Through many a hard assay, even to the death,
Ere I the promised kingdom can attain,
Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins
Full weight must be transferred upon my head.
Yet, neither thus disheartened or dismayed,
The time prefixed I waited; when behold
The Baptist, (of whose birth I oft had heard,
Not knew by sight,) now come, who was to come
Before Messiah, and his way prepare!

I, as all others to his baptism came,
Which I believed was from above; but he

"Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this

place

So far from path or road of men, who pass

In troop or caravan? for single none

Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here
His carcass, pined with hunger and with drought.
I ask the rather, and the more admire,

For that to me thou seem'st the man, whom late
Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford

Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son
Of God: I saw and heard, for we sometimes

Straight knew me, and with loudest voice pro- Who dwell in t is wild, constrained by want, conte

claimed

Me him (for it was shown him so from Heaven,)
Me him, whose harbinger he was; and first
Refused on me his baptism to confer,

As much his greater, and was hardly won:
But as I rose out of the laving stream,
Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence
The Spirit descended on me like a dove;
And last, the sum of all, my Father's voice,
Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his,
Me his beloved Son, in whom alone

He was weil pleased; by which I knew the time
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
But openly begin, as best becomes,
The authority which I derived from Heaven.
And now by some strong motion I am led
Into this wilderness, to what intent

I learn not yet; perhaps I need not know,
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals."
So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,
And looking round on every side beheld
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades;
The way he came not having marked, return
Was difficult, by human steps untrod:
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
Accompanied of things past and to come
Lodged in his breast, as well might recommend
Such solitude before choicest society.
Full forty days he passed, whether on hill
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
Under the covert of some ancient oak,
Or cedar, to defend him from the dew,
Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,
Till those days ended; hungered then at last
Among wild beasts: tney at this sight grew mild,
Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk
The fiery serpent fled, and noxious worm,
'The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.
But Low an aged man in rural weeds,

forth

To town or village nigh, (nighest is far,)
Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear
What happens new; fame also finds us out."

To whom the Son of God. "Who brought me
hither,

Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek."
"By miracle he may," replied the swain,
"What other way I see not; for we here
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inual
More than the camel, and to drink go far,
Men to much misery and hardship born:
But, if thou be the son of God, command
That out of these hard stones be made thee brea、l,
So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve,
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste."
He ended, and the Son of God replied.
"Thinkest thou such force in bread? Is it not
written,

(For I discern thee other than thou seemest,)
Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed
Our fathers here with manna? in the mount
Moses was forty days, nor eat, nor drank;
And forty days Elijah, without food,
Wandered this barren waste; the same I now:
Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art ?"
Whom thus answered the arch fiend, now un-
disguised.

"Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,
Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,
Kept not my happy station, but was driven
With them from bliss to the bottomless deep,
Yet to that hideous place not so confined
By rigour unconniving, but that oft,
Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy
Large liberty to round this globe of earth,
Or range in the air; nor from the Heaven of
Heavens

Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.

ewe,

Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve
Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,
To warm him wet returned from field at eve,
He saw approach, who first with curious eye
Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake.

I came among the sons of God, when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job
To prove him, and illustrate his high worth;
And, when to all his angels he proposed
To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,

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 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

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 fin?
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 meti,
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 messy fountain side,
In valley or green meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene

Daphne, or Sumele, Antiopa,

Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more

"Where will this end? four times ten days I've passed

Too long; then lay'st thy scapes on names adored, Wandering this woody maze, and human food

Apollo, Neptune Jupiter, or Pan,

Satyr, or Faun, or Sylvan? But these haunts
Delight not all; among the sons of men,
How many have with a smile made small account
Of Beauty and her lures, easily scorned,
All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
Remember that Pellean conqueror,

A youth, how ail the beautics of the east
He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;
How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.
For Solomon, he lived at ease, and full
Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond
Higher design than to enjoy his state;
Thence to the bait of women lay exposed:
But he whom we attempt is wiser far

Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,

Made and set wholly on the accomplishment

Nor tasted, nor had appetite; that fast
To virtue I impute not, or count part
Of what I suffer here; if nature need not,
Or God support nature without repast
Though needing, what praise is it to endure?
But now I feel I hunger, which declares
Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God
Can satisfy that need some other way,
Though hunger still remain; so it remain
Without this body's wasting, I content me,
And from the sting of famine fear no harm;
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed
Me hungering more to do my Father's will."

It was the hour of night, when thus the Son
Communed in silent walk, then laid him down
Under the hospitable covert nigh

Of trees thick interwoven; there he slept,
And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,

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

Though of this age the wonder and the fare,
On whom his leisure will vouchsafe an eye
Of fond desire? or should she, confident,
As sitting queen adored on Beauty's throne,
Descend with all her winning charms begirt
To enamour, as the zone of Venus once
Wrought that effect on Jove, so fables tell:
How would one look from his majestic brow,
Seated as on the top of virtue's hill,
Discountenance her despised, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject,
Or turn to reverent awe! for beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds

Him thought, he by the brook of Cherith stood,
And saw the ravens with their horny beaks
Food to Elijah bringing, even and morn,
Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what

they brought:

He saw the prophet also, how he fied
Into the desert, and how there he slept
Under a juniper; then how awaked
He found his supper on the coals prepared,
And by the angel was bid rise and eat,
And eat the second time after repose,
The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:
Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,

Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.
Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abashed:
Therefore with manlier objects we must try
His constancy; with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise;
Rocks, whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked;
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond;
And now I know he hungers, where no food
Is to be found, in the wide wilderness:
The rest commit to me; I shall let pass
No advantage, and his strength as oft assay."
He ceased, and heard their grant in loud ac-
claim:

l'hen forthwith to him takes a chosen band
Of spirits, likest to himself in guile,
To be at hand, and at his beck appear,
If cause were to unfold some active scene
Of various persons, each to know his part:
Then to the desert takes with these his flight;
Where, still from shade to shade, the Son of God
After forty days fasting had remained,
Now hungering first, and to himself thus said.

Thus wore out night; and now the herald lark
Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
The morn's approach, and greet her with his song;
As lightly from his grassy couch up rose
Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;
Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
From whose high top to ken the prospect round,
If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;
But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote none he saw;
Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud:
Thither he bent his way, determined there
To rest at noon; and entered soon the shade
High roofed and walks beneath, and alleys brown
That opened in the midst a woody scene;
Nature's own work it seemed, nature taught art,
And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt
Of woodgods and woodnymphs: he viewed it
round.

When suddenly a man before him stood,
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
As one in city, or court, or palace bred,