Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/36

Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat720
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile
Stood, fixed her stately highth, and straight the doors
Opening their brazen folds discover wide
Within her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement. From the arched roof
Pendent, by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude730
Admiring entered, and the work some praise
And some the architect. His hand was known
In Heaven by many a towered structure high,
Where sceptred Angels held their residence,
And sat as princes, whom the supreme King
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright:
Nor was his name unheard or unadored
In ancient Greese; and in Ausonian land
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell740
From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun