BOOK THIRD
��J 35
��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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