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2 PARADISE REGAINED
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5 THE FIRST BOOK
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7 I, WHO erewhile the happy Garden sung
8 By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
9 Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
10 By one man's firm obedience fully tried
11 Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled
12 In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,
13 And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.
14 Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite
15 Into the desert, his victorious field
16 Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence 10
17 By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,
18 As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,
19 And bear through highth or depth of Nature's bounds,
20 With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds
21 Above heroic, though in secret done,
22 And unrecorded left through many an age:
23 Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.
24 Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice
25 More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried
26 Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand 20
27 To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked
28 With awe the regions round, and with them came
29 From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed
30 To the flood Jordan--came as then obscure,
31 Unmarked, unknown. But him the Baptist soon
32 Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore
33 As to his worthier, and would have resigned
34 To him his heavenly office. Nor was long
35 His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized
36 Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove 30
37 The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice
38 From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.
39 That heard the Adversary, who, roving still
40 About the world, at that assembly famed
41 Would not be last, and, with the voice divine
42 Nigh thunder-struck, the exalted man to whom
43 Such high attest was given a while surveyed
44 With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage,
45 Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air
46 To council summons all his mighty Peers, 40
47 Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,
48 A gloomy consistory; and them amidst,
49 With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake:--
50 "O ancient Powers of Air and this wide World
51 (For much more willingly I mention Air,
52 This our old conquest, than remember Hell,
53 Our hated habitation), well ye know
54 How many ages, as the years of men,
55 This Universe we have possessed, and ruled
56 In manner at our will the affairs of Earth, 50
57 Since Adam and his facile consort Eve
58 Lost Paradise, deceived by me, though since
59 With dread attending when that fatal wound
60 Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
61 Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven
62 Delay, for longest time to Him is short;
63 And now, too soon for us, the circling hours
64 This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we
65 Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound
66 (At least, if so we can, and by the head 60
67 Broken be not intended all our power
68 To be infringed, our freedom and our being
69 In this fair empire won of Earth and Air)--
70 For this ill news I bring: The Woman's Seed,
71 Destined to this, is late of woman born.
72 His birth to our just fear gave no small cause;
73 But his growth now to youth's full flower, displaying
74 All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve
75 Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
76 Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim 70
77 His coming, is sent harbinger, who all
78 Invites, and in the consecrated stream
79 Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so
80 Purified to receive him pure, or rather
81 To do him honour as their King. All come,
82 And he himself among them was baptized--
83 Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
84 The testimony of Heaven, that who he is
85 Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw
86 The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising 80
87 Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds
88 Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head
89 A perfet Dove descend (whate'er it meant);
90 And out of Heaven the sovraign voice I heard,
91 'This is my Son beloved,--in him am pleased.'
92 His mother, than, is mortal, but his Sire
93 He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven;
94 And what will He not do to advance his Son?
95 His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,
96 When his fierce thunder drove us to the Deep; 90
97 Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems
98 In all his lineaments, though in his face
99 The glimpses of his Father's glory shine.
100 Ye see our danger on the utmost edge
101 Of hazard, which admits no long debate,
102 But must with something sudden be opposed
103 (Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares),
104 Ere in the head of nations he appear,
105 Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth.
106 I, when no other durst, sole undertook 100
107 The dismal expedition to find out
108 And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed
109 Successfully: a calmer voyage now
110 Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once
111 Induces best to hope of like success."
112 He ended, and his words impression left
113 Of much amazement to the infernal crew,
114 Distracted and surprised with deep dismay
115 At these sad tidings. But no time was then
116 For long indulgence to their fears or grief: 110
117 Unanimous they all commit the care
118 And management of this man enterprise
119 To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt
120 At first against mankind so well had thrived
121 In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
122 From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,
123 Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,
124 Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
125 So to the coast of Jordan he directs
126 His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles, 120
127 Where he might likeliest find this new-declared,
128 This man of men, attested Son of God,
129 Temptation and all guile on him to try--
130 So to subvert whom he suspected raised
131 To end his reign on Earth so long enjoyed:
132 But, contrary, unweeting he fulfilled
133 The purposed counsel, pre-ordained and fixed,
134 Of the Most High, who, in full frequence bright
135 Of Angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spake:--
136 "Gabriel, this day, by proof, thou shalt behold, 130
137 Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth
138 With Man or men's affairs, how I begin
139 To verify that solemn message late,
140 On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure
141 In Galilee, that she should bear a son,
142 Great in renown, and called the Son of God.
143 Then told'st her, doubting how these things could be
144 To her a virgin, that on her should come
145 The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest
146 O'ershadow her. This Man, born and now upgrown, 140
147 To shew him worthy of his birth divine
148 And high prediction, henceforth I expose
149 To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay
150 His utmost subtlety, because he boasts
151 And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng
152 Of his Apostasy. He might have learnt
153 Less overweening, since he failed in Job,
154 Whose constant perseverance overcame
155 Whate'er his cruel malice could invent.
156 He now shall know I can produce a man, 150
157 Of female seed, far abler to resist
158 All his solicitations, and at length
159 All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell--
160 Winning by conquest what the first man lost
161 By fallacy surprised. But first I mean
162 To exercise him in the Wilderness;
163 There he shall first lay down the rudiments
164 Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth
165 To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.
166 By humiliation and strong sufferance 160
167 His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,
168 And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;
169 That all the Angels and aethereal Powers--
170 They now, and men hereafter--may discern
171 From what consummate virtue I have chose
172 This perfet man, by merit called my Son,
173 To earn salvation for the sons of men."
174 So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven
175 Admiring stood a space; then into hymns
176 Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved, 170
177 Circling the throne and singing, while the hand
178 Sung with the voice, and this the argument:--
179 "Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
180 Now entering his great duel, not of arms,
181 But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles!
182 The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
183 Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,
184 Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,
185 Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
186 Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, 180
187 And, devilish machinations, come to nought!"
188 So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
189 Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
190 Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,
191 Musing and much revolving in his breast
192 How best the mighty work he might begin
193 Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
194 Publish his godlike office now mature,
195 One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading
196 And his deep thoughts, the better to converse 190
197 With solitude, till, far from track of men,
198 Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
199 He entered now the bordering Desert wild,
200 And, with dark shades and rocks environed round,
201 His holy meditations thus pursued:--
202 "O what a multitude of thoughts at once
203 Awakened in me swarm, while I consider
204 What from within I feel myself, and hear
205 What from without comes often to my ears,
206 Ill sorting with my present state compared! 200
207 When I was yet a child, no childish play
208 To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
209 Serious to learn and know, and thence to do,
210 What might be public good; myself I thought
211 Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
212 All righteous things. Therefore, above my years,
213 The Law of God I read, and found it sweet;
214 Made it my whole delight, and in it grew
215 To such perfection that, ere yet my age
216 Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast 210
217 I went into the Temple, there to hear
218 The teachers of our Law, and to propose
219 What might improve my knowledge or their own,
220 And was admired by all. Yet this not all
221 To which my spirit aspired. Victorious deeds
222 Flamed in my heart, heroic acts--one while
223 To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke;
224 Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the earth,
225 Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,
226 Till truth were freed, and equity restored: 220
227 Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first
228 By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
229 And make persuasion do the work of fear;
230 At least to try, and teach the erring soul,
231 Not wilfully misdoing, but unware
232 Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.
233 These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving,
234 By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,
235 And said to me apart, 'High are thy thoughts,
236 O Son! but nourish them, and let them soar 230
237 To what highth sacred virtue and true worth
238 Can raise them, though above example high;
239 By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.
240 For know, thou art no son of mortal man;
241 Though men esteem thee low of parentage,
242 Thy Father is the Eternal King who rules
243 All Heaven and Earth, Angels and sons of men.
244 A messenger from God foretold thy birth
245 Conceived in me a virgin; he foretold
246 Thou shouldst be great, and sit on David's throne, 240
247 And of thy kingdom there should be no end.
248 At thy nativity a glorious quire
249 Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung
250 To shepherds, watching at their folds by night,
251 And told them the Messiah now was born,
252 Where they might see him; and to thee they came,
253 Directed to the manger where thou lay'st;
254 For in the inn was left no better room.
255 A Star, not seen before, in heaven appearing,
256 Guided the Wise Men thither from the East, 250
257 To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold;
258 By whose bright course led on they found the place,
259 Affirming it thy star, new-graven in heaven,
260 By which they knew thee King of Israel born.
261 Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned
262 By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spake,
263 Before the altar and the vested priest,
264 Like things of thee to all that present stood.'
265 This having heart, straight I again revolved
266 The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ 260
267 Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes
268 Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake
269 I am--this chiefly, that my way must lie
270 Through many a hard assay, even to the death,
271 Ere I the promised kingdom can attain,
272 Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins'
273 Full weight must be transferred upon my head.
274 Yet, neither thus disheartened or dismayed,
275 The time prefixed I waited; when behold
276 The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard, 270
277 Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come
278 Before Messiah, and his way prepare!
279 I, as all others, to his baptism came,
280 Which I believed was from above; but he
281 Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed
282 Me him (for it was shewn him so from Heaven)--
283 Me him whose harbinger he was; and first
284 Refused on me his baptism to confer,
285 As much his greater, and was hardly won.
286 But, as I rose out of the laving stream, 280
287 Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence
288 The Spirit descended on me like a Dove;
289 And last, the sum of all, my Father's voice,
290 Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his,
291 Me his beloved Son, in whom alone
292 He was well pleased: by which I knew the time
293 Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
294 But openly begin, as best becomes
295 The authority which I derived from Heaven.
296 And now by some strong motion I am led 290
297 Into this wilderness; to what intent
298 I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;
299 For what concerns my knowledge God reveals."
300 So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,
301 And, looking round, on every side beheld
302 A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.
303 The way he came, not having marked return,
304 Was difficult, by human steps untrod;
305 And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
306 Accompanied of things past and to come 300
307 Lodged in his breast as well might recommend
308 Such solitude before choicest society.
309 Full forty days he passed--whether on hill
310 Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
311 Under the covert of some ancient oak
312 Or cedar to defend him from the dew,
313 Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;
314 Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,
315 Till those days ended; hungered then at last
316 Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild, 310
317 Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk
318 The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;
319 The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.
320 But now an aged man in rural weeds,
321 Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray eye,
322 Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve
323 Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,
324 To warm him wet returned from field at eve,
325 He saw approach; who first with curious eye
326 Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake:-- 320
327 "Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place,
328 So far from path or road of men, who pass
329 In troop or caravan? for single none
330 Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here
331 His carcass, pined with hunger and with droughth.
332 I ask the rather, and the more admire,
333 For that to me thou seem'st the man whom late
334 Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford
335 Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son
336 Of God. I saw and heard, for we sometimes 330
337 Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth
338 To town or village nigh (nighest is far),
339 Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,
340 What happens new; fame also finds us out."
341 To whom the Son of God:--"Who brought me hither
342 Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek."
343 "By miracle he may," replied the swain;
344 "What other way I see not; for we here
345 Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured
346 More than the camel, and to drink go far-- 340
347 Men to much misery and hardship born.
348 But, if thou be the Son of God, command
349 That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;
350 So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve
351 With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste."
352 He ended, and the Son of God replied:--
353 "Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it not written
354 (For I discern thee other than thou seem'st),
355 Man lives not by bread only, but each word
356 Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed 350
357 Our fathers here with manna? In the Mount
358 Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
359 And forty days Eliah without food
360 Wandered this barren waste; the same I now.
361 Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust
362 Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?"
363 Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend, now undisguised:--
364 "'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate
365 Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,
366 Kept not my happy station, but was driven 360
367 With them from bliss to the bottomless Deep--
368 Yet to that hideous place not so confined
369 By rigour unconniving but that oft,
370 Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy
371 Large liberty to round this globe of Earth,
372 Or range in the Air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens
373 Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.
374 I came, among the Sons of God, when he
375 Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job,
376 To prove him, and illustrate his high worth; 370
377 And, when to all his Angels he proposed
378 To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,
379 That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
380 I undertook that office, and the tongues
381 Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies
382 To his destruction, as I had in charge:
383 For what he bids I do. Though I have lost
384 Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
385 To be beloved of God, I have not lost
386 To love, at least contemplate and admire, 380
387 What I see excellent in good, or fair,
388 Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
389 What can be then less in me than desire
390 To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
391 Declared the Son of God, to hear attent
392 Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?
393 Men generally think me much a foe
394 To all mankind. Why should I? they to me
395 Never did wrong or violence. By them
396 I lost not what I lost; rather by them 390
397 I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
398 Copartner in these regions of the World,
399 If not disposer--lend them oft my aid,
400 Oft my advice by presages and signs,
401 And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,
402 Whereby they may direct their future life.
403 Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain
404 Companions of my misery and woe!
405 At first it may be; but, long since with woe
406 Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof 400
407 That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
408 Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load;
409 Small consolation, then, were Man adjoined.
410 This wounds me most (what can it less?) that Man,
411 Man fallen, shall be restored, I never more."
412 To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied:--
413 "Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies
414 From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,
415 Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come
416 Into the Heaven of Heavens. Thou com'st, indeed, 410
417 As a poor miserable captive thrall
418 Comes to the place where he before had sat
419 Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,
420 Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,
421 A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,
422 To all the host of Heaven. The happy place
423 Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy--
424 Rather inflames thy torment, representing
425 Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable;
426 So never more in Hell than when in Heaven. 420
427 But thou art serviceable to Heaven's King!
428 Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
429 Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
430 What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem
431 Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
432 With all inflictions? but his patience won.
433 The other service was thy chosen task,
434 To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
435 For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
436 Yet thou pretend'st to truth! all oracles 430
437 By thee are given, and what confessed more true
438 Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,
439 By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
440 But what have been thy answers? what but dark,
441 Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
442 Which they who asked have seldom understood,
443 And, not well understood, as good not known?
444 Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,
445 Returned the wiser, or the more instruct
446 To fly or follow what concerned him most, 440
447 And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
448 For God hath justly given the nations up
449 To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
450 Idolatrous. But, when his purpose is
451 Among them to declare his providence,
452 To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
453 But from him, or his Angels president
454 In every province, who, themselves disdaining
455 To approach thy temples, give thee in command
456 What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say 450
457 To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,
458 Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st;
459 Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
460 But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;
461 No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
462 The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased,
463 And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
464 Shalt be enquired at Delphos or elsewhere--
465 At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
466 God hath now sent his living Oracle 460
467 Into the world to teach his final will,
468 And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
469 In pious hearts, an inward oracle
470 To all truth requisite for men to know."
471 So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,
472 Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
473 Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:--
474 "Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,
475 And urged me hard with doings which not will,
476 But misery, hath wrested from me. Where 470
477 Easily canst thou find one miserable,
478 And not inforced oft-times to part from truth,
479 If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
480 Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
481 But thou art placed above me; thou art Lord;
482 From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure
483 Cheek or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.
484 Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
485 Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,
486 And tunable as sylvan pipe or song; 480
487 What wonder, then, if I delight to hear
488 Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire
489 Virtue who follow not her lore. Permit me
490 To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),
491 And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
492 Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
493 Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
494 To tread his sacred courts, and minister
495 About his altar, handling holy things,
496 Praying or vowing, and voutsafed his voice 490
497 To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
498 Inspired: disdain not such access to me."
499 To whom our Saviour, with unaltered brow:--
500 "Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
501 I bid not, or forbid. Do as thou find'st
502 Permission from above; thou canst not more."
503 He added not; and Satan, bowling low
504 His gray dissimulation, disappeared,
505 Into thin air diffused: for now began
506 Night with her sullen wing to double-shade 500
507 The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched;
508 And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.
509
510
511 THE SECOND BOOK
512
513 MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained
514 At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
515 Him whom they heard so late expressly called
516 Jesus Messiah, Son of God, declared,
517 And on that high authority had believed,
518 And with him talked, and with him lodged--I mean
519 Andrew and Simon, famous after known,
520 With others, though in Holy Writ not named--
521 Now missing him, their joy so lately found,
522 So lately found and so abruptly gone, 10
523 Began to doubt, and doubted many days,
524 And, as the days increased, increased their doubt.
525 Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn,
526 And for a time caught up to God, as once
527 Moses was in the Mount and missing long,
528 And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
529 Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come.
530 Therefore, as those young prophets then with care
531 Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these
532 Nigh to Bethabara--in Jericho 20
533 The city of palms, AEnon, and Salem old,
534 Machaerus, and each town or city walled
535 On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
536 Or in Peraea--but returned in vain.
537 Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,
538 Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play,
539 Plain fishermen (no greater men them call),
540 Close in a cottage low together got,
541 Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed:--
542 "Alas, from what high hope to what relapse 30
543 Unlooked for are we fallen! Our eyes beheld
544 Messiah certainly now come, so long
545 Expected of our fathers; we have heard
546 His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth.
547 'Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand;
548 The kingdom shall to Israel be restored:'
549 Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned
550 Into perplexity and new amaze.
551 For whither is he gone? what accident
552 Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire 40
553 After appearance, and again prolong
554 Our expectation? God of Israel,
555 Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come.
556 Behold the kings of the earth, how they oppress
557 Thy Chosen, to what highth their power unjust
558 They have exalted, and behind them cast
559 All fear of Thee; arise, and vindicate
560 Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke!
561 But let us wait; thus far He hath performed--
562 Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him 50
563 By his great Prophet pointed at and shown
564 In public, and with him we have conversed.
565 Let us be glad of this, and all our fears
566 Lay on his providence; He will not fail,
567 Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall--
568 Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence:
569 Soon we shall see our hope, our joy, return."
570 Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume
571 To find whom at the first they found unsought.
572 But to his mother Mary, when she saw 60
573 Others returned from baptism, not her Son,
574 Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none,
575 Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure,
576 Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised
577 Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:--
578 "Oh, what avails me now that honour high,
579 To have conceived of God, or that salute,
580 'Hail, highly favoured, among women blest!'
581 While I to sorrows am no less advanced,
582 And fears as eminent above the lot 70
583 Of other women, by the birth I bore:
584 In such a season born, when scarce a shed
585 Could be obtained to shelter him or me
586 From the bleak air? A stable was our warmth,
587 A manger his; yet soon enforced to fly
588 Thence into Egypt, till the murderous king
589 Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing, filled
590 With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.
591 From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth
592 Hath been our dwelling many years; his life 80
593 Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,
594 Little suspicious to any king. But now,
595 Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,
596 By John the Baptist, and in public shewn,
597 Son owned from Heaven by his Father's voice,
598 I looked for some great change. To honour? no;
599 But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,
600 That to the fall and rising he should be
601 Of many in Israel, and to a sign
602 Spoken against--that through my very soul 90
603 A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot,
604 My exaltation to afflictions high!
605 Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!
606 I will not argue that, nor will repine.
607 But where delays he now? Some great intent
608 Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,
609 I lost him, but so found as well I saw
610 He could not lose himself, but went about
611 His Father's business. What he meant I mused--
612 Since understand; much more his absence now 100
613 Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
614 But I to wait with patience am inured;
615 My heart hath been a storehouse long of things
616 And sayings laid up, pretending strange events."
617 Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind
618 Recalling what remarkably had passed
619 Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts
620 Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:
621 The while her Son, tracing the desert wild,
622 Sole, but with holiest meditations fed, 110
623 Into himself descended, and at once
624 All his great work to come before him set--
625 How to begin, how to accomplish best
626 His end of being on Earth, and mission high.
627 For Satan, with sly preface to return,
628 Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone
629 Up to the middle region of thick air,
630 Where all his Potentates in council sate.
631 There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,
632 Solicitous and blank, he thus began:-- 120
633 "Princes, Heaven's ancient Sons, AEthereal Thrones--
634 Daemonian Spirits now, from the element
635 Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called
636 Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath
637 (So may we hold our place and these mild seats
638 Without new trouble!)--such an enemy
639 Is risen to invade us, who no less
640 Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell.
641 I, as I undertook, and with the vote
642 Consenting in full frequence was impowered, 130
643 Have found him, viewed him, tasted him; but find
644 Far other labour to be undergone
645 Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,
646 Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell,
647 However to this Man inferior far--
648 If he be Man by mother's side, at least
649 With more than human gifts from Heaven adorned,
650 Perfections absolute, graces divine,
651 And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.
652 Therefore I am returned, lest confidence 140
653 Of my success with Eve in Paradise
654 Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure
655 Of like succeeding here. I summon all
656 Rather to be in readiness with hand
657 Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst
658 Thought none my equal, now be overmatched."
659 So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all
660 With clamour was assured their utmost aid
661 At his command; when from amidst them rose
662 Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell, 150
663 The sensualest, and, after Asmodai,
664 The fleshliest Incubus, and thus advised:--
665 "Set women in his eye and in his walk,
666 Among daughters of men the fairest found.
667 Many are in each region passing fair
668 As the noon sky, more like to goddesses
669 Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,
670 Expert in amorous arts, enchanting tongues
671 Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild
672 And sweet allayed, yet terrible to approach, 160
673 Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw
674 Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets.
675 Such object hath the power to soften and tame
676 Severest temper, smooth the rugged'st brow,
677 Enerve, and with voluptuous hope dissolve,
678 Draw out with credulous desire, and lead
679 At will the manliest, resolutest breast,
680 As the magnetic hardest iron draws.
681 Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart
682 Of wisest Solomon, and made him build, 170
683 And made him bow, to the gods of his wives."
684 To whom quick answer Satan thus returned:--
685 "Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh'st
686 All others by thyself. Because of old
687 Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring
688 Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,
689 None are, thou think'st, but taken with such toys.
690 Before the Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew,
691 False titled Sons of God, roaming the Earth,
692 Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, 180
693 And coupled with them, and begot a race.
694 Have we not seen, or by relation heard,
695 In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,
696 In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,
697 In valley or green meadow, to waylay
698 Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,
699 Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,
700 Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more
701 Too long--then lay'st thy scapes on names adored,
702 Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan, 190
703 Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan? But these haunts
704 Delight not all. Among the sons of men
705 How many have with a smile made small account
706 Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned
707 All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
708 Remember that Pellean conqueror,
709 A youth, how all the beauties of the East
710 He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;
711 How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,
712 In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid. 200
713 For Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full
714 Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond
715 Higher design than to enjoy his state;
716 Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.
717 But he whom we attempt is wiser far
718 Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,
719 Made and set wholly on the accomplishment
720 Of greatest things. What woman will you find,
721 Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
722 On whom his leisure will voutsafe an eye 210
723 Of fond desire? Or should she, confident,
724 As sitting queen adored on Beauty's throne,
725 Descend with all her winning charms begirt
726 To enamour, as the zone of Venus once
727 Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell),
728 How would one look from his majestic brow,
729 Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill,
730 Discountenance her despised, and put to rout
731 All her array, her female pride deject,
732 Or turn to reverent awe! For Beauty stands 220
733 In the admiration only of weak minds
734 Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
735 Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
736 At every sudden slighting quite abashed.
737 Therefore with manlier objects we must try
738 His constancy--with such as have more shew
739 Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise
740 (Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked);
741 Or that which only seems to satisfy
742 Lawful desires of nature, not beyond. 230
743 And now I know he hungers, where no food
744 Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness:
745 The rest commit to me; I shall let pass
746 No advantage, and his strength as oft assay."
747 He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;
748 Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band
749 Of Spirits likest to himself in guile,
750 To be at hand and at his beck appear,
751 If cause were to unfold some active scene
752 Of various persons, each to know his part; 240
753 Then to the desert takes with these his flight,
754 Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,
755 After forty days' fasting, had remained,
756 Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:--
757 "Where will this end? Four times ten days I have passed
758 Wandering this woody maze, and human food
759 Nor tasted, nor had appetite. That fast
760 To virtue I impute not, or count part
761 Of what I suffer here. If nature need not,
762 Or God support nature without repast, 250
763 Though needing, what praise is it to endure?
764 But now I feel I hunger; which declares
765 Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God
766 Can satisfy that need some other way,
767 Though hunger still remain. So it remain
768 Without this body's wasting, I content me,
769 And from the sting of famine fear no harm;
770 Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed
771 Me hungering more to do my Father's will."
772 It was the hour of night, when thus the Son 260
773 Communed in silent walk, then laid him down
774 Under the hospitable covert nigh
775 Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept,
776 And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,
777 Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet.
778 Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood,
779 And saw the ravens with their horny beaks
780 Food to Elijah bringing even and morn--
781 Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought;
782 He saw the Prophet also, how he fled 270
783 Into the desert, and how there he slept
784 Under a juniper--then how, awaked,
785 He found his supper on the coals prepared,
786 And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,
787 And eat the second time after repose,
788 The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:
789 Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,
790 Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.
791 Thus wore out night; and now the harald Lark
792 Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry 280
793 The Morn's approach, and greet her with his song.
794 As lightly from his grassy couch up rose
795 Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;
796 Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
797 Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
798 From whose high top to ken the prospect round,
799 If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;
800 But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw--
801 Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
802 With chaunt of tuneful birds resounding loud. 290
803 Thither he bent his way, determined there
804 To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade
805 High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys brown,
806 That opened in the midst a woody scene;
807 Nature's own work it seemed (Nature taught Art),
808 And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt
809 Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He viewed it round;
810 When suddenly a man before him stood,
811 Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
812 As one in city or court or palace bred, 300
813 And with fair speech these words to him addressed:--
814 "With granted leave officious I return,
815 But much more wonder that the Son of God
816 In this wild solitude so long should bide,
817 Of all things destitute, and, well I know,
818 Not without hunger. Others of some note,
819 As story tells, have trod this wilderness:
820 The fugitive Bond-woman, with her son,
821 Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief
822 By a providing Angel; all the race 310
823 Of Israel here had famished, had not God
824 Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,
825 Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed
826 Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.
827 Of thee those forty days none hath regard,
828 Forty and more deserted here indeed."
829 To whom thus Jesus:--"What conclud'st thou hence?
830 They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none."
831 "How hast thou hunger then?" Satan replied.
832 "Tell me, if food were now before thee set, 320
833 Wouldst thou not eat?" "Thereafter as I like
834 the giver," answered Jesus. "Why should that
835 Cause thy refusal?" said the subtle Fiend.
836 "Hast thou not right to all created things?
837 Owe not all creatures, by just right, to thee
838 Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,
839 But tender all their power? Nor mention I
840 Meats by the law unclean, or offered first
841 To idols--those young Daniel could refuse;
842 Nor proffered by an enemy--though who 330
843 Would scruple that, with want oppressed? Behold,
844 Nature ashamed, or, better to express,
845 Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed
846 From all the elements her choicest store,
847 To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord
848 With honour. Only deign to sit and eat."
849 He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,
850 Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,
851 In ample space under the broadest shade,
852 A table richly spread in regal mode, 340
853 With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort
854 And savour--beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
855 In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,
856 Grisamber-steamed; all fish, from sea or shore,
857 Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,
858 And exquisitest name, for which was drained
859 Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.
860 Alas! how simple, to these cates compared,
861 Was that crude Apple that diverted Eve!
862 And at a stately sideboard, by the wine, 350
863 That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
864 Tall stripling youths rich-clad, of fairer hue
865 Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more,
866 Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
867 Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades
868 With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,
869 And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed
870 Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
871 Of faery damsels met in forest wide
872 By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, 360
873 Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.
874 And all the while harmonious airs were heard
875 Of chiming strings or charming pipes; and winds
876 Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned
877 From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.
878 Such was the splendour; and the Tempter now
879 His invitation earnestly renewed:--
880 "What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?
881 These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict
882 Defends the touching of these viands pure; 370
883 Their taste no knowledge works, at least of evil,
884 But life preserves, destroys life's enemy,
885 Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.
886 All these are Spirits of air, and woods, and springs,
887 Thy gentle ministers, who come to pay
888 Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord.
889 What doubt'st thou, Son of God? Sit down and eat."
890 To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:--
891 "Said'st thou not that to all things I had right?
892 And who withholds my power that right to use? 380
893 Shall I receive by gift what of my own,
894 When and where likes me best, I can command?
895 I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,
896 Command a table in this wilderness,
897 And call swift flights of Angels ministrant,
898 Arrayed in glory, on my cup to attend:
899 Why shouldst thou, then, obtrude this diligence
900 In vain, where no acceptance it can find?
901 And with my hunger what hast thou to do?
902 Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, 390
903 And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles."
904 To whom thus answered Satan, male-content:--
905 "That I have also power to give thou seest;
906 If of that power I bring thee voluntary
907 What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,
908 And rather opportunely in this place
909 Chose to impart to thy apparent need,
910 Why shouldst thou not accept it? But I see
911 What I can do or offer is suspect.
912 Of these things others quickly will dispose, 400
913 Whose pains have earned the far-fet spoil." With that
914 Both table and provision vanished quite,
915 With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard;
916 Only the importune Tempter still remained,
917 And with these words his temptation pursued:--
918 "By hunger, that each other creature tames,
919 Thou art not to be harmed, therefore not moved;
920 Thy temperance, invincible besides,
921 For no allurement yields to appetite;
922 And all thy heart is set on high designs, 410
923 High actions. But wherewith to be achieved?
924 Great acts require great means of enterprise;
925 Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,
926 A carpenter thy father known, thyself
927 Bred up in poverty and straits at home,
928 Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.
929 Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire
930 To greatness? whence authority deriv'st?
931 What followers, what retinue canst thou gain,
932 Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude, 420
933 Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost?
934 Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and realms.
935 What raised Antipater the Edomite,
936 And his son Herod placed on Juda's throne,
937 Thy throne, but gold, that got him puissant friends?
938 Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive,
939 Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap--
940 Not difficult, if thou hearken to me.
941 Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand;
942 They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain, 430
943 While virtue, valour, wisdom, sit in want."
944 To whom thus Jesus patiently replied:--
945 "Yet wealth without these three is impotent
946 To gain dominion, or to keep it gained--
947 Witness those ancient empires of the earth,
948 In highth of all their flowing wealth dissolved;
949 But men endued with these have oft attained,
950 In lowest poverty, to highest deeds--
951 Gideon, and Jephtha, and the shepherd lad
952 Whose offspring on the throne of Juda sate 440
953 So many ages, and shall yet regain
954 That seat, and reign in Israel without end.
955 Among the Heathen (for throughout the world
956 To me is not unknown what hath been done
957 Worthy of memorial) canst thou not remember
958 Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?
959 For I esteem those names of men so poor,
960 Who could do mighty things, and could contemn
961 Riches, though offered from the hand of kings.
962 And what in me seems wanting but that I 450
963 May also in this poverty as soon
964 Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more?
965 Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools,
966 The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare; more apt
967 To slacken virtue and abate her edge
968 Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.
969 What if with like aversion I reject
970 Riches and realms! Yet not for that a crown,
971 Golden in shew, is but a wreath of thorns,
972 Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights, 460
973 To him who wears the regal diadem,
974 When on his shoulders each man's burden lies;
975 For therein stands the office of a king,
976 His honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise,
977 That for the public all this weight he bears.
978 Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
979 Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king--
980 Which every wise and virtuous man attains;
981 And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
982 Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes, 470
983 Subject himself to anarchy within,
984 Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.
985 But to guide nations in the way of truth
986 By saving doctrine, and from error lead
987 To know, and, knowing, worship God aright,
988 Is yet more kingly. This attracts the soul,
989 Governs the inner man, the nobler part;
990 That other o'er the body only reigns,
991 And oft by force--which to a generous mind
992 So reigning can be no sincere delight. 480
993 Besides, to give a kingdom hath been thought
994 Greater and nobler done, and to lay down
995 Far more magnanimous, than to assume.
996 Riches are needless, then, both for themselves,
997 And for thy reason why they should be sought--
998 To gain a sceptre, oftest better missed."
999
1000
1001 THE THIRD BOOK
1002
1003 SO spake the Son of God; and Satan stood
1004 A while as mute, confounded what to say,
1005 What to reply, confuted and convinced
1006 Of his weak arguing and fallacious drift;
1007 At length, collecting all his serpent wiles,
1008 With soothing words renewed, him thus accosts:--
1009 "I see thou know'st what is of use to know,
1010 What best to say canst say, to do canst do;
1011 Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words
1012 To thy large heart give utterance due; thy heart 10
1013 Contains of good, wise, just, the perfet shape.
1014 Should kings and nations from thy mouth consult,
1015 Thy counsel would be as the oracle
1016 Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems
1017 On Aaron's breast, or tongue of Seers old
1018 Infallible; or, wert thou sought to deeds
1019 That might require the array of war, thy skill
1020 Of conduct would be such that all the world
1021 Could not sustain thy prowess, or subsist
1022 In battle, though against thy few in arms. 20
1023 These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hide?
1024 Affecting private life, or more obscure
1025 In savage wilderness, wherefore deprive
1026 All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself
1027 The fame and glory--glory, the reward
1028 That sole excites to high attempts the flame
1029 Of most erected spirits, most tempered pure
1030 AEthereal, who all pleasures else despise,
1031 All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,
1032 And dignities and powers, all but the highest? 30
1033 Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe. The son
1034 Of Macedonian Philip had ere these
1035 Won Asia, and the throne of Cyrus held
1036 At his dispose; young Scipio had brought down
1037 The Carthaginian pride; young Pompey quelled
1038 The Pontic king, and in triumph had rode.
1039 Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature,
1040 Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.
1041 Great Julius, whom now all the world admires,
1042 The more he grew in years, the more inflamed 40
1043 With glory, wept that he had lived so long
1044 Ingloroious. But thou yet art not too late."
1045 To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied:--
1046 "Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth
1047 For empire's sake, nor empire to affect
1048 For glory's sake, by all thy argument.
1049 For what is glory but the blaze of fame,
1050 The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?
1051 And what the people but a herd confused,
1052 A miscellaneous rabble, who extol 50
1053 Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise?
1054 They praise and they admire they know not what,
1055 And know not whom, but as one leads the other;
1056 And what delight to be by such extolled,
1057 To live upon their tongues, and be their talk?
1058 Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise--
1059 His lot who dares be singularly good.
1060 The intelligent among them and the wise
1061 Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.
1062 This is true glory and renown--when God, 60
1063 Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks
1064 The just man, and divulges him through Heaven
1065 To all his Angels, who with true applause
1066 Recount his praises. Thus he did to Job,
1067 When, to extend his fame through Heaven and Earth,
1068 As thou to thy reproach may'st well remember,
1069 He asked thee, 'Hast thou seen my servant Job?'
1070 Famous he was in Heaven; on Earth less known,
1071 Where glory is false glory, attributed
1072 To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame. 70
1073 They err who count it glorious to subdue
1074 By conquest far and wide, to overrun
1075 Large countries, and in field great battles win,
1076 Great cities by assault. What do these worthies
1077 But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
1078 Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
1079 Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
1080 Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
1081 Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove,
1082 And all the flourishing works of peace destroy; 80
1083 Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,
1084 Great benefactors of mankind, Deliverers,
1085 Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice?
