Space may produce new worlds, whereof so rife He spake, and to confirm his words outflew 650 660 Far round illumined Hell: highly [vehemently] they raged There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on- 670 From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts 680 Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of Heaven's pavement (trodden gold) Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed In vision beatific: by him first Men also, and by his suggestion taught, Ransacked the centre [the Earth'] and with impious hands 1 "The planets and this centre"-Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. iii.-then believed to be the centre of the universe. Pandemonium is Built of Gold. Rifled the bowels of their mother earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound, And digged out ribs of gold. (Let none admire [wonder] 690 That riches grow in Hell-that soil may best Deserve the precious bane !) } And here let those A various mould, and from the boiling cells, To many a row of pipes the soundboard breathes. Of dulcet symphonies [music] and voices sweet— With golden architrave; nor did there want Nor great Alcairo such magnificence Not Babylon Equalled in all their glories—to enshrine Their kings-when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile Stood fixed her stately height; and straight the doors, Opening their brazen folds, discover wide Within her ample spaces o'er the smooth PARADISE LOST-BK. I.] 21 700 710 720 And level pavement: from the arched roof, Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed Fell long before; nor aught availed him now To have built in Heaven high towers, nor did he scape With his industrious crew to build in Hell. Meanwhile the winged heralds, by command Of sovran power, with awful ceremony And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim At Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called By place or choice, the worthiest; they anon With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 730 740 750 760 Attended all access [the entrance] was thronged, the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall (Though like a covered field where champions bold Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair A Solemn Council. Defied the best of Panim chivalry To mortal combat or career [tilt] with lance) New rubbed with balm, expatiate [roam] and confer Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given- In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, Now less than smallest dwarfs in narrow room Throng numberless. Like that Pygmëan race 770 780 Beyond the Indian mount [the Himalayas], or fairy elves Whose midnight revels by a forest side Or fountain some belated peasant sees, s-while overhead the moon Or dreams he sees Sits arbitress [witness] and nearer to the earth Wheels her pale course-they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear, At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds: Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large Amidst the hall Of that infernal court, but far within, And in their own dimensions like themselves, 1 In large numbers-the literal use of frequens. 790 } BOOK II. The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: some advise it, others dissuade a third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal or not much inferior to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt, who shall be sent on this difficult search; Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage, is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hellgates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and Heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought. |