Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success,
Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel,
Nor stayed, till on Niphates' top he lights.

_Book IV._ Wishing his voice were loud enough to warn our first
parents of coming woe and thus forestall the misfortunes ready to
pounce upon them, the poet describes how Satan, "with hell raging in
his heart," gazes from the hill, upon which he has alighted, into
Paradise. The fact that he is outcast both from heaven and earth fills
Satan with alternate sorrow and fierce wrath, under impulse of which
emotions his face becomes fearfully distorted. This change and his
fierce gestures are seen by Uriel, who curiously follows his flight,
and who now for the first time suspects he may have escaped from hell.

After describing the wonders of Eden--which far surpass all fairy
tales,--Milton relates how Satan, springing lightly over the dividing
wall, lands within its precincts, and in the guise of a cormorant
perches upon a tree, whence he beholds two God-like shapes "in naked
majesty clad." One of these is Adam, formed for contemplation and
valor, the other Eve, formed for softness and grace. They two sit
beneath a tree, the beasts of the earth playing peacefully around
them, and Satan, watching them, wonders whether they are destined to
occupy his former place in heaven, and vows he will ruin their present
happiness and deliver them up to woe! After arguing he must do so to
secure a better abode for himself and his followers, the fiend
transforms himself first into one beast and then into another, and,
having approached the pair unnoticed, listens to their conversation.
In this way he learns Eve's wonder on first opening her eyes and
gazing around her on the flowers and trees, her amazement at her own
reflection in the water, and her following a voice which promised to