After a night of storm so ruinous,

Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To gratulate the sweet return of morn.
Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,
Was absent, after all his mischief done,

The Prince of darkness; glad would also seem
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;
Yet with no new device (they all were spent),
Rather by this his last affront resolved,
Desperate of better course, to vent his rage
And mad despite to be so oft repell'd.
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,
Back'd on the north and west by a thick wood;
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,
And in a careless mood thus to him said:

Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,
After a dismal night: I heard the wrack,
As earth and sky would mingle; but myself
Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them
As dangerous to the pillar'd frame of Heaven,
Or to the earth's dark basis underneath,
Are to the main as inconsiderable

And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze
To man's less universe, and soon are gone;
Yet, as being oft times noxious where they light
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
They oft foresignify and threaten ill:
This tempest at this desert most was bent;

Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject

The perfect season offer'd with my aid

To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong **
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way

Of gaining David's throne, no man knows when,
For both the when and how is no where told?
Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd, no doubt;

For Angels have proclaim'd it, but concealing
The time and means. Each act is rightliest done,"
Not when it must, but when it may be best:
If thou observe not this, be sure to find,
What I foretold thee, many a hard assay

Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold;
Whereof this ominous night, that closed thee round,
So many terrors, voices, prodigies,

May warn thee as a sure foregoing sign.

So talk'd he, while the Son of God went on And staid not, but in brief him answer'd thus:

Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm
Those terrors which thou speak'st of, did me none;
I never fear'd they could, though noising loud
And threatening nigh; what they can do, as signs
Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn

As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;
Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,
Obtrudest thy offer'd aid, that I, accepting,
At least might seem to hold all power of thee,
Ambitious Spirit! and wouldst be thought my God;

And storm'st refused, thinking to terrify
Me to thy will! desist (thou art discern'd,
And toil'st in vain), nor me in vain molest.

To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied: Then hear, O Son of David, Virgin-born,

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt;
Of the Messiah I had heard foretold

By all the Prophets; of thy birth at length,
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,
And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,
On thy birthnight that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
Till at the ford of Jordan, whither all

Flock to the Baptist, I among the rest

(Though not to be baptized), by voice from Heaven
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art call'd
The Son of God; which bears no single sense.
The Son of God I also am, or was;
And if I was, I am; relation stands;

All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher, so declared:

Therefore I watch'd thy footsteps from that hour,
And follow'd thee still on to this waste wild;
Where, by all best conjectures, I collect
Thou art to be my fatal enemy:

E

Good reason then if I beforehand seek

To understand my adversary, who

And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent;
By parl or composition, truce or league,
To win him, or win from him what I can;
And opportunity I here have had

To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee
Proof against all temptation, as a rock

Of adamant, and, as a centre, firm;

To the utmost of mere Man both wise and good, Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory Have been before contemn'd, and may again. Therefore, to know what more thou art than Man, Worth naming Son of God by voice from Heaven, Another method I must now begin.

So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime, Over the wilderness and o'er the plain, Till underneath them fair Jerusalem, The holy city lifted high her towers, And higher yet the glorious temple rear'd Her pile, far off appearing like a mount Of alabaster, topp'd with golden spires: There on the highest pinnacle he set The Son of God: and added thus in scorn:

There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright Will ask thee skill; I to thy Father's house

Have brought thee,and highest placed; highest is best: Now show the progeny; if not to stand,

Cast thyself down: safely, if Son of God:

For it is written, “He will give command
Concerning thee to his Angels, in their hands
They shall uplift thee, lest at any time
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone."
To whom thus Jesus: Also it is written,
"Tempt not the Lord thy God.” He said, and stood:
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell,
As when Earth's son Antæus (to compare
Small things with greatest), in Irassa strove
With Jove's Alcides, and oft foil'd, still rose,
Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple join'd,
Throttled at length in the air, expired and fell;
So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,
Renewing fresh assaults amidst his pride,
Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall:
And as that Theban monster, that proposed
Her riddle, and him who solved it not devour'd.
That once found out and solved, for grief and spite
Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep;
So, struck with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend,
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
(Joyless triumphals of his hoped success)
Ruin and desperation and dismay,

Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.
So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe
Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans received him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore,
As on a floating couch, through the blithe air;