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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

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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

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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

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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

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In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell

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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,

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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In bigness to surpass earth's giant fons,

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room

Throng numberless; like that pygmean race

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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

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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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