Built like a temple, where pilafters round
Were fet, and Doric pillars overlaid

With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or freeze, with boffy sculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo fuch magnificence
Equal'd in all their glories, to infhrine
Belus or Serapis their Gods, or feat
Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria ftrove
In wealth and luxury. Th' afcending pile
Stood fix'd her stately highth, and strait the doors
Opening their brazen folds difcover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendent by fubtle magic many a row
Of ftarry lamps and blazing creffets 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 tow'red structure high,
Where scepter'd Angels held their residence,
And fat as princes, whom the fúpreme 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
In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From Heav'n, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove

Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn

Το

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A fummer's day; and with the setting fun
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

T'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scapeBy all his engins, but was headlong fent

With his induftrious crew to build in Hell.

Mean while the winged heralds by command Of fouran pow'r, with awful ceremony

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
From every band and squared regiment

By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hundreds and with thousand's trooping came
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

To mortal combat, or career with lance)

Thick swarm'd, both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd with the hifs of rufling winds. As bees
In fpring time, when the fun 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

The fuburb of their straw-built citadel,

New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So thick the aery croud
Swarm'd and were straiten'd; till, the fignal given,
Behold a wonder! they but now who seem'd
In bigness to furpafs earth's giant fons,

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 foreft fide
Or fountain fome belated peasant fees,
Or dreams he fees, while over-head the moon
Sits arbitrefs, and nearer to the earth

Wheels her pale courfe, they on their mirth and dance

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal Spi'rits to smallest forms
Reduc'd their shapes immenfe, 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 recefs and fecret conclave fat
A thousand Demi-gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full. After short filence then
And fummons read, the great confult began.

THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK..