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 fculptures 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 seat
Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria strove
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 starry lamps and blazing creffets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus yielded light-
As from a sky. The hafty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work fome 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 refidence,
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

To

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' Æ'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
By all his engins, but was headlong fent
With his induftrious crew to build in Hell.
Mean while the winged heralds by comman
Of Lovran pow'r, with awful ceremony
And trumpet's found, throughout the host pro
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 worthieft; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping ca
Attended: all accefs was throng'd, the gates
And porches wide, but chief the fpacious hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions
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
Brush'd with the hifs of rufling winds. As bee
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 imoothed plank,

The fuburb of their straw-built citadel,

New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their ftate affairs. So thick the acry croud
Swarm'd and were ftraiten'd; till, the signal given,
Behold a wonder! they but now who feem'd

In bigness to surpass earth's giant fons,
Now lefs than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberlefs, like that pygmean race
Beyond the Indian mount, or faery elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest 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 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 Spi'rits to fmallest 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 feats,
Frequent and full. After fhort filence then
And fummons read, the great confult began..

THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK..