2
Perplexed and troubled at his bad success
3
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
4
Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope
5
So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
6
That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve,
7
So little here, nay lost. But Eve was Eve;
8
This far his over-match, who, self-deceived
9
And rash, beforehand had no better weighed
10
The strength he was to cope with, or his own.
11
But—as a man who had been matchless held
12
In cunning, over-reached where least he thought,
13
To salve his credit, and for very spite,
14
Still will be tempting him who foils him still,
15
And never cease, though to his shame the more;
16
Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,
17
About the wine-press where sweet must is poured,
18
Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;
19
Or surging waves against a solid rock,
20
Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,
21
(Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end—
22
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
23
Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
24
Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success,
25
And his vain importunity pursues.
26
He brought our Saviour to the western side
27
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold
28
Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,
29
Washed by the southern sea, and on the north
30
To equal length backed with a ridge of hills
31
That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men
32
From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst
33
Divided by a river, off whose banks
34
On each side an Imperial City stood,
35
With towers and temples proudly elevate
36
On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,
37
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
38
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
39
Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes
40
Above the highth of mountains interposed—
41
By what strange parallax, or optic skill
42
Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass
43
Of telescope, were curious to enquire.
44
And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:—
45
"The city which thou seest no other deem
46
Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth
47
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
48
Of nations. There the Capitol thou seest,
49
Above the rest lifting his stately head
50
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel
51
Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine,
52
The imperial palace, compass huge, and high
53
The structure, skill of noblest architects,
54
With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,
55
Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires.
56
Many a fair edifice besides, more like
57
Houses of gods—so well I have disposed
58
My aerie microscope—thou may'st behold,
59
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs
60
Carved work, the hand of famed artificers
61
In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.
62
Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see
63
What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:
64
Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces
65
Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;
66
Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;
67
Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;
68
Or embassies from regions far remote,
69
In various habits, on the Appian road,
70
Or on the AEmilian—some from farthest south,
71
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,
72
Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,
73
The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;
74
From the Asian kings (and Parthian among these),
75
From India and the Golden Chersoness,
76
And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,
77
Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreathed;
78
From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;
79
Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians north
80
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.
81
All nations now to Rome obedience pay—
82
To Rome's great Emperor, whose wide domain,
83
In ample territory, wealth and power,
84
Civility of manners, arts and arms,
85
And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer
86
Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
87
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
88
Shared among petty kings too far removed;
89
These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all
90
The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
91
This Emperor hath no son, and now is old,
92
Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
93
To Capreae, an island small but strong
94
On the Campanian shore, with purpose there
95
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;
96
Committing to a wicked favourite
97
All public cares, and yet of him suspicious;
98
Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
99
Endued with regal virtues as thou art,
100
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
101
Might'st thou expel this monster from his throne,
102
Now made a sty, and, in his place ascending,
103
A victor-people free from servile yoke!
104
And with my help thou may'st; to me the power
105
Is given, and by that right I give it thee.
106
Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world;
107
Aim at the highest; without the highest attained,
108
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,
109
On David's throne, be prophesied what will."
110
To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:—
111
"Nor doth this grandeur and majestic shew
112
Of luxury, though called magnificence,
113
More than of arms before, allure mine eye,
114
Much less my mind; though thou should'st add to tell
115
Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts
116
On citron tables or Atlantic stone
117
(For I have also heard, perhaps have read),
118
Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
119
Chios and Crete, and how they quaff in gold,
120
Crystal, and myrrhine cups, imbossed with gems
121
And studs of pearl—to me should'st tell, who thirst
122
And hunger still. Then embassies thou shew'st
123
From nations far and nigh! What honour that,
124
But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
125
So many hollow compliments and lies,
126
Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed'st to talk
127
Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,
128
How gloriously. I shall, thou say'st, expel
129
A brutish monster: what if I withal
130
Expel a Devil who first made him such?
131
Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out;
132
For him I was not sent, nor yet to free
133
That people, victor once, now vile and base,
134
Deservedly made vassal—who, once just,
135
Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,
136
But govern ill the nations under yoke,
137
Peeling their provinces, exhausted all
138
By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown
139
Of triumph, that insulting vanity;
140
Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured
141
Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed;
142
Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still,
143
And from the daily Scene effeminate.
144
What wise and valiant man would seek to free
145
These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,
146
Or could of inward slaves make outward free?
147
Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit
148
On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
149
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,
150
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
151
All monarchies besides throughout the world;
152
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end.
153
Means there shall be to this; but what the means
154
Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell."
155
To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied:—
156
"I see all offers made by me how slight
157
Thou valuest, because offered, and reject'st.
158
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,
159
Or nothing more than still to contradict.
160
On the other side know also thou that I
161
On what I offer set as high esteem,
162
Nor what I part with mean to give for naught,
163
All these, which in a moment thou behold'st,
164
The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give
165
(For, given to me, I give to whom I please),
166
No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else—
167
On this condition, if thou wilt fall down,
168
And worship me as thy superior Lord
169
(Easily done), and hold them all of me;
170
For what can less so great a gift deserve?"
171
Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain:—
172
"I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;
173
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter
174
The abominable terms, impious condition.
175
But I endure the time, till which expired
176
Thou hast permission on me. It is written,
177
The first of all commandments, 'Thou shalt worship
178
The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.'
179
And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound
180
To worship thee, accursed? now more accursed
181
For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve,
182
And more blasphemous; which expect to rue.
183
The kingdoms of the world to thee were given!
184
Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;
185
Other donation none thou canst produce.
186
If given, by whom but by the King of kings,
187
God over all supreme? If given to thee,
188
By thee how fairly is the Giver now
189
Repaid! But gratitude in thee is lost
190
Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame
191
As offer them to me, the Son of God—
192
To me my own, on such abhorred pact,
193
That I fall down and worship thee as God?
194
Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st
195
That Evil One, Satan for ever damned."
196
To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied:—
197
"Be not so sore offended, Son of God—
198
Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men—
199
If I, to try whether in higher sort
200
Than these thou bear'st that title, have proposed
201
What both from Men and Angels I receive,
202
Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth
203
Nations besides from all the quartered winds—
204
God of this World invoked, and World beneath.
205
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
206
To me most fatal, me it most concerns.
207
The trial hath indamaged thee no way,
208
Rather more honour left and more esteem;
209
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.
210
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
211
The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more
212
Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.
213
And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined
214
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
215
To contemplation and profound dispute;
216
As by that early action may be judged,
217
When, slipping from thy mother's eye, thou went'st
218
Alone into the Temple, there wast found
219
Among the gravest Rabbies, disputant
220
On points and questions fitting Moses' chair,
221
Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews the man,
222
As morning shews the day. Be famous, then,
223
By wisdom; as thy empire must extend,
224
So let extend thy mind o'er all the world
225
In knowledge; all things in it comprehend.
226
All knowledge is not couched in Moses' law,
227
The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
228
The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach
229
To admiration, led by Nature's light;
230
And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,
231
Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean'st.
232
Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,
233
Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?
234
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
235
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
236
Error by his own arms is best evinced.
237
Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount,
238
Westward, much nearer by south-west; behold
239
Where on the AEgean shore a city stands,
240
Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—
241
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
242
And Eloquence, native to famous wits
243
Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,
244
City or suburban, studious walks and shades.
245
See there the olive-grove of Academe,
246
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
247
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;
248
There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound
249
Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites
250
To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls
251
His whispering stream. Within the walls then view
252
The schools of ancient sages—his who bred
253
Great Alexander to subdue the world,
254
Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next.
255
There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
256
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
257
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,
258
AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
259
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,
260
Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called,
261
Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own.
262
Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught
263
In chorus or iambic, teachers best
264
Of moral prudence, with delight received
265
In brief sententious precepts, while they treat
266
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,
267
High actions and high passions best describing.
268
Thence to the famous Orators repair,
269
Those ancient whose resistless eloquence
270
Wielded at will that fierce democraty,
271
Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece
272
To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.
273
To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,
274
From heaven descended to the low-roofed house
275
Of Socrates—see there his tenement—
276
Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pronounced
277
Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth
278
Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools
279
Of Academics old and new, with those
280
Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect
281
Epicurean, and the Stoic severe.
282
These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home,
283
Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
284
These rules will render thee a king complete
285
Within thyself, much more with empire joined."
286
To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied:—
287
"Think not but that I know these things; or, think
288
I know them not, not therefore am I short
289
Of knowing what I ought. He who receives
290
Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,
291
No other doctrine needs, though granted true;
292
But these are false, or little else but dreams,
293
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
294
The first and wisest of them all professed
295
To know this only, that he nothing knew;
296
The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits;
297
A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense;
298
Others in virtue placed felicity,
299
But virtue joined with riches and long life;
300
In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;
301
The Stoic last in philosophic pride,
302
By him called virtue, and his virtuous man,
303
Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing,
304
Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,
305
As fearing God nor man, contemning all
306
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life—
307
Which, when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can;
308
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,
309
Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.
310
Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,
311
Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,
312
And how the World began, and how Man fell,
313
Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
314
Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry;
315
And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves
316
All glory arrogate, to God give none;
317
Rather accuse him under usual names,
318
Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite
319
Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks in these
320
True wisdom finds her not, or, by delusion
321
Far worse, her false resemblance only meets,
322
An empty cloud. However, many books,
323
Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads
324
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
325
A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
326
(And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?)
327
Uncertain and unsettled still remains,
328
Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself,
329
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys
330
And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge,
331
As children gathering pebbles on the shore.
332
Or, if I would delight my private hours
333
With music or with poem, where so soon
334
As in our native language can I find
335
That solace? All our Law and Story strewed
336
With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,
337
Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon
338
That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare
339
That rather Greece from us these arts derived—
340
Ill imitated while they loudest sing
341
The vices of their deities, and their own,
342
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating
343
Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
344
Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid
345
As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,
346
Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight,
347
Will far be found unworthy to compare
348
With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling,
349
Where God is praised aright and godlike men,
350
The Holiest of Holies and his Saints
351
(Such are from God inspired, not such from thee);
352
Unless where moral virtue is expressed
353
By light of Nature, not in all quite lost.
354
Their orators thou then extoll'st as those
355
The top of eloquence—statists indeed,
356
And lovers of their country, as may seem;
357
But herein to our Prophets far beneath,
358
As men divinely taught, and better teaching
359
The solid rules of civil government,
360
In their majestic, unaffected style,
361
Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome.
362
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
363
What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,
364
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;
365
These only, with our Law, best form a king."
366
So spake the Son of God; but Satan, now
367
Quite at a loss (for all his darts were spent),
368
Thus to our Saviour, with stern brow, replied:—
369
"Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,
370
Kingdom nor empire, pleases thee, nor aught
371
By me proposed in life contemplative
372
Or active, tended on by glory or fame,
373
What dost thou in this world? The Wilderness
374
For thee is fittest place: I found thee there,
375
And thither will return thee. Yet remember
376
What I foretell thee; soon thou shalt have cause
377
To wish thou never hadst rejected, thus
378
Nicely or cautiously, my offered aid,
379
Which would have set thee in short time with ease
380
On David's throne, or throne of all the world,
381
Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season,
382
When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.
383
Now, contrary—if I read aught in heaven,
384
Or heaven write aught of fate—by what the stars
385
Voluminous, or single characters
386
In their conjunction met, give me to spell,
387
Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate,
388
Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,
389
Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.
390
A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,
391
Real or allegoric, I discern not;
392
Nor when: eternal sure—as without end,
393
Without beginning; for no date prefixed
394
Directs me in the starry rubric set."
395
So saying, he took (for still he knew his power
396
Not yet expired), and to the Wilderness
397
Brought back, the Son of God, and left him there,
398
Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose,
399
As daylight sunk, and brought in louring Night,
400
Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both,
401
Privation mere of light and absent day.
402
Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind
403
After hisaerie jaunt, though hurried sore,
404
Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest,
405
Wherever, under some concourse of shades,
406
Whose branching arms thick intertwined might shield
407
From dews and damps of night his sheltered head;
408
But, sheltered, slept in vain; for at his head
409
The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams
410
Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now
411
'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds
412
From many a horrid rift abortive poured
413
Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire,
414
In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds
415
Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad
416
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
417
On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines,
418
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks,
419
Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
420
Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,
421
O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st
422
Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there:
423
Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round
424
Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,
425
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
426
Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.
427
Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair
428
Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,
429
Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar
430
Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,
431
And griesly spectres, which the Fiend had raised
432
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
433
And now the sun with more effectual beams
434
Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet
435
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
436
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
437
After a night of storm so ruinous,
438
Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
439
To gratulate the sweet return of morn.
440
Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,
441
Was absent, after all his mischief done,
442
The Prince of Darkness; glad would also seem
443
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;
444
Yet with no new device (they all were spent),
445
Rather by this his last affront resolved,
446
Desperate of better course, to vent his rage
447
And mad despite to be so oft repelled.
448
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,
449
Backed on the north and west by a thick wood;
450
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,
451
And in a careless mood thus to him said:—
452
"Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,
453
After a dismal night. I heard the wrack,
454
As earth and sky would mingle; but myself
455
Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them,
456
As dangerous to the pillared frame of Heaven,
457
Or to the Earth's dark basis underneath,
458
Are to the main as inconsiderable
459
And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze
460
To man's less universe, and soon are gone.
461
Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light
462
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
463
Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,
464
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
465
They oft fore-signify and threaten ill.
466
This tempest at this desert most was bent;
467
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.
468
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
469
The perfect season offered with my aid
470
To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong
471
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way
472
Of gaining David's throne no man knows when
473
(For both the when and how is nowhere told),
474
Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;
475
For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing
476
The time and means? Each act is rightliest done
477
Not when it must, but when it may be best.
478
If thou observe not this, be sure to find
479
What I foretold thee—many a hard assay
480
Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
481
Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold;
482
Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round,
483
So many terrors, voices, prodigies,
484
May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign."
485
So talked he, while the Son of God went on,
486
And staid not, but in brief him answered thus:—
487
"Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm
488
Those terrors which thou speak'st of did me none.
489
I never feared they could, though noising loud
490
And threatening nigh: what they can do as signs
491
Betokening or ill-boding I contemn
492
As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;
493
Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,
494
Obtrud'st thy offered aid, that I, accepting,
495
At least might seem to hold all power of thee,
496
Ambitious Spirit! and would'st be thought my God;
497
And storm'st, refused, thinking to terrify
498
Me to thy will! Desist (thou art discerned,
499
And toil'st in vain), nor me in vain molest."
500
To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:—
501
"Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born!
502
For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.
503
Of the Messiah I have heard foretold
504
By all the Prophets; of thy birth, at length
505
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,
506
And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,
507
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
508
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
509
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
510
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
511
Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all
512
Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest
513
(Though not to be baptized), by voice from Heaven
514
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.
515
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
516
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
517
In what degree or meaning thou art called
518
The Son of God, which bears no single sense.
519
The Son of God I also am, or was;
520
And, if I was, I am; relation stands:
521
All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought
522
In some respect far higher so declared.
523
Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,
524
And followed thee still on to this waste wild,
525
Where, by all best conjectures, I collect
526
Thou art to be my fatal enemy.
527
Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek
528
To understand my adversary, who
529
And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent;
530
By parle or composition, truce or league,
531
To win him, or win from him what I can.
