<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=421431" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Paradise Regained</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE FIRST BOOK</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I, WHO erewhile the happy Garden sung<br>By one man's disobedience lost, now sing<br>Recovered Paradise to all mankind,<br>By one man's firm obedience fully tried<br>Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled<br>In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,<br>And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.<br> Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite<br>Into the desert, his victorious field<br>Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence 10<br>By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,<br>As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,<br>And bear through highth or depth of Nature's bounds,<br>With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds<br>Above heroic, though in secret done,<br>And unrecorded left through many an age:<br>Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.<br> Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice<br>More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried<br>Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand 20<br>To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked<br>With awe the regions round, and with them came<br>From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed<br>To the flood Jordan--came as then obscure,<br>Unmarked, unknown. But him the Baptist soon<br>Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore<br>As to his worthier, and would have resigned<br>To him his heavenly office. Nor was long<br>His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized<br>Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove 30<br>The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice<br>From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.<br>That heard the Adversary, who, roving still<br>About the world, at that assembly famed<br>Would not be last, and, with the voice divine<br>Nigh thunder-struck, the exalted man to whom<br>Such high attest was given a while surveyed<br>With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage,<br>Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air<br>To council summons all his mighty Peers, 40<br>Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,<br>A gloomy consistory; and them amidst,<br>With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake:--<br> &quot;O ancient Powers of Air and this wide World<br>(For much more willingly I mention Air,<br>This our old conquest, than remember Hell,<br>Our hated habitation), well ye know<br>How many ages, as the years of men,<br>This Universe we have possessed, and ruled<br>In manner at our will the affairs of Earth, 50<br>Since Adam and his facile consort Eve<br>Lost Paradise, deceived by me, though since<br>With dread attending when that fatal wound<br>Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve<br>Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven<br>Delay, for longest time to Him is short;<br>And now, too soon for us, the circling hours<br>This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we<br>Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound<br>(At least, if so we can, and by the head 60<br>Broken be not intended all our power<br>To be infringed, our freedom and our being<br>In this fair empire won of Earth and Air)--<br>For this ill news I bring: The Woman's Seed,<br>Destined to this, is late of woman born.<br>His birth to our just fear gave no small cause;<br>But his growth now to youth's full flower, displaying<br>All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve<br>Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.<br>Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim 70<br>His coming, is sent harbinger, who all<br>Invites, and in the consecrated stream<br>Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so<br>Purified to receive him pure, or rather<br>To do him honour as their King. All come,<br>And he himself among them was baptized--<br>Not thence to be more pure, but to receive<br>The testimony of Heaven, that who he is<br>Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw<br>The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising 80<br>Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds<br>Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head<br>A perfet Dove descend (whate'er it meant);<br>And out of Heaven the sovraign voice I heard,<br>'This is my Son beloved,--in him am pleased.'<br>His mother, than, is mortal, but his Sire<br>He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven;<br>And what will He not do to advance his Son?<br>His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,<br>When his fierce thunder drove us to the Deep; 90<br>Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems<br>In all his lineaments, though in his face<br>The glimpses of his Father's glory shine.<br>Ye see our danger on the utmost edge<br>Of hazard, which admits no long debate,<br>But must with something sudden be opposed<br>(Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares),<br>Ere in the head of nations he appear,<br>Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth.<br>I, when no other durst, sole undertook 100<br>The dismal expedition to find out<br>And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed<br>Successfully: a calmer voyage now<br>Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once<br>Induces best to hope of like success.&quot;<br> He ended, and his words impression left<br>Of much amazement to the infernal crew,<br>Distracted and surprised with deep dismay<br>At these sad tidings. But no time was then<br>For long indulgence to their fears or grief: 110<br>Unanimous they all commit the care<br>And management of this man enterprise<br>To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt<br>At first against mankind so well had thrived<br>In Adam's overthrow, and led their march<br>From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,<br>Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,<br>Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.<br>So to the coast of Jordan he directs<br>His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles, 120<br>Where he might likeliest find this new-declared,<br>This man of men, attested Son of God,<br>Temptation and all guile on him to try--<br>So to subvert whom he suspected raised<br>To end his reign on Earth so long enjoyed:<br>But, contrary, unweeting he fulfilled<br>The purposed counsel, pre-ordained and fixed,<br>Of the Most High, who, in full frequence bright<br>Of Angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spake:--<br> &quot;Gabriel, this day, by proof, thou shalt behold, 130<br>Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth<br>With Man or men's affairs, how I begin<br>To verify that solemn message late,<br>On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure<br>In Galilee, that she should bear a son,<br>Great in renown, and called the Son of God.<br>Then told'st her, doubting how these things could be<br>To her a virgin, that on her should come<br>The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest<br>O'ershadow her. This Man, born and now upgrown, 140<br>To shew him worthy of his birth divine<br>And high prediction, henceforth I expose<br>To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay<br>His utmost subtlety, because he boasts<br>And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng<br>Of his Apostasy. He might have learnt<br>Less overweening, since he failed in Job,<br>Whose constant perseverance overcame<br>Whate'er his cruel malice could invent.<br>He now shall know I can produce a man, 150<br>Of female seed, far abler to resist<br>All his solicitations, and at length<br>All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell--<br>Winning by conquest what the first man lost<br>By fallacy surprised. But first I mean<br>To exercise him in the Wilderness;<br>There he shall first lay down the rudiments<br>Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth<br>To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.<br>By humiliation and strong sufferance 160<br>His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,<br>And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;<br>That all the Angels and aethereal Powers--<br>They now, and men hereafter--may discern<br>From what consummate virtue I have chose<br>This perfet man, by merit called my Son,<br>To earn salvation for the sons of men.&quot;<br> So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven<br>Admiring stood a space; then into hymns<br>Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved, 170<br>Circling the throne and singing, while the hand<br>Sung with the voice, and this the argument:--<br> &quot;Victory and triumph to the Son of God,<br>Now entering his great duel, not of arms,<br>But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles!<br>The Father knows the Son; therefore secure<br>Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,<br>Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,<br>Allure, or terrify, or undermine.<br>Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, 180<br>And, devilish machinations, come to nought!&quot;<br> So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.<br>Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days<br>Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,<br>Musing and much revolving in his breast<br>How best the mighty work he might begin<br>Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first<br>Publish his godlike office now mature,<br>One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading<br>And his deep thoughts, the better to converse 190<br>With solitude, till, far from track of men,<br>Thought following thought, and step by step led on,<br>He entered now the bordering Desert wild,<br>And, with dark shades and rocks environed round,<br>His holy meditations thus pursued:--<br> &quot;O what a multitude of thoughts at once<br>Awakened in me swarm, while I consider<br>What from within I feel myself, and hear<br>What from without comes often to my ears,<br>Ill sorting with my present state compared! 200<br>When I was yet a child, no childish play<br>To me was pleasing; all my mind was set<br>Serious to learn and know, and thence to do,<br>What might be public good; myself I thought<br>Born to that end, born to promote all truth,<br>All righteous things. Therefore, above my years,<br>The Law of God I read, and found it sweet;<br>Made it my whole delight, and in it grew<br>To such perfection that, ere yet my age<br>Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast 210<br>I went into the Temple, there to hear<br>The teachers of our Law, and to propose<br>What might improve my knowledge or their own,<br>And was admired by all. Yet this not all<br>To which my spirit aspired. Victorious deeds<br>Flamed in my heart, heroic acts--one while<br>To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke;<br>Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the earth,<br>Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,<br>Till truth were freed, and equity restored: 220<br>Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first<br>By winning words to conquer willing hearts,<br>And make persuasion do the work of fear;<br>At least to try, and teach the erring soul,<br>Not wilfully misdoing, but unware<br>Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.<br>These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving,<br>By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,<br>And said to me apart, 'High are thy thoughts,<br>O Son! but nourish them, and let them soar 230<br>To what highth sacred virtue and true worth<br>Can raise them, though above example high;<br>By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.<br>For know, thou art no son of mortal man;<br>Though men esteem thee low of parentage,<br>Thy Father is the Eternal King who rules<br>All Heaven and Earth, Angels and sons of men.<br>A messenger from God foretold thy birth<br>Conceived in me a virgin; he foretold<br>Thou shouldst be great, and sit on David's throne, 240<br>And of thy kingdom there should be no end.<br>At thy nativity a glorious quire<br>Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung<br>To shepherds, watching at their folds by night,<br>And told them the Messiah now was born,<br>Where they might see him; and to thee they came,<br>Directed to the manger where thou lay'st;<br>For in the inn was left no better room.<br>A Star, not seen before, in heaven appearing,<br>Guided the Wise Men thither from the East, 250<br>To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold;<br>By whose bright course led on they found the place,<br>Affirming it thy star, new-graven in heaven,<br>By which they knew thee King of Israel born.<br>Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned<br>By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spake,<br>Before the altar and the vested priest,<br>Like things of thee to all that present stood.'<br>This having heart, straight I again revolved<br>The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ 260<br>Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes<br>Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake<br>I am--this chiefly, that my way must lie<br>Through many a hard assay, even to the death,<br>Ere I the promised kingdom can attain,<br>Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins'<br>Full weight must be transferred upon my head.<br>Yet, neither thus disheartened or dismayed,<br>The time prefixed I waited; when behold<br>The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard, 270<br>Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come<br>Before Messiah, and his way prepare!<br>I, as all others, to his baptism came,<br>Which I believed was from above; but he<br>Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed<br>Me him (for it was shewn him so from Heaven)--<br>Me him whose harbinger he was; and first<br>Refused on me his baptism to confer,<br>As much his greater, and was hardly won.<br>But, as I rose out of the laving stream, 280<br>Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence<br>The Spirit descended on me like a Dove;<br>And last, the sum of all, my Father's voice,<br>Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his,<br>Me his beloved Son, in whom alone<br>He was well pleased: by which I knew the time<br>Now full, that I no more should live obscure,<br>But openly begin, as best becomes<br>The authority which I derived from Heaven.<br>And now by some strong motion I am led 290<br>Into this wilderness; to what intent<br>I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;<br>For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.&quot;<br> So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,<br>And, looking round, on every side beheld<br>A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.<br>The way he came, not having marked return,<br>Was difficult, by human steps untrod;<br>And he still on was led, but with such thoughts<br>Accompanied of things past and to come 300<br>Lodged in his breast as well might recommend<br>Such solitude before choicest society.<br> Full forty days he passed--whether on hill<br>Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night<br>Under the covert of some ancient oak<br>Or cedar to defend him from the dew,<br>Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;<br>Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,<br>Till those days ended; hungered then at last<br>Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild, 310<br>Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk<br>The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;<br>The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.<br>But now an aged man in rural weeds,<br>Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray eye,<br>Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve<br>Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,<br>To warm him wet returned from field at eve,<br>He saw approach; who first with curious eye<br>Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake:-- 320<br> &quot;Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place,<br>So far from path or road of men, who pass<br>In troop or caravan? for single none<br>Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here<br>His carcass, pined with hunger and with droughth.