Opened into the hill a spacious_wound, 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 mould, 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 Equalled in all their glories, to inshrine
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 height, and straight the doors Opening their brazen folds discover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth And level pavement: from the archéd roof, Pendent by subtle magic many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets fad
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 Dropped from the zenith like a falling star, On Lemnos the Ægean isle; thus they relate, Erring; for he with this 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 wingéd heralds by command
Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony
And trumpet's 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 squaréd regiment
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon With hundreds and with thousands trooping came Attended: all excess 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 swarm'd, 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,
New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer Their state affairs. So thick the airy crowd Swarm'd 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 fairy 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, 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.
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 should 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 a 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 success untaught His proud imaginations thus display'd:
"Powers and dominions, deities of heaven For 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 fix'd laws of Heaven, Did first create your leader, next, free choice, With what besides, in counsel or in fight, Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss, Thus far at least recover'd, hath much more Establish'd 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
Could have assured us; and, by what best way, Whether of open war, or covert guile,
We now debate: who can advise, may speak." He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit, That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair: His trust was with the Eternal to be deem'd Equal in strength, and rather than be less Cared not to be at all; with that care lost Went all his fear of God, or Hell, or worse, He reck'd not, and these words thereafter spake. 'My sentence is for open war: of wiles,
More inexpert, I boast not: them let those
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now. For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest, Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait The signal to ascend, sit lingering here Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
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