"What I foretold thee, many a hard assay1

"Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
"Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold;

"So many terrors, voices, prodigies,—

480

"Whereof this ominous night, that closed thee round,—

"May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign."

So talked he, while the Son of God went on And staid not, but in brief him answered thus:

"Me worse than wet thou findst not; other harm, "Those terrors, which thou speakst of, did me none: "I never feared they could, though noising loud "And threatening nigh: what they can do, as signs "Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn

485

490

"As false portents, not sent from God, but thee; "Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing, "Obtrudest thy offered aid, that I, accepting, "At least might seem to hold all power of thee, "Ambitious Spirit! and wouldst be thought my God, 495 "And stormst refused, thinking to terrify

"Me to thy will! desist!-thou art discerned,

"And toilst in vain-nor me in vain molest!"

To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:

"Then hear, O son of David, virgin-born!

"For 'Son of God' to me is yet in doubt;2
"Of the Messiah I have heard foretold
"By all the Prophets; of thy birth at length,
"Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew;
"And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,
"On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.

500

505

1 Assay, a poetic word for "trial, tribulation," borrowed from the art of trying metals by fire. See also Paradise Regained, b. i. 1. 263, 264; and Comus, l. 972.

2 For Son of God' to me is yet in doubt;-Satan had no scruples about the annunciation, and the truth of what Gabriel told Mary (Luke i. 35). He allows Christ to be virgin-born; yet he doubts of his being the Son of God, in the high sense of the words, notwithstanding. Despair at the failure of his attempt leads him to break out into grossly insulting language; and yet, with plausible hypocrisy, he qualifies the insult, and offers a justification of his further attempt on the divine person by whom he had been so often foiled.

"From that time seldom have I ceased to eye

66

Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth;

Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred; "Till at the ford of Jordan, whither all "Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest, "(Though not to be baptized,) by voice from Heaven "Heard thee pronounced 'the Son of God beloved.' "Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view “And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn "In what degree or meaning thou art called "The Son of God-which bears no single sense. "The Son of God I also am, or was; “And if I was, I am; relation stands :

510

515

"All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought

520

"In some respect far higher so declared:

"Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,

"And followed thee still on to this waste wild;

"Where, by all best conjectures, I collect

"Thou art to be my fatal enemy:

525

"Good reason then, if I beforehand seek

"To understand my adversary,-who

"And what he is;-his wisdom, power, intent ;

66

By parl or composition, truce or league,

"To win him, or win from him what I can:

530

"And opportunity I here have had

"To try thee, sift thee; and confess have found thee

"Proof against all temptation, as a rock

"Of adamant, and, as a centre, firm;

"To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,

535

"Not more;-for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,
"Have been before contemned, and may again.
"Therefore to know what more thou art than man,
"Worth naming 'Son of God' by voice from Heaven,
"Another method I must now begin."

So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing
Of hippogrif,1 bore through the air sublime,

540

1 Hippogrif,-an imaginary creature, partly resembling a griffin and partly a horse, frequently introduced by Ariosto and other Italian poets to

Over the wilderness and o'er the plain;
Till, underneath them, fair Jerusalem,

The holy city, lifted high her towers,
And higher yet the glorious Temple reared
Her pile, far off appearing like a mount
Of alabaster, topt with golden spires:
There, on the highest pinnacle, he set

545

The Son of God; and added thus in scorn:

550

"There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright

"Will ask thee skill: I to thy Father's house

"Have brought thee,and highest placed;-highest is best;"Now show thy progeny; if not to stand,

""Cast thyself down; safely, if Son of God:

555

"For it is written, 'He will give command

"Concerning thee to his angels: in their hands

They shall uplift thee, lest at any time

"Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.""

To whom thus Jesus: "Also it is written,3

560

56 "Tempt not the Lord thy God." He said, and stood:* But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.

5

As when Earth's son, Antæus, (to compare

convey their heroes from place to place. Milton insinuates that he employed no such machinery.

1 The holy city,-being the place chosen by God for the temple in which he was peculiarly to be worshipped. Its towers are frequently mentioned in Scripture, but the temple was its most conspicuous feature. See Matt. iv. 5. 2 Chron. xxvi. 9; xxxii. 5.

