Divinity themselves. Nor was it strange,
Matter high-wrought to such surprising pomp,
Such godlike glory, stole the style of gods, 803
From ages dark, obtuse, and steep’d in sense;
For, sure, to sense, they truly are divine,
And half absolved idolatry from guilt;
Nay, turn’d it into virtue. Such it was
In those, who put forth all they had of man
Unlost, to lift their thought, nor mounted higher;
But, weak of wing, on planets perch’d; and thought 810