1086 One is the son of Jove, of Mars the other;
1087 Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,
1088 Rowling in brutish vices, and deformed,
1089 Violent or shameful death their due reward.
1090 But, if there be in glory aught of good;
1091 It may be means far different be attained,
1092 Without ambition, war, or violence-- 90
1093 By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
1094 By patience, temperance. I mention still
1095 Him whom thy wrongs, with saintly patience borne,
1096 Made famous in a land and times obscure;
1097 Who names not now with honour patient Job?
1098 Poor Socrates, (who next more memorable?)
1099 By what he taught and suffered for so doing,
1100 For truth's sake suffering death unjust, lives now
1101 Equal in fame to proudest conquerors.
1102 Yet, if for fame and glory aught be done, 100
1103 Aught suffered--if young African for fame
1104 His wasted country freed from Punic rage--
1105 The deed becomes unpraised, the man at least,
1106 And loses, though but verbal, his reward.
1107 Shall I seek glory, then, as vain men seek,
1108 Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, but His
1109 Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am."
1110 To whom the Tempter, murmuring, thus replied:--
1111 "Think not so slight of glory, therein least
1112 Resembling thy great Father. He seeks glory, 110
1113 And for his glory all things made, all things
1114 Orders and governs; nor content in Heaven,
1115 By all his Angels glorified, requires
1116 Glory from men, from all men, good or bad,
1117 Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption.
1118 Above all sacrifice, or hallowed gift,
1119 Glory he requires, and glory he receives,
1120 Promiscuous from all nations, Jew, or Greek,
1121 Or Barbarous, nor exception hath declared;
1122 From us, his foes pronounced, glory he exacts." 120
1123 To whom our Saviour fervently replied:
1124 "And reason; since his Word all things produced,
1125 Though chiefly not for glory as prime end,
1126 But to shew forth his goodness, and impart
1127 His good communicable to every soul
1128 Freely; of whom what could He less expect
1129 Than glory and benediction--that is, thanks--
1130 The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense
1131 From them who could return him nothing else,
1132 And, not returning that, would likeliest render 130
1133 Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy?
1134 Hard recompense, unsuitable return
1135 For so much good, so much beneficience!
1136 But why should man seek glory, who of his own
1137 Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs
1138 But condemnation, ignominy, and shame--
1139 Who, for so many benefits received,
1140 Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false,
1141 And so of all true good himself despoiled;
1142 Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take 140
1143 That which to God alone of right belongs?
1144 Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,
1145 That who advances his glory, not their own,
1146 Them he himself to glory will advance."
1147 So spake the Son of God; and here again
1148 Satan had not to answer, but stood struck
1149 With guilt of his own sin--for he himself,
1150 Insatiable of glory, had lost all;
1151 Yet of another plea bethought him soon:--
1152 "Of glory, as thou wilt," said he, "so deem; 150
1153 Worth or not worth the seeking, let it pass.
1154 But to a Kingdom thou art born--ordained
1155 To sit upon thy father David's throne,
1156 By mother's side thy father, though thy right
1157 Be now in powerful hands, that will not part
1158 Easily from possession won with arms.
1159 Judaea now and all the Promised Land,
1160 Reduced a province under Roman yoke,
1161 Obeys Tiberius, nor is always ruled
1162 With temperate sway: oft have they violated 160
1163 The Temple, oft the Law, with foul affronts,
1164 Abominations rather, as did once
1165 Antiochus. And think'st thou to regain
1166 Thy right by sitting still, or thus retiring?
1167 So did not Machabeus. He indeed
1168 Retired unto the Desert, but with arms;
1169 And o'er a mighty king so oft prevailed
1170 That by strong hand his family obtained,
1171 Though priests, the crown, and David's throne usurped,
1172 With Modin and her suburbs once content. 170
1173 If kingdom move thee not, let move thee zeal
1174 And duty--zeal and duty are not slow,
1175 But on Occasion's forelock watchful wait:
1176 They themselves rather are occasion best--
1177 Zeal of thy Father's house, duty to free
1178 Thy country from her heathen servitude.
1179 So shalt thou best fulfil, best verify,
1180 The Prophets old, who sung thy endless reign--
1181 The happier reign the sooner it begins.
1182 Rein then; what canst thou better do the while?" 180
1183 To whom our Saviour answer thus returned:--
1184 "All things are best fulfilled in their due time;
1185 And time there is for all things, Truth hath said.
1186 If of my reign Prophetic Writ hath told
1187 That it shall never end, so, when begin
1188 The Father in his purpose hath decreed--
1189 He in whose hand all times and seasons rowl.
1190 What if he hath decreed that I shall first
1191 Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,
1192 By tribulations, injuries, insults, 190
1193 Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,
1194 Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting
1195 Without distrust or doubt, that He may know
1196 What I can suffer, how obey? Who best
1197 Can suffer best can do, best reign who first
1198 Well hath obeyed--just trial ere I merit
1199 My exaltation without change or end.
1200 But what concerns it thee when I begin
1201 My everlasting Kingdom? Why art thou
1202 Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition? 200
1203 Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall,
1204 And my promotion will be thy destruction?"
1205 To whom the Tempter, inly racked, replied:--
1206 "Let that come when it comes. All hope is lost
1207 Of my reception into grace; what worse?
1208 For where no hope is left is left no fear.
1209 If there be worse, the expectation more
1210 Of worse torments me than the feeling can.
1211 I would be at the worst; worst is my port,
1212 My harbour, and my ultimate repose, 210
1213 The end I would attain, my final good.
1214 My error was my error, and my crime
1215 My crime; whatever, for itself condemned,
1216 And will alike be punished, whether thou
1217 Reign or reign not--though to that gentle brow
1218 Willingly I could fly, and hope thy reign,
1219 From that placid aspect and meek regard,
1220 Rather than aggravate my evil state,
1221 Would stand between me and thy Father's ire
1222 (Whose ire I dread more than the fire of Hell) 220
1223 A shelter and a kind of shading cool
1224 Interposition, as a summer's cloud.
1225 If I, then, to the worst that can be haste,
1226 Why move thy feet so slow to what is best?
1227 Happiest, both to thyself and all the world,
1228 That thou, who worthiest art, shouldst be their King!
1229 Perhaps thou linger'st in deep thoughts detained
1230 Of the enterprise so hazardous and high!
1231 No wonder; for, though in thee be united
1232 What of perfection can in Man be found, 230
1233 Or human nature can receive, consider
1234 Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent
1235 At home, scarce viewed the Galilean towns,
1236 And once a year Jerusalem, few days'
1237 Short sojourn; and what thence couldst thou observe?
1238 The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,
1239 Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts--
1240 Best school of best experience, quickest in sight
1241 In all things that to greatest actions lead.
1242 The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever 240
1243 Timorous, and loth, with novice modesty
1244 (As he who, seeking asses, found a kingdom)
1245 Irresolute, unhardy, unadventrous.
1246 But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit
1247 Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes
1248 The monarchies of the Earth, their pomp and state--
1249 Sufficient introduction to inform
1250 Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal arts,
1251 And regal mysteries; that thou may'st know
1252 How best their opposition to withstand." 250
1253 With that (such power was given him then), he took
1254 The Son of God up to a mountain high.
1255 It was a mountain at whose verdant feet
1256 A spacious plain outstretched in circuit wide
1257 Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,
1258 The one winding, the other straight, and left between
1259 Fair champaign, with less rivers interveined,
1260 Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea.
1261 Fertil of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;
1262 With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills; 260
1263 Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem
1264 The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large
1265 The prospect was that here and there was room
1266 For barren desert, fountainless and dry.
1267 To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought
1268 Our Saviour, and new train of words began:--
1269 "Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale,
1270 Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,
1271 Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold'st
1272 Assyria, and her empire's ancient bounds, 270
1273 Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on
1274 As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,
1275 And oft beyond; to south the Persian bay,
1276 And, inaccessible, the Arabian drouth:
1277 Here, Nineveh, of length within her wall
1278 Several days' journey, built by Ninus old,
1279 Of that first golden monarchy the seat,
1280 And seat of Salmanassar, whose success
1281 Israel in long captivity still mourns;
1282 There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues, 280
1283 As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice
1284 Judah and all thy father David's house
1285 Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,
1286 Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,
1287 His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;
1288 Ecbatana her structure vast there shews,
1289 And Hecatompylos her hunderd gates;
1290 There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,
1291 The drink of none but kings; of later fame,
1292 Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands, 290
1293 The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there
1294 Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,
1295 Turning with easy eye, thou may'st behold.
1296 All these the Parthian (now some ages past
1297 By great Arsaces led, who founded first
1298 That empire) under his dominion holds,
1299 From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.
1300 And just in time thou com'st to have a view
1301 Of his great power; for now the Parthian king
1302 In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host 300
1303 Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild
1304 Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid
1305 He marches now in haste. See, though from far,
1306 His thousands, in what martial equipage
1307 They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,
1308 Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit--
1309 All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;
1310 See how in warlike muster they appear,
1311 In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings."
1312 He looked, and saw what numbers numberless 310
1313 The city gates outpoured, light-armed troops
1314 In coats of mail and military pride.
1315 In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,
1316 Prauncing their riders bore, the flower and choice
1317 Of many provinces from bound to bound--
1318 From Arachosia, from Candaor east,
1319 And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs
1320 Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;
1321 From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains
1322 Of Adiabene, Media, and the south 320
1323 Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.
