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[BOOK I.-753-786

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;

Thus incorpereal spirits to smallest forms

Of that infernal court. But far within,

The great seraphic lords and cherubim

A thousand demi-gods, on golden seats,

In close recess and secret conclave sat;

Frequent and full. After short silence then,

And summons read, the great consult began.

Though without number still, amidst the hall

And in their own dimensions, like themselves,

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.

Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large,

Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony Wheels her pale course; they, on their mirth and dance

Soldan.—Sultan.

\* Panim, -- Pagan-not Christian.

And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council, forthwith to be held At Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called From every band and squared regiment, By place or choice the worthiest; they anon, With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came, Attended. All access was thronged; the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall-Though like a covered field, where champions bold Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair Defied the best of Panim² chivalry To mortal combat, or career of lance-Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees In springtime, when the sun with Taurus rides, Pour forth their populous youth about the hive In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer Their state affairs,—so thick the aery crowd Swarmed and were straitened, till, the signal given, Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons, Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room Throng numberless like that Pygmean race Beyond the Indian mount; or fairy elves, Whose midnight revels by a forest side Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth