Milton John. Paradise Regained

John Milton
Paradise Regained

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 repulsed,
   And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.
   Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite
   Into the desert, his victorious field
   Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence
   By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,
   As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,
   And bear through highth or depth of Nature's bounds,
   With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds
   Above heroic, though in secret done,
   And unrecorded left through many an age:
   Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.
   Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice
   More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried
   Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand
   To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked
   With awe the regions round, and with them came
   From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed
   To the flood Jordan-came as then obscure,
   Unmarked, unknown. But him the Baptist soon
   Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore
   As to his worthier, and would have resigned
   To him his heavenly office. Nor was long
   His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized
   Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove
   The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice
   From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.
   That heard the Adversary, who, roving still
   About the world, at that assembly famed
   Would not be last, and, with the voice divine
   Nigh thunder-struck, the exalted man to whom
   Such high attest was given a while surveyed
   With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage,
   Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air
   To council summons all his mighty Peers,
   Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,
   A gloomy consistory; and them amidst,
   With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake:-
   "O ancient Powers of Air and this wide World
   (For much more willingly I mention Air,
   This our old conquest, than remember Hell,
   Our hated habitation), well ye know
   How many ages, as the years of men,
   This Universe we have possessed, and ruled
   In manner at our will the affairs of Earth,
   Since Adam and his facile consort Eve
   Lost Paradise, deceived by me, though since
   With dread attending when that fatal wound
   Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
   Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven
   Delay, for longest time to Him is short;
   And now, too soon for us, the circling hours
   This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we
   Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound
   (At least, if so we can, and by the head
   Broken be not intended all our power
   To be infringed, our freedom and our being
   In this fair empire won of Earth and Air)-
   For this ill news I bring: The Woman's Seed,
   Destined to this, is late of woman born.
   His birth to our just fear gave no small cause;
   But his growth now to youth's full flower, displaying
   All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve
   Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
   Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim
   His coming, is sent harbinger, who all
   Invites, and in the consecrated stream
   Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so
   Purified to receive him pure, or rather
   To do him honour as their King. All come,
   And he himself among them was baptized-
   Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
   The testimony of Heaven, that who he is
   Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw
   The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising
   Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds
   Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head
   A perfet Dove descend (whate'er it meant);
   And out of Heaven the sovraign voice I heard,
   'This is my Son beloved,-in him am pleased.'
   His mother, than, is mortal, but his Sire
   He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven;
   And what will He not do to advance his Son?
   His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,
   When his fierce thunder drove us to the Deep;
   Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems
   In all his lineaments, though in his face
   The glimpses of his Father's glory shine.
   Ye see our danger on the utmost edge
   Of hazard, which admits no long debate,
   But must with something sudden be opposed
   (Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares),
   Ere in the head of nations he appear,
   Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth.
   I, when no other durst, sole undertook 
   The dismal expedition to find out
   And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed
   Successfully: a calmer voyage now
   Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once
   Induces best to hope of like success."
   He ended, and his words impression left
   Of much amazement to the infernal crew,
   Distracted and surprised with deep dismay
   At these sad tidings. But no time was then
   For long indulgence to their fears or grief:
   Unanimous they all commit the care
   And management of this man enterprise
   To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt
   At first against mankind so well had thrived
   In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
   From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,
   Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,
   Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
   So to the coast of Jordan he directs
   His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles,
   Where he might likeliest find this new-declared,
   This man of men, attested Son of God,
   Temptation and all guile on him to try-
   So to subvert whom he suspected raised
   To end his reign on Earth so long enjoyed:
   But, contrary, unweeting he fulfilled
   The purposed counsel, pre-ordained and fixed,
   Of the Most High, who, in full frequence bright
   Of Angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spake:-
   "Gabriel, this day, by proof, thou shalt behold,
   Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth
   With Man or men's affairs, how I begin
   To verify that solemn message late,
   On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure
   In Galilee, that she should bear a son,
   Great in renown, and called the Son of God.
   Then told'st her, doubting how these things could be
   To her a virgin, that on her should come
   The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest
   O'ershadow her. This Man, born and now upgrown,
   To shew him worthy of his birth divine
   And high prediction, henceforth I expose
   To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay
   His utmost subtlety, because he boasts
   And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng
   Of his Apostasy. He might have learnt
   Less overweening, since he failed in Job,
   Whose constant perseverance overcame
   Whate'er his cruel malice could invent.
