Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ favour equal to the Sons of Heaven.

      Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps

      Our first eruption—thither, or elsewhere;

      For this infernal pit shall never hold

      Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th’ Abyss

      Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts

      Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired;

      For who can think submission? War, then, war

      Open or understood, must be resolved.”

      He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew

      Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs

      Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze

      Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged

      Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms

      Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,

      Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.

      There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top

      Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire

      Shone with a glossy scurf—undoubted sign

      That in his womb was hid metallic ore,

      The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed,

      A numerous brigade hastened: as when bands

      Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed,

      Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,

      Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on—

      Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell

      From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts

      Were always downward bent, admiring more

      The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold,

      Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed

      In vision beatific. By him first

      Men also, and by his suggestion taught,

      Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands

      Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth

      For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew

      Opened into the hill a spacious wound,

      And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire

      That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best

      Deserve the precious bane. And here let those

      Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell

      Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,

      Learn how their greatest monuments of fame

      And strength, and art, are easily outdone

      By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour

      What in an age they, with incessant toil

      And hands innumerable, scarce perform.

      Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,

      That underneath had veins of liquid fire

      Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude

      With wondrous art founded the massy ore,

      Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross.

      A third as soon had formed within the ground

      A various mould, and from the boiling cells

      By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook;

      As in an organ, from one blast of wind,

      To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.

      Anon out of the earth a fabric huge

      Rose like an exhalation, with the sound

      Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet—

      Built like a temple, where pilasters round

      Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid

      With golden architrave; nor did there want

      Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven;

      The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon

      Nor great Alcairo such magnificence

      Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine

      Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat

      Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove

      In wealth and luxury. Th’ ascending pile

      Stood fixed her stately height, 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 naptha and asphaltus, yielded light

      As from a sky. The hasty multitude

      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 Greece; and in Ausonian land

      Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell

      From Heaven they fabled, СКАЧАТЬ