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The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,

Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence
Equalled in all their glories, to inshrine
Belus or Sérapis,' their gods; or seat

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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

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And level pavement: from the arched 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 sceptred 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,3 from noon to dewy eve,

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building resting immediately on the pillars. Cornice, the uppermost and most prominent part of the entablature. Frieze, a flat space between the architrave and cornice, commonly adorned with sculptured figures.

1 Belus or Serapis.-The former, son of Nimrod, and the first man worshipped for a god, called Bel by the Chaldeans, and Baal by the PhoeniciSerapis, the same with Apis or Osiris.

ans.

2 Ausonian, Italian. The poet had the choice of several names for Mulciber, but he has fitly chosen that which denoted his art as a founder. 3 From morn to noon he fell, &c.-Milton magnifies his fall by dividing its period into parts, and emphatically calling it a summer's day.

A summer's day; and, with the setting sun,
Dropped from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos, the 'gean isle: thus they relate,
Erring; for he, with this rebellious rout,
Fell long before; nor aught availed him now

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To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he scape By all his engines;1 but was headlong sent

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Of Satan and his peers; their summons called
From every band and squared regiment
By place or choice the worthiest ; they anon,
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
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 Panim 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 spring-time, 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 smoothed plank,
The suburb of their straw-built citadel,

1 Engines, devices, contrivances-an obsolete sense of the word.

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2 Pandemonium, a word coined to express the resort of all the demons. 3 Covered field; i. e., inclosed for combat, the lists; to which, for extent, one single apartment of Pandemonium is compared.

4 Soldan, Sultan. Panim, borrowed from the old Norman form, paynim, for pagan.

5 Brushed with the hiss, &c.—The hissing sound of this line beautifully echoes the sense.

• Taurus, one of the twelve constellations in the ecliptic, or sun's apparent course, which he enters about the latter third of the month of April.

New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer

Their state affairs: so thick the airy crowd
Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given,
Behold a wonder!1 they, but now who seemed

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In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons,
Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that Pygmëan race
Beyond the Indian mount; or fairy elves,

Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side,
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,

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Or dreams he sees, while, over-head, the moon

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth3

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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,
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 demi-gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full. After short silence then,
And summons read, the great consult began.

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1 Behold a wonder! &c.-The description already given (L 423-431) of the powers of transformation possessed by demons artfully prepares the mind for such surprising scenes as that introduced at this place, and elsewhere throughout the poem.

2 Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth, &c.—in allusion to the belief that witches and fairies had great power over the moon. Arbitress: Le. witness, spectatress.

BOOK II.

THE ARGUMENT.

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 Hell gates; 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.

HIGH on a throne of royal state,—which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus,' and of Ind;
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings' Barbaric pearl and gold,—
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised

To that bad eminence: and, from despair
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
Beyond thus high; insatiate to pursue

Vain war with Heaven, and, by success3 untaught,

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1 Ormus, a small island in the Persian Gulf, which was long held by the Portuguese, as a mart through which the wealth of India passed to Europe. 2 Showers on her kings, &c.-Not merely expressing the abundance of gold and precious stones in the East, but alluding to a practice, adopted at coronations, of throwing gold dust and seed pearl on the king's head. Barbaric, because found among nations foreign to the Greeks and Romans, who reckoned all but themselves barbarians.

8 Success.-The result or termination of his rebellion had not yet taught him his place. The term is used in the same way, 1. 123.

His proud imaginations thus displayed :—

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"Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven! 'For,1 since no deep within her gulf can hold "Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen, "I give not Heaven for lost. From this descent "Celestial virtues rising, will appear

"More glorious and more dread than from no fall,
"And trust themselves to fear no second fate.

"Me though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven
“Did first create your leader; next, free choice,
"With what besides, in council or in fight,
"Hath been achieved of merit; yet this loss,
"Thus far at least recovered, hath much more
"Established in a safe unenvied throne,

"Yielded with full consent. The happier state
"In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw
"Envy from each inferior; but who here
"Will envy whom the highest place exposes
"Foremost to stand, against the Thunderer's aim
"Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
"Of endless pain? Where there is then no good
"For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
"From faction; for none, sure, will claim in Hell
"Precedence; none, whose portion is so small
"Of present pain, that with ambitious mind
"Will covet more. With this advantage then
"To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
"More than can be in Heaven, we now return
"To claim our just inheritance of old;
"Surer to prosper than prosperity

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"Could have assured us; and by what best way, "Whether of open war or covert guile,

"We now debate: who can advise, may speak."

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1 For refers to the title, "Deities of Heaven;" he styles them so, for he gives not Heaven for lost, since no deep could hold them, &c.

2 None... covet more.-The clause is elliptical, and is most simply construed thus: [there are] none, whose portion of present pain is so small, that [they] will covet more.

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