1324 He saw them in their forms of battle ranged,
1325 How quick they wheeled, and flying behind them shot
1326 Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face
1327 Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;
1328 The field all iron cast a gleaming brown.
1329 Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor, on each horn,
1330 Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight,
1331 Chariots, or elephants indorsed with towers
1332 Of archers; nor of labouring pioners 330
1333 A multitude, with spades and axes armed,
1334 To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill,
1335 Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay
1336 With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke:
1337 Mules after these, camels and dromedaries,
1338 And waggons fraught with utensils of war.
1339 Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
1340 When Agrican, with all his northern powers,
1341 Besieged Albracea, as romances tell,
1342 The city of Gallaphrone, from thence to win 340
1343 The fairest of her sex, Angelica,
1344 His daughter, sought by many prowest knights,
1345 Both Paynim and the peers of Charlemane.
1346 Such and so numerous was their chivalry;
1347 At sight whereof the Fiend yet more presumed,
1348 And to our Saviour thus his words renewed:--
1349 "That thou may'st know I seek not to engage
1350 Thy virtue, and not every way secure
1351 On no slight grounds thy safety, hear and mark
1352 To what end I have brought thee hither, and shew 350
1353 All this fair sight. Thy kingdom, though foretold
1354 By Prophet or by Angel, unless thou
1355 Endeavour, as thy father David did,
1356 Thou never shalt obtain: prediction still
1357 In all things, and all men, supposes means;
1358 Without means used, what it predicts revokes.
1359 But say thou wert possessed of David's throne
1360 By free consent of all, none opposite,
1361 Samaritan or Jew; how couldst thou hope
1362 Long to enjoy it quiet and secure 360
1363 Between two such enclosing enemies,
1364 Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these
1365 Thou must make sure thy own: the Parthian first,
1366 By my advice, as nearer, and of late
1367 Found able by invasion to annoy
1368 Thy country, and captive lead away her kings,
1369 Antigonus and old Hyrcanus, bound,
1370 Maugre the Roman. It shall be my task
1371 To render thee the Parthian at dispose,
1372 Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league. 370
1373 By him thou shalt regain, without him not,
1374 That which alone can truly reinstall thee
1375 In David's royal seat, his true successor--
1376 Deliverance of thy brethren, those Ten Tribes
1377 Whose offspring in his territory yet serve
1378 In Habor, and among the Medes dispersed:
1379 The sons of Jacob, two of Joseph, lost
1380 Thus long from Israel, serving, as of old
1381 Their fathers in the land of Egypt served,
1382 This offer sets before thee to deliver. 380
1383 These if from servitude thou shalt restore
1384 To their inheritance, then, nor till then,
1385 Thou on the throne of David in full glory,
1386 From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond,
1387 Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear."
1388 To whom our Saviour answered thus, unmoved:--
1389 "Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm
1390 And fragile arms, much instrument of war,
1391 Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,
1392 Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear 390
1393 Vented much policy, and projects deep
1394 Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,
1395 Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.
1396 Means I must use, thou say'st; prediction else
1397 Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne!
1398 My time, I told thee (and that time for thee
1399 Were better farthest off), is not yet come.
1400 When that comes, think not thou to find me slack
1401 On my part aught endeavouring, or to need
1402 Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome 400
1403 Luggage of war there shewn me--argument
1404 Of human weakness rather than of strength.
1405 My brethren, as thou call'st them, those Ten Tribes,
1406 I must deliver, if I mean to reign
1407 David's true heir, and his full sceptre sway
1408 To just extent over all Israel's sons!
1409 But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then
1410 For Israel, or for David, or his throne,
1411 When thou stood'st up his tempter to the pride
1412 Of numbering Israel--which cost the lives 410
1413 of threescore and ten thousand Israelites
1414 By three days' pestilence? Such was thy zeal
1415 To Israel then, the same that now to me.
1416 As for those captive tribes, themselves were they
1417 Who wrought their own captivity, fell off
1418 From God to worship calves, the deities
1419 Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,
1420 And all the idolatries of heathen round,
1421 Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes;
1422 Nor in the land of their captivity 420
1423 Humbled themselves, or penitent besought
1424 The God of their forefathers, but so died
1425 Impenitent, and left a race behind
1426 Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce
1427 From Gentiles, but by circumcision vain,
1428 And God with idols in their worship joined.
1429 Should I of these the liberty regard,
1430 Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony,
1431 Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreformed,
1432 Headlong would follow, and to their gods perhaps 430
1433 Of Bethel and of Dan? No; let them serve
1434 Their enemies who serve idols with God.
1435 Yet He at length, time to himself best known,
1436 Remembering Abraham, by some wondrous call
1437 May bring them back, repentant and sincere,
1438 And at their passing cleave the Assyrian flood,
1439 While to their native land with joy they haste,
1440 As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,
1441 When to the Promised Land their fathers passed.
1442 To his due time and providence I leave them." 440
1443 So spake Israel's true King, and to the Fiend
1444 Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.
1445 So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.
1446
1447
1448 THE FOURTH BOOK
1449
1450 Perplexed and troubled at his bad success
1451 The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
1452 Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope
1453 So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
1454 That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve,
1455 So little here, nay lost. But Eve was Eve;
1456 This far his over-match, who, self-deceived
1457 And rash, beforehand had no better weighed
1458 The strength he was to cope with, or his own.
1459 But--as a man who had been matchless held 10
1460 In cunning, over-reached where least he thought,
1461 To salve his credit, and for very spite,
1462 Still will be tempting him who foils him still,
1463 And never cease, though to his shame the more;
1464 Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,
1465 About the wine-press where sweet must is poured,
1466 Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;
1467 Or surging waves against a solid rock,
1468 Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,
1469 (Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end-- 20
1470 So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
1471 Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
1472 Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success,
1473 And his vain importunity pursues.
1474 He brought our Saviour to the western side
1475 Of that high mountain, whence he might behold
1476 Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,
1477 Washed by the southern sea, and on the north
1478 To equal length backed with a ridge of hills
1479 That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men 30
1480 From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst
1481 Divided by a river, off whose banks
1482 On each side an Imperial City stood,
1483 With towers and temples proudly elevate
1484 On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,
1485 Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
1486 Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
1487 Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes
1488 Above the highth of mountains interposed--
1489 By what strange parallax, or optic skill 40
1490 Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass
1491 Of telescope, were curious to enquire.
1492 And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:--
1493 "The city which thou seest no other deem
1494 Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth
1495 So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
1496 Of nations. There the Capitol thou seest,
1497 Above the rest lifting his stately head
1498 On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel
1499 Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine, 50
1500 The imperial palace, compass huge, and high
1501 The structure, skill of noblest architects,
1502 With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,
1503 Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires.
1504 Many a fair edifice besides, more like
1505 Houses of gods--so well I have disposed
1506 My aerie microscope--thou may'st behold,
1507 Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs
1508 Carved work, the hand of famed artificers
1509 In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold. 60
1510 Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see
1511 What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:
1512 Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces
1513 Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;
1514 Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;
1515 Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;
1516 Or embassies from regions far remote,
1517 In various habits, on the Appian road,
1518 Or on the AEmilian--some from farthest south,
1519 Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, 70
1520 Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,
1521 The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;
1522 From the Asian kings (and Parthian among these),
1523 From India and the Golden Chersoness,
1524 And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,
1525 Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreathed;
1526 From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;
1527 Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians north
1528 Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.
