Its site uncertain, if in earth or air; With rapid motion turned the mansion round; With ceaseless noise the ringing walls resound; Not less in number were the spacious doors, Than leaves on trees, or sands upon the shores; 425 Which still unfolded stand, by night, by day, Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way. As flames by nature to the skies ascend,[121] As weighty bodies to the centre tend, As to the sea returning rivers roll, 430 And the touched needle trembles to the pole; Hither, as to their proper place, arise All various sounds from earth, and seas, and skies, Or spoke aloud, or whispered in the ear; Nor ever silence, rest, or peace is here. 435 As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes The sinking stone at first a circle makes; The trembling surface, by the motion stirred, Spreads in a second circle, then a third; Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance, 440 Fill all the wat'ry plain, and to the margin dance: Thus ev'ry voice and sound, when first they break, On neighb'ring air a soft impression make; Another ambient circle then they move; That, in its turn, impels the next above;[122] 445 Through undulating[123] air the sounds are sent, And spread o'er all the fluid element. There, various news I heard of love and strife, Of peace and war, health, sickness, death, and life, Of loss and gain, of famine, and of store, 450 Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore, Of prodigies, and portents seen in air, Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair, Of turns of fortune, changes in the state, The falls of fav'rites, projects of the great, 455 Of old mismanagements, taxations new:[124] All neither wholly false, nor wholly true. Above, below, without, within, around, Confused, unnumbered, multitudes are found, Who pass, repass, advance, and glide away; 460 Hosts raised by fear, and phantoms of a day: Astrologers, that future fates foreshew, Projectors, quacks, and lawyers not a few; And priests, and party-zealots, num'rous bands With home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands; 465 Each talked aloud, or in some secret place, And wild impatience stared in ev'ry face.[125] The flying rumours gathered as they rolled, Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told; And all who told it added something new, } 470 And all who heard it, made enlargements too; } In ev'ry ear it spread, on ev'ry tongue it grew. } Thus flying east and west, and north and south, News travelled with increase from mouth to mouth. So from a spark, that kindled first by chance, 475