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

Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy anwers, what but dark
Ambiguous, and with doublense 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

I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell, In every province? who, themselves disdaining
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 wo.
At first it may be; but long since with wo
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 thon 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 pretendest to truth; all oracles

By then are given, and what confessed more true
M

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
Shall be inquired 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 can'st thou find one miserable,
And not enforced ofttimes to pa t from truth,
If it may stand him more instead 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
Check 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 tuneable 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 a'tar, handling holy things,
Praying or vowing; and vouchsafed 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, bowing low
His gray dissimulation, disappeared
Into thin air diffused: for now began
Night with her sullen wings to double-shade.
The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched;
And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.

BOOK II.

THE ARGUMENT.

The disciples of Jesus, uneasy at his long absence, reason amongst themselves concerning it. Mary also gives vent to her maternal anxiety; in the expression of which she recapitulates many circumstances respecting the birth and early Life of her Son.-Satan again meets his Infernal Council, reports the bad success of his first temptation of our Blessed Lord, and calls upon them for counsel and assistance. Belial proposes tempting of Jesus with women. Satan rebukes Belial for his fissoluteness, charging on him all the profligacy of that kind ascribed by the poets to the heathen gods, and rejects his proposal as in no respect likely to succeed. Satan then suggests other modes of temptation, particularly proposing to avail nimself of the circumstance of our Lord's hungering; and, taking a band of chosen spirits with him, returns to resume his enterprise.-Jesus hungers in the desert. Night comes on: the manner in which our Saviour passes the night is described-Morning advances.-Satan again appears to Jesus,

and, after expressing wonder that he should be so entirely neglected in the wilderness, where others had been miracu!ously fed, tempts him with a sumptuous banquet of the most luxurious kind.—This he rejects, and the banquet vanishes. Satan, finding our Lord not to be assailed on the ground of appetite, tempts him again by offering him riches, as the means of acquiring power: this Jesus also rejects, producing many instances of great actions performed by persons under virtuous poverty, and specifying the danger of riches, and the cares and pains inseparable 'rom power and greatness.

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;
Sonetimes they thought he might be only shown,
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 Elijah, so in each place these
Nigh to Bethabara in Jericho

The city of palms, Enon and Salem old,
Macharus, and each town or city wahed
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Peræa; but returned in vain.
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,
Where winds with reeds and osiers whispenag
play,

Plain fishermen, (no greater men them call,)
Close in a cottage low together got,
Their unexpected loss and plaints out breathed.

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 wrapt 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 height 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 re

sume

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.

"O what avails me now that honour high
To have conceived of God, or that salute,
Hail, highly favoured, among women blessed"
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 shown,
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 as saw
He could not lose himself, but went about
His Father's business; what he meant I mused,
Since understood; 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, portending 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 sat;
There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,
Solicitous and blank, he thus began.

"Princes, Heaven's ancient sons,
thrones,

Threatens than our expulsion down to hell.
I, as I undertook, and with the vote
Consenting in full frequence was empowered,
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 adornea,
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 ali
With clamour was assured their utmost aid
At his command: when from amidst them rose
Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell,
The sensualist, 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
Pursuasive, 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 weighest
All others by thyself: because of old
Thou thyself doted'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,
ethereal 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,

Demonian 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

In courts and regal cha nbers how thou lurk'st.
In wood or grove, by missy fountain side,
In valley or green meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene

Of greatest things. What woman will you find,Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet.

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 these forty days none hath regard,
Forty and more deserted here indeed."

Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more
Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades
With fruits or flowers from Amalthea's horn,
And ladies of th' Hesperides, that seemed
Fairer than famed of old, or fabled since
Of fairy damsels, met in forests wide
By nights 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 wind
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

To whom thus Jesus. "What conclud'st thou Defends the touching of these viands pure;

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,
Would'st 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?
hold,

Nature ashamed, or, better to express,

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,
Be- Command a table in this wilderness,
And call swift flights of angels ministrant
Arrayed in glory on my cup to attend:

Troubled, that thou should'st hunger, hath pur- Why should'st thou then obtrude this diligence,

veyed

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 side-board, by the wine
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue

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 malcontent.
"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
Choose to impart to thy apparent need,
Why should'st 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 thee far-fet spoil." With

that

Both table and provision vanished quite
With sound of harpics' 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

• Grisamber-steamed"-Scented with ambergris; a spe- Thy temperance, invincible besides, des of luxury in Milton's time.

For no allurements yields to appetite;