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As when a vulture on Imaus bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids,

436 Horuce Ode 2

440

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs
Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;
But in his way lights on the barren plains
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive
With sails and wind their cany waggons light.
So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend
Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey;
Alone, for other creature in this place,
Living or lifeless, to be found was none;
None yet, but store hereafter from the earth
Up hither like aerial vapours flew

445

Of all things transitory and vain, when sin
With vanity had fill'd the works of men :
Both all things vain, and all who on vain things
Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,
Or happiness in this or the other life;

All who have their reward on earth, the fruits

Of painful superstition and blind zeal,

Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find

450

Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;

All the unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, 455

Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd,

Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

Till final dissolution, wander here;

Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dream'd

Those argent fields more likely habitants,

Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold

Betwixt the angelical and human kind.

Hither of ill join'd sons and daughters born

First from the ancient world those giants came

460

With many a vain exploit, though then renown'd: 465

The builders next of Babel on the plain

Of Sennaar, and still with vain design,

New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build

Others came single; he who, to be deem'd
A God, leap'd fondly into Etna flames,
Empedocles; and he who, to enjoy
Plato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea,
Cleombrotus; and many more too long,

Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars

470

480

White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery 475
Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seck
In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven;
And they who, to be sure of Paradise,
Dying, put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first moved;
And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo
A violent cross-wind from either coast
Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious air: Then might ye see
Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, toss'd
And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,

485

491

The sport of winds: All these, up-whirl'd aloft,
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off

Long after, now unpeopled and untrod.

Into a Limbo large and broad, since call'd
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown

495

All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd,
Of dawning light turn'd thither ward in haste
His travel'd steps: far distant he descries

till

at last a gleam

500

Ascending by degrees magnificent

Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high,

At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd

The work as of a kingly palace-gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold

505

Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth

By medel, or by shading pencil drawn.
The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cried, This is the gate of Heaven.
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes
Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flow'd
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth, sailing arrived
Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake

510

515

520

Wrapp'd in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

The stairs were then let down, whether to dare

The Fiend by easy ascent, cr aggravate

His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:

525

Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise,

A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide,
Wider by far than that of aftertimes

Over mount Sion, and, though that were large,

530

Over the Promised Land to God so dear;

By which to visit oft those happy tribes,

On high behests his Angels to and fro

Pass'd frequent, and his eye with choice regard
From Paneas, the fount of Jordan's flood,

535

To Beërsaba where the Holy Land

Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;

540

So wide the opening seem'd, where bounds were set
To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave
Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,
That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view
Of all this world at once. As when a scout,
Through dark and desert ways with peril gone

All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers unaware

The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen, or some renown'd metropolis
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorn'd,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams
Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen,
The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized,
At sight of all this world beheld so fair.

545

550

Found he surveys (and well might, where he stood So high above the circling canopy

556

Of night's extended shade,) from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas

Beyond the horizon; then from pole to pole

560

He views in breadth, and without longer pause
Down right into the world's first region throws
His flight precipitant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seem'd other worlds;
Or other worlds they seem'd, or happy isles,
Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there
He staid not to inquire: Above them all
The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven,
Allured his eye; thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament (but up or down,
By centre, or eccentric, hard to tell,
Or longitude,) where the great luminary

565

570

575

Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,

That from his lordly eye keep distance due,

Dispenses light from far; they, as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days, months, and years, towards his all cheering lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turn'd

580

By his magnetic beam, that gently warms
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen,
Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep;

585

So wondrously was set his station bright.

Their lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb

590

Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike inform'd

With radient light, as glowing iron with fire;
If metal, part seem'd gold, part silver clear;
If stone, carbuncle most or crysolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone
In Aaron's breastplate, and a stone besides
Imagined rather oft, than elsewhere seen,
That stone, or like to that which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have sought,

595

600

In vain, though by their powerful art they bind
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
Drain'd through a limbeck to his native form.
What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run
Portable gold, when with one virtuous touch
The archchemic sun, so far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humour mix'd,
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of colour glorious and effect so rare?
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands,
For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
But all sunshine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from the equator, as they now
Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,
No where so clear, sharpe.'d his visual ray

605

610

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