BOOK FIFTH
��161
��They eat, they drink, and in communion
sweet
Quaff immortality and joy, secure Of surfeit where full measure only bounds Excess, before the all-bounteous King, who showered 640
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy. Now when ambrosial Night, with clouds
exhaled From that high mount of God whence light
and shade Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven
had changed To grateful twilight (for Night comes not
there
In darker veil), and roseate dews disposed All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest, Wide over all the plain, and wider far Than all this globous Earth in plain out- spread
(Such are the Courts of God), the Angelic
throng, 650
Dispersed in bands and files, their camp
extend
By living streams among the trees of life Pavilions numberless and sudden reared, Celestial tabernacles, where they slept, Fanned with cool winds ; save those who, in
their course,
Melodious hymns about the sovran Throne Alternate all night long. But not so waked Satan so call him now; his former name Is heard no more in Heaven. He, of the
first,
If not the first Archangel, great in power, 660
In favour, and preeminence, yet fraught With envy against the Son of God, that
day
Honoured by his great Father, and pro- claimed
Messiah, King Anointed, could not bear, Through pride, that sight, and thought him- self impaired.
Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain, Soon as midnight brought on the dusky
hour
Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved With all his legions to dislodge, and leave Unworshiped, uuobeyed, the Throne su- preme, 670 Contemptuous, and, his next subordinate Awakening, thus to him in secret spake : " ' Sleep'st thou, companion dear ? what sleep can close
��Thy eyelids ? and rememberest what de- cree,
Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips Of Heaven's Almighty ? Thou to me thy
thoughts Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont, to
impart; Both waking we were one; how, then, can
now Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou seest
imposed ;
New laws from him who reigns new minds may raise 680
In us who serve new counsels, to de- bate What doubtful may ensue. More in this
place
To utter is not safe. Assemble thou Of all those myriads which we lead the
chief; Tell them that, by command, ere yet dim
Night Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to
haste,
And all who under me their banners wave, Homeward with flying march where we
possess
The Quarters of the North, there to pre- pare
Fit entertainment to receive our King, 690 The great Messiah, and his new commands, Who speedily through all the Hierarchies Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.' " So spake the false Archangel, and in- fused
Bad influence into the unwary breast Of his associate. He together calls, Or several one by one, the regent Powers, Under him regent; tells, as he was taught, That, the Most High commanding, now ere
Night,
Now ere dim Night had disincumbered
Heaven, 700
The great hierarchal standard was to
move;
Tells the suggested cause, and casts be- tween
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound Or taint integrity. But all obeyed The wonted signal, and superior voice Of their great Potentate ; for great indeed His name, and high was his degree in Hea- ven:
His countenance, as the morning-star that guides
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