<br>I ask the rather, and the more admire,<br>For that to me thou seem'st the man whom late<br>Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford<br>Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son<br>Of God. I saw and heard, for we sometimes 330<br>Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth<br>To town or village nigh (nighest is far),<br>Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,<br>What happens new; fame also finds us out.&quot;<br> To whom the Son of God:--&quot;Who brought me hither<br>Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek.&quot;<br> &quot;By miracle he may,&quot; replied the swain;<br>&quot;What other way I see not; for we here<br>Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured<br>More than the camel, and to drink go far-- 340<br>Men to much misery and hardship born.<br>But, if thou be the Son of God, command<br>That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;<br>So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve<br>With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.&quot;<br> He ended, and the Son of God replied:--<br>&quot;Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it not written<br>(For I discern thee other than thou seem'st),<br>Man lives not by bread only, but each word<br>Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed 350<br>Our fathers here with manna? In the Mount<br>Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;<br>And forty days Eliah without food<br>Wandered this barren waste; the same I now.<br>Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust<br>Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?&quot;<br> Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend, now undisguised:--<br>&quot;'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate<br>Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,<br>Kept not my happy station, but was driven 360<br>With them from bliss to the bottomless Deep--<br>Yet to that hideous place not so confined<br>By rigour unconniving but that oft,<br>Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy<br>Large liberty to round this globe of Earth,<br>Or range in the Air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens<br>Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.<br>I came, among the Sons of God, when he<br>Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job,<br>To prove him, and illustrate his high worth; 370<br>And, when to all his Angels he proposed<br>To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,<br>That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,<br>I undertook that office, and the tongues<br>Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies<br>To his destruction, as I had in charge:<br>For what he bids I do. Though I have lost<br>Much lustre of my native brightness, lost<br>To be beloved of God, I have not lost<br>To love, at least contemplate and admire, 380<br>What I see excellent in good, or fair,<br>Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.<br>What can be then less in me than desire<br>To see thee and approach thee, whom I know<br>Declared the Son of God, to hear attent<br>Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?<br>Men generally think me much a foe<br>To all mankind. Why should I? they to me<br>Never did wrong or violence. By them<br>I lost not what I lost; rather by them 390<br>I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell<br>Copartner in these regions of the World,<br>If not disposer--lend them oft my aid,<br>Oft my advice by presages and signs,<br>And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,<br>Whereby they may direct their future life.<br>Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain<br>Companions of my misery and woe!<br>At first it may be; but, long since with woe<br>Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof 400<br>That fellowship in pain divides not smart,<br>Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load;<br>Small consolation, then, were Man adjoined.<br>This wounds me most (what can it less?) that Man,<br>Man fallen, shall be restored, I never more.&quot;<br> To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied:--<br>&quot;Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies<br>From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,<br>Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come<br>Into the Heaven of Heavens. Thou com'st, indeed, 410<br>As a poor miserable captive thrall<br>Comes to the place where he before had sat<br>Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,<br>Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,<br>A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,<br>To all the host of Heaven. The happy place<br>Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy--<br>Rather inflames thy torment, representing<br>Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable;<br>So never more in Hell than when in Heaven. 420<br>But thou art serviceable to Heaven's King!<br>Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear<br>Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?<br>What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem<br>Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him<br>With all inflictions? but his patience won.<br>The other service was thy chosen task,<br>To be a liar in four hundred mouths;<br>For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.<br>Yet thou pretend'st to truth! all oracles 430<br>By thee are given, and what confessed more true<br>Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,<br>By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.<br>But what have been thy answers? what but dark,<br>Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,<br>Which they who asked have seldom understood,<br>And, not well understood, as good not known?<br>Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,<br>Returned the wiser, or the more instruct<br>To fly or follow what concerned him most, 440<br>And run not sooner to his fatal snare?<br>For God hath justly given the nations up<br>To thy delusions; justly, since they fell<br>Idolatrous. But, when his purpose is<br>Among them to declare his providence,<br>To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,<br>But from him, or his Angels president<br>In every province, who, themselves disdaining<br>To approach thy temples, give thee in command<br>What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say 450<br>To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,<br>Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st;<br>Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.<br>But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;<br>No more shalt thou by oracling abuse<br>The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased,<br>And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice<br>Shalt be enquired at Delphos or elsewhere--<br>At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.<br>God hath now sent his living Oracle 460<br>Into the world to teach his final will,<br>And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell<br>In pious hearts, an inward oracle<br>To all truth requisite for men to know.&quot;<br> So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,<br>Though inly stung with anger and disdain,<br>Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:--<br> &quot;Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,<br>And urged me hard with doings which not will,<br>But misery, hath wrested from me. Where 470<br>Easily canst thou find one miserable,<br>And not inforced oft-times to part from truth,<br>If it may stand him more in stead to lie,<br>Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?<br>But thou art placed above me; thou art Lord;<br>From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure<br>Cheek or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.<br>Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,<br>Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,<br>And tunable as sylvan pipe or song; 480<br>What wonder, then, if I delight to hear<br>Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire<br>Virtue who follow not her lore. Permit me<br>To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),<br>And talk at least, though I despair to attain.<br>Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,<br>Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest<br>To tread his sacred courts, and minister<br>About his altar, handling holy things,<br>Praying or vowing, and voutsafed his voice 490<br>To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet<br>Inspired: disdain not such access to me.&quot;<br> To whom our Saviour, with unaltered brow:--<br>&quot;Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,<br>I bid not, or forbid. Do as thou find'st<br>Permission from above; thou canst not more.&quot;<br> He added not; and Satan, bowling low<br>His gray dissimulation, disappeared,<br>Into thin air diffused: for now began<br>Night with her sullen wing to double-shade 500<br>The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched;<br>And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>THE SECOND BOOK</div><div style="margin:10px 0">MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained<br>At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen<br>Him whom they heard so late expressly called<br>Jesus Messiah, Son of God, declared,<br>And on that high authority had believed,<br>And with him talked, and with him lodged--I mean<br>Andrew and Simon, famous after known,<br>With others, though in Holy Writ not named--<br>Now missing him, their joy so lately found,<br>So lately found and so abruptly gone, 10<br>Began to doubt, and doubted many days,<br>And, as the days increased, increased their doubt.<br>Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn,<br>And for a time caught up to God, as once<br>Moses was in the Mount and missing long,<br>And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels<br>Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come.<br>Therefore, as those young prophets then with care<br>Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these<br>Nigh to Bethabara--in Jericho 20<br>The city of palms, AEnon, and Salem old,<br>Machaerus, and each town or city walled<br>On this side the broad lake Genezaret,<br>Or in Peraea--but returned in vain.<br>Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,<br>Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play,<br>Plain fishermen (no greater men them call),<br>Close in a cottage low together got,<br>Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed:--<br> &quot;Alas, from what high hope to what relapse 30<br>Unlooked for are we fallen! Our eyes beheld<br>Messiah certainly now come, so long<br>Expected of our fathers; we have heard<br>His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth.<br>'Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand;<br>The kingdom shall to Israel be restored:'<br>Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned<br>Into perplexity and new amaze.<br>For whither is he gone? what accident<br>Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire 40<br>After appearance, and again prolong<br>Our expectation? God of Israel,<br>Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come.<br>Behold the kings of the earth, how they oppress<br>Thy Chosen, to what highth their power unjust<br>They have exalted, and behind them cast<br>All fear of Thee; arise, and vindicate<br>Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke!<br>But let us wait; thus far He hath performed--<br>Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him 50<br>By his great Prophet pointed at and shown<br>In public, and with him we have conversed.<br>Let us be glad of this, and all our fears<br>Lay on his providence; He will not fail,<br>Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall--<br>Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence:<br>Soon we shall see our hope, our joy, return.&quot;<br> Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume<br>To find whom at the first they found unsought.<br>But to his mother Mary, when she saw 60<br>Others returned from baptism, not her Son,<br>Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none,<br>Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure,<br>Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised<br>Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:--<br> &quot;Oh, what avails me now that honour high,<br>To have conceived of God, or that salute,<br>'Hail, highly favoured, among women blest!'<br>While I to sorrows am no less advanced,<br>And fears as eminent above the lot 70<br>Of other women, by the birth I bore:<br>In such a season born, when scarce a shed<br>Could be obtained to shelter him or me<br>From the bleak air? A stable was our warmth,<br>A manger his; yet soon enforced to fly<br>Thence into Egypt, till the murderous king<br>Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing, filled<br>With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.<br>From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth<br>Hath been our dwelling many years; his life 80<br>Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,<br>Little suspicious to any king. But now,<br>Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,<br>By John the Baptist, and in public shewn,<br>Son owned from Heaven by his Father's voice,<br>I looked for some great change. To honour? no;<br>But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,<br>That to the fall and rising he should be<br>Of many in Israel, and to a sign<br>Spoken against--that through my very soul 90<br>A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot,<br>My exaltation to afflictions high!<br>Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!<br>I will not argue that, nor will repine.<br>But where delays he now? Some great intent<br>Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,<br>I lost him, but so found as well I saw<br>He could not lose himself, but went about<br>His Father's business. What he meant I mused--<br>Since understand; much more his absence now 100<br>Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.<br>But I to wait with patience am inured;<br>My heart hath been a storehouse long of things<br>And sayings laid up, pretending strange events.&quot;<br> Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind<br>Recalling what remarkably had passed<br>Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts<br>Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:<br>The while her Son, tracing the desert wild,<br>Sole, but with holiest meditations fed, 110<br>Into himself descended, and at once<br>All his great work to come before him set--<br>How to begin, how to accomplish best<br>His end of being on Earth, and mission high.<br>For Satan, with sly preface to return,<br>Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone<br>Up to the middle region of thick air,<br>Where all his Potentates in council sate.<br>There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,<br>Solicitous and blank, he thus began:-- 120<br> &quot;Princes, Heaven's ancient Sons, AEthereal Thrones--<br>Daemonian Spirits now, from the element<br>Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called<br>Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath<br>(So may we hold our place and these mild seats<br>Without new trouble!)--such an enemy<br>Is risen to invade us, who no less<br>Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell.<br>I, as I undertook, and with the vote<br>Consenting in full frequence was impowered, 130<br>Have found him, viewed him, tasted him; but find<br>Far other labour to be undergone<br>Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,<br>Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell,<br>However to this Man inferior far--<br>If he be Man by mother's side, at least<br>With more than human gifts from Heaven adorned,<br>Perfections absolute, graces divine,<br>And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.<br>Therefore I am returned, lest confidence 140<br>Of my success with Eve in Paradise<br>Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure<br>Of like succeeding here. I summon all<br>Rather to be in readiness with hand<br>Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst<br>Thought none my equal, now be overmatched.&quot;<br> So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all<br>With clamour was assured their utmost aid<br>At his command; when from amidst them rose<br>Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell, 150<br>The sensualest, and, after Asmodai,<br>The fleshliest Incubus, and thus advised:--<br> &quot;Set women in his eye and in his walk,<br>Among daughters of men the fairest found.