Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/105

Rh Wider by far than that of after-times Over Mount Sion, 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 ronowned 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.