Milton John. Paradise Regained

   In vain, where no acceptance it can find?
   And with my hunger what hast thou to do?
   Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,
   And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles."
   To whom thus answered Satan, male-content:-
   "That I have also power to give thou seest;
   If of that power I bring thee voluntary
   What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,
   And rather opportunely in this place
   Chose to impart to thy apparent need,
   Why shouldst thou not accept it? But I see
   What I can do or offer is suspect.
   Of these things others quickly will dispose,
   Whose pains have earned the far-fet spoil." With that
   Both table and provision vanished quite,
   With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard;
   Only the importune Tempter still remained,
   And with these words his temptation pursued:-
   "By hunger, that each other creature tames,
   Thou art not to be harmed, therefore not moved;
   Thy temperance, invincible besides,
   For no allurement yields to appetite;
   And all thy heart is set on high designs,
   High actions. But wherewith to be achieved?
   Great acts require great means of enterprise;
   Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,
   A carpenter thy father known, thyself
   Bred up in poverty and straits at home,
   Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.
   Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire
   To greatness? whence authority deriv'st?
   What followers, what retinue canst thou gain,
   Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude,
   Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost?
   Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and realms.
   What raised Antipater the Edomite,
   And his son Herod placed on Juda's throne,
   Thy throne, but gold, that got him puissant friends?
   Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive,
   Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap-
   Not difficult, if thou hearken to me.
   Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand;
   They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain,
   While virtue, valour, wisdom, sit in want."
   To whom thus Jesus patiently replied:-
   "Yet wealth without these three is impotent
   To gain dominion, or to keep it gained-
   Witness those ancient empires of the earth,
   In highth of all their flowing wealth dissolved;
   But men endued with these have oft attained,
   In lowest poverty, to highest deeds-
   Gideon, and Jephtha, and the shepherd lad
   Whose offspring on the throne of Juda sate
   So many ages, and shall yet regain
   That seat, and reign in Israel without end.
   Among the Heathen (for throughout the world
   To me is not unknown what hath been done
   Worthy of memorial) canst thou not remember
   Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?
   For I esteem those names of men so poor,
   Who could do mighty things, and could contemn
   Riches, though offered from the hand of kings.
   And what in me seems wanting but that I
   May also in this poverty as soon
   Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more?
   Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools,
   The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare; more apt
   To slacken virtue and abate her edge
   Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.
   What if with like aversion I reject
   Riches and realms! Yet not for that a crown,
   Golden in shew, is but a wreath of thorns,
   Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights,
   To him who wears the regal diadem,
   When on his shoulders each man's burden lies;
   For therein stands the office of a king,
   His honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise,
   That for the public all this weight he bears.
   Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
   Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king-
   Which every wise and virtuous man attains;
   And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
   Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes,
   Subject himself to anarchy within,
   Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.
   But to guide nations in the way of truth
   By saving doctrine, and from error lead
   To know, and, knowing, worship God aright,
   Is yet more kingly. This attracts the soul,
   Governs the inner man, the nobler part;
   That other o'er the body only reigns,
   And oft by force-which to a generous mind
   So reigning can be no sincere delight. 
   Besides, to give a kingdom hath been thought
   Greater and nobler done, and to lay down
   Far more magnanimous, than to assume.
   Riches are needless, then, both for themselves,
   And for thy reason why they should be sought-
   To gain a sceptre, oftest better missed."

THE THIRD BOOK

   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 accosts:-
   "I see thou know'st what is of use to know,
   What best to say canst say, to do canst do;
   Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words
   To thy large heart give utterance due; thy heart
   Contains of good, wise, just, the perfet shape.
   Should kings and nations from thy mouth consult,
   Thy counsel would be as the oracle
   Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems
   On Aaron's breast, or tongue of Seers old
   Infallible; or, wert thou sought to deeds
   That might require the array of war, thy skill
   Of conduct would be such that all the world
   Could not sustain thy prowess, or subsist
   In battle, though against thy few in arms.
   These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hide?
   Affecting private life, or more obscure
   In savage wilderness, wherefore deprive
   All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself
   The fame and glory-glory, the reward
   That sole excites to high attempts the flame
   Of most erected spirits, most tempered pure
   AEthereal, who all pleasures else despise,
   All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,
   And dignities and powers, all but the highest?
   Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe. The son
   Of Macedonian Philip had ere these
   Won Asia, and the throne of Cyrus held
   At his dispose; young Scipio had brought down
   The Carthaginian pride; young Pompey quelled
   The Pontic king, and in triumph had rode.
   Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature,
   Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.
   Great Julius, whom now all the world admires,
   The more he grew in years, the more inflamed
   With glory, wept that he had lived so long
   Ingloroious. But thou yet art not too late."
   To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied:-
   "Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth
   For empire's sake, nor empire to affect
   For glory's sake, by all thy argument.
   For what is glory but the blaze of fame,
   The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?
   And what the people but a herd confused,
   A miscellaneous rabble, who extol
   Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise?
   They praise and they admire they know not what,
   And know not whom, but as one leads the other;
   And what delight to be by such extolled,
   To live upon their tongues, and be their talk?
   Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise-
   His lot who dares be singularly good.
   The intelligent among them and the wise
   Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.
   This is true glory and renown-when God,
   Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks
   The just man, and divulges him through Heaven
   To all his Angels, who with true applause
   Recount his praises. Thus he did to Job,
   When, to extend his fame through Heaven and Earth,
   As thou to thy reproach may'st well remember,
   He asked thee, 'Hast thou seen my servant Job?'
   Famous he was in Heaven; on Earth less known,
   Where glory is false glory, attributed
   To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame.
   They err who count it glorious to subdue
   By conquest far and wide, to overrun
   Large countries, and in field great battles win,
   Great cities by assault. What do these worthies
   But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
   Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
   Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
   Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
   Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove,
   And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
   Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,
   Great benefactors of mankind, Deliverers,
   Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice?
   One is the son of Jove, of Mars the other;
   Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,
   Rowling in brutish vices, and deformed,
   Violent or shameful death their due reward.
   But, if there be in glory aught of good;
   It may be means far different be attained,
   Without ambition, war, or violence-
   By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
   By patience, temperance. I mention still
   Him whom thy wrongs, with saintly patience borne,
   Made famous in a land and times obscure;
   Who names not now with honour patient Job?
   Poor Socrates, (who next more memorable?)
   By what he taught and suffered for so doing,
   For truth's sake suffering death unjust, lives now
   Equal in fame to proudest conquerors.
   Yet, if for fame and glory aught be done,
   Aught suffered-if young African for fame
   His wasted country freed from Punic rage-
   The deed becomes unpraised, the man at least,
   And loses, though but verbal, his reward.
   Shall I seek glory, then, as vain men seek,
   Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, but His
   Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am."
   To whom the Tempter, murmuring, thus replied:-
   "Think not so slight of glory, therein least
   Resembling thy great Father. He seeks glory,
   And for his glory all things made, all things
   Orders and governs; nor content in Heaven,
   By all his Angels glorified, requires
   Glory from men, from all men, good or bad,
   Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption.
   Above all sacrifice, or hallowed gift,
   Glory he requires, and glory he receives,
   Promiscuous from all nations, Jew, or Greek,
   Or Barbarous, nor exception hath declared;
   From us, his foes pronounced, glory he exacts."
   To whom our Saviour fervently replied:
   "And reason; since his Word all things produced,
   Though chiefly not for glory as prime end,
   But to shew forth his goodness, and impart
   His good communicable to every soul
   Freely; of whom what could He less expect
   Than glory and benediction-that is, thanks-
   The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense
   From them who could return him nothing else,
   And, not returning that, would likeliest render
   Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy?
   Hard recompense, unsuitable return
   For so much good, so much beneficience!
   But why should man seek glory, who of his own
   Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs
   But condemnation, ignominy, and shame-
   Who, for so many benefits received,
   Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false,
   And so of all true good himself despoiled;
   Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take
   That which to God alone of right belongs?
   Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,
   That who advances his glory, not their own,
   Them he himself to glory will advance."
   So spake the Son of God; and here again
   Satan had not to answer, but stood struck
   With guilt of his own sin-for he himself,
   Insatiable of glory, had lost all;
   Yet of another plea bethought him soon:-
   "Of glory, as thou wilt," said he, "so deem;
   Worth or not worth the seeking, let it pass.
   But to a Kingdom thou art born-ordained
   To sit upon thy father David's throne,
   By mother's side thy father, though thy right
   Be now in powerful hands, that will not part
   Easily from possession won with arms.
   Judaea now and all the Promised Land,
   Reduced a province under Roman yoke,
   Obeys Tiberius, nor is always ruled
   With temperate sway: oft have they violated
   The Temple, oft the Law, with foul affronts,
   Abominations rather, as did once
   Antiochus. And think'st thou to regain
   Thy right by sitting still, or thus retiring?
   So did not Machabeus. He indeed
   Retired unto the Desert, but with arms;
   And o'er a mighty king so oft prevailed
   That by strong hand his family obtained,
   Though priests, the crown, and David's throne usurped,
   With Modin and her suburbs once content.
   If kingdom move thee not, let move thee zeal
   And duty-zeal and duty are not slow,
   But on Occasion's forelock watchful wait:
   They themselves rather are occasion best-
   Zeal of thy Father's house, duty to free
   Thy country from her heathen servitude.
   So shalt thou best fulfil, best verify,
   The Prophets old, who sung thy endless reign-
   The happier reign the sooner it begins.
   Rein then; what canst thou better do the while?"
   To whom our Saviour answer thus returned:-
   "All things are best fulfilled in their due time;
   And time there is for all things, Truth hath said.
   If of my reign Prophetic Writ hath told
   That it shall never end, so, when begin
   The Father in his purpose hath decreed-
   He in whose hand all times and seasons rowl.
   What if he hath decreed that I shall first
   Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,
   By tribulations, injuries, insults,
   Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,
   Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting
   Without distrust or doubt, that He may know
   What I can suffer, how obey? Who best
   Can suffer best can do, best reign who first
   Well hath obeyed-just trial ere I merit
   My exaltation without change or end.
   But what concerns it thee when I begin
   My everlasting Kingdom? Why art thou
   Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition?
   Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall,
   And my promotion will be thy destruction?"
   To whom the Tempter, inly racked, replied:-
   "Let that come when it comes. All hope is lost
   Of my reception into grace; what worse?
   For where no hope is left is left no fear.
   If there be worse, the expectation more
   Of worse torments me than the feeling can.
   I would be at the worst; worst is my port,
   My harbour, and my ultimate repose,
   The end I would attain, my final good.
   My error was my error, and my crime
   My crime; whatever, for itself condemned,
   And will alike be punished, whether thou
   Reign or reign not-though to that gentle brow
   Willingly I could fly, and hope thy reign,
   From that placid aspect and meek regard,
   Rather than aggravate my evil state,
   Would stand between me and thy Father's ire
   (Whose ire I dread more than the fire of Hell)
   A shelter and a kind of shading cool
   Interposition, as a summer's cloud.
   If I, then, to the worst that can be haste,
   Why move thy feet so slow to what is best?
   Happiest, both to thyself and all the world,
   That thou, who worthiest art, shouldst be their King!
   Perhaps thou linger'st in deep thoughts detained
   Of the enterprise so hazardous and high!
   No wonder; for, though in thee be united
   What of perfection can in Man be found,
   Or human nature can receive, consider
   Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent
   At home, scarce viewed the Galilean towns,
   And once a year Jerusalem, few days'
   Short sojourn; and what thence couldst thou observe?
   The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,
   Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts-
   Best school of best experience, quickest in sight
   In all things that to greatest actions lead.
   The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever
   Timorous, and loth, with novice modesty
   (As he who, seeking asses, found a kingdom)
   Irresolute, unhardy, unadventrous.
   But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit
   Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes
   The monarchies of the Earth, their pomp and state-
   Sufficient introduction to inform
   Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal arts,
   And regal mysteries; that thou may'st know
   How best their opposition to withstand."
   With that (such power was given him then), he took
   The Son of God up to a mountain high.
   It was a mountain at whose verdant feet
   A spacious plain outstretched in circuit wide
   Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,
   The one winding, the other straight, and left between
   Fair champaign, with less rivers interveined,
   Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea.
   Fertil of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;
   With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills;
   Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem
   The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large
   The prospect was that here and there was room
   For barren desert, fountainless and dry.
   To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought
   Our Saviour, and new train of words began:-
   "Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale,
   Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,
   Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold'st
   Assyria, and her empire's ancient bounds,
   Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on
   As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,
   And oft beyond; to south the Persian bay,
   And, inaccessible, the Arabian drouth:
   Here, Nineveh, of length within her wall
   Several days' journey, built by Ninus old,
   Of that first golden monarchy the seat,
   And seat of Salmanassar, whose success
   Israel in long captivity still mourns;
   There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues,
   As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice
   Judah and all thy father David's house
   Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,
   Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,
   His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;
   Ecbatana her structure vast there shews,
   And Hecatompylos her hunderd gates;
   There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,
   The drink of none but kings; of later fame,
   Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands,
   The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there
   Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,
   Turning with easy eye, thou may'st behold.
   All these the Parthian (now some ages past
   By great Arsaces led, who founded first
   That empire) under his dominion holds,
   From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.
   And just in time thou com'st to have a view
   Of his great power; for now the Parthian king
   In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host
   Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild
   Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid
   He marches now in haste. See, though from far,
   His thousands, in what martial equipage
   They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,
   Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit-
   All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;
   See how in warlike muster they appear,
   In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings."
   He looked, and saw what numbers numberless
   The city gates outpoured, light-armed troops
   In coats of mail and military pride.
   In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,
   Prauncing their riders bore, the flower and choice
   Of many provinces from bound to bound-
   From Arachosia, from Candaor east,
   And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs
   Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;
   From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains
   Of Adiabene, Media, and the south
   Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.
   He saw them in their forms of battle ranged,
   How quick they wheeled, and flying behind them shot
   Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face
   Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;
   The field all iron cast a gleaming brown.
   Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor, on each horn,
   Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight,
   Chariots, or elephants indorsed with towers
   Of archers; nor of labouring pioners
   A multitude, with spades and axes armed,
   To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill,
   Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay
   With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke:
   Mules after these, camels and dromedaries,
   And waggons fraught with utensils of war.
   Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
   When Agrican, with all his northern powers,
   Besieged Albracea, as romances tell,
   The city of Gallaphrone, from thence to win
   The fairest of her sex, Angelica,
   His daughter, sought by many prowest knights,
   Both Paynim and the peers of Charlemane.
   Such and so numerous was their chivalry;
   At sight whereof the Fiend yet more presumed,
   And to our Saviour thus his words renewed:-
   "That thou may'st know I seek not to engage
   Thy virtue, and not every way secure
   On no slight grounds thy safety, hear and mark
   To what end I have brought thee hither, and shew
   All this fair sight. Thy kingdom, though foretold
   By Prophet or by Angel, unless thou
   Endeavour, as thy father David did,
   Thou never shalt obtain: prediction still
   In all things, and all men, supposes means;
   Without means used, what it predicts revokes.
   But say thou wert possessed of David's throne
   By free consent of all, none opposite,
   Samaritan or Jew; how couldst thou hope
   Long to enjoy it quiet and secure
   Between two such enclosing enemies,
   Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these
   Thou must make sure thy own: the Parthian first,
   By my advice, as nearer, and of late
   Found able by invasion to annoy
   Thy country, and captive lead away her kings,
   Antigonus and old Hyrcanus, bound,
   Maugre the Roman. It shall be my task
   To render thee the Parthian at dispose,
   Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league.
   By him thou shalt regain, without him not,
   That which alone can truly reinstall thee
   In David's royal seat, his true successor-
   Deliverance of thy brethren, those Ten Tribes
   Whose offspring in his territory yet serve
   In Habor, and among the Medes dispersed:
   The sons of Jacob, two of Joseph, lost
   Thus long from Israel, serving, as of old
   Their fathers in the land of Egypt served,
   This offer sets before thee to deliver.
   These if from servitude thou shalt restore
   To their inheritance, then, nor till then,
   Thou on the throne of David in full glory,
   From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond,
   Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear."
   To whom our Saviour answered thus, unmoved:-
   "Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm
   And fragile arms, much instrument of war,
   Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,
   Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear
   Vented much policy, and projects deep
   Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,
   Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.
   Means I must use, thou say'st; prediction else
   Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne!
   My time, I told thee (and that time for thee
   Were better farthest off), is not yet come.
   When that comes, think not thou to find me slack
   On my part aught endeavouring, or to need
   Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome 
   Luggage of war there shewn me-argument
   Of human weakness rather than of strength.
   My brethren, as thou call'st them, those Ten Tribes,
   I must deliver, if I mean to reign
   David's true heir, and his full sceptre sway
   To just extent over all Israel's sons!
   But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then
   For Israel, or for David, or his throne,
   When thou stood'st up his tempter to the pride
   Of numbering Israel-which cost the lives
   of threescore and ten thousand Israelites
   By three days' pestilence? Such was thy zeal
   To Israel then, the same that now to me.
   As for those captive tribes, themselves were they
   Who wrought their own captivity, fell off
   From God to worship calves, the deities
   Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,
   And all the idolatries of heathen round,
   Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes;
   Nor in the land of their captivity
   Humbled themselves, or penitent besought
   The God of their forefathers, but so died
   Impenitent, and left a race behind
   Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce
   From Gentiles, but by circumcision vain,
   And God with idols in their worship joined.
   Should I of these the liberty regard,
   Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony,
   Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreformed,
   Headlong would follow, and to their gods perhaps
   Of Bethel and of Dan? No; let them serve
   Their enemies who serve idols with God.
   Yet He at length, time to himself best known,
   Remembering Abraham, by some wondrous call
   May bring them back, repentant and sincere,
   And at their passing cleave the Assyrian flood,
   While to their native land with joy they haste,
   As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,
   When to the Promised Land their fathers passed.
   To his due time and providence I leave them."
   So spake Israel's true King, and to the Fiend
   Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.
   So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.

THE FOURTH BOOK

   Perplexed and troubled at his bad success
   The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
   Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope
   So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
   That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve,
   So little here, nay lost. But Eve was Eve;
   This far his over-match, who, self-deceived
   And rash, beforehand had no better weighed
   The strength he was to cope with, or his own.
   But-as a man who had been matchless held
   In cunning, over-reached where least he thought,
   To salve his credit, and for very spite,
   Still will be tempting him who foils him still,
   And never cease, though to his shame the more;
   Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,
   About the wine-press where sweet must is poured,
   Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;
   Or surging waves against a solid rock,
   Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,
   (Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end-
   So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
   Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
   Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success,
   And his vain importunity pursues.
   He brought our Saviour to the western side
   Of that high mountain, whence he might behold
   Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,
   Washed by the southern sea, and on the north
   To equal length backed with a ridge of hills
   That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men
   From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst
   Divided by a river, off whose banks
   On each side an Imperial City stood,
   With towers and temples proudly elevate
   On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,
   Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
   Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
   Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes
   Above the highth of mountains interposed-
   By what strange parallax, or optic skill
   Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass
   Of telescope, were curious to enquire.
   And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:-
   "The city which thou seest no other deem
   Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth
   So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
   Of nations. There the Capitol thou seest,
   Above the rest lifting his stately head
   On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel
   Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine, 
   The imperial palace, compass huge, and high
   The structure, skill of noblest architects,
   With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,
   Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires.
   Many a fair edifice besides, more like
   Houses of gods-so well I have disposed
   My aerie microscope-thou may'st behold,
   Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs
   Carved work, the hand of famed artificers
   In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.
   Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see
   What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:
   Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces
   Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;
   Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;
   Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;
   Or embassies from regions far remote,
   In various habits, on the Appian road,
   Or on the AEmilian-some from farthest south,
   Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,
   Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,
   The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;
   From the Asian kings (and Parthian among these),
   From India and the Golden Chersoness,
   And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,
   Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreathed;
   From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;
   Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians north
   Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.
   All nations now to Rome obedience pay-
   To Rome's great Emperor, whose wide domain,
   In ample territory, wealth and power,
   Civility of manners, arts and arms,
   And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer
   Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
   The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
   Shared among petty kings too far removed;
   These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all
   The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
   This Emperor hath no son, and now is old,
   Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
   To Capreae, an island small but strong
   On the Campanian shore, with purpose there
   His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;
   Committing to a wicked favourite
   All public cares, and yet of him suspicious;
   Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
   Endued with regal virtues as thou art,
   Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
   Might'st thou expel this monster from his throne,
   Now made a sty, and, in his place ascending,
   A victor-people free from servile yoke!
   And with my help thou may'st; to me the power
   Is given, and by that right I give it thee.
   Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world;
   Aim at the highest; without the highest attained,
   Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,
   On David's throne, be prophesied what will."
   To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:-
   "Nor doth this grandeur and majestic shew
   Of luxury, though called magnificence,
   More than of arms before, allure mine eye,
   Much less my mind; though thou should'st add to tell
   Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts
   On citron tables or Atlantic stone
   (For I have also heard, perhaps have read),
   Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
   Chios and Crete, and how they quaff in gold,
   Crystal, and myrrhine cups, imbossed with gems
   And studs of pearl-to me should'st tell, who thirst
   And hunger still. Then embassies thou shew'st
   From nations far and nigh! What honour that,
   But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
   So many hollow compliments and lies,
   Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed'st to talk
   Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,
   How gloriously. I shall, thou say'st, expel
   A brutish monster: what if I withal
   Expel a Devil who first made him such?
   Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out;
   For him I was not sent, nor yet to free
   That people, victor once, now vile and base,
   Deservedly made vassal-who, once just,
   Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,
   But govern ill the nations under yoke,
   Peeling their provinces, exhausted all
   By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown
   Of triumph, that insulting vanity;
   Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured
   Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed;
   Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still,
   And from the daily Scene effeminate.
   What wise and valiant man would seek to free
   These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,
   Or could of inward slaves make outward free?
   Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit
   On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
   Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,
   Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
   All monarchies besides throughout the world;
   And of my Kingdom there shall be no end.
   Means there shall be to this; but what the means
   Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell."
   To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied:-
   "I see all offers made by me how slight
   Thou valuest, because offered, and reject'st.
   Nothing will please the difficult and nice,
   Or nothing more than still to contradict.
   On the other side know also thou that I
   On what I offer set as high esteem,
   Nor what I part with mean to give for naught,
   All these, which in a moment thou behold'st,
   The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give
   (For, given to me, I give to whom I please),
   No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else-
   On this condition, if thou wilt fall down,
   And worship me as thy superior Lord
   (Easily done), and hold them all of me;
   For what can less so great a gift deserve?"
   Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain:—
   "I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;
   Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter
   The abominable terms, impious condition.
   But I endure the time, till which expired
   Thou hast permission on me. It is written,
   The first of all commandments, 'Thou shalt worship
   The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.'
   And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound
   To worship thee, accursed? now more accursed
   For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve,
   And more blasphemous; which expect to rue.
   The kingdoms of the world to thee were given!
   Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;
   Other donation none thou canst produce.
