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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 thefe thoughts
Full counsel must mature; peace is de

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For who can think fubmiffion? war then, war Open or understood must be resolv'd.

He fpake and to confirm his words out

flew

Millions of flamming fwords, drawn from the thighs.

Of mighty Cherubim: the fudden blaze 665 Far round illumin'd Hell; highly they rag'd 'Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped

arms

Clash'd on their founding fhields the din of

war,

Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav'n. There ftood a hill not far, whole grifly

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Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire
Shone with a glolly fcurf, undoubted fign
That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
The work of fulphur. Thither wing'd with

speed

A numerous brigad haften'd: as when

bands

Of pioneers, with fpade and pickax arm'd,

675

Fore run the royal camp, to trench a field, Or caft a rainpart. Mammon led them on, Mammon, the leaft erected spirit that fell From Heav'n; for ev'n in Heav'n his looks and thoughts

Where always downward bent;

more

680

admiring

The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden

gold,

Than ought divine or holy elfe, enjoy'd
In vifion beatific: by him first

Men alfo, and by his fuggeftion taught,

685

Ranfack'd the center, and with impious hands Rifled the bowels of their mother earth,

For treasures better hid.

Soon had his crew

Open'd into the hill a fpacious wound,

And dig'd out ribs of gold. Let none ad

f

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That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best Deferve 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 695

And strength and art

fame,

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, 700

That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the lake, a second multitude
With wondrous art found out the mally ore;
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion.

drofs;N
drofs;

A third as foon had form'd within the

ground.

705

A various mould; and from the boiling cells
By strange conveyance, fill'd each hollow nook:
As in an Organ from one blafst, of wind...
To many a row of pipes the found- board
...... breathes.

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710

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rofe like an exhalation, with the found
Of dulcet fymphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a temple, where pilafters round.
Were fet, and Doric pillars overlaid
Wich golden architrave: nor did there want 715
Cornice or freeze, with bolly sculptures

graven;

'

720

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 ftately height, and ftrait the
doors

Opening their brazen folds, dicover wide

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 725
And level pavement: from the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic many a row.
Of starry lamps and bluzing creffets, fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus, yielded light
As from a fky. The hafty multitude 730
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 sceptered angels held their residence,
And fate as Princes; whom the fupreme king 735
Exalted to fuch power, and gave to rule,
Each in Hierarchy, the orders bright.
Not was his name unheard, or unador'd,
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell 740
From Heav'n they fabled, thrown by angry
N: Jove

Sheer o'er the chrystal battlements; from morn
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: 745
On Lemnos th' Aegean ifle; thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now.
T' have built in Heave'n high tow'rs; nor did
A he 'scape

By all his engines, but was headlong fent 750
With his industrious crew to build in Hell.

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Meanwhile the winged heralds by command

Of lov'reign pow'r, with awful ceremony And trumpets found, troughout the hoft pro

claime

A folemn council forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium, the high capital

755

Of Satan and his Peers: their fummons call'd
From every band and fquared regiment
By place or choife the worthiest; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping
760
Attended all accefs was throng'd, the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall,
Though like a cover'd field, where champions.

came

bold

Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldans chair Defy'd the best of Panim chivalry

765

To mortal combat, or career with lance, Thick fwarm'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

770

In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The fuburb of their ftraw-built citadel,

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