Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the sons of Heaven:
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 counsel must mature: Peace is despair'd,
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
Far round illumin'd Hell: highly they rag'd
Against the High'est, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav'n.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top
Belch'd fire and roling 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
Of pioneers, with spade and pickax arm'd,
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on;
Mammon, the last erected Spirit that fell
From Heav'n; for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thought
For freasures better hid.
Soon had his crew
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
Reserve the precious bane. And here let those,
Who boast in mortal things, and, wond'ring, 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
Sluic'd from the lake, a second multitude
With wondrous art founded the massy ore,
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross
A third as soon had form'd within the ground
À various mould, and from the boiling cells,
By strange conveyance, fill'd each hollow nook;
As in an organ from one blast of wind.
To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.
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
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. Th' ascending pile
Stood fix'd her stately height; and straight the doors,
Op'ning 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 Naptha 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 tow'red structure high,
Where scepter'd angels held their residence,
And sat as princes, whom the supreme King
Exalted to such 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 Ausonian 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 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' Egean isle; thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor aught avail'd him now
T have built in Heav'n high tow's; nor did he 'scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in Hell.
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
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
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 crowd
Swarm'd and were straiten'd; till the signal giv'n
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'd 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 overhead the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale corse, 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
Of that infernal court. But far within,
And in their own dimensions like themselves,
The great Seraphic 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.
END OF THE FIRST BOOK.
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