   If given, by whom but by the King of kings,
   God over all supreme? If given to thee,
   By thee how fairly is the Giver now
   Repaid! But gratitude in thee is lost
   Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame
   As offer them to me, the Son of God—
   To me my own, on such abhorred pact,
   That I fall down and worship thee as God?
   Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st
   That Evil One, Satan for ever damned."
   To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied:—
   "Be not so sore offended, Son of God—
   Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men—
   If I, to try whether in higher sort
   Than these thou bear'st that title, have proposed
   What both from Men and Angels I receive,
   Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth
   Nations besides from all the quartered winds—
   God of this World invoked, and World beneath.
   Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
   To me most fatal, me it most concerns.
   The trial hath indamaged thee no way,
   Rather more honour left and more esteem;
   Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.
   Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
   The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more
   Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.
   And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined
   Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
   To contemplation and profound dispute;
   As by that early action may be judged,
   When, slipping from thy mother's eye, thou went'st
   Alone into the Temple, there wast found
   Among the gravest Rabbies, disputant
   On points and questions fitting Moses' chair,
   Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews the man,
   As morning shews the day. Be famous, then,
   By wisdom; as thy empire must extend,
   So let extend thy mind o'er all the world
   In knowledge; all things in it comprehend.
   All knowledge is not couched in Moses' law,
   The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
   The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach
   To admiration, led by Nature's light;
   And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,
   Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean'st.
   Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,
   Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?
   How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
   Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
   Error by his own arms is best evinced.
   Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount,
   Westward, much nearer by south-west; behold
   Where on the AEgean shore a city stands,
   Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—
   Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
   And Eloquence, native to famous wits
   Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,
   City or suburban, studious walks and shades.
   See there the olive-grove of Academe,
   Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
   Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;
   There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound
   Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites
   To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls
   His whispering stream. Within the walls then view
   The schools of ancient sages—his who bred
   Great Alexander to subdue the world,
   Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next.
   There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
   Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
   By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,
   AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
   And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,
   Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called,
   Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own.
   Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught
   In chorus or iambic, teachers best
   Of moral prudence, with delight received
   In brief sententious precepts, while they treat
   Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,
   High actions and high passions best describing.
   Thence to the famous Orators repair,
   Those ancient whose resistless eloquence
   Wielded at will that fierce democraty,
   Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece
   To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.
   To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,
   From heaven descended to the low-roofed house
   Of Socrates—see there his tenement—
   Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pronounced
   Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth
   Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools
   Of Academics old and new, with those
   Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect
   Epicurean, and the Stoic severe.
   These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home,
   Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
   These rules will render thee a king complete
   Within thyself, much more with empire joined."
   To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied:—
   "Think not but that I know these things; or, think
   I know them not, not therefore am I short
   Of knowing what I ought. He who receives
   Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,
   No other doctrine needs, though granted true;
   But these are false, or little else but dreams,
   Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
   The first and wisest of them all professed
   To know this only, that he nothing knew;
   The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits;
   A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense;
   Others in virtue placed felicity,
   But virtue joined with riches and long life;
   In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;
   The Stoic last in philosophic pride,
   By him called virtue, and his virtuous man,
   Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing,
   Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,
   As fearing God nor man, contemning all
   Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life—
   Which, when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can;
   For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,
   Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.
   Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,
   Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,
   And how the World began, and how Man fell,
   Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
   Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry;
   And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves
   All glory arrogate, to God give none;
   Rather accuse him under usual names,
   Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite
   Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks in these
   True wisdom finds her not, or, by delusion
   Far worse, her false resemblance only meets,
   An empty cloud. However, many books,
   Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads
   Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
   A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
   (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?)
   Uncertain and unsettled still remains,
   Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself,
   Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys
   And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge,
   As children gathering pebbles on the shore.
   Or, if I would delight my private hours
   With music or with poem, where so soon
   As in our native language can I find
   That solace? All our Law and Story strewed
   With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,
   Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon
   That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare
   That rather Greece from us these arts derived—
   Ill imitated while they loudest sing
   The vices of their deities, and their own,
   In fable, hymn, or song, so personating
   Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
   Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid