Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/177

 BOOK THIRD

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��Over Mount Sion, and, though that were

large, 530

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 Beersaba, where the Holy Land Borders on JEgypt and the Arabian shore. So wide the opening seemed, where bounds

were set To darkness, such as bound the ocean

wave. 539

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 desart 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, 550

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 surveys (and well might, where

he stood

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 5 6o

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 marble air his oblique

way

Amongst innumerable stars, that shon 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 570

He staid not to inquire: above them all The golden Sun, in splendour likest Hea- ven, 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 com- pute 580 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. 590

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 shon In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides, Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen That stone, or like to that, which here be- low 600 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,

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