Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, And strength, and art, are easily out-done By Spirits reprobate; and in an hour, What in an age they, with inceffant toil, And hands innumerable, scarce perform. Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepar'd, That underneath had veins of liquid fire Sluc'd from the lake, a fecond multitude, With wondrous art founded the maffy ore, Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion drofs: A third as foon had form'd within the ground
A various mold; and from the boiling cells,
By strange conveyance, fill'd each hollow nook;
As in an organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of pipes the found-board breathes. Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge
Rofe like an exhalation, with the found Of dulcet fymphonies and voices sweet; Built like a temple, where pilafters round
In wealth and luxury. Th'afcending pile
Stood fix'd her stately highth, and strait the doors,
Opening their brazen folds, discover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof, Pendent by subtle magic, many a row Of ftarry lamps, and blazing cressets, fed With Naphtha and Asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky. The hafty multitude Admiring, enter'd; and the work some praise, And fome the architect: his hand was known In Heav'n by many a towred structure high, Where scepter'd Angels held their residence, And fat as princes; whom the fupreme King Exalted to fuch pow'r, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From Heav'n, 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 fun,
Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star, On Lemnos, th' Aégean ile: thus they relate, Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now T'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scape
By all his engins; but was headlong fent,
With his induftrious crew, to build in Hell.
Mean while the winged heralds by command
Of sovran pow'r, with awful ceremony,
And trumpet's found, throughout the hoft proclame A folemn council, forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium, the high capital
Of Satan and his peers: their fummons call'd band and squared regiment
From every By place or choice the worthieft; they, anon, With hundreds and with thousands,trooping came 760 Attended: all accefs was throng'd, the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall (Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair Defy'd the best of Panim chivalry
To mortal combat, or carreer with lance) Thick fwarm'd, both on the ground, and in the air, Brush'd with the hifs of rufling wings. As bees In spring time, when the fun with Taurus rides, Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 770 In clusters; they, among fresh dews and flowers, Fly to and fro; or on the smoothed plank, The fuburb of their straw-built citadel,
New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer Their ftate affairs. So thick the aery croud Swarm'd,and were ftraiten'd; till, the signal given, Behold a wonder! they but now who feem'd
In bigness to surpass earth's giant fons,
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 over-head the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale course, they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocond music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms Reduc'd their fhapes 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 recefs, and fecret conclave fat, A thousand Demi-gods, on golden feats, Frequent and full. After short filence, then, And fummons read, the great confult began.
The end of the First Book.
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