And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire That riches grow in hell: that soil may best Deserve the precious bane. And here let those Who boast in mortal things, and, wondering, tell Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings, Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, And strength, and art, are easily outdone By spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they, with incessant toil And hands innumerable, scarce perform. Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude With wondrous art founded the massy ore, Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross. A third as soon had formed within the ground A various mold, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook; As in an organ, from one blast of wind, To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven:
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equaled in all their glories, to enshrine
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile
Stood fixed her stately highth; and straight the doors,
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth And level pavement. From the archèd roof, Pendent by subtle magic, many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky. The hasty multitude Admiring entered; and the work some praise, And some the architect. His hand was known In heaven by many a towered structure high, Where sceptered angels held their residence, And sat as princes, whom the supreme King Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unadored In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men called him Mulciber°; and how he fell From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, On Lemnos the Ægean isle. Erring; for he with his rebellious rout Fell long before; nor aught availed him now To have built in heaven high towers; nor did he scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent With his industrious crew to build in hell.
Meanwhile the wingèd heralds by command
Of sovran power, with awful ceremony And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium, the high capital
Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called
From every band and squarèd regiment By place or choice the worthiest: they anon With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 Attended. All access 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
Defied the best of Paynim chivalry To mortal combat or career with lance) Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees In springtime, when the Sun with Taurus rides, Pour forth their populous youth about the hive In clusters, they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothèd plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer Their state affairs: so thick the aery crowd Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given, Behold a wonder! they but now who seemed In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room Throng numberless, like that pygmean race Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves, Whose midnight revels, by a forest side Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon
Sits arbitress, 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, 790 Though without number still, amidst the hall Of that infernal court. But far within, And in their own dimensions like themselves, The great seraphic lords and cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat, A thousand demigods on golden seats, Frequent and full. After short silence then, And summons read, the great consult began.
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