Admiration seized all Heaven, and "to the ground they cast their crowns in solemn adoration," when the Son replied
"Account me Man. I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to Thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage. Under his gloomy power I shall not long Lie vanquished."
While the immortal quires chanted their praise, Satan drew near, and sighted the World—the sun, earth, moon, and companion planets—
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 glistening spires and pinnacles adorned, Which now the rising Sun gilds with his beams, Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen, The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized, At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
Flying to the Sun, and taking the form of "a stripling Cherub," Satan recognises there the Archangel Uriel and accosts him.
"Brightest Seraph, tell In which of all these shining orbs hath Man His fixed seat."
And Uriel, although held to be "the sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven," was deceived, for angels cannot discern hypocrisy. So Uriel, pointing, answers:
"That place is Earth, the seat of Man.... That spot to which I point is Paradise, Adam's abode; those lofty shades his bower. Thy way thou canst not miss; me mine requires." Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low, As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, Where honour due and reverence none neglects, Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath, Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel, Nor stayed till on Niphantes' top he lights.