532
And opportunity I here have had
533
To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee
534
Proof against all temptation, as a rock
535
Of adamant and as a centre, firm
536
To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,
537
Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,
538
Have been before contemned, and may again.
539
Therefore, to know what more thou art than man,
540
Worth naming the Son of God by voice from Heaven,
541
Another method I must now begin."
542
So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing
543
Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime,
544
Over the wilderness and o'er the plain,
545
Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,
546
The Holy City, lifted high her towers,
547
And higher yet the glorious Temple reared
548
Her pile, far off appearing like a mount
549
Of alablaster, topt with golden spires:
550
There, on the highest pinnacle, he set
551
The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:—
552
"There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright
553
Will ask thee skill. I to thy Father's house
554
Have brought thee, and highest placed: highest is best.
555
Now shew thy progeny; if not to stand,
556
Cast thyself down. Safely, if Son of God;
557
For it is written, 'He will give command
558
Concerning thee to his Angels; in their hands
559
They shall uplift thee, lest at any time
560
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.'"
561
To whom thus Jesus: "Also it is written,
562
'Tempt not the Lord thy God.'" He said, and stood;
563
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.
564
As when Earth's son, Antaeus (to compare
565
Small things with greatest), in Irassa strove
566
With Jove's Alcides, and, oft foiled, still rose,
567
Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,
568
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,
569
Throttled at length in the air expired and fell,
570
So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,
571
Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride
572
Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall;
573
And, as that Theban monster that proposed
574
Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured,
575
That once found out and solved, for grief and spite
576
Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep,
577
So, strook with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend,
578
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
579
Joyless triumphals of his hoped success,
580
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,
581
Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.
582
So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe
583
Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
584
Who on their plumy vans received Him soft
585
From his uneasy station, and upbore,
586
As on a floating couch, through the blithe air;
587
Then, in a flowery valley, set him down
588
On a green bank, and set before him spread
589
A table of celestial food, divine
590
Ambrosial fruits fetched from the Tree of Life,
591
And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink,
592
That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired
593
What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,
594
Or thirst; and, as he fed, Angelic quires
595
Sung heavenly anthems of his victory
596
Over temptation and the Tempter proud:—
597
"True Image of the Father, whether throned
598
In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
599
Conceiving, or, remote from Heaven, enshrined
600
In fleshly tabernacle and human form,
601
Wandering the wilderness—whatever place,
602
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
603
The Son of God, with Godlike force endued
604
Against the attempter of thy Father's throne
605
And thief of Paradise! Him long of old
606
Thou didst debel, and down from Heaven cast
607
With all his army; now thou hast avenged
608
Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing
609
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,
610
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent.
611
He never more henceforth will dare set foot
612
In paradise to tempt; his snares are broke.
613
For, though that seat of earthly bliss be failed,
614
A fairer Paradise is founded now
615
For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou,
616
A Saviour, art come down to reinstall;
617
Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,
618
Of tempter and temptation without fear.
619
But thou, Infernal Serpent! shalt not long
620
Rule in the clouds. Like an autumnal star,
621
Or lightning, thou shalt fall from Heaven, trod down
622
Under his feet. For proof, ere this thou feel'st
623
Thy wound (yet not thy last and deadliest wound)
624
By this repulse received, and hold'st in Hell
625
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues
626
Thy bold attempt. Hereafter learn with awe
627
To dread the Son of God. He, all unarmed,
628
Shall chase thee, with the terror of his voice,
629
From thy demoniac holds, possession foul—
630
Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,
631
And beg to hide them in a herd of swine,
632
Lest he command them down into the Deep,
633
Bound, and to torment sent before their time.
634
Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both Worlds,
635
Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work
636
Now enter, and begin to save Mankind."
637
Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,
638
Sung victor, and, from heavenly feast refreshed,
639
Brought on his way with joy. He, unobserved,
640
Home to his mother's house private returned.
|
