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Than what this garden is to all the earth, And all the sea, from one entire globose Stretched into longitude-which having passed, At length into the limits of the North They came; and Satan to his royal seat, High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold, The palace of great Lucifer—so call That structure in the dialect of men Interpreted-which not long after, he, Affecting all equality with God, In imitation of that mount whereon Messiah was declared in sight of heaven, The Mountain of the Congregation called. For hither he assembled all his train, Pretending so commanded to consult About the great reception of their king, Thither to come; and with calumnious art Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears.

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers; If these magnific titles yet remain Not merely titular, since by decree Another now hath to himself engrossed All power, and us eclipsed, under the name Of King anointed, for whom all this haste Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here, This only to consult how we may best, With what may be devised of honours new, Receive him coming to receive from us Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile! Too much to one, but double how endured To one and to his image now proclaimed? But what if better counsels might erect Our minds and teach us to cast off this yoke? Will ye submit your necks and choose to bend

To whom the winged Hierarch replied: O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom All things proceed.

Book V., lines 468-470.