1529 All nations now to Rome obedience pay-- 80
1530 To Rome's great Emperor, whose wide domain,
1531 In ample territory, wealth and power,
1532 Civility of manners, arts and arms,
1533 And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer
1534 Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
1535 The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
1536 Shared among petty kings too far removed;
1537 These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all
1538 The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
1539 This Emperor hath no son, and now is old, 90
1540 Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
1541 To Capreae, an island small but strong
1542 On the Campanian shore, with purpose there
1543 His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;
1544 Committing to a wicked favourite
1545 All public cares, and yet of him suspicious;
1546 Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
1547 Endued with regal virtues as thou art,
1548 Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
1549 Might'st thou expel this monster from his throne, 100
1550 Now made a sty, and, in his place ascending,
1551 A victor-people free from servile yoke!
1552 And with my help thou may'st; to me the power
1553 Is given, and by that right I give it thee.
1554 Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world;
1555 Aim at the highest; without the highest attained,
1556 Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,
1557 On David's throne, be prophesied what will."
1558 To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:--
1559 "Nor doth this grandeur and majestic shew 110
1560 Of luxury, though called magnificence,
1561 More than of arms before, allure mine eye,
1562 Much less my mind; though thou should'st add to tell
1563 Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts
1564 On citron tables or Atlantic stone
1565 (For I have also heard, perhaps have read),
1566 Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
1567 Chios and Crete, and how they quaff in gold,
1568 Crystal, and myrrhine cups, imbossed with gems
1569 And studs of pearl--to me should'st tell, who thirst 120
1570 And hunger still. Then embassies thou shew'st
1571 From nations far and nigh! What honour that,
1572 But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
1573 So many hollow compliments and lies,
1574 Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed'st to talk
1575 Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,
1576 How gloriously. I shall, thou say'st, expel
1577 A brutish monster: what if I withal
1578 Expel a Devil who first made him such?
1579 Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out; 130
1580 For him I was not sent, nor yet to free
1581 That people, victor once, now vile and base,
1582 Deservedly made vassal--who, once just,
1583 Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,
1584 But govern ill the nations under yoke,
1585 Peeling their provinces, exhausted all
1586 By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown
1587 Of triumph, that insulting vanity;
1588 Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured
1589 Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed; 140
1590 Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still,
1591 And from the daily Scene effeminate.
1592 What wise and valiant man would seek to free
1593 These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,
1594 Or could of inward slaves make outward free?
1595 Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit
1596 On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
1597 Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,
1598 Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
1599 All monarchies besides throughout the world; 150
1600 And of my Kingdom there shall be no end.
1601 Means there shall be to this; but what the means
1602 Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell."
1603 To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied:--
1604 "I see all offers made by me how slight
1605 Thou valuest, because offered, and reject'st.
1606 Nothing will please the difficult and nice,
1607 Or nothing more than still to contradict.
1608 On the other side know also thou that I
1609 On what I offer set as high esteem, 160
1610 Nor what I part with mean to give for naught,
1611 All these, which in a moment thou behold'st,
1612 The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give
1613 (For, given to me, I give to whom I please),
1614 No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else--
1615 On this condition, if thou wilt fall down,
1616 And worship me as thy superior Lord
1617 (Easily done), and hold them all of me;
1618 For what can less so great a gift deserve?"
1619 Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain:-- 170
1620 "I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;
1621 Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter
1622 The abominable terms, impious condition.
1623 But I endure the time, till which expired
1624 Thou hast permission on me. It is written,
1625 The first of all commandments, 'Thou shalt worship
1626 The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.'
1627 And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound
1628 To worship thee, accursed? now more accursed
1629 For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve, 180
1630 And more blasphemous; which expect to rue.
1631 The kingdoms of the world to thee were given!
1632 Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;
1633 Other donation none thou canst produce.
1634 If given, by whom but by the King of kings,
1635 God over all supreme? If given to thee,
1636 By thee how fairly is the Giver now
1637 Repaid! But gratitude in thee is lost
1638 Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame
1639 As offer them to me, the Son of God-- 190
1640 To me my own, on such abhorred pact,
1641 That I fall down and worship thee as God?
1642 Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st
1643 That Evil One, Satan for ever damned."
1644 To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied:--
1645 "Be not so sore offended, Son of God--
1646 Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men--
1647 If I, to try whether in higher sort
1648 Than these thou bear'st that title, have proposed
1649 What both from Men and Angels I receive, 200
1650 Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth
1651 Nations besides from all the quartered winds--
1652 God of this World invoked, and World beneath.
1653 Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
1654 To me most fatal, me it most concerns.
1655 The trial hath indamaged thee no way,
1656 Rather more honour left and more esteem;
1657 Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.
1658 Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
1659 The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more 210
1660 Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.
1661 And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined
1662 Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
1663 To contemplation and profound dispute;
1664 As by that early action may be judged,
1665 When, slipping from thy mother's eye, thou went'st
1666 Alone into the Temple, there wast found
1667 Among the gravest Rabbies, disputant
1668 On points and questions fitting Moses' chair,
1669 Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews the man, 220
1670 As morning shews the day. Be famous, then,
1671 By wisdom; as thy empire must extend,
1672 So let extend thy mind o'er all the world
1673 In knowledge; all things in it comprehend.
1674 All knowledge is not couched in Moses' law,
1675 The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
1676 The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach
1677 To admiration, led by Nature's light;
1678 And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,
1679 Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean'st. 230
1680 Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,
1681 Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?
1682 How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
1683 Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
1684 Error by his own arms is best evinced.
1685 Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount,
1686 Westward, much nearer by south-west; behold
1687 Where on the AEgean shore a city stands,
1688 Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil--
1689 Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 240
1690 And Eloquence, native to famous wits
1691 Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,
1692 City or suburban, studious walks and shades.
1693 See there the olive-grove of Academe,
1694 Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
1695 Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;
1696 There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound
1697 Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites
1698 To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls
1699 His whispering stream. Within the walls then view 250
1700 The schools of ancient sages--his who bred
1701 Great Alexander to subdue the world,
1702 Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next.
1703 There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
1704 Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
1705 By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,
1706 AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
1707 And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,
1708 Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called,
1709 Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own. 260
1710 Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught
1711 In chorus or iambic, teachers best
1712 Of moral prudence, with delight received
1713 In brief sententious precepts, while they treat
1714 Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,
1715 High actions and high passions best describing.
1716 Thence to the famous Orators repair,
1717 Those ancient whose resistless eloquence
1718 Wielded at will that fierce democraty,
1719 Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece 270
1720 To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.
1721 To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,
1722 From heaven descended to the low-roofed house
1723 Of Socrates--see there his tenement--
1724 Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pronounced
1725 Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth
1726 Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools
1727 Of Academics old and new, with those
1728 Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect
1729 Epicurean, and the Stoic severe. 280
1730 These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home,
1731 Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
1732 These rules will render thee a king complete
1733 Within thyself, much more with empire joined."
1734 To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied:--
1735 "Think not but that I know these things; or, think
1736 I know them not, not therefore am I short
1737 Of knowing what I ought. He who receives
1738 Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,
1739 No other doctrine needs, though granted true; 290
1740 But these are false, or little else but dreams,
1741 Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
1742 The first and wisest of them all professed
1743 To know this only, that he nothing knew;
1744 The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits;
1745 A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense;
1746 Others in virtue placed felicity,
1747 But virtue joined with riches and long life;
1748 In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;
1749 The Stoic last in philosophic pride, 300
1750 By him called virtue, and his virtuous man,
1751 Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing,
1752 Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,
1753 As fearing God nor man, contemning all
1754 Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life--
1755 Which, when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can;
1756 For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,
1757 Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.
1758 Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,
1759 Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, 310
1760 And how the World began, and how Man fell,
1761 Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
1762 Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry;
1763 And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves
1764 All glory arrogate, to God give none;
1765 Rather accuse him under usual names,
1766 Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite
1767 Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks in these
1768 True wisdom finds her not, or, by delusion
1769 Far worse, her false resemblance only meets, 320
1770 An empty cloud. However, many books,
1771 Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads
1772 Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
1773 A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
1774 (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?)
1775 Uncertain and unsettled still remains,
1776 Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself,
1777 Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys
1778 And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge,
1779 As children gathering pebbles on the shore. 330
1780 Or, if I would delight my private hours
1781 With music or with poem, where so soon
1782 As in our native language can I find
1783 That solace? All our Law and Story strewed
1784 With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,
1785 Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon
1786 That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare
1787 That rather Greece from us these arts derived--
1788 Ill imitated while they loudest sing
1789 The vices of their deities, and their own, 340
1790 In fable, hymn, or song, so personating
1791 Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
1792 Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid
1793 As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,
1794 Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight,
1795 Will far be found unworthy to compare
1796 With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling,
1797 Where God is praised aright and godlike men,
1798 The Holiest of Holies and his Saints
1799 (Such are from God inspired, not such from thee); 350
1800 Unless where moral virtue is expressed
1801 By light of Nature, not in all quite lost.
1802 Their orators thou then extoll'st as those
1803 The top of eloquence--statists indeed,
1804 And lovers of their country, as may seem;
1805 But herein to our Prophets far beneath,
1806 As men divinely taught, and better teaching
1807 The solid rules of civil government,
1808 In their majestic, unaffected style,
1809 Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. 360
1810 In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
1811 What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,
1812 What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;
1813 These only, with our Law, best form a king."
1814 So spake the Son of God; but Satan, now
1815 Quite at a loss (for all his darts were spent),
1816 Thus to our Saviour, with stern brow, replied:--
1817 "Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,
1818 Kingdom nor empire, pleases thee, nor aught
1819 By me proposed in life contemplative 370
1820 Or active, tended on by glory or fame,
1821 What dost thou in this world? The Wilderness
1822 For thee is fittest place: I found thee there,
1823 And thither will return thee. Yet remember
1824 What I foretell thee; soon thou shalt have cause
1825 To wish thou never hadst rejected, thus
1826 Nicely or cautiously, my offered aid,
1827 Which would have set thee in short time with ease
1828 On David's throne, or throne of all the world,
1829 Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season, 380
1830 When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.
1831 Now, contrary--if I read aught in heaven,
1832 Or heaven write aught of fate--by what the stars
1833 Voluminous, or single characters
1834 In their conjunction met, give me to spell,
1835 Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate,
1836 Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,
1837 Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.
