Nor great Alcairo such magnificence

Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine

Belus or Serapis, their gods, or seat

720

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

725

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, from noon to dewy eve,

:

A summer's day; and with the setting sun

730

735

740

718. Alcairo, now called Cairo. Al is merely an article as in Alkoran; in some words it has retained its place, as in algebra, alkali, alchemy.

720. Belus or Bel, the latter the Aramaic form for Baäl. Serapis, the Egyptian god of the world of the dead.

722. Pile, a poetic expression for any great structure.

732. His hand, etc. This one of the fallen angels became in aftertime the Greek deity Hephaistos, identified by the Romans with their own Vulcan or Mulciber, the Forger. His fall from heaven (Iliad i. 591), as a result of which he was always lame, is a part of Greek mythology.

Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,

On Lemnos, the Egean isle. Thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

745

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

750

With his industrious crew to build in Hell.

Meanwhile the wingèd heralds, by command

Of sovran power, with awful ceremony

And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim
A solemn council forthwith to be held

755

At Pandemonium, the high capital

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,

748. Nor aught availed him now.

760

765

Nor was it now of any advantage to him to have built the towers of Heaven.

753. Awful, the word as commonly used to-day is almost meaningless Milton meant full of awe.

756. Pandemonium. The place of all the devils. The name is coined by Milton from nav, all, and dazuovior, a place of devils, from δαίμων.

757. Peers; properly the word means equals, as in 39: here rather nobility, as in modern English.

760. I. e., not only the chiefs but their followers.

764. Wont ride, were wont to ride; the construction is now peculiar, but not infrequent in older English, being quite regular.

764. Soldan, the word is a doublet of Sultan.

765. Panim, pagan; more commonly used with the meaning Mahometan.

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,
New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs: so thick the aery crowd

770

775

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,

780

Or dreams he sees, while over head the moon

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth

785

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

790

Of that infernal court. But far within,

And in their own dimensions like themselves,

The great Seraphic lords, and Cherubim,

769. Taurus, the Bull among the signs of the Zodiac. The sun comes into Taurus about the middle of April.

774. Expatiate, spread out.

780. Pygmean race. Ancient fables placed the Pygmies in Asia, but modern exploration finds them in Africa.

793. Like themselves. Spirits had the power of changing their appearance (see i. 428) but yet they had, each his own particular form. The point has more than a curious interest. (See Introd., p. xxix.)

794. In this line Seraph and Cherub may perhaps mean the chief of the angelic hierarchy.

795

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 consúlt began.

797. Frequent agrees with conclave; the meaning is Latin, i. e., crowded.

PARADISE LOST

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 themselves 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,

2. Ormus. An island in the Persian gulf, a famous diamond mart. India was just coming into notice from the trading and settlements of the East India Company.

4. This line may be taken quite literally. The books of travel of Milton's day have descriptions of this accompaniment of eastern coronations.