Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/352

346 Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins, Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change Of seasons to each clime. Else had the spring Perpetual smiled on Earth with vernant flowers, Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun, To recompense his distance, in their sight Had rounded still the horizon, and not known Or east or west; which had forbid the snow From cold Estotiland, and south as far Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turned His course intended; else how had the world Inhabited, though sinless, more than now Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
 * These changes in the heavens, though slow, produced

Like change on sea and land, sideral blast, Vapor, and mist, and exhalation hot, Corrupt and pestilent. Now from the north Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore, Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice, And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw,