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<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARADISE REGAINED ***</div>
<h1>Paradise Regained</h1>
<h2 class="no-break">by John Milton</h2>
<hr />
<h2>Contents</h2>
<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap01">THE FIRST BOOK</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap02">THE SECOND BOOK</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap03">THE THIRD BOOK</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap04">THE FOURTH BOOK</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap01"></a>THE FIRST BOOK</h2>
<p class="noindent">
I, who erewhile the happy Garden sung<br/>
By one man’s disobedience lost, now sing<br/>
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,<br/>
By one man’s firm obedience fully tried<br/>
Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled<br/>
In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,<br/>
And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.<br/>
Thou Spirit, who led’st this glorious Eremite<br/>
Into the desert, his victorious field<br/>
Against the spiritual foe, and brought’st him thence 10<br/>
By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,<br/>
As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,<br/>
And bear through highth or depth of Nature’s bounds,<br/>
With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds<br/>
Above heroic, though in secret done,<br/>
And unrecorded left through many an age:<br/>
Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.<br/>
Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice<br/>
More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried<br/>
Repentance, and Heaven’s kingdom nigh at hand 20<br/>
To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked<br/>
With awe the regions round, and with them came<br/>
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed<br/>
To the flood Jordan—came as then obscure,<br/>
Unmarked, unknown. But him the Baptist soon<br/>
Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore<br/>
As to his worthier, and would have resigned<br/>
To him his heavenly office. Nor was long<br/>
His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized<br/>
Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove 30<br/>
The Spirit descended, while the Father’s voice<br/>
From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.<br/>
That heard the Adversary, who, roving still<br/>
About the world, at that assembly famed<br/>
Would not be last, and, with the voice divine<br/>
Nigh thunder-struck, the exalted man to whom<br/>
Such high attest was given a while surveyed<br/>
With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage,<br/>
Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air<br/>
To council summons all his mighty Peers, 40<br/>
Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,<br/>
A gloomy consistory; and them amidst,<br/>
With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake:—<br/>
“O ancient Powers of Air and this wide World<br/>
(For much more willingly I mention Air,<br/>
This our old conquest, than remember Hell,<br/>
Our hated habitation), well ye know<br/>
How many ages, as the years of men,<br/>
This Universe we have possessed, and ruled<br/>
In manner at our will the affairs of Earth, 50<br/>
Since Adam and his facile consort Eve<br/>
Lost Paradise, deceived by me, though since<br/>
With dread attending when that fatal wound<br/>
Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve<br/>
Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven<br/>
Delay, for longest time to Him is short;<br/>
And now, too soon for us, the circling hours<br/>
This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we<br/>
Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound<br/>
(At least, if so we can, and by the head 60<br/>
Broken be not intended all our power<br/>
To be infringed, our freedom and our being<br/>
In this fair empire won of Earth and Air)—<br/>
For this ill news I bring: The Woman’s Seed,<br/>
Destined to this, is late of woman born.<br/>
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause;<br/>
But his growth now to youth’s full flower, displaying<br/>
All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve<br/>
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.<br/>
Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim 70<br/>
His coming, is sent harbinger, who all<br/>
Invites, and in the consecrated stream<br/>
Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so<br/>
Purified to receive him pure, or rather<br/>
To do him honour as their King. All come,<br/>
And he himself among them was baptized—<br/>
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive<br/>
The testimony of Heaven, that who he is<br/>
Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw<br/>
The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising 80<br/>
Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds<br/>
Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head<br/>
A perfet Dove descend (whate’er it meant);<br/>
And out of Heaven the sovraign voice I heard,<br/>
‘This is my Son beloved,—in him am pleased.’<br/>
His mother, than, is mortal, but his Sire<br/>
He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven;<br/>
And what will He not do to advance his Son?<br/>
His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,<br/>
When his fierce thunder drove us to the Deep; 90<br/>
Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems<br/>
In all his lineaments, though in his face<br/>
The glimpses of his Father’s glory shine.<br/>
Ye see our danger on the utmost edge<br/>
Of hazard, which admits no long debate,<br/>
But must with something sudden be opposed<br/>
(Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares),<br/>
Ere in the head of nations he appear,<br/>
Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth.<br/>
I, when no other durst, sole undertook 100<br/>
The dismal expedition to find out<br/>
And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed<br/>
Successfully: a calmer voyage now<br/>
Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once<br/>
Induces best to hope of like success.”<br/>
He ended, and his words impression left<br/>
Of much amazement to the infernal crew,<br/>
Distracted and surprised with deep dismay<br/>
At these sad tidings. But no time was then<br/>
For long indulgence to their fears or grief: 110<br/>
Unanimous they all commit the care<br/>
And management of this man enterprise<br/>
To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt<br/>
At first against mankind so well had thrived<br/>
In Adam’s overthrow, and led their march<br/>
From Hell’s deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,<br/>
Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,<br/>
Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.<br/>
So to the coast of Jordan he directs<br/>
His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles, 120<br/>
Where he might likeliest find this new-declared,<br/>
This man of men, attested Son of God,<br/>
Temptation and all guile on him to try—<br/>
So to subvert whom he suspected raised<br/>
To end his reign on Earth so long enjoyed:<br/>
But, contrary, unweeting he fulfilled<br/>
The purposed counsel, pre-ordained and fixed,<br/>
Of the Most High, who, in full frequence bright<br/>
Of Angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spake:—<br/>
“Gabriel, this day, by proof, thou shalt behold, 130<br/>
Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth<br/>
With Man or men’s affairs, how I begin<br/>
To verify that solemn message late,<br/>
On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure<br/>
In Galilee, that she should bear a son,<br/>
Great in renown, and called the Son of God.<br/>
Then told’st her, doubting how these things could be<br/>
To her a virgin, that on her should come<br/>
The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest<br/>
O’ershadow her. This Man, born and now upgrown, 140<br/>
To shew him worthy of his birth divine<br/>
And high prediction, henceforth I expose<br/>
To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay<br/>
His utmost subtlety, because he boasts<br/>
And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng<br/>
Of his Apostasy. He might have learnt<br/>
Less overweening, since he failed in Job,<br/>
Whose constant perseverance overcame<br/>
Whate’er his cruel malice could invent.<br/>
He now shall know I can produce a man, 150<br/>
Of female seed, far abler to resist<br/>
All his solicitations, and at length<br/>
All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell—<br/>
Winning by conquest what the first man lost<br/>
By fallacy surprised. But first I mean<br/>
To exercise him in the Wilderness;<br/>
There he shall first lay down the rudiments<br/>
Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth<br/>
To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.<br/>
By humiliation and strong sufferance 160<br/>
His weakness shall o’ercome Satanic strength,<br/>
And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;<br/>
That all the Angels and aethereal Powers—<br/>
They now, and men hereafter—may discern<br/>
From what consummate virtue I have chose<br/>
This perfet man, by merit called my Son,<br/>
To earn salvation for the sons of men.”<br/>
So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven<br/>
Admiring stood a space; then into hymns<br/>
Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved, 170<br/>
Circling the throne and singing, while the hand<br/>
Sung with the voice, and this the argument:—<br/>
“Victory and triumph to the Son of God,<br/>
Now entering his great duel, not of arms,<br/>
But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles!<br/>
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure<br/>
Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,<br/>
Against whate’er may tempt, whate’er seduce,<br/>
Allure, or terrify, or undermine.<br/>
Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, 180<br/>
And, devilish machinations, come to nought!”<br/>
So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.<br/>
Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days<br/>
Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,<br/>
Musing and much revolving in his breast<br/>
How best the mighty work he might begin<br/>
Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first<br/>
Publish his godlike office now mature,<br/>
One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading<br/>
And his deep thoughts, the better to converse 190<br/>
With solitude, till, far from track of men,<br/>
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,<br/>
He entered now the bordering Desert wild,<br/>
And, with dark shades and rocks environed round,<br/>
His holy meditations thus pursued:—<br/>
“O what a multitude of thoughts at once<br/>
Awakened in me swarm, while I consider<br/>
What from within I feel myself, and hear<br/>
What from without comes often to my ears,<br/>
Ill sorting with my present state compared! 200<br/>
When I was yet a child, no childish play<br/>
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set<br/>
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do,<br/>
What might be public good; myself I thought<br/>
Born to that end, born to promote all truth,<br/>
All righteous things. Therefore, above my years,<br/>
The Law of God I read, and found it sweet;<br/>
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew<br/>
To such perfection that, ere yet my age<br/>
Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast 210<br/>
I went into the Temple, there to hear<br/>
The teachers of our Law, and to propose<br/>
What might improve my knowledge or their own,<br/>
And was admired by all. Yet this not all<br/>
To which my spirit aspired. Victorious deeds<br/>
Flamed in my heart, heroic acts—one while<br/>
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke;<br/>
Then to subdue and quell, o’er all the earth,<br/>
Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,<br/>
Till truth were freed, and equity restored: 220<br/>
Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first<br/>
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,<br/>
And make persuasion do the work of fear;<br/>
At least to try, and teach the erring soul,<br/>
Not wilfully misdoing, but unware<br/>
Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.<br/>
These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving,<br/>
By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,<br/>
And said to me apart, ‘High are thy thoughts,<br/>
O Son! but nourish them, and let them soar 230<br/>
To what highth sacred virtue and true worth<br/>
Can raise them, though above example high;<br/>
By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.<br/>
For know, thou art no son of mortal man;<br/>
Though men esteem thee low of parentage,<br/>
Thy Father is the Eternal King who rules<br/>
All Heaven and Earth, Angels and sons of men.<br/>
A messenger from God foretold thy birth<br/>
Conceived in me a virgin; he foretold<br/>
Thou shouldst be great, and sit on David’s throne, 240<br/>
And of thy kingdom there should be no end.<br/>
At thy nativity a glorious quire<br/>
Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung<br/>
To shepherds, watching at their folds by night,<br/>
And told them the Messiah now was born,<br/>
Where they might see him; and to thee they came,<br/>
Directed to the manger where thou lay’st;<br/>
For in the inn was left no better room.<br/>
A Star, not seen before, in heaven appearing,<br/>
Guided the Wise Men thither from the East, 250<br/>
To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold;<br/>
By whose bright course led on they found the place,<br/>
Affirming it thy star, new-graven in heaven,<br/>
By which they knew thee King of Israel born.<br/>
Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned<br/>
By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spake,<br/>
Before the altar and the vested priest,<br/>
Like things of thee to all that present stood.’<br/>
This having heart, straight I again revolved<br/>
The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ 260<br/>
Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes<br/>
Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake<br/>
I am—this chiefly, that my way must lie<br/>
Through many a hard assay, even to the death,<br/>
Ere I the promised kingdom can attain,<br/>
Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins’<br/>
Full weight must be transferred upon my head.<br/>
Yet, neither thus disheartened or dismayed,<br/>
The time prefixed I waited; when behold<br/>
The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard, 270<br/>
Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come<br/>
Before Messiah, and his way prepare!<br/>
I, as all others, to his baptism came,<br/>
Which I believed was from above; but he<br/>
Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed<br/>
Me him (for it was shewn him so from Heaven)—<br/>
Me him whose harbinger he was; and first<br/>
Refused on me his baptism to confer,<br/>
As much his greater, and was hardly won.<br/>
But, as I rose out of the laving stream, 280<br/>
Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence<br/>
The Spirit descended on me like a Dove;<br/>
And last, the sum of all, my Father’s voice,<br/>
Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his,<br/>
Me his beloved Son, in whom alone<br/>
He was well pleased: by which I knew the time<br/>
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,<br/>
But openly begin, as best becomes<br/>
The authority which I derived from Heaven.<br/>
And now by some strong motion I am led 290<br/>
Into this wilderness; to what intent<br/>
I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;<br/>
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.”<br/>
So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,<br/>
And, looking round, on every side beheld<br/>
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.<br/>
The way he came, not having marked return,<br/>
Was difficult, by human steps untrod;<br/>
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts<br/>
Accompanied of things past and to come 300<br/>
Lodged in his breast as well might recommend<br/>
Such solitude before choicest society.<br/>
Full forty days he passed—whether on hill<br/>
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night<br/>
Under the covert of some ancient oak<br/>
Or cedar to defend him from the dew,<br/>
Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;<br/>
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,<br/>
Till those days ended; hungered then at last<br/>
Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild, 310<br/>
Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk<br/>
The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;<br/>
The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.<br/>
But now an aged man in rural weeds,<br/>
Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray eye,<br/>
Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve<br/>
Against a winter’s day, when winds blow keen,<br/>
To warm him wet returned from field at eve,<br/>
He saw approach; who first with curious eye<br/>
Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake:— 320<br/>
“Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place,<br/>
So far from path or road of men, who pass<br/>
In troop or caravan? for single none<br/>
Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here<br/>
His carcass, pined with hunger and with droughth.<br/>
I ask the rather, and the more admire,<br/>
For that to me thou seem’st the man whom late<br/>
Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford<br/>
Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son<br/>
Of God. I saw and heard, for we sometimes 330<br/>
Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth<br/>
To town or village nigh (nighest is far),<br/>
Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,<br/>
What happens new; fame also finds us out.”<br/>
To whom the Son of God:—“Who brought me hither<br/>
Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek.”<br/>
“By miracle he may,” replied the swain;<br/>
“What other way I see not; for we here<br/>
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured<br/>
More than the camel, and to drink go far— 340<br/>
Men to much misery and hardship born.<br/>
But, if thou be the Son of God, command<br/>
That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;<br/>
So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve<br/>
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.”<br/>
He ended, and the Son of God replied:—<br/>
“Think’st thou such force in bread? Is it not written<br/>
(For I discern thee other than thou seem’st),<br/>
Man lives not by bread only, but each word<br/>
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed 350<br/>
Our fathers here with manna? In the Mount<br/>
Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;<br/>
And forty days Eliah without food<br/>
Wandered this barren waste; the same I now.<br/>
Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust<br/>
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?”<br/>
Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend, now undisguised:—<br/>
“’Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate<br/>
Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,<br/>
Kept not my happy station, but was driven 360<br/>
With them from bliss to the bottomless Deep—<br/>
Yet to that hideous place not so confined<br/>
By rigour unconniving but that oft,<br/>
Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy<br/>
Large liberty to round this globe of Earth,<br/>
Or range in the Air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens<br/>
Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.<br/>
I came, among the Sons of God, when he<br/>
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job,<br/>
To prove him, and illustrate his high worth; 370<br/>
And, when to all his Angels he proposed<br/>
To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,<br/>
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,<br/>
I undertook that office, and the tongues<br/>
Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies<br/>
To his destruction, as I had in charge:<br/>
For what he bids I do. Though I have lost<br/>
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost<br/>
To be beloved of God, I have not lost<br/>
To love, at least contemplate and admire, 380<br/>
What I see excellent in good, or fair,<br/>
Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.<br/>
What can be then less in me than desire<br/>
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know<br/>
Declared the Son of God, to hear attent<br/>
Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?<br/>
Men generally think me much a foe<br/>
To all mankind. Why should I? they to me<br/>
Never did wrong or violence. By them<br/>
I lost not what I lost; rather by them 390<br/>
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell<br/>
Copartner in these regions of the World,<br/>
If not disposer—lend them oft my aid,<br/>
Oft my advice by presages and signs,<br/>
And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,<br/>
Whereby they may direct their future life.<br/>
Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain<br/>
Companions of my misery and woe!<br/>
At first it may be; but, long since with woe<br/>
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof 400<br/>
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,<br/>
Nor lightens aught each man’s peculiar load;<br/>
Small consolation, then, were Man adjoined.<br/>
This wounds me most (what can it less?) that Man,<br/>
Man fallen, shall be restored, I never more.”<br/>
To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied:—<br/>
“Deservedly thou griev’st, composed of lies<br/>
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,<br/>
Who boast’st release from Hell, and leave to come<br/>
Into the Heaven of Heavens. Thou com’st, indeed, 410<br/>
As a poor miserable captive thrall<br/>
Comes to the place where he before had sat<br/>
Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,<br/>
Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,<br/>
A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,<br/>
To all the host of Heaven. The happy place<br/>
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy—<br/>
Rather inflames thy torment, representing<br/>
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable;<br/>
So never more in Hell than when in Heaven. 420<br/>
But thou art serviceable to Heaven’s King!<br/>
Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear<br/>
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?<br/>
What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem<br/>
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him<br/>
With all inflictions? but his patience won.<br/>
The other service was thy chosen task,<br/>
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;<br/>
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.<br/>
Yet thou pretend’st to truth! all oracles 430<br/>
By thee are given, and what confessed more true<br/>
Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,<br/>
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.<br/>
But what have been thy answers? what but dark,<br/>
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,<br/>
Which they who asked have seldom understood,<br/>
And, not well understood, as good not known?<br/>
Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,<br/>
Returned the wiser, or the more instruct<br/>
To fly or follow what concerned him most, 440<br/>
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?<br/>
For God hath justly given the nations up<br/>
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell<br/>
Idolatrous. But, when his purpose is<br/>
Among them to declare his providence,<br/>
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,<br/>
But from him, or his Angels president<br/>
In every province, who, themselves disdaining<br/>
To approach thy temples, give thee in command<br/>
What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say 450<br/>
To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,<br/>
Or like a fawning parasite, obey’st;<br/>
Then to thyself ascrib’st the truth foretold.<br/>
But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;<br/>
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse<br/>
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased,<br/>
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice<br/>
Shalt be enquired at Delphos or elsewhere—<br/>
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.<br/>
God hath now sent his living Oracle 460<br/>
Into the world to teach his final will,<br/>
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell<br/>
In pious hearts, an inward oracle<br/>
To all truth requisite for men to know.”<br/>
So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,<br/>
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,<br/>
Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:—<br/>
“Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,<br/>
And urged me hard with doings which not will,<br/>
But misery, hath wrested from me. Where 470<br/>
Easily canst thou find one miserable,<br/>
And not inforced oft-times to part from truth,<br/>
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,<br/>
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?<br/>
But thou art placed above me; thou art Lord;<br/>
From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure<br/>
Cheek or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.<br/>
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,<br/>
Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,<br/>
And tunable as sylvan pipe or song; 480<br/>
What wonder, then, if I delight to hear<br/>
Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire<br/>
Virtue who follow not her lore. Permit me<br/>
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),<br/>
And talk at least, though I despair to attain.<br/>
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,<br/>
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest<br/>
To tread his sacred courts, and minister<br/>
About his altar, handling holy things,<br/>
Praying or vowing, and voutsafed his voice 490<br/>
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet<br/>
Inspired: disdain not such access to me.”<br/>
To whom our Saviour, with unaltered brow:—<br/>
“Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,<br/>
I bid not, or forbid. Do as thou find’st<br/>
Permission from above; thou canst not more.”<br/>
He added not; and Satan, bowling low<br/>
His gray dissimulation, disappeared,<br/>
Into thin air diffused: for now began<br/>
Night with her sullen wing to double-shade 500<br/>
The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched;<br/>
And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap02"></a>THE SECOND BOOK</h2>
<p class="noindent">
Meanwhile the new-baptized, who yet remained<br/>
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen<br/>
Him whom they heard so late expressly called<br/>
Jesus Messiah, Son of God, declared,<br/>
And on that high authority had believed,<br/>
And with him talked, and with him lodged—I mean<br/>
Andrew and Simon, famous after known,<br/>
With others, though in Holy Writ not named—<br/>
Now missing him, their joy so lately found,<br/>
So lately found and so abruptly gone, 10<br/>
Began to doubt, and doubted many days,<br/>
And, as the days increased, increased their doubt.<br/>
Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn,<br/>
And for a time caught up to God, as once<br/>
Moses was in the Mount and missing long,<br/>
And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels<br/>
Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come.<br/>
Therefore, as those young prophets then with care<br/>
Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these<br/>
Nigh to Bethabara—in Jericho 20<br/>
The city of palms, AEnon, and Salem old,<br/>
Machaerus, and each town or city walled<br/>
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,<br/>
Or in Peraea—but returned in vain.<br/>
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,<br/>
Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play,<br/>
Plain fishermen (no greater men them call),<br/>
Close in a cottage low together got,<br/>
Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed:—<br/>
“Alas, from what high hope to what relapse 30<br/>
Unlooked for are we fallen! Our eyes beheld<br/>
Messiah certainly now come, so long<br/>
Expected of our fathers; we have heard<br/>
His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth.<br/>
‘Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand;<br/>
The kingdom shall to Israel be restored:’<br/>
Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned<br/>
Into perplexity and new amaze.<br/>
For whither is he gone? what accident<br/>
Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire 40<br/>
After appearance, and again prolong<br/>
Our expectation? God of Israel,<br/>
Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come.<br/>
Behold the kings of the earth, how they oppress<br/>
Thy Chosen, to what highth their power unjust<br/>
They have exalted, and behind them cast<br/>
All fear of Thee; arise, and vindicate<br/>
Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke!<br/>
But let us wait; thus far He hath performed—<br/>
Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him 50<br/>
By his great Prophet pointed at and shown<br/>
In public, and with him we have conversed.<br/>
Let us be glad of this, and all our fears<br/>
Lay on his providence; He will not fail,<br/>
Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall—<br/>
Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence:<br/>
Soon we shall see our hope, our joy, return.”<br/>
Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume<br/>
To find whom at the first they found unsought.<br/>
But to his mother Mary, when she saw 60<br/>
Others returned from baptism, not her Son,<br/>
Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none,<br/>
Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure,<br/>
Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised<br/>
Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:—<br/>
“Oh, what avails me now that honour high,<br/>
To have conceived of God, or that salute,<br/>
‘Hail, highly favoured, among women blest!’<br/>
While I to sorrows am no less advanced,<br/>
And fears as eminent above the lot 70<br/>
Of other women, by the birth I bore:<br/>
In such a season born, when scarce a shed<br/>
Could be obtained to shelter him or me<br/>
From the bleak air? A stable was our warmth,<br/>
A manger his; yet soon enforced to fly<br/>
Thence into Egypt, till the murderous king<br/>
Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing, filled<br/>
With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.<br/>
From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth<br/>
Hath been our dwelling many years; his life 80<br/>
Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,<br/>
Little suspicious to any king. But now,<br/>
Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,<br/>
By John the Baptist, and in public shewn,<br/>
Son owned from Heaven by his Father’s voice,<br/>
I looked for some great change. To honour? no;<br/>
But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,<br/>
That to the fall and rising he should be<br/>
Of many in Israel, and to a sign<br/>
Spoken against—that through my very soul 90<br/>
A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot,<br/>
My exaltation to afflictions high!<br/>
Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!<br/>
I will not argue that, nor will repine.<br/>
But where delays he now? Some great intent<br/>
Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,<br/>
I lost him, but so found as well I saw<br/>
He could not lose himself, but went about<br/>
His Father’s business. What he meant I mused—<br/>
Since understand; much more his absence now 100<br/>
Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.<br/>
But I to wait with patience am inured;<br/>
My heart hath been a storehouse long of things<br/>
And sayings laid up, pretending strange events.”<br/>
Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind<br/>
Recalling what remarkably had passed<br/>
Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts<br/>
Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:<br/>
The while her Son, tracing the desert wild,<br/>
Sole, but with holiest meditations fed, 110<br/>
Into himself descended, and at once<br/>
All his great work to come before him set—<br/>
How to begin, how to accomplish best<br/>
His end of being on Earth, and mission high.<br/>
For Satan, with sly preface to return,<br/>
Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone<br/>
Up to the middle region of thick air,<br/>
Where all his Potentates in council sate.<br/>
There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,<br/>
Solicitous and blank, he thus began:— 120<br/>
“Princes, Heaven’s ancient Sons, AEthereal Thrones—<br/>
Daemonian Spirits now, from the element<br/>
Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called<br/>
Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath<br/>
(So may we hold our place and these mild seats<br/>
Without new trouble!)—such an enemy<br/>
Is risen to invade us, who no less<br/>
Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell.<br/>
I, as I undertook, and with the vote<br/>
Consenting in full frequence was impowered, 130<br/>
Have found him, viewed him, tasted him; but find<br/>
Far other labour to be undergone<br/>
Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,<br/>
Though Adam by his wife’s allurement fell,<br/>
However to this Man inferior far—<br/>
If he be Man by mother’s side, at least<br/>
With more than human gifts from Heaven adorned,<br/>
Perfections absolute, graces divine,<br/>
And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.<br/>
Therefore I am returned, lest confidence 140<br/>
Of my success with Eve in Paradise<br/>
Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure<br/>
Of like succeeding here. I summon all<br/>
Rather to be in readiness with hand<br/>
Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst<br/>
Thought none my equal, now be overmatched.”<br/>
So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all<br/>
With clamour was assured their utmost aid<br/>
At his command; when from amidst them rose<br/>
Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell, 150<br/>
The sensualest, and, after Asmodai,<br/>
The fleshliest Incubus, and thus advised:—<br/>
“Set women in his eye and in his walk,<br/>
Among daughters of men the fairest found.<br/>
Many are in each region passing fair<br/>
As the noon sky, more like to goddesses<br/>
Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,<br/>
Expert in amorous arts, enchanting tongues<br/>
Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild<br/>
And sweet allayed, yet terrible to approach, 160<br/>
Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw<br/>
Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets.<br/>
Such object hath the power to soften and tame<br/>
Severest temper, smooth the rugged’st brow,<br/>
Enerve, and with voluptuous hope dissolve,<br/>
Draw out with credulous desire, and lead<br/>
At will the manliest, resolutest breast,<br/>
As the magnetic hardest iron draws.<br/>
Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart<br/>
Of wisest Solomon, and made him build, 170<br/>
And made him bow, to the gods of his wives.”<br/>
To whom quick answer Satan thus returned:—<br/>
“Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh’st<br/>
All others by thyself. Because of old<br/>
Thou thyself doat’st on womankind, admiring<br/>
Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,<br/>
None are, thou think’st, but taken with such toys.<br/>
Before the Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew,<br/>
False titled Sons of God, roaming the Earth,<br/>
Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, 180<br/>
And coupled with them, and begot a race.<br/>
Have we not seen, or by relation heard,<br/>
In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk’st,<br/>
In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,<br/>
In valley or green meadow, to waylay<br/>
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,<br/>
Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,<br/>
Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more<br/>
Too long—then lay’st thy scapes on names adored,<br/>
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan, 190<br/>
Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan? But these haunts<br/>
Delight not all. Among the sons of men<br/>
How many have with a smile made small account<br/>
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned<br/>
All her assaults, on worthier things intent!<br/>
Remember that Pellean conqueror,<br/>
A youth, how all the beauties of the East<br/>
He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;<br/>
How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,<br/>
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid. 200<br/>
For Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full<br/>
Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond<br/>
Higher design than to enjoy his state;<br/>
Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.<br/>
But he whom we attempt is wiser far<br/>
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,<br/>
Made and set wholly on the accomplishment<br/>
Of greatest things. What woman will you find,<br/>
Though of this age the wonder and the fame,<br/>
On whom his leisure will voutsafe an eye 210<br/>
Of fond desire? Or should she, confident,<br/>
As sitting queen adored on Beauty’s throne,<br/>
Descend with all her winning charms begirt<br/>
To enamour, as the zone of Venus once<br/>
Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell),<br/>
How would one look from his majestic brow,<br/>
Seated as on the top of Virtue’s hill,<br/>
Discountenance her despised, and put to rout<br/>
All her array, her female pride deject,<br/>
Or turn to reverent awe! For Beauty stands 220<br/>
In the admiration only of weak minds<br/>
Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes<br/>
Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,<br/>
At every sudden slighting quite abashed.<br/>
Therefore with manlier objects we must try<br/>
His constancy—with such as have more shew<br/>
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise<br/>
(Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked);<br/>
Or that which only seems to satisfy<br/>
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond. 230<br/>
And now I know he hungers, where no food<br/>
Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness:<br/>
The rest commit to me; I shall let pass<br/>
No advantage, and his strength as oft assay.”<br/>
He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;<br/>
Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band<br/>
Of Spirits likest to himself in guile,<br/>
To be at hand and at his beck appear,<br/>
If cause were to unfold some active scene<br/>
Of various persons, each to know his part; 240<br/>
Then to the desert takes with these his flight,<br/>
Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,<br/>
After forty days’ fasting, had remained,<br/>
Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:—<br/>
“Where will this end? Four times ten days I have passed<br/>
Wandering this woody maze, and human food<br/>
Nor tasted, nor had appetite. That fast<br/>
To virtue I impute not, or count part<br/>
Of what I suffer here. If nature need not,<br/>
Or God support nature without repast, 250<br/>
Though needing, what praise is it to endure?<br/>
But now I feel I hunger; which declares<br/>
Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God<br/>
Can satisfy that need some other way,<br/>
Though hunger still remain. So it remain<br/>
Without this body’s wasting, I content me,<br/>
And from the sting of famine fear no harm;<br/>
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed<br/>
Me hungering more to do my Father’s will.”<br/>
It was the hour of night, when thus the Son 260<br/>
Communed in silent walk, then laid him down<br/>
Under the hospitable covert nigh<br/>
Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept,<br/>
And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,<br/>
Of meats and drinks, nature’s refreshment sweet.<br/>
Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood,<br/>
And saw the ravens with their horny beaks<br/>
Food to Elijah bringing even and morn—<br/>
Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought;<br/>
He saw the Prophet also, how he fled 270<br/>
Into the desert, and how there he slept<br/>
Under a juniper—then how, awaked,<br/>
He found his supper on the coals prepared,<br/>
And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,<br/>
And eat the second time after repose,<br/>
The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:<br/>
Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,<br/>
Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.<br/>
Thus wore out night; and now the harald Lark<br/>
Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry 280<br/>
The Morn’s approach, and greet her with his song.<br/>
As lightly from his grassy couch up rose<br/>
Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;<br/>
Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.<br/>
Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,<br/>
From whose high top to ken the prospect round,<br/>
If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;<br/>
But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw—<br/>
Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,<br/>
With chaunt of tuneful birds resounding loud. 290<br/>
Thither he bent his way, determined there<br/>
To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade<br/>
High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys brown,<br/>
That opened in the midst a woody scene;<br/>
Nature’s own work it seemed (Nature taught Art),<br/>
And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt<br/>
Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He viewed it round;<br/>
When suddenly a man before him stood,<br/>
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,<br/>
As one in city or court or palace bred, 300<br/>
And with fair speech these words to him addressed:—<br/>
“With granted leave officious I return,<br/>
But much more wonder that the Son of God<br/>
In this wild solitude so long should bide,<br/>
Of all things destitute, and, well I know,<br/>
Not without hunger. Others of some note,<br/>
As story tells, have trod this wilderness:<br/>
The fugitive Bond-woman, with her son,<br/>
Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief<br/>
By a providing Angel; all the race 310<br/>
Of Israel here had famished, had not God<br/>
Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,<br/>
Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed<br/>
Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.<br/>
Of thee those forty days none hath regard,<br/>
Forty and more deserted here indeed.”<br/>
To whom thus Jesus:—“What conclud’st thou hence?<br/>
They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none.”<br/>
“How hast thou hunger then?” Satan replied.<br/>
“Tell me, if food were now before thee set, 320<br/>
Wouldst thou not eat?” “Thereafter as I like<br/>
the giver,” answered Jesus. “Why should that<br/>
Cause thy refusal?” said the subtle Fiend.<br/>
“Hast thou not right to all created things?<br/>
Owe not all creatures, by just right, to thee<br/>
Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,<br/>
But tender all their power? Nor mention I<br/>
Meats by the law unclean, or offered first<br/>
To idols—those young Daniel could refuse;<br/>
Nor proffered by an enemy—though who 330<br/>
Would scruple that, with want oppressed? Behold,<br/>
Nature ashamed, or, better to express,<br/>
Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed<br/>
From all the elements her choicest store,<br/>
To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord<br/>
With honour. Only deign to sit and eat.”<br/>
He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,<br/>
Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,<br/>
In ample space under the broadest shade,<br/>
A table richly spread in regal mode, 340<br/>
With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort<br/>
And savour—beasts of chase, or fowl of game,<br/>
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,<br/>
Grisamber-steamed; all fish, from sea or shore,<br/>
Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,<br/>
And exquisitest name, for which was drained<br/>
Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.<br/>
Alas! how simple, to these cates compared,<br/>
Was that crude Apple that diverted Eve!<br/>
And at a stately sideboard, by the wine, 350<br/>
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood<br/>
Tall stripling youths rich-clad, of fairer hue<br/>
Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more,<br/>
Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,<br/>
Nymphs of Diana’s train, and Naiades<br/>
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea’s horn,<br/>
And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed<br/>
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since<br/>
Of faery damsels met in forest wide<br/>
By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, 360<br/>
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.<br/>
And all the while harmonious airs were heard<br/>
Of chiming strings or charming pipes; and winds<br/>
Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned<br/>
From their soft wings, and Flora’s earliest smells.<br/>
Such was the splendour; and the Tempter now<br/>
His invitation earnestly renewed:—<br/>
“What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?<br/>
These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict<br/>
Defends the touching of these viands pure; 370<br/>
Their taste no knowledge works, at least of evil,<br/>
But life preserves, destroys life’s enemy,<br/>
Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.<br/>
All these are Spirits of air, and woods, and springs,<br/>
Thy gentle ministers, who come to pay<br/>
Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord.<br/>
What doubt’st thou, Son of God? Sit down and eat.”<br/>
To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:—<br/>
“Said’st thou not that to all things I had right?<br/>
And who withholds my power that right to use? 380<br/>
Shall I receive by gift what of my own,<br/>
When and where likes me best, I can command?<br/>
I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,<br/>
Command a table in this wilderness,<br/>
And call swift flights of Angels ministrant,<br/>
Arrayed in glory, on my cup to attend:<br/>
Why shouldst thou, then, obtrude this diligence<br/>
In vain, where no acceptance it can find?<br/>
And with my hunger what hast thou to do?<br/>
Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, 390<br/>
And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles.”<br/>
To whom thus answered Satan, male-content:—<br/>
“That I have also power to give thou seest;<br/>
If of that power I bring thee voluntary<br/>
What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,<br/>
And rather opportunely in this place<br/>
Chose to impart to thy apparent need,<br/>
Why shouldst thou not accept it? But I see<br/>
What I can do or offer is suspect.<br/>
Of these things others quickly will dispose, 400<br/>
Whose pains have earned the far-fet spoil.” With that<br/>
Both table and provision vanished quite,<br/>
With sound of harpies’ wings and talons heard;<br/>
Only the importune Tempter still remained,<br/>
And with these words his temptation pursued:—<br/>
“By hunger, that each other creature tames,<br/>
Thou art not to be harmed, therefore not moved;<br/>
Thy temperance, invincible besides,<br/>
For no allurement yields to appetite;<br/>
And all thy heart is set on high designs, 410<br/>
High actions. But wherewith to be achieved?<br/>
Great acts require great means of enterprise;<br/>
Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,<br/>
A carpenter thy father known, thyself<br/>
Bred up in poverty and straits at home,<br/>
Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.<br/>
Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire<br/>
To greatness? whence authority deriv’st?<br/>
What followers, what retinue canst thou gain,<br/>
Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude, 420<br/>
Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost?<br/>
Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and realms.<br/>
What raised Antipater the Edomite,<br/>
And his son Herod placed on Juda’s throne,<br/>
Thy throne, but gold, that got him puissant friends?<br/>
Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive,<br/>
Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap—<br/>
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me.<br/>
Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand;<br/>
They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain, 430<br/>
While virtue, valour, wisdom, sit in want.”<br/>
To whom thus Jesus patiently replied:—<br/>
“Yet wealth without these three is impotent<br/>
To gain dominion, or to keep it gained—<br/>
Witness those ancient empires of the earth,<br/>
In highth of all their flowing wealth dissolved;<br/>
But men endued with these have oft attained,<br/>
In lowest poverty, to highest deeds—<br/>
Gideon, and Jephtha, and the shepherd lad<br/>
Whose offspring on the throne of Juda sate 440<br/>
So many ages, and shall yet regain<br/>
That seat, and reign in Israel without end.<br/>
Among the Heathen (for throughout the world<br/>
To me is not unknown what hath been done<br/>
Worthy of memorial) canst thou not remember<br/>
Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?<br/>
For I esteem those names of men so poor,<br/>
Who could do mighty things, and could contemn<br/>
Riches, though offered from the hand of kings.<br/>
And what in me seems wanting but that I 450<br/>
May also in this poverty as soon<br/>
Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more?<br/>
Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools,<br/>
The wise man’s cumbrance, if not snare; more apt<br/>
To slacken virtue and abate her edge<br/>
Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.<br/>
What if with like aversion I reject<br/>
Riches and realms! Yet not for that a crown,<br/>
Golden in shew, is but a wreath of thorns,<br/>
Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights, 460<br/>
To him who wears the regal diadem,<br/>
When on his shoulders each man’s burden lies;<br/>
For therein stands the office of a king,<br/>
His honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise,<br/>
That for the public all this weight he bears.<br/>
Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules<br/>
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king—<br/>
Which every wise and virtuous man attains;<br/>
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule<br/>
Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes, 470<br/>
Subject himself to anarchy within,<br/>
Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.<br/>
But to guide nations in the way of truth<br/>
By saving doctrine, and from error lead<br/>
To know, and, knowing, worship God aright,<br/>
Is yet more kingly. This attracts the soul,<br/>
Governs the inner man, the nobler part;<br/>
That other o’er the body only reigns,<br/>
And oft by force—which to a generous mind<br/>
So reigning can be no sincere delight. 480<br/>
Besides, to give a kingdom hath been thought<br/>
Greater and nobler done, and to lay down<br/>
Far more magnanimous, than to assume.<br/>
Riches are needless, then, both for themselves,<br/>
And for thy reason why they should be sought—<br/>
To gain a sceptre, oftest better missed.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap03"></a>THE THIRD BOOK</h2>
<p class="noindent">
So spake the Son of God; and Satan stood<br/>
A while as mute, confounded what to say,<br/>
What to reply, confuted and convinced<br/>
Of his weak arguing and fallacious drift;<br/>
At length, collecting all his serpent wiles,<br/>
With soothing words renewed, him thus accosts:—<br/>
“I see thou know’st what is of use to know,<br/>
What best to say canst say, to do canst do;<br/>
Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words<br/>
To thy large heart give utterance due; thy heart 10<br/>
Contains of good, wise, just, the perfet shape.<br/>
Should kings and nations from thy mouth consult,<br/>
Thy counsel would be as the oracle<br/>
Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems<br/>
On Aaron’s breast, or tongue of Seers old<br/>
Infallible; or, wert thou sought to deeds<br/>
That might require the array of war, thy skill<br/>
Of conduct would be such that all the world<br/>
Could not sustain thy prowess, or subsist<br/>
In battle, though against thy few in arms. 20<br/>
These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hide?<br/>
Affecting private life, or more obscure<br/>
In savage wilderness, wherefore deprive<br/>
All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself<br/>
The fame and glory—glory, the reward<br/>
That sole excites to high attempts the flame<br/>
Of most erected spirits, most tempered pure<br/>
AEthereal, who all pleasures else despise,<br/>
All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,<br/>
And dignities and powers, all but the highest? 30<br/>
Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe. The son<br/>
Of Macedonian Philip had ere these<br/>
Won Asia, and the throne of Cyrus held<br/>
At his dispose; young Scipio had brought down<br/>
The Carthaginian pride; young Pompey quelled<br/>
The Pontic king, and in triumph had rode.<br/>
Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature,<br/>
Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.<br/>
Great Julius, whom now all the world admires,<br/>
The more he grew in years, the more inflamed 40<br/>
With glory, wept that he had lived so long<br/>
Ingloroious. But thou yet art not too late.”<br/>
To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied:—<br/>
“Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth<br/>
For empire’s sake, nor empire to affect<br/>
For glory’s sake, by all thy argument.<br/>
For what is glory but the blaze of fame,<br/>
The people’s praise, if always praise unmixed?<br/>
And what the people but a herd confused,<br/>
A miscellaneous rabble, who extol 50<br/>
Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise?<br/>
They praise and they admire they know not what,<br/>
And know not whom, but as one leads the other;<br/>
And what delight to be by such extolled,<br/>
To live upon their tongues, and be their talk?<br/>
Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise—<br/>
His lot who dares be singularly good.<br/>
The intelligent among them and the wise<br/>
Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.<br/>
This is true glory and renown—when God, 60<br/>
Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks<br/>
The just man, and divulges him through Heaven<br/>
To all his Angels, who with true applause<br/>
Recount his praises. Thus he did to Job,<br/>
When, to extend his fame through Heaven and Earth,<br/>
As thou to thy reproach may’st well remember,<br/>
He asked thee, ‘Hast thou seen my servant Job?’<br/>
Famous he was in Heaven; on Earth less known,<br/>
Where glory is false glory, attributed<br/>
To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame. 70<br/>
They err who count it glorious to subdue<br/>
By conquest far and wide, to overrun<br/>
Large countries, and in field great battles win,<br/>
Great cities by assault. What do these worthies<br/>
But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave<br/>
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,<br/>
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more<br/>
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind<br/>
Nothing but ruin wheresoe’er they rove,<br/>
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy; 80<br/>
Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,<br/>
Great benefactors of mankind, Deliverers,<br/>
Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice?<br/>
One is the son of Jove, of Mars the other;<br/>
Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,<br/>
Rowling in brutish vices, and deformed,<br/>
Violent or shameful death their due reward.<br/>
But, if there be in glory aught of good;<br/>
It may be means far different be attained,<br/>
Without ambition, war, or violence— 90<br/>
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,<br/>
By patience, temperance. I mention still<br/>
Him whom thy wrongs, with saintly patience borne,<br/>
Made famous in a land and times obscure;<br/>
Who names not now with honour patient Job?<br/>
Poor Socrates, (who next more memorable?)<br/>
By what he taught and suffered for so doing,<br/>
For truth’s sake suffering death unjust, lives now<br/>
Equal in fame to proudest conquerors.<br/>
Yet, if for fame and glory aught be done, 100<br/>
Aught suffered—if young African for fame<br/>
His wasted country freed from Punic rage—<br/>
The deed becomes unpraised, the man at least,<br/>
And loses, though but verbal, his reward.<br/>
Shall I seek glory, then, as vain men seek,<br/>
Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, but His<br/>
Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am.”<br/>
To whom the Tempter, murmuring, thus replied:—<br/>
“Think not so slight of glory, therein least<br/>
Resembling thy great Father. He seeks glory, 110<br/>
And for his glory all things made, all things<br/>
Orders and governs; nor content in Heaven,<br/>
By all his Angels glorified, requires<br/>
Glory from men, from all men, good or bad,<br/>
Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption.<br/>
Above all sacrifice, or hallowed gift,<br/>
Glory he requires, and glory he receives,<br/>
Promiscuous from all nations, Jew, or Greek,<br/>
Or Barbarous, nor exception hath declared;<br/>
From us, his foes pronounced, glory he exacts.” 120<br/>
To whom our Saviour fervently replied:<br/>
“And reason; since his Word all things produced,<br/>
Though chiefly not for glory as prime end,<br/>
But to shew forth his goodness, and impart<br/>
His good communicable to every soul<br/>
Freely; of whom what could He less expect<br/>
Than glory and benediction—that is, thanks—<br/>
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense<br/>
From them who could return him nothing else,<br/>
And, not returning that, would likeliest render 130<br/>
Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy?<br/>
Hard recompense, unsuitable return<br/>
For so much good, so much beneficience!<br/>
But why should man seek glory, who of his own<br/>
Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs<br/>
But condemnation, ignominy, and shame—<br/>
Who, for so many benefits received,<br/>
Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false,<br/>
And so of all true good himself despoiled;<br/>
Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take 140<br/>
That which to God alone of right belongs?<br/>
Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,<br/>
That who advances his glory, not their own,<br/>
Them he himself to glory will advance.”<br/>
So spake the Son of God; and here again<br/>
Satan had not to answer, but stood struck<br/>
With guilt of his own sin—for he himself,<br/>
Insatiable of glory, had lost all;<br/>
Yet of another plea bethought him soon:—<br/>
“Of glory, as thou wilt,” said he, “so deem; 150<br/>
Worth or not worth the seeking, let it pass.<br/>
But to a Kingdom thou art born—ordained<br/>
To sit upon thy father David’s throne,<br/>
By mother’s side thy father, though thy right<br/>
Be now in powerful hands, that will not part<br/>
Easily from possession won with arms.<br/>
Judaea now and all the Promised Land,<br/>
Reduced a province under Roman yoke,<br/>
Obeys Tiberius, nor is always ruled<br/>
With temperate sway: oft have they violated 160<br/>
The Temple, oft the Law, with foul affronts,<br/>
Abominations rather, as did once<br/>
Antiochus. And think’st thou to regain<br/>
Thy right by sitting still, or thus retiring?<br/>
So did not Machabeus. He indeed<br/>
Retired unto the Desert, but with arms;<br/>
And o’er a mighty king so oft prevailed<br/>
That by strong hand his family obtained,<br/>
Though priests, the crown, and David’s throne usurped,<br/>
With Modin and her suburbs once content. 170<br/>
If kingdom move thee not, let move thee zeal<br/>
And duty—zeal and duty are not slow,<br/>
But on Occasion’s forelock watchful wait:<br/>
They themselves rather are occasion best—<br/>
Zeal of thy Father’s house, duty to free<br/>
Thy country from her heathen servitude.<br/>
So shalt thou best fulfil, best verify,<br/>
The Prophets old, who sung thy endless reign—<br/>
The happier reign the sooner it begins.<br/>
Rein then; what canst thou better do the while?” 180<br/>
To whom our Saviour answer thus returned:—<br/>
“All things are best fulfilled in their due time;<br/>
And time there is for all things, Truth hath said.<br/>
If of my reign Prophetic Writ hath told<br/>
That it shall never end, so, when begin<br/>
The Father in his purpose hath decreed—<br/>
He in whose hand all times and seasons rowl.<br/>
What if he hath decreed that I shall first<br/>
Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,<br/>
By tribulations, injuries, insults, 190<br/>
Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,<br/>
Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting<br/>
Without distrust or doubt, that He may know<br/>
What I can suffer, how obey? Who best<br/>
Can suffer best can do, best reign who first<br/>
Well hath obeyed—just trial ere I merit<br/>
My exaltation without change or end.<br/>
But what concerns it thee when I begin<br/>
My everlasting Kingdom? Why art thou<br/>
Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition? 200<br/>
Know’st thou not that my rising is thy fall,<br/>
And my promotion will be thy destruction?”<br/>
To whom the Tempter, inly racked, replied:—<br/>
“Let that come when it comes. All hope is lost<br/>
Of my reception into grace; what worse?<br/>
For where no hope is left is left no fear.<br/>
If there be worse, the expectation more<br/>
Of worse torments me than the feeling can.<br/>
I would be at the worst; worst is my port,<br/>
My harbour, and my ultimate repose, 210<br/>
The end I would attain, my final good.<br/>
My error was my error, and my crime<br/>
My crime; whatever, for itself condemned,<br/>
And will alike be punished, whether thou<br/>
Reign or reign not—though to that gentle brow<br/>
Willingly I could fly, and hope thy reign,<br/>
From that placid aspect and meek regard,<br/>
Rather than aggravate my evil state,<br/>
Would stand between me and thy Father’s ire<br/>
(Whose ire I dread more than the fire of Hell) 220<br/>
A shelter and a kind of shading cool<br/>
Interposition, as a summer’s cloud.<br/>
If I, then, to the worst that can be haste,<br/>
Why move thy feet so slow to what is best?<br/>
Happiest, both to thyself and all the world,<br/>
That thou, who worthiest art, shouldst be their King!<br/>
Perhaps thou linger’st in deep thoughts detained<br/>
Of the enterprise so hazardous and high!<br/>
No wonder; for, though in thee be united<br/>
What of perfection can in Man be found, 230<br/>
Or human nature can receive, consider<br/>
Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent<br/>
At home, scarce viewed the Galilean towns,<br/>
And once a year Jerusalem, few days’<br/>
Short sojourn; and what thence couldst thou observe?<br/>
The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,<br/>
Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts—<br/>
Best school of best experience, quickest in sight<br/>
In all things that to greatest actions lead.<br/>
The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever 240<br/>
Timorous, and loth, with novice modesty<br/>
(As he who, seeking asses, found a kingdom)<br/>
Irresolute, unhardy, unadventrous.<br/>
But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit<br/>
Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes<br/>
The monarchies of the Earth, their pomp and state—<br/>
Sufficient introduction to inform<br/>
Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal arts,<br/>
And regal mysteries; that thou may’st know<br/>
How best their opposition to withstand.” 250<br/>
With that (such power was given him then), he took<br/>
The Son of God up to a mountain high.<br/>
It was a mountain at whose verdant feet<br/>
A spacious plain outstretched in circuit wide<br/>
Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,<br/>
The one winding, the other straight, and left between<br/>
Fair champaign, with less rivers interveined,<br/>
Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea.<br/>
Fertil of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;<br/>
With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills; 260<br/>
Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem<br/>
The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large<br/>
The prospect was that here and there was room<br/>
For barren desert, fountainless and dry.<br/>
To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought<br/>
Our Saviour, and new train of words began:—<br/>
“Well have we speeded, and o’er hill and dale,<br/>
Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,<br/>
Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold’st<br/>
Assyria, and her empire’s ancient bounds, 270<br/>
Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on<br/>
As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,<br/>
And oft beyond; to south the Persian bay,<br/>
And, inaccessible, the Arabian drouth:<br/>
Here, Nineveh, of length within her wall<br/>
Several days’ journey, built by Ninus old,<br/>
Of that first golden monarchy the seat,<br/>
And seat of Salmanassar, whose success<br/>
Israel in long captivity still mourns;<br/>
There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues, 280<br/>
As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice<br/>
Judah and all thy father David’s house<br/>
Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,<br/>
Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,<br/>
His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;<br/>
Ecbatana her structure vast there shews,<br/>
And Hecatompylos her hunderd gates;<br/>
There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,<br/>
The drink of none but kings; of later fame,<br/>
Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands, 290<br/>
The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there<br/>
Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,<br/>
Turning with easy eye, thou may’st behold.<br/>
All these the Parthian (now some ages past<br/>
By great Arsaces led, who founded first<br/>
That empire) under his dominion holds,<br/>
From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.<br/>
And just in time thou com’st to have a view<br/>
Of his great power; for now the Parthian king<br/>
In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host 300<br/>
Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild<br/>
Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid<br/>
He marches now in haste. See, though from far,<br/>
His thousands, in what martial equipage<br/>
They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,<br/>
Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit—<br/>
All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;<br/>
See how in warlike muster they appear,<br/>
In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings.”<br/>
He looked, and saw what numbers numberless 310<br/>
The city gates outpoured, light-armed troops<br/>
In coats of mail and military pride.<br/>
In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,<br/>
Prauncing their riders bore, the flower and choice<br/>
Of many provinces from bound to bound—<br/>
From Arachosia, from Candaor east,<br/>
And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs<br/>
Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;<br/>
From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains<br/>
Of Adiabene, Media, and the south 320<br/>
Of Susiana, to Balsara’s haven.<br/>
He saw them in their forms of battle ranged,<br/>
How quick they wheeled, and flying behind them shot<br/>
Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face<br/>
Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;<br/>
The field all iron cast a gleaming brown.<br/>
Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor, on each horn,<br/>
Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight,<br/>
Chariots, or elephants indorsed with towers<br/>
Of archers; nor of labouring pioners 330<br/>
A multitude, with spades and axes armed,<br/>
To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill,<br/>
Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay<br/>
With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke:<br/>
Mules after these, camels and dromedaries,<br/>
And waggons fraught with utensils of war.<br/>
Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,<br/>
When Agrican, with all his northern powers,<br/>
Besieged Albracea, as romances tell,<br/>
The city of Gallaphrone, from thence to win 340<br/>
The fairest of her sex, Angelica,<br/>
His daughter, sought by many prowest knights,<br/>
Both Paynim and the peers of Charlemane.<br/>
Such and so numerous was their chivalry;<br/>
At sight whereof the Fiend yet more presumed,<br/>
And to our Saviour thus his words renewed:—<br/>
“That thou may’st know I seek not to engage<br/>
Thy virtue, and not every way secure<br/>
On no slight grounds thy safety, hear and mark<br/>
To what end I have brought thee hither, and shew 350<br/>
All this fair sight. Thy kingdom, though foretold<br/>
By Prophet or by Angel, unless thou<br/>
Endeavour, as thy father David did,<br/>
Thou never shalt obtain: prediction still<br/>
In all things, and all men, supposes means;<br/>
Without means used, what it predicts revokes.<br/>
But say thou wert possessed of David’s throne<br/>
By free consent of all, none opposite,<br/>
Samaritan or Jew; how couldst thou hope<br/>
Long to enjoy it quiet and secure 360<br/>
Between two such enclosing enemies,<br/>
Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these<br/>
Thou must make sure thy own: the Parthian first,<br/>
By my advice, as nearer, and of late<br/>
Found able by invasion to annoy<br/>
Thy country, and captive lead away her kings,<br/>
Antigonus and old Hyrcanus, bound,<br/>
Maugre the Roman. It shall be my task<br/>
To render thee the Parthian at dispose,<br/>
Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league. 370<br/>
By him thou shalt regain, without him not,<br/>
That which alone can truly reinstall thee<br/>
In David’s royal seat, his true successor—<br/>
Deliverance of thy brethren, those Ten Tribes<br/>
Whose offspring in his territory yet serve<br/>
In Habor, and among the Medes dispersed:<br/>
The sons of Jacob, two of Joseph, lost<br/>
Thus long from Israel, serving, as of old<br/>
Their fathers in the land of Egypt served,<br/>
This offer sets before thee to deliver. 380<br/>
These if from servitude thou shalt restore<br/>
To their inheritance, then, nor till then,<br/>
Thou on the throne of David in full glory,<br/>
From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond,<br/>
Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear.”<br/>
To whom our Saviour answered thus, unmoved:—<br/>
“Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm<br/>
And fragile arms, much instrument of war,<br/>
Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,<br/>
Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear 390<br/>
Vented much policy, and projects deep<br/>
Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,<br/>
Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.<br/>
Means I must use, thou say’st; prediction else<br/>
Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne!<br/>
My time, I told thee (and that time for thee<br/>
Were better farthest off), is not yet come.<br/>
When that comes, think not thou to find me slack<br/>
On my part aught endeavouring, or to need<br/>
Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome 400<br/>
Luggage of war there shewn me—argument<br/>
Of human weakness rather than of strength.<br/>
My brethren, as thou call’st them, those Ten Tribes,<br/>
I must deliver, if I mean to reign<br/>
David’s true heir, and his full sceptre sway<br/>
To just extent over all Israel’s sons!<br/>
But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then<br/>
For Israel, or for David, or his throne,<br/>
When thou stood’st up his tempter to the pride<br/>
Of numbering Israel—which cost the lives 410<br/>
of threescore and ten thousand Israelites<br/>
By three days’ pestilence? Such was thy zeal<br/>
To Israel then, the same that now to me.<br/>
As for those captive tribes, themselves were they<br/>
Who wrought their own captivity, fell off<br/>
From God to worship calves, the deities<br/>
Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,<br/>
And all the idolatries of heathen round,<br/>
Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes;<br/>
Nor in the land of their captivity 420<br/>
Humbled themselves, or penitent besought<br/>
The God of their forefathers, but so died<br/>
Impenitent, and left a race behind<br/>
Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce<br/>
From Gentiles, but by circumcision vain,<br/>
And God with idols in their worship joined.<br/>
Should I of these the liberty regard,<br/>
Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony,<br/>
Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreformed,<br/>
Headlong would follow, and to their gods perhaps 430<br/>
Of Bethel and of Dan? No; let them serve<br/>
Their enemies who serve idols with God.<br/>
Yet He at length, time to himself best known,<br/>
Remembering Abraham, by some wondrous call<br/>
May bring them back, repentant and sincere,<br/>
And at their passing cleave the Assyrian flood,<br/>
While to their native land with joy they haste,<br/>
As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,<br/>
When to the Promised Land their fathers passed.<br/>
To his due time and providence I leave them.” 440<br/>
So spake Israel’s true King, and to the Fiend<br/>
Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.<br/>
So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap04"></a>THE FOURTH BOOK</h2>
<p class="noindent">
Perplexed and troubled at his bad success<br/>
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,<br/>
Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope<br/>
So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric<br/>
That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve,<br/>
So little here, nay lost. But Eve was Eve;<br/>
This far his over-match, who, self-deceived<br/>
And rash, beforehand had no better weighed<br/>
The strength he was to cope with, or his own.<br/>
But—as a man who had been matchless held 10<br/>
In cunning, over-reached where least he thought,<br/>
To salve his credit, and for very spite,<br/>
Still will be tempting him who foils him still,<br/>
And never cease, though to his shame the more;<br/>
Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,<br/>
About the wine-press where sweet must is poured,<br/>
Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;<br/>
Or surging waves against a solid rock,<br/>
Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,<br/>
(Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end— 20<br/>
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse<br/>
Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,<br/>
Yet gives not o’er, though desperate of success,<br/>
And his vain importunity pursues.<br/>
He brought our Saviour to the western side<br/>
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold<br/>
Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,<br/>
Washed by the southern sea, and on the north<br/>
To equal length backed with a ridge of hills<br/>
That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men 30<br/>
From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst<br/>
Divided by a river, off whose banks<br/>
On each side an Imperial City stood,<br/>
With towers and temples proudly elevate<br/>
On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,<br/>
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,<br/>
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,<br/>
Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes<br/>
Above the highth of mountains interposed—<br/>
By what strange parallax, or optic skill 40<br/>
Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass<br/>
Of telescope, were curious to enquire.<br/>
And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:—<br/>
“The city which thou seest no other deem<br/>
Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth<br/>
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched<br/>
Of nations. There the Capitol thou seest,<br/>
Above the rest lifting his stately head<br/>
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel<br/>
Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine, 50<br/>
The imperial palace, compass huge, and high<br/>
The structure, skill of noblest architects,<br/>
With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,<br/>
Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires.<br/>
Many a fair edifice besides, more like<br/>
Houses of gods—so well I have disposed<br/>
My aerie microscope—thou may’st behold,<br/>
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs<br/>
Carved work, the hand of famed artificers<br/>
In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold. 60<br/>
Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see<br/>
What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:<br/>
Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces<br/>
Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;<br/>
Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;<br/>
Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;<br/>
Or embassies from regions far remote,<br/>
In various habits, on the Appian road,<br/>
Or on the AEmilian—some from farthest south,<br/>
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, 70<br/>
Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,<br/>
The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;<br/>
From the Asian kings (and Parthian among these),<br/>
From India and the Golden Chersoness,<br/>
And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,<br/>
Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreathed;<br/>
From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;<br/>
Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians north<br/>
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.<br/>
All nations now to Rome obedience pay— 80<br/>
To Rome’s great Emperor, whose wide domain,<br/>
In ample territory, wealth and power,<br/>
Civility of manners, arts and arms,<br/>
And long renown, thou justly may’st prefer<br/>
Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,<br/>
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,<br/>
Shared among petty kings too far removed;<br/>
These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all<br/>
The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.<br/>
This Emperor hath no son, and now is old, 90<br/>
Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired<br/>
To Capreae, an island small but strong<br/>
On the Campanian shore, with purpose there<br/>
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;<br/>
Committing to a wicked favourite<br/>
All public cares, and yet of him suspicious;<br/>
Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,<br/>
Endued with regal virtues as thou art,<br/>
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,<br/>
Might’st thou expel this monster from his throne, 100<br/>
Now made a sty, and, in his place ascending,<br/>
A victor-people free from servile yoke!<br/>
And with my help thou may’st; to me the power<br/>
Is given, and by that right I give it thee.<br/>
Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world;<br/>
Aim at the highest; without the highest attained,<br/>
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,<br/>
On David’s throne, be prophesied what will.”<br/>
To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:—<br/>
“Nor doth this grandeur and majestic shew 110<br/>
Of luxury, though called magnificence,<br/>
More than of arms before, allure mine eye,<br/>
Much less my mind; though thou should’st add to tell<br/>
Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts<br/>
On citron tables or Atlantic stone<br/>
(For I have also heard, perhaps have read),<br/>
Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,<br/>
Chios and Crete, and how they quaff in gold,<br/>
Crystal, and myrrhine cups, imbossed with gems<br/>
And studs of pearl—to me should’st tell, who thirst 120<br/>
And hunger still. Then embassies thou shew’st<br/>
From nations far and nigh! What honour that,<br/>
But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear<br/>
So many hollow compliments and lies,<br/>
Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed’st to talk<br/>
Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,<br/>
How gloriously. I shall, thou say’st, expel<br/>
A brutish monster: what if I withal<br/>
Expel a Devil who first made him such?<br/>
Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out; 130<br/>
For him I was not sent, nor yet to free<br/>
That people, victor once, now vile and base,<br/>
Deservedly made vassal—who, once just,<br/>
Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,<br/>
But govern ill the nations under yoke,<br/>
Peeling their provinces, exhausted all<br/>
By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown<br/>
Of triumph, that insulting vanity;<br/>
Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured<br/>
Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed; 140<br/>
Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still,<br/>
And from the daily Scene effeminate.<br/>
What wise and valiant man would seek to free<br/>
These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,<br/>
Or could of inward slaves make outward free?<br/>
Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit<br/>
On David’s throne, it shall be like a tree<br/>
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,<br/>
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash<br/>
All monarchies besides throughout the world; 150<br/>
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end.<br/>
Means there shall be to this; but what the means<br/>
Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell.”<br/>
To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied:—<br/>
“I see all offers made by me how slight<br/>
Thou valuest, because offered, and reject’st.<br/>
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,<br/>
Or nothing more than still to contradict.<br/>
On the other side know also thou that I<br/>
On what I offer set as high esteem, 160<br/>
Nor what I part with mean to give for naught,<br/>
All these, which in a moment thou behold’st,<br/>
The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give<br/>
(For, given to me, I give to whom I please),<br/>
No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else—<br/>
On this condition, if thou wilt fall down,<br/>
And worship me as thy superior Lord<br/>
(Easily done), and hold them all of me;<br/>
For what can less so great a gift deserve?”<br/>
Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain:— 170<br/>
“I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;<br/>
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter<br/>
The abominable terms, impious condition.<br/>
But I endure the time, till which expired<br/>
Thou hast permission on me. It is written,<br/>
The first of all commandments, ‘Thou shalt worship<br/>
The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.’<br/>
And dar’st thou to the Son of God propound<br/>
To worship thee, accursed? now more accursed<br/>
For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve, 180<br/>
And more blasphemous; which expect to rue.<br/>
The kingdoms of the world to thee were given!<br/>
Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;<br/>
Other donation none thou canst produce.<br/>
If given, by whom but by the King of kings,<br/>
God over all supreme? If given to thee,<br/>
By thee how fairly is the Giver now<br/>
Repaid! But gratitude in thee is lost<br/>
Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame<br/>
As offer them to me, the Son of God— 190<br/>
To me my own, on such abhorred pact,<br/>
That I fall down and worship thee as God?<br/>
Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear’st<br/>
That Evil One, Satan for ever damned.”<br/>
To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied:—<br/>
“Be not so sore offended, Son of God—<br/>
Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men—<br/>
If I, to try whether in higher sort<br/>
Than these thou bear’st that title, have proposed<br/>
What both from Men and Angels I receive, 200<br/>
Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth<br/>
Nations besides from all the quartered winds—<br/>
God of this World invoked, and World beneath.<br/>
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold<br/>
To me most fatal, me it most concerns.<br/>
The trial hath indamaged thee no way,<br/>
Rather more honour left and more esteem;<br/>
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.<br/>
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,<br/>
The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more 210<br/>
Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.<br/>
And thou thyself seem’st otherwise inclined<br/>
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more<br/>
To contemplation and profound dispute;<br/>
As by that early action may be judged,<br/>
When, slipping from thy mother’s eye, thou went’st<br/>
Alone into the Temple, there wast found<br/>
Among the gravest Rabbies, disputant<br/>
On points and questions fitting Moses’ chair,<br/>
Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews the man, 220<br/>
As morning shews the day. Be famous, then,<br/>
By wisdom; as thy empire must extend,<br/>
So let extend thy mind o’er all the world<br/>
In knowledge; all things in it comprehend.<br/>
All knowledge is not couched in Moses’ law,<br/>
The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;<br/>
The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach<br/>
To admiration, led by Nature’s light;<br/>
And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,<br/>
Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean’st. 230<br/>
Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,<br/>
Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?<br/>
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute<br/>
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?<br/>
Error by his own arms is best evinced.<br/>
Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount,<br/>
Westward, much nearer by south-west; behold<br/>
Where on the AEgean shore a city stands,<br/>
Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—<br/>
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 240<br/>
And Eloquence, native to famous wits<br/>
Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,<br/>
City or suburban, studious walks and shades.<br/>
See there the olive-grove of Academe,<br/>
Plato’s retirement, where the Attic bird<br/>
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;<br/>
There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound<br/>
Of bees’ industrious murmur, oft invites<br/>
To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls<br/>
His whispering stream. Within the walls then view 250<br/>
The schools of ancient sages—his who bred<br/>
Great Alexander to subdue the world,<br/>
Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next.<br/>
There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power<br/>
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit<br/>
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,<br/>
AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,<br/>
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,<br/>
Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called,<br/>
Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own. 260<br/>
Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught<br/>
In chorus or iambic, teachers best<br/>
Of moral prudence, with delight received<br/>
In brief sententious precepts, while they treat<br/>
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,<br/>
High actions and high passions best describing.<br/>
Thence to the famous Orators repair,<br/>
Those ancient whose resistless eloquence<br/>
Wielded at will that fierce democraty,<br/>
Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece 270<br/>
To Macedon and Artaxerxes’ throne.<br/>
To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,<br/>
From heaven descended to the low-roofed house<br/>
Of Socrates—see there his tenement—<br/>
Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pronounced<br/>
Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth<br/>
Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools<br/>
Of Academics old and new, with those<br/>
Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect<br/>
Epicurean, and the Stoic severe. 280<br/>
These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home,<br/>
Till time mature thee to a kingdom’s weight;<br/>
These rules will render thee a king complete<br/>
Within thyself, much more with empire joined.”<br/>
To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied:—<br/>
“Think not but that I know these things; or, think<br/>
I know them not, not therefore am I short<br/>
Of knowing what I ought. He who receives<br/>
Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,<br/>
No other doctrine needs, though granted true; 290<br/>
But these are false, or little else but dreams,<br/>
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.<br/>
The first and wisest of them all professed<br/>
To know this only, that he nothing knew;<br/>
The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits;<br/>
A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense;<br/>
Others in virtue placed felicity,<br/>
But virtue joined with riches and long life;<br/>
In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;<br/>
The Stoic last in philosophic pride, 300<br/>
By him called virtue, and his virtuous man,<br/>
Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing,<br/>
Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,<br/>
As fearing God nor man, contemning all<br/>
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life—<br/>
Which, when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can;<br/>
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,<br/>
Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.<br/>
Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,<br/>
Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, 310<br/>
And how the World began, and how Man fell,<br/>
Degraded by himself, on grace depending?<br/>
Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry;<br/>
And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves<br/>
All glory arrogate, to God give none;<br/>
Rather accuse him under usual names,<br/>
Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite<br/>
Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks in these<br/>
True wisdom finds her not, or, by delusion<br/>
Far worse, her false resemblance only meets, 320<br/>
An empty cloud. However, many books,<br/>
Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads<br/>
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not<br/>
A spirit and judgment equal or superior,<br/>
(And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?)<br/>
Uncertain and unsettled still remains,<br/>
Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself,<br/>
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys<br/>
And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge,<br/>
As children gathering pebbles on the shore. 330<br/>
Or, if I would delight my private hours<br/>
With music or with poem, where so soon<br/>
As in our native language can I find<br/>
That solace? All our Law and Story strewed<br/>
With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,<br/>
Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon<br/>
That pleased so well our victor’s ear, declare<br/>
That rather Greece from us these arts derived—<br/>
Ill imitated while they loudest sing<br/>
The vices of their deities, and their own, 340<br/>
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating<br/>
Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.<br/>
Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid<br/>
As varnish on a harlot’s cheek, the rest,<br/>
Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight,<br/>
Will far be found unworthy to compare<br/>
With Sion’s songs, to all true tastes excelling,<br/>
Where God is praised aright and godlike men,<br/>
The Holiest of Holies and his Saints<br/>
(Such are from God inspired, not such from thee); 350<br/>
Unless where moral virtue is expressed<br/>
By light of Nature, not in all quite lost.<br/>
Their orators thou then extoll’st as those<br/>
The top of eloquence—statists indeed,<br/>
And lovers of their country, as may seem;<br/>
But herein to our Prophets far beneath,<br/>
As men divinely taught, and better teaching<br/>
The solid rules of civil government,<br/>
In their majestic, unaffected style,<br/>
Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. 360<br/>
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,<br/>
What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,<br/>
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;<br/>
These only, with our Law, best form a king.”<br/>
So spake the Son of God; but Satan, now<br/>
Quite at a loss (for all his darts were spent),<br/>
Thus to our Saviour, with stern brow, replied:—<br/>
“Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,<br/>
Kingdom nor empire, pleases thee, nor aught<br/>
By me proposed in life contemplative 370<br/>
Or active, tended on by glory or fame,<br/>
What dost thou in this world? The Wilderness<br/>
For thee is fittest place: I found thee there,<br/>
And thither will return thee. Yet remember<br/>
What I foretell thee; soon thou shalt have cause<br/>
To wish thou never hadst rejected, thus<br/>
Nicely or cautiously, my offered aid,<br/>
Which would have set thee in short time with ease<br/>
On David’s throne, or throne of all the world,<br/>
Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season, 380<br/>
When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.<br/>
Now, contrary—if I read aught in heaven,<br/>
Or heaven write aught of fate—by what the stars<br/>
Voluminous, or single characters<br/>
In their conjunction met, give me to spell,<br/>
Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate,<br/>
Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,<br/>
Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.<br/>