<br>Many are in each region passing fair<br>As the noon sky, more like to goddesses<br>Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,<br>Expert in amorous arts, enchanting tongues<br>Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild<br>And sweet allayed, yet terrible to approach, 160<br>Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw<br>Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets.<br>Such object hath the power to soften and tame<br>Severest temper, smooth the rugged'st brow,<br>Enerve, and with voluptuous hope dissolve,<br>Draw out with credulous desire, and lead<br>At will the manliest, resolutest breast,<br>As the magnetic hardest iron draws.<br>Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart<br>Of wisest Solomon, and made him build, 170<br>And made him bow, to the gods of his wives.&quot;<br> To whom quick answer Satan thus returned:--<br>&quot;Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh'st<br>All others by thyself. Because of old<br>Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring<br>Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,<br>None are, thou think'st, but taken with such toys.<br>Before the Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew,<br>False titled Sons of God, roaming the Earth,<br>Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, 180<br>And coupled with them, and begot a race.<br>Have we not seen, or by relation heard,<br>In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,<br>In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,<br>In valley or green meadow, to waylay<br>Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,<br>Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,<br>Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more<br>Too long--then lay'st thy scapes on names adored,<br>Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan, 190<br>Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan? But these haunts<br>Delight not all. Among the sons of men<br>How many have with a smile made small account<br>Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned<br>All her assaults, on worthier things intent!<br>Remember that Pellean conqueror,<br>A youth, how all the beauties of the East<br>He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;<br>How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,<br>In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid. 200<br>For Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full<br>Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond<br>Higher design than to enjoy his state;<br>Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.<br>But he whom we attempt is wiser far<br>Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,<br>Made and set wholly on the accomplishment<br>Of greatest things. What woman will you find,<br>Though of this age the wonder and the fame,<br>On whom his leisure will voutsafe an eye 210<br>Of fond desire? Or should she, confident,<br>As sitting queen adored on Beauty's throne,<br>Descend with all her winning charms begirt<br>To enamour, as the zone of Venus once<br>Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell),<br>How would one look from his majestic brow,<br>Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill,<br>Discountenance her despised, and put to rout<br>All her array, her female pride deject,<br>Or turn to reverent awe! For Beauty stands 220<br>In the admiration only of weak minds<br>Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes<br>Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,<br>At every sudden slighting quite abashed.<br>Therefore with manlier objects we must try<br>His constancy--with such as have more shew<br>Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise<br>(Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked);<br>Or that which only seems to satisfy<br>Lawful desires of nature, not beyond. 230<br>And now I know he hungers, where no food<br>Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness:<br>The rest commit to me; I shall let pass<br>No advantage, and his strength as oft assay.&quot;<br> He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;<br>Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band<br>Of Spirits likest to himself in guile,<br>To be at hand and at his beck appear,<br>If cause were to unfold some active scene<br>Of various persons, each to know his part; 240<br>Then to the desert takes with these his flight,<br>Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,<br>After forty days' fasting, had remained,<br>Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:--<br> &quot;Where will this end? Four times ten days I have passed<br>Wandering this woody maze, and human food<br>Nor tasted, nor had appetite. That fast<br>To virtue I impute not, or count part<br>Of what I suffer here. If nature need not,<br>Or God support nature without repast, 250<br>Though needing, what praise is it to endure?<br>But now I feel I hunger; which declares<br>Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God<br>Can satisfy that need some other way,<br>Though hunger still remain. So it remain<br>Without this body's wasting, I content me,<br>And from the sting of famine fear no harm;<br>Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed<br>Me hungering more to do my Father's will.&quot;<br> It was the hour of night, when thus the Son 260<br>Communed in silent walk, then laid him down<br>Under the hospitable covert nigh<br>Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept,<br>And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,<br>Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet.<br>Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood,<br>And saw the ravens with their horny beaks<br>Food to Elijah bringing even and morn--<br>Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought;<br>He saw the Prophet also, how he fled 270<br>Into the desert, and how there he slept<br>Under a juniper--then how, awaked,<br>He found his supper on the coals prepared,<br>And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,<br>And eat the second time after repose,<br>The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:<br>Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,<br>Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.<br>Thus wore out night; and now the harald Lark<br>Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry 280<br>The Morn's approach, and greet her with his song.<br>As lightly from his grassy couch up rose<br>Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;<br>Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.<br>Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,<br>From whose high top to ken the prospect round,<br>If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;<br>But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw--<br>Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,<br>With chaunt of tuneful birds resounding loud. 290<br>Thither he bent his way, determined there<br>To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade<br>High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys brown,<br>That opened in the midst a woody scene;<br>Nature's own work it seemed (Nature taught Art),<br>And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt<br>Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He viewed it round;<br>When suddenly a man before him stood,<br>Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,<br>As one in city or court or palace bred, 300<br>And with fair speech these words to him addressed:--<br> &quot;With granted leave officious I return,<br>But much more wonder that the Son of God<br>In this wild solitude so long should bide,<br>Of all things destitute, and, well I know,<br>Not without hunger. Others of some note,<br>As story tells, have trod this wilderness:<br>The fugitive Bond-woman, with her son,<br>Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief<br>By a providing Angel; all the race 310<br>Of Israel here had famished, had not God<br>Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,<br>Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed<br>Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.