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      Naught seeking but the praise of men, here find

      Fit retribution, emptie as thir deeds;

      All th’ unaccomplisht works of Natures hand,

      Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixt,

      Dissolvd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

      Till final dissolution, wander here,

      Not in the neighbouring Moon, as some have dreamd;

      Those argent Fields more likely habitants,

      Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold

      Betwixt th’ Angelical and Human kinde:

      Hither of ill-joynd Sons and Daughters born

      First from the ancient World those Giants came

      With many a vain exploit, though then renownd:

      The builders next of Babel on the Plain

      Of Sennaar, and still with vain designe

      New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build:

      Others came single; hee who to be deemd

      A God, leap’d fondly into AEtna flames

      Empedocles, and hee who to enjoy

      Plato’s Elysium, leap’d into the Sea,

      Cleombrotus, and many more too long,

      Embryos, and Idiots, Eremits and Friers

      White, Black and Grey, with all thir trumperie.

      Here Pilgrims roam, that stray’d so farr to seek

      In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heav’n;

      And they who to be sure of Paradise

      Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,

      Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis’d;

      They pass the Planets seven, and pass the fixt,

      And that Crystalline Sphear whose ballance weighs

      The Trepidation talkt, and that first mov’d;

      And now Saint Peter at Heav’ns Wicket seems

      To wait them with his Keys, and now at foot

      Of Heav’ns ascent they lift thir Feet, when loe

      A violent cross wind from either Coast

      Blows them transverse ten thousand Leagues awry

      Into the devious Air; then might ye see

      Cowles, Hoods and Habits with thir wearers tost

      And flutterd into Raggs, then Reliques, Beads,

      Indulgences, Dispenses, Pardons, Bulls,

      The sport of Winds: all these upwhirld aloft

      Fly o’re the backside of the World farr of

      Into a Limbo large and broad, since calld

      The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown

      Long after, now unpeopl’d, and untrod;

      All this dark Globe the Fiend found as he pass’d,

      And long he wanderd, till at last a gleame

      Of dawning light turnd thither-ward in haste

      His travell’d steps; farr distant hee descries

      Ascending by degrees magnificent

      Up to the wall of Heaven a Structure high,

      At top whereof, but farr more rich appeerd

      The work as of a Kingly Palace Gate

      With Frontispice of Diamond and Gold

      Imbellisht, thick with sparkling orient Gemmes

      The Portal shon, inimitable on Earth

      By Model, or by shading Pencil drawn.

      The Stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw

      Angels ascending and descending, bands

      Of Guardians bright, when he from Esau fled

      To Padan-Aram in the field of Luz,

      Dreaming by night under the open Skie,

      And waking cri’d, This is the Gate of Heav’n.

      Each Stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood

      There alwaies, but drawn up to Heav’n somtimes

      Viewless, and underneath a bright Sea flow’d

      Of Jasper, or of liquid Pearle, whereon

      Who after came from Earth, sayling arriv’d,

      Wafted by Angels, or flew o’re the Lake

      Rapt in a Chariot drawn by fiery Steeds.

      The Stairs were then let down, whether to dare

      The Fiend by easie ascent, or aggravate

      His sad exclusion from the dores of Bliss.

      Direct against which op’nd from beneath,

      Just o’re the blissful selt of Paradise,

      A passage down to th’ Earth, a passage wide,

      Wider by farr then that of after-times

      Over Mount Sion, and, though that were large,

      Over the Promis’d Land to God so dear,

      By which, to visit oft those happy Tribes,

      On high behests his Angels to and fro

      Pass’d frequent, and his eye with choice regard

      From Paneas the fount of Jordans flood

      To Beersaba, where the Holy Land

      Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shoare;

      So wide the op’ning seemd, where bounds were set

      To darkness, such as bound the Ocean wave.

      Satan from hence now on the lower stair

      That scal’d by steps of Gold to Heav’n Gate

      Looks down with wonder at the sudden view

      Of all this World at once. As when a Scout

      Through dark and desart wayes with peril gone

      All night; at last by break of chearful dawne

      Obtains the brow of some high-climbing Hill,

      Which to his eye discovers unaware

      The goodly prospect of some forein land

      First seen, or some renownd Metropolis

      With glistering Spires and Pinnacles adornd,

      Which now the Rising Sun guilds with his beams.

      Such wonder seis’d, though after Heaven seen,

      The Spirit maligne, but much more envy seis’d

      At sight of all this World beheld so faire.

      Round he surveys, and well might, where he stood

      So high above the circling Canopie

      Of Nights extended shade; from Eastern Point

      Of Libra to the fleecie Starr that bears

      Andromeda farr off Atlantick Seas

      Beyond th’ Horizon; then from Pole to Pole

      He views in bredth, and without longer pause

      Down right into the Worlds first Region throws

      His

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