travelled steps. Far distant he descries, 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 frontispiece of diamond and gold Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone, 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 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 arrived, 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 Over Mount Zion, and, though that were large, Over the Promised Land to God so dear; By which, to visit oft those happy tribes, On high behests his Angels to and fro Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard, From Paneas, the fount of Jordan’s flood, To Beersaba, where the Holy Land Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore. So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
Satan from hence, now on the lower stair, That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate, Looks down with wonder at the sudden view Of all this World at once. As when a scout, Through dark and desert ways with peril gone All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill, Which to his eye discovers unaware The goodly prospect of some foreign land First seen, or some renowned metropolis With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned, Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams: Such wonder seized, though after Heaven