"And forty days Elijah, without food, "Wandered this barren waste; the same I now : 66 Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust, 66 Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?" Whom answered thus the Arch-fiénd, now undisguised: "'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate, 66 66 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 66 66 By rigour unconniving, but that oft, Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy 66 Large liberty to round this globe of Earth, "Or range in the Air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens 360 370 380 "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 "I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell "Copartner in these regions of the world, 390 "If not disposer; lend them oft my aid; 66 66 66 Companions of my misery and woe. "At first it may be; but, long since with woe "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 grievest, composed of lies "From the beginning, and in lies wilt end; 400 "Who boastst release from Hell, and leave to come "Into the Heaven of Heavens:-thou comest indeed "(As a poor, miserable, captive thrall 410 "Comes to the place where he before had sat 66 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 66 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 thou impute to obedience what thy fear Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites? 66 "What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem 420 430 By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies. "But what have been thy answers?—what but dark, "Ambiguous, and with double sense 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 66 Among them to declare his providence "To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth, "But from him, or his Angels president "In every province? who, themselves disdaining "To approach thy temples, give thee in command 440 450 "Into the world, to teach his final will; 460 "To all truth requisite for men to know." "And sends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell "In pious hearts,- -an inward oracle, So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend, Though inly stung with anger and disdain, Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned: 66 Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke, "And urged me hard with doings, which not will, "But misery hath wrested from me. 66 Easily canst thou find one miserable, Where "And not enforced ofttimes to part from truth, 470 "If it may stand him more in stead to lie, 66 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 escape 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 "And talk at least, though I despair to attain. 66 Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure, "Suffers the hypocrite, or atheous priest "To tread his sacred courts, and minister "About his altar, handling holy things, 66 Praying or vowing; and vouchsafed his voice "To Balaam reprobate,――a prophet yet 66 66 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, nor forbid; do as thou findst "Permission from above; thou canst not more." His gray dissimulation, disappeared, The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched ; 480 490 500 www Second Book. 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, calls upon them for counsel and assistance. Belial proposes the tempting of Jesus with women. Satan rebukes Belial for his dissoluteness, 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 himself 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 miraculously 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 from power and greatness. MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained Him (whom they had 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 With others though in Holy Writ not named; Now missing him, their joy so lately found,→ |