Puslapio vaizdai
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By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long 651 Intended to create, and therein plant

655

A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favor equal to the sons of Heav'n:
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial spirits in bondage, nor th' abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full council must mature: peace is despair'd, 660
For who can think submission? War then, war
Open or understood must be resolv'd.

He spake and to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty cherubim; the sudden blaze

665

Far round illumin'd Hell: highly they rag'd Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance tow'ard the vault of Heav'n.

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore, The work of sulphur. Thither wing'd with speed A numerous brigade hasten'd: as when bands 675 Of pioneers with spade and pickaxe arm'd Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on,

Mammon, the least erected spi'rit that fell

From Heav'n, for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more

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The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd'

In vision beatific: by him first

Men also, and by his suggestion taught,

Ransack'd the center, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth

For treasures better hid.

Soon had his crew

Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,

685

And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best Deserve the precious bane. And here let those

700

Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame 695
And strength and art are easily out-done
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 prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the lake, a second multitude
With wondrous art founded the massy ore,
Seve'ring each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross':
A third as soon had form'd within the ground 705
A various mould, and from the boiling cells

By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook, As in an organ from one blast of wind

710

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 7
Cornice or freeze, with bossy sculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equall'd in all their glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat

720

725

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. Th' ascending 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 starry lamps and blazing cressets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise
And some the architect: his hand was known
In Heav'n by many a towered structure high,
Where scepter'd angels held their residence,
And sat as princes, whom the supreme King 735

730

Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unadorn'd
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell 740
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 sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos th' gean ile: thus they relate,
Erring, for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now
To'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scape
By all his engins, but was headlong sent 750
With his industrious crew to build in Hell.
Meanwhile the winged heralds by command
Of sovian pow'r, with awful ceremony

745

755

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 call'd
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 throng'd, the gates, 761
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont side in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair

765

Defy'd the best of Panim chivalry
To mortal combat, or career with lance)
Thick swarm'd, both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd 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 770
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 rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer

780

Their state affairs. So thick the æry crowd 775
Swarm'd and 'were straiten'd; till the signal given,
Behold a wonder! they but now who seem'd
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 secs,“
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 jocund music charm his ear ;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms
Reduc'd their shapes immense, and were at large,
Though without number still amidst the hall 791
Of that infernal court. But far within,
And in their own dimensions like themselves,

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