Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/107

Rh Days, months, and years, toward his all-cheering lamp Turn swift their various motions, or are turned By his magnetic beam, that gently warns The Universe, and to each inward part With gentle penetration, though unseen, Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep: So wonderously 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, 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 bind Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound In various shapes old Proteus from the sea, Drained through a limbec to his native form.