<br>Of thee those forty days none hath regard,<br>Forty and more deserted here indeed.&quot;<br> To whom thus Jesus:--&quot;What conclud'st thou hence?<br>They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none.&quot;<br> &quot;How hast thou hunger then?&quot; Satan replied.<br>&quot;Tell me, if food were now before thee set, 320<br>Wouldst thou not eat?&quot; &quot;Thereafter as I like<br>the giver,&quot; answered Jesus. &quot;Why should that<br>Cause thy refusal?&quot; said the subtle Fiend.<br>&quot;Hast thou not right to all created things?<br>Owe not all creatures, by just right, to thee<br>Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,<br>But tender all their power? Nor mention I<br>Meats by the law unclean, or offered first<br>To idols--those young Daniel could refuse;<br>Nor proffered by an enemy--though who 330<br>Would scruple that, with want oppressed? Behold,<br>Nature ashamed, or, better to express,<br>Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed<br>From all the elements her choicest store,<br>To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord<br>With honour. Only deign to sit and eat.&quot;<br> He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,<br>Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,<br>In ample space under the broadest shade,<br>A table richly spread in regal mode, 340<br>With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort<br>And savour--beasts of chase, or fowl of game,<br>In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,<br>Grisamber-steamed; all fish, from sea or shore,<br>Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,<br>And exquisitest name, for which was drained<br>Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.<br>Alas! how simple, to these cates compared,<br>Was that crude Apple that diverted Eve!<br>And at a stately sideboard, by the wine, 350<br>That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood<br>Tall stripling youths rich-clad, of fairer hue<br>Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more,<br>Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,<br>Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades<br>With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,<br>And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed<br>Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since<br>Of faery damsels met in forest wide<br>By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, 360<br>Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.<br>And all the while harmonious airs were heard<br>Of chiming strings or charming pipes; and winds<br>Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned<br>From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.<br>Such was the splendour; and the Tempter now<br>His invitation earnestly renewed:--<br> &quot;What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?<br>These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict<br>Defends the touching of these viands pure; 370<br>Their taste no knowledge works, at least of evil,<br>But life preserves, destroys life's enemy,<br>Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.<br>All these are Spirits of air, and woods, and springs,<br>Thy gentle ministers, who come to pay<br>Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord.<br>What doubt'st thou, Son of God? Sit down and eat.&quot;<br> To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:--<br>&quot;Said'st thou not that to all things I had right?<br>And who withholds my power that right to use? 380<br>Shall I receive by gift what of my own,<br>When and where likes me best, I can command?<br>I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,<br>Command a table in this wilderness,<br>And call swift flights of Angels ministrant,<br>Arrayed in glory, on my cup to attend:<br>Why shouldst thou, then, obtrude this diligence<br>In vain, where no acceptance it can find?<br>And with my hunger what hast thou to do?<br>Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, 390<br>And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles.&quot;<br> To whom thus answered Satan, male-content:--<br>&quot;That I have also power to give thou seest;<br>If of that power I bring thee voluntary<br>What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,<br>And rather opportunely in this place<br>Chose to impart to thy apparent need,<br>Why shouldst thou not accept it? But I see<br>What I can do or offer is suspect.<br>Of these things others quickly will dispose, 400<br>Whose pains have earned the far-fet spoil.&quot; With that<br>Both table and provision vanished quite,<br>With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard;<br>Only the importune Tempter still remained,<br>And with these words his temptation pursued:--<br> &quot;By hunger, that each other creature tames,<br>Thou art not to be harmed, therefore not moved;<br>Thy temperance, invincible besides,<br>For no allurement yields to appetite;<br>And all thy heart is set on high designs, 410<br>High actions. But wherewith to be achieved?<br>Great acts require great means of enterprise;<br>Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,<br>A carpenter thy father known, thyself<br>Bred up in poverty and straits at home,<br>Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.<br>Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire<br>To greatness? whence authority deriv'st?<br>What followers, what retinue canst thou gain,<br>Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude, 420<br>Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost?<br>Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and realms.<br>What raised Antipater the Edomite,<br>And his son Herod placed on Juda's throne,<br>Thy throne, but gold, that got him puissant friends?<br>Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive,<br>Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap--<br>Not difficult, if thou hearken to me.<br>Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand;<br>They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain, 430<br>While virtue, valour, wisdom, sit in want.&quot;<br> To whom thus Jesus patiently replied:--<br>&quot;Yet wealth without these three is impotent<br>To gain dominion, or to keep it gained--<br>Witness those ancient empires of the earth,<br>In highth of all their flowing wealth dissolved;<br>But men endued with these have oft attained,<br>In lowest poverty, to highest deeds--<br>Gideon, and Jephtha, and the shepherd lad<br>Whose offspring on the throne of Juda sate 440<br>So many ages, and shall yet regain<br>That seat, and reign in Israel without end.<br>Among the Heathen (for throughout the world<br>To me is not unknown what hath been done<br>Worthy of memorial) canst thou not remember<br>Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?<br>For I esteem those names of men so poor,<br>Who could do mighty things, and could contemn<br>Riches, though offered from the hand of kings.<br>And what in me seems wanting but that I 450<br>May also in this poverty as soon<br>Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more?<br>Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools,<br>The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare; more apt<br>To slacken virtue and abate her edge<br>Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.<br>What if with like aversion I reject<br>Riches and realms! Yet not for that a crown,<br>Golden in shew, is but a wreath of thorns,<br>Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights, 460<br>To him who wears the regal diadem,<br>When on his shoulders each man's burden lies;<br>For therein stands the office of a king,<br>His honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise,<br>That for the public all this weight he bears.<br>Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules<br>Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king--<br>Which every wise and virtuous man attains;<br>And who attains not, ill aspires to rule<br>Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes, 470<br>Subject himself to anarchy within,<br>Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.<br>But to guide nations in the way of truth<br>By saving doctrine, and from error lead<br>To know, and, knowing, worship God aright,<br>Is yet more kingly. This attracts the soul,<br>Governs the inner man, the nobler part;<br>That other o'er the body only reigns,<br>And oft by force--which to a generous mind<br>So reigning can be no sincere delight. 480<br>Besides, to give a kingdom hath been thought<br>Greater and nobler done, and to lay down<br>Far more magnanimous, than to assume.<br>Riches are needless, then, both for themselves,<br>And for thy reason why they should be sought--<br>To gain a sceptre, oftest better missed.&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>THE THIRD BOOK</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SO spake the Son of God; and Satan stood<br>A while as mute, confounded what to say,<br>What to reply, confuted and convinced<br>Of his weak arguing and fallacious drift;<br>At length, collecting all his serpent wiles,<br>With soothing words renewed, him thus accosts:--<br> &quot;I see thou know'st what is of use to know,<br>What best to say canst say, to do canst do;<br>Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words<br>To thy large heart give utterance due; thy heart 10<br>Contains of good, wise, just, the perfet shape.<br>Should kings and nations from thy mouth consult,<br>Thy counsel would be as the oracle<br>Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems<br>On Aaron's breast, or tongue of Seers old<br>Infallible; or, wert thou sought to deeds<br>That might require the array of war, thy skill<br>Of conduct would be such that all the world<br>Could not sustain thy prowess, or subsist<br>In battle, though against thy few in arms. 20<br>These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hide?<br>Affecting private life, or more obscure<br>In savage wilderness, wherefore deprive<br>All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself<br>The fame and glory--glory, the reward<br>That sole excites to high attempts the flame<br>Of most erected spirits, most tempered pure<br>AEthereal, who all pleasures else despise,<br>All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,<br>And dignities and powers, all but the highest? 30<br>Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe. The son<br>Of Macedonian Philip had ere these<br>Won Asia, and the throne of Cyrus held<br>At his dispose; young Scipio had brought down<br>The Carthaginian pride; young Pompey quelled<br>The Pontic king, and in triumph had rode.<br>Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature,<br>Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.<br>Great Julius, whom now all the world admires,<br>The more he grew in years, the more inflamed 40<br>With glory, wept that he had lived so long<br>Ingloroious. But thou yet art not too late.&quot;<br> To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied:--<br>&quot;Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth<br>For empire's sake, nor empire to affect<br>For glory's sake, by all thy argument.<br>For what is glory but the blaze of fame,<br>The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?<br>And what the people but a herd confused,<br>A miscellaneous rabble, who extol 50<br>Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise?<br>They praise and they admire they know not what,<br>And know not whom, but as one leads the other;<br>And what delight to be by such extolled,<br>To live upon their tongues, and be their talk?<br>Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise--<br>His lot who dares be singularly good.<br>The intelligent among them and the wise<br>Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.<br>This is true glory and renown--when God, 60<br>Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks<br>The just man, and divulges him through Heaven<br>To all his Angels, who with true applause<br>Recount his praises. Thus he did to Job,<br>When, to extend his fame through Heaven and Earth,<br>As thou to thy reproach may'st well remember,<br>He asked thee, 'Hast thou seen my servant Job?'<br>Famous he was in Heaven; on Earth less known,<br>Where glory is false glory, attributed<br>To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame. 70<br>They err who count it glorious to subdue<br>By conquest far and wide, to overrun<br>Large countries, and in field great battles win,<br>Great cities by assault. What do these worthies<br>But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave<br>Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,<br>Made captive, yet deserving freedom more<br>Than those their conquerors, who leave behind<br>Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove,<br>And all the flourishing works of peace destroy; 80<br>Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,<br>Great benefactors of mankind, Deliverers,<br>Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice?<br>One is the son of Jove, of Mars the other;<br>Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,<br>Rowling in brutish vices, and deformed,<br>Violent or shameful death their due reward.<br>But, if there be in glory aught of good;<br>It may be means far different be attained,<br>Without ambition, war, or violence-- 90<br>By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,<br>By patience, temperance. I mention still<br>Him whom thy wrongs, with saintly patience borne,<br>Made famous in a land and times obscure;<br>Who names not now with honour patient Job?<br>Poor Socrates, (who next more memorable?)<br>By what he taught and suffered for so doing,<br>For truth's sake suffering death unjust, lives now<br>Equal in fame to proudest conquerors.<br>Yet, if for fame and glory aught be done, 100<br>Aught suffered--if young African for fame<br>His wasted country freed from Punic rage--<br>The deed becomes unpraised, the man at least,<br>And loses, though but verbal, his reward.<br>Shall I seek glory, then, as vain men seek,<br>Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, but His<br>Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am.&quot;<br> To whom the Tempter, murmuring, thus replied:--<br>&quot;Think not so slight of glory, therein least<br>Resembling thy great Father. He seeks glory, 110<br>And for his glory all things made, all things<br>Orders and governs; nor content in Heaven,<br>By all his Angels glorified, requires<br>Glory from men, from all men, good or bad,<br>Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption.<br>Above all sacrifice, or hallowed gift,<br>Glory he requires, and glory he receives,<br>Promiscuous from all nations, Jew, or Greek,<br>Or Barbarous, nor exception hath declared;<br>From us, his foes pronounced, glory he exacts.&quot; 120<br> To whom our Saviour fervently replied:<br>&quot;And reason; since his Word all things produced,<br>Though chiefly not for glory as prime end,<br>But to shew forth his goodness, and impart<br>His good communicable to every soul<br>Freely; of whom what could He less expect<br>Than glory and benediction--that is, thanks--<br>The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense<br>From them who could return him nothing else,<br>And, not returning that, would likeliest render 130<br>Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy?<br>Hard recompense, unsuitable return<br>For so much good, so much beneficience!<br>But why should man seek glory, who of his own<br>Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs<br>But condemnation, ignominy, and shame--<br>Who, for so many benefits received,<br>Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false,<br>And so of all true good himself despoiled;<br>Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take 140<br>That which to God alone of right belongs?<br>Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,<br>That who advances his glory, not their own,<br>Them he himself to glory will advance.&quot;<br> So spake the Son of God; and here again<br>Satan had not to answer, but stood struck<br>With guilt of his own sin--for he himself,<br>Insatiable of glory, had lost all;<br>Yet of another plea bethought him soon:--<br> &quot;Of glory, as thou wilt,&quot; said he, &quot;so deem; 150<br>Worth or not worth the seeking, let it pass.<br>But to a Kingdom thou art born--ordained<br>To sit upon thy father David's throne,<br>By mother's side thy father, though thy right<br>Be now in powerful hands, that will not part<br>Easily from possession won with arms.<br>Judaea now and all the Promised Land,<br>Reduced a province under Roman yoke,<br>Obeys Tiberius, nor is always ruled<br>With temperate sway: oft have they violated 160<br>The Temple, oft the Law, with foul affronts,<br>Abominations rather, as did once<br>Antiochus. And think'st thou to regain<br>Thy right by sitting still, or thus retiring?<br>So did not Machabeus. He indeed<br>Retired unto the Desert, but with arms;<br>And o'er a mighty king so oft prevailed<br>That by strong hand his family obtained,<br>Though priests, the crown, and David's throne usurped,<br>With Modin and her suburbs once content. 170<br>If kingdom move thee not, let move thee zeal<br>And duty--zeal and duty are not slow,<br>But on Occasion's forelock watchful wait:<br>They themselves rather are occasion best--<br>Zeal of thy Father's house, duty to free<br>Thy country from her heathen servitude.<br>So shalt thou best fulfil, best verify,<br>The Prophets old, who sung thy endless reign--<br>The happier reign the sooner it begins.<br>Rein then; what canst thou better do the while?&quot; 180<br> To whom our Saviour answer thus returned:--<br>&quot;All things are best fulfilled in their due time;<br>And time there is for all things, Truth hath said.<br>If of my reign Prophetic Writ hath told<br>That it shall never end, so, when begin<br>The Father in his purpose hath decreed--<br>He in whose hand all times and seasons rowl.<br>What if he hath decreed that I shall first<br>Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,<br>By tribulations, injuries, insults, 190<br>Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,<br>Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting<br>Without distrust or doubt, that He may know<br>What I can suffer, how obey? Who best<br>Can suffer best can do, best reign who first<br>Well hath obeyed--just trial ere I merit<br>My exaltation without change or end.<br>But what concerns it thee when I begin<br>My everlasting Kingdom? Why art thou<br>Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition? 200<br>Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall,<br>And my promotion will be thy destruction?&quot;<br> To whom the Tempter, inly racked, replied:--<br>&quot;Let that come when it comes. All hope is lost<br>Of my reception into grace; what worse?<br>For where no hope is left is left no fear.<br>If there be worse, the expectation more<br>Of worse torments me than the feeling can.<br>I would be at the worst; worst is my port,<br>My harbour, and my ultimate repose, 210<br>The end I would attain, my final good.<br>My error was my error, and my crime<br>My crime; whatever, for itself condemned,<br>And will alike be punished, whether thou<br>Reign or reign not--though to that gentle brow<br>Willingly I could fly, and hope thy reign,<br>From that placid aspect and meek regard,<br>Rather than aggravate my evil state,<br>Would stand between me and thy Father's ire<br>(Whose ire I dread more than the fire of Hell) 220<br>A shelter and a kind of shading cool<br>Interposition, as a summer's cloud.<br>If I, then, to the worst that can be haste,<br>Why move thy feet so slow to what is best?<br>Happiest, both to thyself and all the world,<br>That thou, who worthiest art, shouldst be their King!<br>Perhaps thou linger'st in deep thoughts detained<br>Of the enterprise so hazardous and high!<br>No wonder; for, though in thee be united<br>What of perfection can in Man be found, 230<br>Or human nature can receive, consider<br>Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent<br>At home, scarce viewed the Galilean towns,<br>And once a year Jerusalem, few days'<br>Short sojourn; and what thence couldst thou observe?<br>The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,<br>Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts--<br>Best school of best experience, quickest in sight<br>In all things that to greatest actions lead.<br>The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever 240<br>Timorous, and loth, with novice modesty<br>(As he who, seeking asses, found a kingdom)<br>Irresolute, unhardy, unadventrous.<br>But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit<br>Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes<br>The monarchies of the Earth, their pomp and state--<br>Sufficient introduction to inform<br>Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal arts,<br>And regal mysteries; that thou may'st know<br>How best their opposition to withstand.&quot; 250<br> With that (such power was given him then), he took<br>The Son of God up to a mountain high.<br>It was a mountain at whose verdant feet<br>A spacious plain outstretched in circuit wide<br>Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,<br>The one winding, the other straight, and left between<br>Fair champaign, with less rivers interveined,<br>Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea.<br>Fertil of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;<br>With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills; 260<br>Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem<br>The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large<br>The prospect was that here and there was room<br>For barren desert, fountainless and dry.<br>To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought<br>Our Saviour, and new train of words began:--<br> &quot;Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale,<br>Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,<br>Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold'st<br>Assyria, and her empire's ancient bounds, 270<br>Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on<br>As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,<br>And oft beyond; to south the Persian bay,<br>And, inaccessible, the Arabian drouth:<br>Here, Nineveh, of length within her wall<br>Several days' journey, built by Ninus old,<br>Of that first golden monarchy the seat,<br>And seat of Salmanassar, whose success<br>Israel in long captivity still mourns;<br>There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues, 280<br>As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice<br>Judah and all thy father David's house<br>Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,<br>Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,<br>His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;<br>Ecbatana her structure vast there shews,<br>And Hecatompylos her hunderd gates;<br>There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,<br>The drink of none but kings; of later fame,<br>Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands, 290<br>The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there<br>Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,<br>Turning with easy eye, thou may'st behold.<br>All these the Parthian (now some ages past<br>By great Arsaces led, who founded first<br>That empire) under his dominion holds,<br>From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.<br>And just in time thou com'st to have a view<br>Of his great power; for now the Parthian king<br>In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host 300<br>Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild<br>Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid<br>He marches now in haste. See, though from far,<br>His thousands, in what martial equipage<br>They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,<br>Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit--<br>All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;<br>See how in warlike muster they appear,<br>In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings.&quot;<br> He looked, and saw what numbers numberless 310<br>The city gates outpoured, light-armed troops<br>In coats of mail and military pride.<br>In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,<br>Prauncing their riders bore, the flowe</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Milton">John Milton</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=421431" data-title="Paradise Regained de John Milton" data-description="THE FIRST BOOK I, WHO erewhile the happy Garden sung By one man's disobedience lost, now sing Recovered Paradise to all mankind, By one man's firm obedience fully tried Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled In all his wiles, defeated and..."></div> </div> </div>

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