1838 A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,
1839 Real or allegoric, I discern not; 390
1840 Nor when: eternal sure--as without end,
1841 Without beginning; for no date prefixed
1842 Directs me in the starry rubric set."
1843 So saying, he took (for still he knew his power
1844 Not yet expired), and to the Wilderness
1845 Brought back, the Son of God, and left him there,
1846 Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose,
1847 As daylight sunk, and brought in louring Night,
1848 Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both,
1849 Privation mere of light and absent day. 400
1850 Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind
1851 After hisaerie jaunt, though hurried sore,
1852 Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest,
1853 Wherever, under some concourse of shades,
1854 Whose branching arms thick intertwined might shield
1855 From dews and damps of night his sheltered head;
1856 But, sheltered, slept in vain; for at his head
1857 The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams
1858 Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now
1859 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds 410
1860 From many a horrid rift abortive poured
1861 Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire,
1862 In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds
1863 Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad
1864 From the four hinges of the world, and fell
1865 On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines,
1866 Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks,
1867 Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
1868 Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,
1869 O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st 420
1870 Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there:
1871 Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round
1872 Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,
1873 Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
1874 Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.
1875 Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair
1876 Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,
1877 Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar
1878 Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,
1879 And griesly spectres, which the Fiend had raised 430
1880 To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
1881 And now the sun with more effectual beams
1882 Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet
1883 From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
1884 Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
1885 After a night of storm so ruinous,
1886 Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
1887 To gratulate the sweet return of morn.
1888 Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,
1889 Was absent, after all his mischief done, 440
1890 The Prince of Darkness; glad would also seem
1891 Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;
1892 Yet with no new device (they all were spent),
1893 Rather by this his last affront resolved,
1894 Desperate of better course, to vent his rage
1895 And mad despite to be so oft repelled.
1896 Him walking on a sunny hill he found,
1897 Backed on the north and west by a thick wood;
1898 Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,
1899 And in a careless mood thus to him said:-- 450
1900 "Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,
1901 After a dismal night. I heard the wrack,
1902 As earth and sky would mingle; but myself
1903 Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them,
1904 As dangerous to the pillared frame of Heaven,
1905 Or to the Earth's dark basis underneath,
1906 Are to the main as inconsiderable
1907 And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze
1908 To man's less universe, and soon are gone.
1909 Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light 460
1910 On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
1911 Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,
1912 Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
1913 They oft fore-signify and threaten ill.
1914 This tempest at this desert most was bent;
1915 Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.
1916 Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
1917 The perfect season offered with my aid
1918 To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong
1919 All to the push of fate, pursue thy way 470
1920 Of gaining David's throne no man knows when
1921 (For both the when and how is nowhere told),
1922 Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;
1923 For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing
1924 The time and means? Each act is rightliest done
1925 Not when it must, but when it may be best.
1926 If thou observe not this, be sure to find
1927 What I foretold thee--many a hard assay
1928 Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
1929 Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold; 480
1930 Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round,
1931 So many terrors, voices, prodigies,
1932 May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign."
1933 So talked he, while the Son of God went on,
1934 And staid not, but in brief him answered thus:--
1935 "Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm
1936 Those terrors which thou speak'st of did me none.
1937 I never feared they could, though noising loud
1938 And threatening nigh: what they can do as signs
1939 Betokening or ill-boding I contemn 490
1940 As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;
1941 Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,
1942 Obtrud'st thy offered aid, that I, accepting,
1943 At least might seem to hold all power of thee,
1944 Ambitious Spirit! and would'st be thought my God;
1945 And storm'st, refused, thinking to terrify
1946 Me to thy will! Desist (thou art discerned,
1947 And toil'st in vain), nor me in vain molest."
1948 To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:--
1949 "Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born! 500
1950 For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.
1951 Of the Messiah I have heard foretold
1952 By all the Prophets; of thy birth, at length
1953 Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,
1954 And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,
1955 On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
1956 From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
1957 Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
1958 Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
1959 Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all 510
1960 Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest
1961 (Though not to be baptized), by voice from Heaven
1962 Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.
1963 Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
1964 And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
1965 In what degree or meaning thou art called
1966 The Son of God, which bears no single sense.
1967 The Son of God I also am, or was;
1968 And, if I was, I am; relation stands:
1969 All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought 520
1970 In some respect far higher so declared.
1971 Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,
1972 And followed thee still on to this waste wild,
1973 Where, by all best conjectures, I collect
1974 Thou art to be my fatal enemy.
1975 Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek
1976 To understand my adversary, who
1977 And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent;
1978 By parle or composition, truce or league,
1979 To win him, or win from him what I can. 530
1980 And opportunity I here have had
1981 To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee
1982 Proof against all temptation, as a rock
1983 Of adamant and as a centre, firm
1984 To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,
1985 Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,
1986 Have been before contemned, and may again.
1987 Therefore, to know what more thou art than man,
1988 Worth naming the Son of God by voice from Heaven,
1989 Another method I must now begin." 540
1990 So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing
1991 Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime,
1992 Over the wilderness and o'er the plain,
1993 Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,
1994 The Holy City, lifted high her towers,
1995 And higher yet the glorious Temple reared
1996 Her pile, far off appearing like a mount
1997 Of alablaster, topt with golden spires:
1998 There, on the highest pinnacle, he set
1999 The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:-- 550
2000 "There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright
2001 Will ask thee skill. I to thy Father's house
2002 Have brought thee, and highest placed: highest is best.
2003 Now shew thy progeny; if not to stand,
2004 Cast thyself down. Safely, if Son of God;
2005 For it is written, 'He will give command
2006 Concerning thee to his Angels; in their hands
2007 They shall uplift thee, lest at any time
2008 Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.'"
2009 To whom thus Jesus: "Also it is written, 560
2010 'Tempt not the Lord thy God.'" He said, and stood;
2011 But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.
2012 As when Earth's son, Antaeus (to compare
2013 Small things with greatest), in Irassa strove
2014 With Jove's Alcides, and, oft foiled, still rose,
2015 Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,
2016 Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,
2017 Throttled at length in the air expired and fell,
2018 So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,
2019 Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride 570
2020 Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall;
2021 And, as that Theban monster that proposed
2022 Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured,
2023 That once found out and solved, for grief and spite
2024 Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep,
2025 So, strook with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend,
2026 And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
2027 Joyless triumphals of his hoped success,
2028 Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,
2029 Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God. 580
2030 So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe
2031 Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
2032 Who on their plumy vans received Him soft
2033 From his uneasy station, and upbore,
2034 As on a floating couch, through the blithe air;
2035 Then, in a flowery valley, set him down
2036 On a green bank, and set before him spread
2037 A table of celestial food, divine
2038 Ambrosial fruits fetched from the Tree of Life,
2039 And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink, 590
2040 That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired
2041 What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,
2042 Or thirst; and, as he fed, Angelic quires
2043 Sung heavenly anthems of his victory
2044 Over temptation and the Tempter proud:--
2045 "True Image of the Father, whether throned
2046 In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
2047 Conceiving, or, remote from Heaven, enshrined
2048 In fleshly tabernacle and human form,
2049 Wandering the wilderness--whatever place, 600
2050 Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
2051 The Son of God, with Godlike force endued
2052 Against the attempter of thy Father's throne
2053 And thief of Paradise! Him long of old
2054 Thou didst debel, and down from Heaven cast
2055 With all his army; now thou hast avenged
2056 Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing
2057 Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,
2058 And frustrated the conquest fraudulent.
2059 He never more henceforth will dare set foot 610
2060 In paradise to tempt; his snares are broke.
2061 For, though that seat of earthly bliss be failed,
2062 A fairer Paradise is founded now
2063 For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou,
2064 A Saviour, art come down to reinstall;
2065 Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,
2066 Of tempter and temptation without fear.
2067 But thou, Infernal Serpent! shalt not long
2068 Rule in the clouds. Like an autumnal star,
2069 Or lightning, thou shalt fall from Heaven, trod down 620
2070 Under his feet. For proof, ere this thou feel'st
2071 Thy wound (yet not thy last and deadliest wound)
2072 By this repulse received, and hold'st in Hell
2073 No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues
2074 Thy bold attempt. Hereafter learn with awe
2075 To dread the Son of God. He, all unarmed,
2076 Shall chase thee, with the terror of his voice,
2077 From thy demoniac holds, possession foul--
2078 Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,
2079 And beg to hide them in a herd of swine, 630
2080 Lest he command them down into the Deep,
2081 Bound, and to torment sent before their time.
2082 Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both Worlds,
2083 Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work
2084 Now enter, and begin to save Mankind."
2085 Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,
2086 Sung victor, and, from heavenly feast refreshed,
2087 Brought on his way with joy. He, unobserved,
2088 Home to his mother's house private returned.
2089
2090
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