Plato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea, anodi bang ad
Cleombrotus; and many more too long, to Moton να
Embryo's and idiots, eremites and friers/dT
White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery. 475
Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd fo far to feek
In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heaven;
And they who to be fure of Paradife
Dying put on the weeds of Dominie,
Or in Francifcan think to pass disguis'd;
They pass the planets sev'n, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystallin sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd; 15
And now Saint Peter at Heav'n's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of Heav'n's ascent they lift their feet, when lo
A violent cross wind from either coaftbosill offe
Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues awry凝美
Into the devious air; then might you fee
Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers tost 490
And flutter'd into rags, then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds; all these upwhirl'd aloft
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off
Into a Limbo large and broad, since call'd er til 4951
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown
Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.
All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thitherward in haster500
His travel'd steps: far distant he defcries
Afcending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high;
At top whereof, but far more rich appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gemssary
The portal shone, inimitable on earthwor
By model, or by fhading pencil drawn.
The stairs were fuch as wherein Jacob faw
Angels afcending and defcending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Efau fled
To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven.
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor ftood
There always, but drawn up to Heav'n fometimes
Viewlefs; and underneath a bright fea flow'd
Of jafper or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth, failing arriv'd
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The Fiend by easy' afcent, or aggravate
His fad exclufion from the doors of bliss:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful feat of Paradife,
A paffage down to th'earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of after times
Over mount Sion, and though that were large,
Over the Promis'd Land to God so dear,
By which, to visit of those happy tribes,
On high behests his angels to and fro
Pass'd frequent, and his eye with choice regard
From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood
To Beerfaba, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and th' Arabian shore;
So wide the opening seem'd, where bounds were fet
To darkness, fuch as bound the ocean wave.
Satan from hence, now on the lower stair
That scal'd by steps of gold to Heaven gate,
Looks down with wonder at the fudden viewhow dr
Of all this world at once. As when a scoutой гиг
Through dark and defert ways with peril gone aldea
All night, at last by break of chearful dawn
Obtains the brow of fome high climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers unaware
The goodly profpect of some foreign land
First seen, or fome renown'd metropolis
With glift'ring spires and pinacles ador'd,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams:
Such wonder seis'd, though after Heaven seen,
She Spirit malign, but much more envy seis'd,
At fight of all this world beheld so fair.
Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopy
Of night's extended shade) from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic feas
Beyond the horizon: then from pole to pole
He views in breadth, and without longer pause
Down right into the world's first region throws
His flight precipitant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone,i565
Stars distant, but nigh hand feem'd other worlds;
Or other worlds they feem'd, or happy ifles,
Like those Hesperian gardens fam'd of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flow'ry vales,
Thrice happy ifles, but who dwelt happy there 570
He stay'd not to enquire: above them all
The golden fun in splendor likest Heaven
Allur'd his eye; thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament (but up or down,
By center, or eccentric, hard to tell, deb
Or longitude) where the great luminary
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,
That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses light from far; they as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days, months and years, tow'ards his all-chearing lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turn'd
By his magnetic beam, that gently warms
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unfeen,
Shoots invisible virtue ev'n to the deep;
So wondroufly was set his station bright.
There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Aftronomer in the fun's lucent orb
Through his glaz'd optic tube yet never faw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compar'd with ought on earth, metal or stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike inform'd
With radiant light, as glowing i'ron with fire;
If metal, part seem'd gold, part filver clear;
If ftone, carbuncle most or chryfolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that thone
In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone befides
Imagin'd rather oft than elfewhere seen,
That stone, or like to that which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have fought,
In vain, though by their pow'rful art they bind
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the fea,
Drain'd through a limbec to his native form.
What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run
Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch
The arch-chemic fun, fo far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humor mix'd,
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of color glorious and effect so rare ?
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazled; far and wide his eye commands;
For fight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
But all fun-mine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from th' equator, as they now
Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body' opaque can fall: and th' air,
No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray
To objects distant far, whereby he foon
Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,
The fame whom John faw also in the fun :
His back was turn'd, but not his brightness hid;
Of beaming funny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings
Lay waving round; on fome great charge employ'd
He feem'd, or fix'd in cogitation deep.
Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope 630
To find who might direct his wand'ring flight
To Paradife the happy feat of Man,
His journey's end and our beginning woe.
But first he cafts to change his proper shape,
Which else might work him danger or delay:
And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth smil'd celestial, and to every limb
Suitable grace diffus'd, so well he feign'd:
Under a coronet his flowing hair
In curls on either cheek play'd; wings he wore
Of many a color'd plume sprinkled with gold,
His habit fit for speed succinct, and held
Before his decent steps a filver wand.
He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright, 645
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turn'd,
Admonish'd by his ear, and straight was known
Th' Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the seven
Who in God's prefence, nearest to his throne,
Stand ready at command, and are his eyes
That run through all the Heav'ns, or down to th' Earth
Bear his fwift errands over moist and dry,
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