongst innumerable stars-that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds;
Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles,
Like those Hesperian gardens, famed of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
Thrice happy isles! But who dwelt happy there
He stayed not to inquire. Above them all,
The golden Sun, in splendour likest Heaven,
Allured his eye: thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament, (but up or down,
By centre 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
Turn swift their various motions; or are turned
By his magnetic beam, that gently warms
Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen,
Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep;
So wondrously was set his station bright.
There lands the fiend; a spot like which, perhaps,
Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb,
Through his glazed optic tube, yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone:
Not all parts like, but all alike informed
With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;
If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone
In Aaron's breastplate; and a stone besides
Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen-
That stone, or like to that, which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have sought-
In vain, though by their powerful art they bind
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound,
In various shapes, old Proteus from the sea,
Drained through a limbeck to his native form.
What wonder, then, if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run
Potable gold, when, with one virtuous touch,
The arch-chemic sun, so far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,
Here, in the dark, so many precious things,
Of colour glorious and effect so rare?
Here matter new to gaze the devil met
Undazzled: far and wide his eye commands;
For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
But all sunshine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from the equator, as they now
Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,
No where so clear, sharpened his visual ray
To objects distant far, whereby he soon
Saw within ken a glorious angel stand-
The same whom John saw also in the sun :
His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;
Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head; nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings
Lay waving round: on some great charge employed
He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep.
Glad was the spirit impure, as now in hope
To find who might direct his wandering flight
To Paradise, the happy seat of man,
His journey's end, and our beginning woe.
But first he casts to change his proper shape;
Which else might work him danger or delay:
And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb
Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned;
Under a coronet his flowing hair
In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore
Of many a coloured plume, sprinkled with gold;
His habit fit for speed succinct; and held
Before his decent steps a silver wand.
He drew not nigh unheard; the angel bright,
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned,
Admonished by his ear; and straight was known
The archangel Uriel, one of the seven
Who, in God's presence, nearest to his throne,
Stand ready at command, and are his eyes
That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth
Bear his swift errands, over moist and dry,
O'er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts:
"Uriel! for thou of those seven spirits that stand "In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright, “The first art wont his great authentic will
Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring,
"Where all his sons thy embassy attend;
"And here art likeliest, by supreme decree,
"Like honour to obtain, and, as his eye,
"To visit oft this new creation round;
"Unspeakable desire to see and know
"All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man,
"His chief delight and favour,—him for whom
"All these his works so wondrous he ordained,
“Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim
"Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph! tell
"In which of all these shining orbs hath man
"His fixed seat, or fixèd seat hath none,
"But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
"That I may find him, and, with secret gaze,
"Or open admiration, him behold,
"On whom the great Creator hath bestowed
"Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured; "That both in him and all things, as is meet,
"The universal Maker we may praise;
"Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
"To deepest Hell; and, to repair that loss, "Created this new happy race of men
"To serve him better: wise are all his ways!"
So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy (the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth:
And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps
At Wisdom's gate, and to Simplicity
Resigns her charge, while Goodness things no ill
Where no ill seems), which now for once beguiled
Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven:
Who, to the fraudulent impostor foul,
In his uprightness, answer thus returned:
"Fair angel! thy desire, which tends to know "The works of God, thereby to glorify
"The great Work-master, leads to no excess
"That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
"The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
"From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
"To witness with thine eyes what some, perhaps,
"Contented with report, hear only in Heaven;
"For wonderful indeed are all his works,
"Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
"Had in remembrance always with delight!
"But what created mind can comprehend
"Their number; or the wisdom infinite
"That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep?
66 'I saw when, at his word, the formless mass,
"This world's material mould, came to a heap:
"Confusion heard his voice, and wild Uproar
"Stood ruled; stood vast infinitude confined;
"Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung. "Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire; "And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven "Flew upward, spirited with various forms, "That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move; "Each had his place appointed, each his course: "The rest in circuit walls this universe.
"Look downward on that globe, whose hither side
"With light from hence, though but reflected, shines:
"That place is Earth, the seat of man; that light
"His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,
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