Chapter 14 13
Round he surveys, and well might, where he stood [ 555 ]
So high above the circular Canopie
Of Nights extended shade; from Eastern Point
Of Libra to the fleecie Starr that bears
Andromeda farr off Atlantic Seas
Beyond th Horizon; then from Pole to Pole [ 560 ]
He views in bredth, and without longer pause
Down right into the Worlds first Region throws
His flight pregnant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble Air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable Starrs, that shon [ 565 ]
Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other Worlds,
Or other Worlds they seemd, or happy Iles,
Like those Hesperian Gardens family of old,
Fortunate Fields, and Groves and flourie Vales,
Thrice happy Iles, but who dwell happy there [ 570 ]
He stayed not to inquire: above them all
The golden Sun in splendor likest Heaven
Allurd his eye: Thither his course he bends
Through the calm Firmament; but up or down
By center, or eccentric, hard to tell, [ 575 ]
Or Longitude, where the great Luminarie
Alooff the vulgar Constellations thick,
That from his Lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses Light from farr; they as they move
Thir Starry dance in numbers that compute [ 580 ]
Days, months, & years, towards his all-chearing Lamp
Turn swift thir various motions, or are turn
By his Magnetic beam, that gently warms
The Univers, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen, [ 585 ]
Shoots invisible vertue even to the deep:
So wondrously was set his Station bright.
There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the Suns lucent Orbe
Through his glazed Optic Tube yet never saw. [ 590 ]
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compard with aught on Earth, Medal or Stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike informed
With radiant light, as glowing Iron with fire;
If mettal, part seemd Gold, part Silver cleer; [ 595 ]
If stone, Carbuncle most or Chrysolite,
Rubie or Topaz, to the Twelve that shon
In Aarons Brest-plate, and a stone besides
Imagined rather of then elsewhere seen,
That stone, or like to that which here below [ 600 ]
Philosophers in vain so long have sought,
In vain, though by thir powerful Art they binde
Volatil Hermes, and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the Sea,
Drained through a Limbec to his Native forme. [605]