Th' abominable terms, impious condition; But I endure the time, till which expir'd,
Thou hast permission on me. 175 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 accurs'd, now more accurs'd 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 usurp'd;
Other donation none thou canst produce:
If giv'n, by whom but by the King of Kings, 185 God over all supreme? if giv'n 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 damn'd.
To whom the Fiend with fear abash'd reply'd. 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 propos'd What both from men and angels I receive, Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth Nations besides from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invok'd and world beneath ; Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold To me so fatal, me it most concerns. The trial hath indamag'd thee no way, Rather more honor left and more esteem; Me nought advantag'd, missing what I aim'd. Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more 210 Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not. And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclin'd Than to a worldly crown, addicted more To contemplation and profound dispute, As by that early action may be judg'd, 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 shows the man, As morning shows 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 couch'd in Moses' law, 225 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 meanst; 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 evinc'd.
Look once more ere we leave this specular mount Westward, much nearer by southwest, behold Where on the Ægean 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; their Ilissus rolls
His whisp'ring 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 shalt thou hear and learn the secret power Of harmony in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-measur❜d verse, Æolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, Blind Melesigenes thence Homer call'd, Whose poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own. 260 Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught In Chorus or Iambic, teachers best
Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd
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 éloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook th' arsenal and fulmin'd over Greece, 270 To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: To sage. Philosophy next lend thine ear From Heav'n descended to the low-rooft house Of Socrates; see there his tenement, Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams that water'd all the schools Of Academics old and new, with those Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe;
These here revolve, or, as thou lik'st, 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 join'd. To whom our Saviour sagely thus reply'd: 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 doctrin needs, though granted true; "29☛ But these are false, or little else but dreams, Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
PERPLEX'D and troubled at his bad success The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply, Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
That sleek'd his tongue, and won so much on Eve, So little here, nay lost; but Eve was Eve, This far his over-match, who self-deceiv'd And rash, before-hand had no better weigh'd The strength he was to cope with, or his own: But as a man who had been matchless held In cunning, over-reach'd 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 pour'd, Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound; Or surging waves against a solid rock, Though all to shivers dash'd, th' assault renew, Vain battʼry, and in froth or bubbles end; So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
and to shameful silence brought,
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