On th' other fide know also thou, that I
On what I offer fet as high esteem,
Nor what I part with mean to give for nought;
All these which in a moment thou behold'ft,
The kingdoms of the world to thee I give;
For giv'n 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 anfwer'd with difdain. 170
I never lik'd thy talk, thy offers lefs,
Now both abhor, fince thou haft dar'd to utter
Th' abominable terms, impious condition;
But I indure the time, till which expir'd,
Thou haft 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'ft 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 ufurp'd;
Other donation none thou canst produce:
If giv'n, by whom but by the King of kings, 185 God over all fupreme? if giv'n to thee,
By thee how fairly is the giver now
Repaid? But gratitude in thee is loft
Long fince. 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.
Towhom the Fiend with fear abafh'd reply'd. 195 Be not fo fore offended, Son of God,
Though fons of God both Angels are and Men, If I to try whether in higher sort
Than these thou bear'ft that title, have propos'd
What both from Men and Angels I receive,
Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations befides 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 fo fatal, me it moft concerns.
The trial hath indamag'd thee no way,
Rather more honor left and more esteem;
Me nought advantag'd, miffing what I aim'd.
Therefore let pafs, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I fhall no more
Advife thee; gain them as thou canft, or not.
And thou thyfelf feem'ft otherwife inclin'd
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
To contemplation and profound dispute,
As by that early action may be judg'd,
When flipping from thy mother's eye thou went'st
Alone into the temple; there waft found
Among the gravest Rabbies disputant
On points and queftions fitting Mofes chair,
Teaching not taught; the childhood fhows the man,
As morning shows the day. Be famous then 220
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 Mofes 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 mean'st;
Without their learning how wilt thou with them,
Or they with thee hold conversation meet?
How wilt thou reafon with them, how refute
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
Error by his own arms is best evinc'd.
Look once more ere we leave this fpecular mount
Weftward, much nearer by fouthwest, behold
Where on the AEgean fhore 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 hofpitable, in her sweet recefs,
K 2
City' or suburban, ftudious walks and fhades ;
See there the olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
Trills her thick-warbled notes the fummer long;
There flow'ry hill Hymettus with the found
Of bees induftrious murmur oft invites
To studious musing; there Iliffus rolls'
His whisp'ring fiream: within the walls then view The schools of ancient fages; his who bred Great Alexander to fubdue the world,
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next :
There thou fhalt hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-measur'd verse,
AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher fung,
Blind Melefigenes 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 fententious precepts, while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life; 265
High actions, and high passions best describing:
Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,
Shook th' arsenal and fulmin'd over Greece, 270
To Macedon and Artaxerxes throne:
To fage philofophy next lend thine ear,
From Heav'n defcended to the low-rooft house
Of Socrates; fee there his tenement,
Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd
Wifeft of men; from whose mouth iffued forth
Mellifluous ftreams that water'd all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with those
Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the fect
Epicurean, and the Stoic fevere;
These here revolve, or, as thou lik'ft, 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 fagely thus reply'd. 285 Think not but that I know these things, or think I know them not; not therefore am I fhort Of knowing what I ought: he who receives. Light from above, from the fountain of light, No other doctrin needs, though granted true; 290 But these are false, or little else but dreams, Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm. The first and wifeft of them all profefs'd To know this only, that he nothing knew; The next to fabling fell and fmooth conceits; 295 A third fort doubted all things, though plain sense; Others in virtue plac'd felicity,
But virtue join'd with riches and long life;
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