   He now shall know I can produce a man, 
   Of female seed, far abler to resist
   All his solicitations, and at length
   All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell-
   Winning by conquest what the first man lost
   By fallacy surprised. But first I mean
   To exercise him in the Wilderness;
   There he shall first lay down the rudiments
   Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth
   To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.
   By humiliation and strong sufferance
   His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,
   And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;
   That all the Angels and aethereal Powers-
   They now, and men hereafter-may discern
   From what consummate virtue I have chose
   This perfet man, by merit called my Son,
   To earn salvation for the sons of men."
   So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven
   Admiring stood a space; then into hymns
   Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved,
   Circling the throne and singing, while the hand
   Sung with the voice, and this the argument:-
   "Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
   Now entering his great duel, not of arms,
   But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles!
   The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
   Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,
   Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,
   Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
   Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell,
   And, devilish machinations, come to nought!"
   So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
   Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
   Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,
   Musing and much revolving in his breast
   How best the mighty work he might begin
   Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
   Publish his godlike office now mature,
   One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading
   And his deep thoughts, the better to converse
   With solitude, till, far from track of men,
   Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
   He entered now the bordering Desert wild,
   And, with dark shades and rocks environed round,
   His holy meditations thus pursued:-
   "O what a multitude of thoughts at once
   Awakened in me swarm, while I consider
   What from within I feel myself, and hear
   What from without comes often to my ears,
   Ill sorting with my present state compared!
   When I was yet a child, no childish play
   To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
   Serious to learn and know, and thence to do,
   What might be public good; myself I thought
   Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
   All righteous things. Therefore, above my years,
   The Law of God I read, and found it sweet;
   Made it my whole delight, and in it grew
   To such perfection that, ere yet my age
   Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast
   I went into the Temple, there to hear
   The teachers of our Law, and to propose
   What might improve my knowledge or their own,
   And was admired by all. Yet this not all
   To which my spirit aspired. Victorious deeds
   Flamed in my heart, heroic acts-one while
   To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke;
   Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the earth,
   Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,
   Till truth were freed, and equity restored:
   Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first
   By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
   And make persuasion do the work of fear;
   At least to try, and teach the erring soul,
   Not wilfully misdoing, but unware
   Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.
   These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving,
   By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,
   And said to me apart, 'High are thy thoughts,
   O Son! but nourish them, and let them soar
   To what highth sacred virtue and true worth
   Can raise them, though above example high;
   By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.
   For know, thou art no son of mortal man;
   Though men esteem thee low of parentage,
   Thy Father is the Eternal King who rules
   All Heaven and Earth, Angels and sons of men.
   A messenger from God foretold thy birth
   Conceived in me a virgin; he foretold
   Thou shouldst be great, and sit on David's throne,
   And of thy kingdom there should be no end.
   At thy nativity a glorious quire
   Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung
   To shepherds, watching at their folds by night,
   And told them the Messiah now was born,
   Where they might see him; and to thee they came,
   Directed to the manger where thou lay'st;
   For in the inn was left no better room.
   A Star, not seen before, in heaven appearing,
   Guided the Wise Men thither from the East,
   To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold;
   By whose bright course led on they found the place,
   Affirming it thy star, new-graven in heaven,
   By which they knew thee King of Israel born.
   Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned
   By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spake,
   Before the altar and the vested priest,
   Like things of thee to all that present stood.'
   This having heart, straight I again revolved
   The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ
   Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes
   Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake
   I am-this chiefly, that my way must lie
   Through many a hard assay, even to the death,
   Ere I the promised kingdom can attain,
   Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins'
   Full weight must be transferred upon my head.
   Yet, neither thus disheartened or dismayed,
   The time prefixed I waited; when behold
   The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard,
   Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come
   Before Messiah, and his way prepare!
   I, as all others, to his baptism came,
   Which I believed was from above; but he
   Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed
   Me him (for it was shewn him so from Heaven)-
   Me him whose harbinger he was; and first
   Refused on me his baptism to confer,
   As much his greater, and was hardly won.
   But, as I rose out of the laving stream,
   Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence
   The Spirit descended on me like a Dove;
   And last, the sum of all, my Father's voice,
   Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his,
   Me his beloved Son, in whom alone
   He was well pleased: by which I knew the time
   Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
   But openly begin, as best becomes
   The authority which I derived from Heaven.
   And now by some strong motion I am led 
   Into this wilderness; to what intent
   I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;
   For what concerns my knowledge God reveals."
   So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,
   And, looking round, on every side beheld
   A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.
   The way he came, not having marked return,
   Was difficult, by human steps untrod;
   And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
   Accompanied of things past and to come 
   Lodged in his breast as well might recommend
   Such solitude before choicest society.
   Full forty days he passed-whether on hill
   Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
   Under the covert of some ancient oak
   Or cedar to defend him from the dew,
   Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;
   Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,
   Till those days ended; hungered then at last
   Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild,
   Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk
   The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;
   The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.
   But now an aged man in rural weeds,
   Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray eye,
   Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve
   Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,
   To warm him wet returned from field at eve,
   He saw approach; who first with curious eye
   Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake:-
   "Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place,
   So far from path or road of men, who pass
   In troop or caravan? for single none
   Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here
   His carcass, pined with hunger and with droughth.
   I ask the rather, and the more admire,
   For that to me thou seem'st the man whom late
   Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford
   Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son
   Of God. I saw and heard, for we sometimes
   Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth
   To town or village nigh (nighest is far),
   Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,
   What happens new; fame also finds us out."
   To whom the Son of God:-"Who brought me hither
   Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek."
   "By miracle he may," replied the swain;
   "What other way I see not; for we here
   Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured
   More than the camel, and to drink go far-
   Men to much misery and hardship born.
   But, if thou be the Son of God, command
   That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;
   So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve
   With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste."
   He ended, and the Son of God replied:-
   "Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it not written
   (For I discern thee other than thou seem'st),
   Man lives not by bread only, but each word
   Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed
   Our fathers here with manna? In the Mount
   Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
   And forty days Eliah without food
   Wandered this barren waste; the same I now.
   Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust
   Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?"
   Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend, now undisguised:-
   "'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate
   Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,
   Kept not my happy station, but was driven
   With them from bliss to the bottomless Deep-
   Yet to that hideous place not so confined
   By rigour unconniving but that oft,
   Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy
   Large liberty to round this globe of Earth,
   Or range in the Air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens
   Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.
   I came, among the Sons of God, when he
   Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job,
   To prove him, and illustrate his high worth;
   And, when to all his Angels he proposed
   To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,
   That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
   I undertook that office, and the tongues
   Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies
   To his destruction, as I had in charge:
   For what he bids I do. Though I have lost
   Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
   To be beloved of God, I have not lost
   To love, at least contemplate and admire,
   What I see excellent in good, or fair,
   Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
   What can be then less in me than desire
   To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
   Declared the Son of God, to hear attent
   Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?
   Men generally think me much a foe
   To all mankind. Why should I? they to me
   Never did wrong or violence. By them
   I lost not what I lost; rather by them 
   I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
   Copartner in these regions of the World,
   If not disposer-lend them oft my aid,
   Oft my advice by presages and signs,
   And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,
   Whereby they may direct their future life.
   Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain
   Companions of my misery and woe!
   At first it may be; but, long since with woe
   Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof 
   That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
   Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load;
   Small consolation, then, were Man adjoined.
   This wounds me most (what can it less?) that Man,
   Man fallen, shall be restored, I never more."
   To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied:-
   "Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies
   From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,
   Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come
   Into the Heaven of Heavens. Thou com'st, indeed,
   As a poor miserable captive thrall
   Comes to the place where he before had sat
   Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,
   Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,
   A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,
   To all the host of Heaven. The happy place
   Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy-
   Rather inflames thy torment, representing
   Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable;
   So never more in Hell than when in Heaven.
   But thou art serviceable to Heaven's King!
   Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
   Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
   What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem
   Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
   With all inflictions? but his patience won.
   The other service was thy chosen task,
   To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
   For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
   Yet thou pretend'st to truth! all oracles
   By thee are given, and what confessed more true
   Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,
   By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
   But what have been thy answers? what but dark,
   Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
   Which they who asked have seldom understood,
   And, not well understood, as good not known?
   Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,
   Returned the wiser, or the more instruct
   To fly or follow what concerned him most,
   And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
   For God hath justly given the nations up
   To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
   Idolatrous. But, when his purpose is
   Among them to declare his providence,
   To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
   But from him, or his Angels president
   In every province, who, themselves disdaining
   To approach thy temples, give thee in command
   What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say
   To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,
   Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st;
   Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
   But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;
   No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
   The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased,
   And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
   Shalt be enquired at Delphos or elsewhere-
   At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
   God hath now sent his living Oracle
   Into the world to teach his final will,
   And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
   In pious hearts, an inward oracle
   To all truth requisite for men to know."
   So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,
   Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
   Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:-
   "Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,
   And urged me hard with doings which not will,
   But misery, hath wrested from me. Where
   Easily canst thou find one miserable,
   And not inforced oft-times to part from truth,
   If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
   Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
   But thou art placed above me; thou art Lord;
   From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure
   Cheek or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.
   Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
   Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,
   And tunable as sylvan pipe or song;
   What wonder, then, if I delight to hear
   Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire
   Virtue who follow not her lore. Permit me
   To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),
   And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
   Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
   Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
   To tread his sacred courts, and minister
   About his altar, handling holy things,
   Praying or vowing, and voutsafed his voice
   To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
   Inspired: disdain not such access to me."
   To whom our Saviour, with unaltered brow:-
   "Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
   I bid not, or forbid. Do as thou find'st
   Permission from above; thou canst not more."
   He added not; and Satan, bowling low
   His gray dissimulation, disappeared,
   Into thin air diffused: for now began
   Night with her sullen wing to double-shade
   The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched;
   And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.

THE SECOND BOOK

   MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained
   At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
   Him whom they heard so late expressly called
   Jesus Messiah, Son of God, declared,
   And on that high authority had believed,
   And with him talked, and with him lodged-I mean
   Andrew and Simon, famous after known,
   With others, though in Holy Writ not named-
   Now missing him, their joy so lately found,
   So lately found and so abruptly gone,
   Began to doubt, and doubted many days,
   And, as the days increased, increased their doubt.
   Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn,
   And for a time caught up to God, as once
   Moses was in the Mount and missing long,
   And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
   Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come.
   Therefore, as those young prophets then with care
   Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these
   Nigh to Bethabara-in Jericho
   The city of palms, AEnon, and Salem old,
   Machaerus, and each town or city walled
   On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
   Or in Peraea-but returned in vain.
   Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,
   Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play,
   Plain fishermen (no greater men them call),
   Close in a cottage low together got,
   Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed:-
   "Alas, from what high hope to what relapse
   Unlooked for are we fallen! Our eyes beheld
   Messiah certainly now come, so long
   Expected of our fathers; we have heard
   His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth.
   'Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand;
   The kingdom shall to Israel be restored:'
   Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned
   Into perplexity and new amaze.
   For whither is he gone? what accident
   Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire
   After appearance, and again prolong
   Our expectation? God of Israel,
   Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come.
   Behold the kings of the earth, how they oppress
   Thy Chosen, to what highth their power unjust
   They have exalted, and behind them cast
   All fear of Thee; arise, and vindicate
   Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke!
   But let us wait; thus far He hath performed-
   Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him
   By his great Prophet pointed at and shown
   In public, and with him we have conversed.
   Let us be glad of this, and all our fears
   Lay on his providence; He will not fail,
   Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall-
   Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence:
   Soon we shall see our hope, our joy, return."
   Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume
   To find whom at the first they found unsought.
   But to his mother Mary, when she saw
   Others returned from baptism, not her Son,
   Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none,
   Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure,
   Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised
   Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:-
   "Oh, what avails me now that honour high,
   To have conceived of God, or that salute,
   'Hail, highly favoured, among women blest!'
   While I to sorrows am no less advanced,
   And fears as eminent above the lot
   Of other women, by the birth I bore:
   In such a season born, when scarce a shed
   Could be obtained to shelter him or me
   From the bleak air? A stable was our warmth,
   A manger his; yet soon enforced to fly
   Thence into Egypt, till the murderous king
   Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing, filled
   With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.
   From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth
   Hath been our dwelling many years; his life
   Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,
   Little suspicious to any king. But now,
   Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,
   By John the Baptist, and in public shewn,
   Son owned from Heaven by his Father's voice,
   I looked for some great change. To honour? no;
   But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,
   That to the fall and rising he should be
   Of many in Israel, and to a sign
   Spoken against-that through my very soul
   A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot,
   My exaltation to afflictions high!
   Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!
   I will not argue that, nor will repine.
   But where delays he now? Some great intent
   Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,
   I lost him, but so found as well I saw
   He could not lose himself, but went about
   His Father's business. What he meant I mused-
   Since understand; much more his absence now
   Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
   But I to wait with patience am inured;
   My heart hath been a storehouse long of things
   And sayings laid up, pretending strange events."
   Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind
   Recalling what remarkably had passed
   Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts
   Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:
   The while her Son, tracing the desert wild,
   Sole, but with holiest meditations fed,
   Into himself descended, and at once
   All his great work to come before him set-
   How to begin, how to accomplish best
   His end of being on Earth, and mission high.
   For Satan, with sly preface to return,
   Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone
   Up to the middle region of thick air,
   Where all his Potentates in council sate.
   There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,
   Solicitous and blank, he thus began:— 
   "Princes, Heaven's ancient Sons, AEthereal Thrones-
   Daemonian Spirits now, from the element
   Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called
   Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath
   (So may we hold our place and these mild seats
   Without new trouble!)-such an enemy
   Is risen to invade us, who no less
   Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell.
   I, as I undertook, and with the vote
   Consenting in full frequence was impowered,
   Have found him, viewed him, tasted him; but find
   Far other labour to be undergone
   Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,
   Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell,
   However to this Man inferior far-
   If he be Man by mother's side, at least
   With more than human gifts from Heaven adorned,
   Perfections absolute, graces divine,
   And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.
   Therefore I am returned, lest confidence
   Of my success with Eve in Paradise
   Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure
   Of like succeeding here. I summon all
   Rather to be in readiness with hand
   Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst
   Thought none my equal, now be overmatched."
   So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all
   With clamour was assured their utmost aid
   At his command; when from amidst them rose
   Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell,
   The sensualest, and, after Asmodai,
   The fleshliest Incubus, and thus advised:-
   "Set women in his eye and in his walk,
   Among daughters of men the fairest found.
   Many are in each region passing fair
   As the noon sky, more like to goddesses
   Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,
   Expert in amorous arts, enchanting tongues
   Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild
   And sweet allayed, yet terrible to approach,
   Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw
   Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets.
   Such object hath the power to soften and tame
   Severest temper, smooth the rugged'st brow,
   Enerve, and with voluptuous hope dissolve,
   Draw out with credulous desire, and lead
   At will the manliest, resolutest breast,
   As the magnetic hardest iron draws.
   Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart
   Of wisest Solomon, and made him build, 
   And made him bow, to the gods of his wives."
   To whom quick answer Satan thus returned:-
   "Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh'st
   All others by thyself. Because of old
   Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring
   Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,
   None are, thou think'st, but taken with such toys.
   Before the Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew,
   False titled Sons of God, roaming the Earth,
   Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men,
   And coupled with them, and begot a race.
   Have we not seen, or by relation heard,
   In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,
   In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,
   In valley or green meadow, to waylay
   Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,
   Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,
   Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more
   Too long-then lay'st thy scapes on names adored,
   Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan,
   Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan? But these haunts
   Delight not all. Among the sons of men
   How many have with a smile made small account
   Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned
   All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
   Remember that Pellean conqueror,
   A youth, how all the beauties of the East
   He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;
   How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,
   In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.
   For Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full
   Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond
   Higher design than to enjoy his state;
   Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.
   But he whom we attempt is wiser far
   Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,
   Made and set wholly on the accomplishment
   Of greatest things. What woman will you find,
   Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
   On whom his leisure will voutsafe an eye
   Of fond desire? Or should she, confident,
   As sitting queen adored on Beauty's throne,
   Descend with all her winning charms begirt
   To enamour, as the zone of Venus once
   Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell),
   How would one look from his majestic brow,
   Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill,
   Discountenance her despised, and put to rout
   All her array, her female pride deject,
   Or turn to reverent awe! For Beauty stands
   In the admiration only of weak minds
   Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
   Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
   At every sudden slighting quite abashed.
   Therefore with manlier objects we must try
   His constancy-with such as have more shew
   Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise
   (Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked);
   Or that which only seems to satisfy
   Lawful desires of nature, not beyond.
   And now I know he hungers, where no food
   Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness:
   The rest commit to me; I shall let pass
   No advantage, and his strength as oft assay."
   He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;
   Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band
   Of Spirits likest to himself in guile,
   To be at hand and at his beck appear,
   If cause were to unfold some active scene
   Of various persons, each to know his part;
   Then to the desert takes with these his flight,
   Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,
   After forty days' fasting, had remained,
   Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:-
   "Where will this end? Four times ten days I have passed
   Wandering this woody maze, and human food
   Nor tasted, nor had appetite. That fast
   To virtue I impute not, or count part
   Of what I suffer here. If nature need not,
   Or God support nature without repast,
   Though needing, what praise is it to endure?
