'34
��PARADISE LOST
��Of painful superstition and blind zeal, Naught seeking but the praise of men, here
find
Fit retribution, empty as their deeds; All the unaccomplished works of Nature's
hand,
Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed, Dissolved on Earth, fleet hither, and in
vain,
Till final dissolution, wander here Not in the neighbouring Moon, as some
have dreamed: 459
Those argent fields more likely habitants, Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold, Betwixt the angelical and human kind. Hither, of ill-joined sons and daughters
born, First from the ancient world those Giants
came,
With many a vain exploit, though then re- nowned:
The builders next of Babel on the plain Of Sennaar, and still with vain design New Babels, had they wherewithal, would
build:
Others came single; he who, to be deemed A god, leaped fondly into /Etna flames, 470 Empedocles; and he who, to enjoy Plato's Elysium, leaped into the sea, Cleombrotus; and many more, too long, Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars, White, black, and grey, with all their
trumpery. Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to
seek
In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven; And they who, to be sure of Paradise, Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised. They pass the planets seven, and pass the
fixed, 481
And that crystal'lin sphere whose balance
weighs
The trepidation talked, and that first moved ; And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket
seems To wait them with his keys, and now at
foot Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet,
when, lo !
A violent cross wind from either coast Blows them transverse, ten thousand
leagues awry, Into the devious air. Then might ye see
��Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wear- ers, tOSt 490 And fluttered into rags ; thenreliques, beads, Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, The sport of winds: all these, up whirled
aloft,
Fly o'er the backside of the World far off Into a Limbo large and broad, since called The Paradise of Fools; to few unknown Long after, now unpeopled and untrod. All this dark globe the Fiend found as
he passed;
And long he wandered, till at last a gleam Of dawning light turned thitherward in haste 500
His travelled steps. Far distant he de- scries,
Ascending by degrees magnificent Up to the wall of Heaven, a structure high; At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared The work as of a kingly palace-gate, With frontispice of diamond and gold Imbellished; thick with sparkling orient
gems
The portal shon, inimitable on Earth By model, or by shading pencil drawn. The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw 510
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 sky, And waking cried, This is the gate of Heaven. Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor
stood There always, but drawn up to Heaven
sometimes Viewless; and underneath a bright sea
flowed
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon Who after came from Earth sailing ar- rived 520 Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds. The stairs were then let down, whether to
dare
The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss: Direct against which opened from beneath, Just o'er the blissful seat of Paradise, A passage down to the Earth a passage
wide; Wider by far than that of after-times
�� �
