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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=421435" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Paradise Regained: The Third Book</strong></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> "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 <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. <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? <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 <br>With glory, wept that he had lived so long<br>Ingloroious. But thou yet art not too late."<br> To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied:—<br>"Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth<br>For empire's sake, nor empire to affect<br>For glory's sake, by all thy argument.<br>For what is glory but the blaze of fame,<br>The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?<br>And what the people but a herd confused,<br>A miscellaneous rabble, who extol <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, <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. <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; <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— <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, <br>Aught suffered—if young African for fame<br>His wasted country freed from Punic rage—<br>The deed becomes unpraised, the man at least,<br>And loses, though but verbal, his reward.<br>Shall I seek glory, then, as vain men seek,<br>Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, but His<br>Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am."<br> To whom the Tempter, murmuring, thus replied:—<br>"Think not so slight of glory, therein least<br>Resembling thy great Father. He seeks glory, <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." <br> To whom our Saviour fervently replied:<br>"And reason; since his Word all things produced,<br>Though chiefly not for glory as prime end,<br>But to shew forth his goodness, and impart<br>His good communicable to every soul<br>Freely; of whom what could He less expect<br>Than glory and benediction—that is, thanks—<br>The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense<br>From them who could return him nothing else,<br>And, not returning that, would likeliest render <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 <br>That which to God alone of right belongs?<br>Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,<br>That who advances his glory, not their own,<br>Them he himself to glory will advance."<br> So spake the Son of God; and here again<br>Satan had not to answer, but stood struck<br>With guilt of his own sin—for he himself,<br>Insatiable of glory, had lost all;<br>Yet of another plea bethought him soon:—<br> "Of glory, as thou wilt," said he, "so deem; <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 <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. <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?" <br> To whom our Saviour answer thus returned:—<br>"All things are best fulfilled in their due time;<br>And time there is for all things, Truth hath said.<br>If of my reign Prophetic Writ hath told<br>That it shall never end, so, when begin<br>The Father in his purpose hath decreed—<br>He in whose hand all times and seasons rowl.<br>What if he hath decreed that I shall first<br>Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,<br>By tribulations, injuries, insults, <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? <br>Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall,<br>And my promotion will be thy destruction?"<br> To whom the Tempter, inly racked, replied:—<br>"Let that come when it comes. All hope is lost<br>Of my reception into grace; what worse?<br>For where no hope is left is left no fear.<br>If there be worse, the expectation more<br>Of worse torments me than the feeling can.<br>I would be at the worst; worst is my port,<br>My harbour, and my ultimate repose, <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) <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, <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 <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." <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; <br>Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem<br>The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large<br>The prospect was that here and there was room<br>For barren desert, fountainless and dry.<br>To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought<br>Our Saviour, and new train of words began:—<br> "Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale,<br>Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,<br>Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold'st<br>Assyria, and her empire's ancient bounds, <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, <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, <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 <br>Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild<br>Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid<br>He marches now in haste. See, though from far,<br>His thousands, in what martial equipage<br>They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,<br>Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit—<br>All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;<br>See how in warlike muster they appear,<br>In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings."<br> He looked, and saw what numbers numberless <br>The city gates outpoured, light-armed troops<br>In coats of mail and military pride.<br>In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,<br>Prauncing their riders bore, the flower and choice<br>Of many provinces from bound to bound—<br>From Arachosia, from Candaor east,<br>And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs<br>Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;<br>From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains<br>Of Adiabene, Media, and the south <br>Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.<br>He saw them in their forms of battle ranged,<br>How quick they wheeled, and flying behind them shot<br>Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face<br>Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;<br>The field all iron cast a gleaming brown.<br>Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor, on each horn,<br>Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight,<br>Chariots, or elephants indorsed with towers<br>Of archers; nor of labouring pioners <br>A multitude, with spades and axes armed,<br>To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill,<br>Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay<br>With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke:<br>Mules after these, camels and dromedaries,<br>And waggons fraught with utensils of war.<br>Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,<br>When Agrican, with all his northern powers,<br>Besieged Albracea, as romances tell,<br>The city of Gallaphrone, from thence to win <br>The fairest of her sex, Angelica,<br>His daughter, sought by many prowest knights,<br>Both Paynim and the peers of Charlemane.<br>Such and so numerous was their chivalry;<br>At sight whereof the Fiend yet more presumed,<br>And to our Saviour thus his words renewed:—<br> "That thou may'st know I seek not to engage<br>Thy virtue, and not every way secure<br>On no slight grounds thy safety, hear and mark<br>To what end I have brought thee hither, and shew <br>All this fair sight. Thy kingdom, though foretold<br>By Prophet or by Angel, unless thou<br>Endeavour, as thy father David did,<br>Thou never shalt obtain: prediction still<br>In all things, and all men, supposes means;<br>Without means used, what it predicts revokes.<br>But say thou wert possessed of David's throne<br>By free consent of all, none opposite,<br>Samaritan or Jew; how couldst thou hope<br>Long to enjoy it quiet and secure <br>Between two such enclosing enemies,<br>Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these<br>Thou must make sure thy own: the Parthian first,<br>By my advice, as nearer, and of late<br>Found able by invasion to annoy<br>Thy country, and captive lead away her kings,<br>Antigonus and old Hyrcanus, bound,<br>Maugre the Roman. It shall be my task<br>To render thee the Parthian at dispose,<br>Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league. <br>By him thou shalt regain, without him not,<br>That which alone can truly reinstall thee<br>In David's royal seat, his true successor—<br>Deliverance of thy brethren, those Ten Tribes<br>Whose offspring in his territory yet serve<br>In Habor, and among the Medes dispersed:<br>The sons of Jacob, two of Joseph, lost<br>Thus long from Israel, serving, as of old<br>Their fathers in the land of Egypt served,<br>This offer sets before thee to deliver. <br>These if from servitude thou shalt restore<br>To their inheritance, then, nor till then,<br>Thou on the throne of David in full glory,<br>From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond,<br>Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear."<br> To whom our Saviour answered thus, unmoved:—<br>"Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm<br>And fragile arms, much instrument of war,<br>Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,<br>Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear <br>Vented much policy, and projects deep<br>Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,<br>Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.<br>Means I must use, thou say'st; prediction else<br>Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne!<br>My time, I told thee (and that time for thee<br>Were better farthest off), is not yet come.<br>When that comes, think not thou to find me slack<br>On my part aught endeavouring, or to need<br>Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome <br>Luggage of war there shewn me—argument<br>Of human weakness rather than of strength.<br>My brethren, as thou call'st them, those Ten Tribes,<br>I must deliver, if I mean to reign<br>David's true heir, and his full sceptre sway<br>To just extent over all Israel's sons!<br>But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then<br>For Israel, or for David, or his throne,<br>When thou stood'st up his tempter to the pride<br>Of numbering Israel—which cost the lives <br>of threescore and ten thousand Israelites<br>By three days' pestilence? Such was thy zeal<br>To Israel then, the same that now to me.<br>As for those captive tribes, themselves were they<br>Who wrought their own captivity, fell off<br>From God to worship calves, the deities<br>Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,<br>And all the idolatries of heathen round,<br>Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes;<br>Nor in the land of their captivity <br>Humbled themselves, or penitent besought<br>The God of their forefathers, but so died<br>Impenitent, and left a race behind<br>Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce<br>From Gentiles, but by circumcision vain,<br>And God with idols in their worship joined.<br>Should I of these the liberty regard,<br>Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony,<br>Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreformed,<br>Headlong would follow, and to their gods perhaps <br>Of Bethel and of Dan? No; let them serve<br>Their enemies who serve idols with God.<br>Yet He at length, time to himself best known,<br>Remembering Abraham, by some wondrous call<br>May bring them back, repentant and sincere,<br>And at their passing cleave the Assyrian flood,<br>While to their native land with joy they haste,<br>As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,<br>When to the Promised Land their fathers passed.<br>To his due time and providence I leave them." <br> So spake Israel's true King, and to the Fiend<br>Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.<br>So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.</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=421435" data-title="Paradise Regained: The Third Book de John Milton" data-description="So spake the Son of God; and Satan stood A while as mute, confounded what to say, What to reply, confuted and convinced Of his weak arguing and fallacious drift; At length, collecting all his serpent wiles, With soothing words renewed, him thus ac..."></div> </div> </div>
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