   But now I feel I hunger; which declares
   Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God
   Can satisfy that need some other way,
   Though hunger still remain. So it remain
   Without this body's wasting, I content me,
   And from the sting of famine fear no harm;
   Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed
   Me hungering more to do my Father's will."
   It was the hour of night, when thus the Son
   Communed in silent walk, then laid him down
   Under the hospitable covert nigh
   Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept,
   And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,
   Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet.
   Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood,
   And saw the ravens with their horny beaks
   Food to Elijah bringing even and morn-
   Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought;
   He saw the Prophet also, how he fled
   Into the desert, and how there he slept
   Under a juniper-then how, awaked,
   He found his supper on the coals prepared,
   And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,
   And eat the second time after repose,
   The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:
   Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,
   Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.
   Thus wore out night; and now the harald Lark
   Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
   The Morn's approach, and greet her with his song.
   As lightly from his grassy couch up rose
   Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;
   Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
   Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
   From whose high top to ken the prospect round,
   If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;
   But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw-
   Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
   With chaunt of tuneful birds resounding loud.
   Thither he bent his way, determined there
   To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade
   High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys brown,
   That opened in the midst a woody scene;
   Nature's own work it seemed (Nature taught Art),
   And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt
   Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He viewed it round;
   When suddenly a man before him stood,
   Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
   As one in city or court or palace bred,
   And with fair speech these words to him addressed:-
   "With granted leave officious I return,
   But much more wonder that the Son of God
   In this wild solitude so long should bide,
   Of all things destitute, and, well I know,
   Not without hunger. Others of some note,
   As story tells, have trod this wilderness:
   The fugitive Bond-woman, with her son,
   Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief
   By a providing Angel; all the race
   Of Israel here had famished, had not God
   Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,
   Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed
   Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.
   Of thee those forty days none hath regard,
   Forty and more deserted here indeed."
   To whom thus Jesus:-"What conclud'st thou hence?
   They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none."
   "How hast thou hunger then?" Satan replied.
   "Tell me, if food were now before thee set,
   Wouldst thou not eat?" "Thereafter as I like
   the giver," answered Jesus. "Why should that
   Cause thy refusal?" said the subtle Fiend.
   "Hast thou not right to all created things?
   Owe not all creatures, by just right, to thee
   Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,
   But tender all their power? Nor mention I
   Meats by the law unclean, or offered first
   To idols-those young Daniel could refuse;
   Nor proffered by an enemy-though who
   Would scruple that, with want oppressed? Behold,
   Nature ashamed, or, better to express,
   Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed
   From all the elements her choicest store,
   To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord
   With honour. Only deign to sit and eat."
   He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,
   Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,
   In ample space under the broadest shade,
   A table richly spread in regal mode,
   With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort
   And savour-beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
   In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,
   Grisamber-steamed; all fish, from sea or shore,
   Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,
   And exquisitest name, for which was drained
   Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.
   Alas! how simple, to these cates compared,
   Was that crude Apple that diverted Eve!
   And at a stately sideboard, by the wine,
   That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
   Tall stripling youths rich-clad, of fairer hue
   Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more,
   Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
   Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades
   With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,
   And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed
   Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
   Of faery damsels met in forest wide
   By knights of Logres, or of Lyones,
   Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.
   And all the while harmonious airs were heard
   Of chiming strings or charming pipes; and winds
   Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned
   From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.
   Such was the splendour; and the Tempter now
   His invitation earnestly renewed:-
   "What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?
   These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict
   Defends the touching of these viands pure;
   Their taste no knowledge works, at least of evil,
   But life preserves, destroys life's enemy,
   Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.
   All these are Spirits of air, and woods, and springs,
   Thy gentle ministers, who come to pay
   Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord.
   What doubt'st thou, Son of God? Sit down and eat."
   To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:-
   "Said'st thou not that to all things I had right?
   And who withholds my power that right to use?
   Shall I receive by gift what of my own,
   When and where likes me best, I can command?
   I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,
   Command a table in this wilderness,
   And call swift flights of Angels ministrant,
   Arrayed in glory, on my cup to attend:
   Why shouldst thou, then, obtrude this diligence