2 Now show thy progeny,-show of what race or extraction thou art. Compare Matt. xxvii. 39, 40. 'He will give command,' &c.-Ps. xci. 11,

12.

3 Also it is written,-Deut. vi. 16.

4 He said and stood:-He alleged the command, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," as a reason for not casting himself down, and stood. His standing is the principal proof of his progeny, which the Tempter required. His standing is considered as the display of his divinity, and the immediate cause of Satan's fall.

5 Antæus,-son of Poseidon (Neptune) and Ge (the Earth), a great giant and wrestler of Libya, who was said to be invincible so long as he remained in contact with his mother Earth. The strangers who visited his country were compelled to wrestle with him, and were conquered and slain. Hercules discovered the source of his strength, and lifting him from the Earth, did not allow him to touch it again till he had crushed him in the air. Irassa,-in Libya, his birth-place. Jove's Alcides,- Her

Small things with greatest,) in Irassa strove
With Jove's Alcides, and, oft foiled, still rose,
Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,
Throttled at length in the air, expired and fell:
So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,
Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride,
Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall.
And as that Theban monster,1 that proposed
Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured;

565

570

That once found out and solved, for grief and spite
Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep:
So, struck with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend;
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought—
Joyless triumphals of his hoped success-
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,

575

Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.

580

So Satan fell;-and straight a fiery globe
Of angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans2 received him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore,

As on a floating couch, through the blithe air:
Then, in a flowery valley, set him down
On a green bank, and set before him spread
A table of celestial food, divine
Ambrosial fruits, fetched from the tree of life,
And, from the fount of life, ambrosial drink,
That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired
What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,
Or thirst; and, as he fed, angelic quires

cules.

585

590

There were more than forty heroes that bore this name; the one who conquered Antæus was son of Jupiter and Alcmena.

1 That Theban monster,-the Sphinx, who proposed a riddle to the Thebans, intending to destroy all who were unable to solve it. Edipus did so, on which the Sphinx cast herself into the sea. Ismenian steep,— the citadel of Thebes, so called from the river Ismerus, which ran by Thebes.

2 Plumy vans,-feathered fans, or wings: him, is no doubt intended to refer to our Saviour, but the nearest antecedent is Satan, 1. 581.

Sung heavenly anthems of his victory

Over temptation and the Tempter proud:

“True image of the Father;1 whether throned "In the bosom of bliss, and light of light "Conceiving; or, remote from Heaven, enshrined "In fleshly tabernacle, and human form, "Wandering the wilderness ;-whatever place, "Habit, or state, or motion,-still expressing "The Son of God, with godlike force endued "Against the attempter of thy Father's throne, "And thief of Paradise!2 Him long of old "Thou didst debel,3 and down from Heaven cast "With all his army: now thou hast avenged "Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing "Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise, "And frustrated the conquest fraudulent.

595

600

605

"He never more henceforth will dare set foot "In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke:

610

"For though that seat of earthly bliss be failed,

"A fairer Paradise is founded now

"For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou,

"A Saviour, art come down to reinstall

615

"Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,

"Of Tempter and temptation without fear.

"But thou, infernal serpent! shalt not long "Rule in the clouds; like an autumnal star,

"Or lightning, thou shalt fall from Heaven, trod down 620

1 True image of the Father;-Colton justly remarks, that "all the poems that ever were written, even Paradise Lost, must yield to the Regained in the grandeur of its close. Christ stands triumphant on the pointed eminence (1. 561). The demon falls with amazement and terror on this full proof of his being that very Son of God whose thunder forced him out of heaven. The blessed angels receive new knowledge. They behold a sublime truth established, which was a secret to them at the beginning of the temptation, and the great discovery gives a proper opening to their hymn on the victory of Christ and the defeat of the Tempter."

2 Thief of Paradise!-See Paradise Lost, b. iv. 1. 192.

3 Debel,-subdue, conquer.

+ Supplanted, from the Latin, meaning "overcome in wrestling," or "having his heels tripped up."

5 Like an autumnal star, or lightning, thou shalt fall,—Compare Paradise