A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,<br/>
Real or allegoric, I discern not; 390<br/>
Nor when: eternal sure—as without end,<br/>
Without beginning; for no date prefixed<br/>
Directs me in the starry rubric set.”<br/>
So saying, he took (for still he knew his power<br/>
Not yet expired), and to the Wilderness<br/>
Brought back, the Son of God, and left him there,<br/>
Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose,<br/>
As daylight sunk, and brought in louring Night,<br/>
Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both,<br/>
Privation mere of light and absent day. 400<br/>
Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind<br/>
After hisaerie jaunt, though hurried sore,<br/>
Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest,<br/>
Wherever, under some concourse of shades,<br/>
Whose branching arms thick intertwined might shield<br/>
From dews and damps of night his sheltered head;<br/>
But, sheltered, slept in vain; for at his head<br/>
The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams<br/>
Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now<br/>
’Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds 410<br/>
From many a horrid rift abortive poured<br/>
Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire,<br/>
In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds<br/>
Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad<br/>
From the four hinges of the world, and fell<br/>
On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines,<br/>
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks,<br/>
Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,<br/>
Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,<br/>
O patient Son of God, yet only stood’st 420<br/>
Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there:<br/>
Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round<br/>
Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,<br/>
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou<br/>
Sat’st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.<br/>
Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair<br/>
Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,<br/>
Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar<br/>
Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,<br/>
And griesly spectres, which the Fiend had raised 430<br/>
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.<br/>
And now the sun with more effectual beams<br/>
Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet<br/>
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,<br/>
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,<br/>
After a night of storm so ruinous,<br/>
Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,<br/>
To gratulate the sweet return of morn.<br/>
Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,<br/>
Was absent, after all his mischief done, 440<br/>
The Prince of Darkness; glad would also seem<br/>
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;<br/>
Yet with no new device (they all were spent),<br/>
Rather by this his last affront resolved,<br/>
Desperate of better course, to vent his rage<br/>
And mad despite to be so oft repelled.<br/>
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,<br/>
Backed on the north and west by a thick wood;<br/>
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,<br/>
And in a careless mood thus to him said:— 450<br/>
“Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,<br/>
After a dismal night. I heard the wrack,<br/>
As earth and sky would mingle; but myself<br/>
Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them,<br/>
As dangerous to the pillared frame of Heaven,<br/>
Or to the Earth’s dark basis underneath,<br/>
Are to the main as inconsiderable<br/>
And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze<br/>
To man’s less universe, and soon are gone.<br/>
Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light 460<br/>
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,<br/>
Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,<br/>
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,<br/>
They oft fore-signify and threaten ill.<br/>
This tempest at this desert most was bent;<br/>
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell’st.<br/>
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject<br/>
The perfect season offered with my aid<br/>
To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong<br/>
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way 470<br/>
Of gaining David’s throne no man knows when<br/>
(For both the when and how is nowhere told),<br/>
Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;<br/>
For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing<br/>
The time and means? Each act is rightliest done<br/>
Not when it must, but when it may be best.<br/>
If thou observe not this, be sure to find<br/>
What I foretold thee—many a hard assay<br/>
Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,<br/>
Ere thou of Israel’s sceptre get fast hold; 480<br/>
Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round,<br/>
So many terrors, voices, prodigies,<br/>
May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign.”<br/>
So talked he, while the Son of God went on,<br/>
And staid not, but in brief him answered thus:—<br/>
“Me worse than wet thou find’st not; other harm<br/>
Those terrors which thou speak’st of did me none.<br/>
I never feared they could, though noising loud<br/>
And threatening nigh: what they can do as signs<br/>
Betokening or ill-boding I contemn 490<br/>
As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;<br/>
Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,<br/>
Obtrud’st thy offered aid, that I, accepting,<br/>
At least might seem to hold all power of thee,<br/>
Ambitious Spirit! and would’st be thought my God;<br/>
And storm’st, refused, thinking to terrify<br/>
Me to thy will! Desist (thou art discerned,<br/>
And toil’st in vain), nor me in vain molest.”<br/>
To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:—<br/>
“Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born! 500<br/>
For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.<br/>
Of the Messiah I have heard foretold<br/>
By all the Prophets; of thy birth, at length<br/>
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,<br/>
And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,<br/>
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.<br/>
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye<br/>
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,<br/>
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;<br/>
Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all 510<br/>
Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest<br/>
(Though not to be baptized), by voice from Heaven<br/>
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.<br/>
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view<br/>
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn<br/>
In what degree or meaning thou art called<br/>
The Son of God, which bears no single sense.<br/>
The Son of God I also am, or was;<br/>
And, if I was, I am; relation stands:<br/>
All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought 520<br/>
In some respect far higher so declared.<br/>
Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,<br/>
And followed thee still on to this waste wild,<br/>
Where, by all best conjectures, I collect<br/>
Thou art to be my fatal enemy.<br/>
Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek<br/>
To understand my adversary, who<br/>
And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent;<br/>
By parle or composition, truce or league,<br/>
To win him, or win from him what I can. 530<br/>
And opportunity I here have had<br/>
To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee<br/>
Proof against all temptation, as a rock<br/>
Of adamant and as a centre, firm<br/>
To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,<br/>
Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,<br/>
Have been before contemned, and may again.<br/>
Therefore, to know what more thou art than man,<br/>
Worth naming the Son of God by voice from Heaven,<br/>
Another method I must now begin.” 540<br/>
So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing<br/>
Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime,<br/>
Over the wilderness and o’er the plain,<br/>
Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,<br/>
The Holy City, lifted high her towers,<br/>
And higher yet the glorious Temple reared<br/>
Her pile, far off appearing like a mount<br/>
Of alablaster, topt with golden spires:<br/>
There, on the highest pinnacle, he set<br/>
The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:— 550<br/>
“There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright<br/>
Will ask thee skill. I to thy Father’s house<br/>
Have brought thee, and highest placed: highest is best.<br/>
Now shew thy progeny; if not to stand,<br/>
Cast thyself down. Safely, if Son of God;<br/>
For it is written, ‘He will give command<br/>
Concerning thee to his Angels; in their hands<br/>
They shall uplift thee, lest at any time<br/>
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.’”<br/>
To whom thus Jesus: “Also it is written, 560<br/>
‘Tempt not the Lord thy God.’” He said, and stood;<br/>
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.<br/>
As when Earth’s son, Antaeus (to compare<br/>
Small things with greatest), in Irassa strove<br/>
With Jove’s Alcides, and, oft foiled, still rose,<br/>
Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,<br/>
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,<br/>
Throttled at length in the air expired and fell,<br/>
So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,<br/>
Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride 570<br/>
Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall;<br/>
And, as that Theban monster that proposed<br/>
Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured,<br/>
That once found out and solved, for grief and spite<br/>
Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep,<br/>
So, strook with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend,<br/>
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought<br/>
Joyless triumphals of his hoped success,<br/>
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,<br/>
Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God. 580<br/>
So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe<br/>
Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,<br/>
Who on their plumy vans received Him soft<br/>
From his uneasy station, and upbore,<br/>
As on a floating couch, through the blithe air;<br/>
Then, in a flowery valley, set him down<br/>
On a green bank, and set before him spread<br/>
A table of celestial food, divine<br/>
Ambrosial fruits fetched from the Tree of Life,<br/>
And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink, 590<br/>
That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired<br/>
What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,<br/>
Or thirst; and, as he fed, Angelic quires<br/>
Sung heavenly anthems of his victory<br/>
Over temptation and the Tempter proud:—<br/>
“True Image of the Father, whether throned<br/>
In the bosom of bliss, and light of light<br/>
Conceiving, or, remote from Heaven, enshrined<br/>
In fleshly tabernacle and human form,<br/>
Wandering the wilderness—whatever place, 600<br/>
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing<br/>
The Son of God, with Godlike force endued<br/>
Against the attempter of thy Father’s throne<br/>
And thief of Paradise! Him long of old<br/>
Thou didst debel, and down from Heaven cast<br/>
With all his army; now thou hast avenged<br/>
Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing<br/>
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,<br/>
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent.<br/>
He never more henceforth will dare set foot 610<br/>
In paradise to tempt; his snares are broke.<br/>
For, though that seat of earthly bliss be failed,<br/>
A fairer Paradise is founded now<br/>
For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou,<br/>
A Saviour, art come down to reinstall;<br/>
Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,<br/>
Of tempter and temptation without fear.<br/>
But thou, Infernal Serpent! shalt not long<br/>
Rule in the clouds. Like an autumnal star,<br/>
Or lightning, thou shalt fall from Heaven, trod down 620<br/>
Under his feet. For proof, ere this thou feel’st<br/>
Thy wound (yet not thy last and deadliest wound)<br/>
By this repulse received, and hold’st in Hell<br/>
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues<br/>
Thy bold attempt. Hereafter learn with awe<br/>
To dread the Son of God. He, all unarmed,<br/>
Shall chase thee, with the terror of his voice,<br/>
From thy demoniac holds, possession foul—<br/>
Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,<br/>
And beg to hide them in a herd of swine, 630<br/>
Lest he command them down into the Deep,<br/>
Bound, and to torment sent before their time.<br/>
Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both Worlds,<br/>
Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work<br/>
Now enter, and begin to save Mankind.”<br/>
Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,<br/>
Sung victor, and, from heavenly feast refreshed,<br/>
Brought on his way with joy. He, unobserved,<br/>
Home to his mother’s house private returned.
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<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARADISE REGAINED ***</div>
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