For treasures, better hid.
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,
And digg'd 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 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 wonderous art founded the massy ore, Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross : A third as soon had form'd within the ground
A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook; As in an organ, from one blust of wind,
To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. Anon out of the earth, a fabrick huge Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set, and Dorick pillars overlaid With golden architrave; nor did there want Cornice or freeze, with bossv sculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence Equall'd in all their glories, to inshrine Belus or Sérapis, their gods; or seat Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile Stood fix'd her stately highth: and straight the doors Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth And level pavement: from the arched roof Pendant by subtle magick, 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 Heaven by many a tower'd structure high, Where scepter'd Angels held their residence, And sat as princes; whom the supreme King Exa'ted to such power, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. Nor was his name unheard, or unador'd, In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land Men call'd 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 Dropt 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 avail'd 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.
Mean while, the winged heralds, by command Of sovran 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 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 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 Defied 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 rusling 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 rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So thick the airy croud
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 fairy 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 jocund musick 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
Of that infernal court. But far within, And in their own dimensions like themselves, The great Seraphick 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.
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