Wafted by angels, or flew o'er the lake
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate
His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:
Direct against which opened 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 after times
Over Mount Zion, and, though that were large,
Over the promised land to God so dear,
By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,
On high behests his angels to and fro
Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard
From Paneas, the fount of Jordan's flood,
To Beërsaba, where the Holy Land

Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;

So wide the opening seemed, 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 renowned metropolis,
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
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.

Round he surveys2 (and well might, where he stood

1 Formerly called Dan, from "Dan to Beersheba" being the limits of the Holy Land from N. to S.

2 "He surveys from eastern point of Libra," one of the twelve signs exactly opposite to Aries, "to the fleecy star," Aries or the Ram, that is from east to west, for when Libra rises in the east, Aries sets full west; and Aries is said to "bear Andromeda," because that constellation represented as a woman is placed just over Aries, and therefore when Aries sets he seems to bear Andromeda " far off Atlantic seas," the great western ocean, beyond the horizon; then from

So high above the circling canopy

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
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 marble1 air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone

Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds;
Or other worlds they seemed, 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 stayed 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
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 turned
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;
So wondrously was set his station bright.
There lands the fiend, a spot like which, perhaps,
Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb

Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,

pole to pole he views in breadth," that is, from north to south, and that is said to be "in breadth," because the ancients, knowing more of the earth from east to west than from north to south, and so having a much greater journey one way than the other, one was called length, or longitude, the other breadth, or latitude.-Newton.

1 i. e. pure, spotless: see Newton's examples.

2 The isles about Cape Verde in Africa.

3 i. e. measures, rhythm.

Compared with aught on earth, metal or stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike informed

With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;
If stone, carbuncle most, or chrysolite,
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;
In vain, though by their powerful art they bina
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
Drained through a limbec 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 arch-chemic sun,2 so far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,
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,
Nowhere so clear, sharpened his visual ray
To objects distant far, whereby he soon
Saw within ken a glorious angel stand,
The same whom John saw also in the sun :3
His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;
Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders, fledge1 with wings,

1 Quicksilver, or mercury.

2 The thought of making the sun the chief chemist or alchemist seems to be taken from Shakspeare, King John, act iii. :—

"To solemnise this day, the glorious sun
Stays in his course, and plays the alchemist,
Turning with splendour of his precious eye
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold."

? Rev. xix. 17.

G

4 For" fledged."

Lay waving round; on some great charge employed
He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep.
Glad was the spirit impure, as now in hope
To find who might direct his wandering flight
To Paradise, the happy seat of man,

His journey's end, and our beginning woe.
But first he casts1 to change his proper shape,
Which else might work him danger or delay:
And now a stripling cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb
Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned:
Under a coronet his flowing hair

In curls on either cheek played; wing he wore
Of many a coloured plume sprinkled with gold;
His habit fit for speed succinct,3 and held
Before his decent steps a silver wand.

He drew not nigh unheard; the angel bright,
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned,
Admonished by his ear, and straight was known
The archangel Uriel, one of the seven

Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne,
Stand ready at command, and are his eyes1

That run through all the heavens, or down to the earth
Bear his swift errands, over moist and dry,

O'er sea and land: him Satan thus accosts:

Uriel,5 for thou of those seven spirits that stand

1 Devises, considers.

2 In Spenser there is a similar description of a young angel. Faërie Queen, b. ii. cant. viii. st. 5:

"Beside his head there sat a fair young man,
Of wondrous beauty, and of freshest years,
Whose tender bud to blossom new began,
And flourish fair above his equal peers;
His snowy front curléd with golden hairs,
Like Phoebus' face adorned with sunny rays,
Divinely shone; and two sharp winged shears,
Deckéd with diverse plumes, like painted jays,
Were fixéd at his back, to cut his airy ways.'

3 Ready, prepared.

-Newton.

4 This expression, borrowed from Zech. iv. 10, probably refers to the eastern title of " eye of the king," applied to a chief officer.See Kitto's Biblical Cyclopædia, v. i. p. 683-b.

5 i. e. God is my light. He is mentioned as a good angel in

2 Esdras iv. and v.

In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright,
The first art wont his great authentic will
Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring
Where all his sons thy embassy attend;
And here art likeliest by supreme decree
Like honour to obtain, and, as his eye,
To visit oft this new creation round;
Unspeakable desire to see, and know

All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man,
His chief delight and favour, him for whom
All these his works so wondrous he ordained,
Hath brought me from the quires of cherubim
Alone thus wandering. Brightest seraph, tell
In which of all these shining orbs hath man
His fixéd seat, or fixéd seat hath none,
But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
That I may find him, and with secret gaze
Or open admiration him behold,

On whom the great Creator hath bestowed
Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured;
That both in him and all things, as is meet,
The universal Maker we may praise,
Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of men
To serve him better: wise are all his ways."
So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,

By his permissive will, through Heaven and earth:
And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity

Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems: which now for once beguiled
Uriel, though regent of the sun, and held
The sharpest-sighted spirit of all in Heaven;
Who to the fraudulent impostor foul
In his uprightness answer thus returned:
"Fair angel, thy desire, which tends to know
The works of God, thereby to glorify
The great Work-Master, leads to no excess
That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
The more it seems excess, that led thee hither