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 I saw

He could not lose himself, but went about

His Father's business. What he meant I mused-
Since understand; 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

HE 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 sate.

There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,

Solicitous and blank, he thus began:

"Princes, Heaven's ancient Sons, Ethereal ThronesDæmonian 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

Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell.

I, as I undertook, and with the vote

Consenting in full frequence was impowered,

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 adorned, Perfections absolute, graces divine,

And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.

THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME

BEHOLD, a King shall reign in righteousness.

For justice is perpetual and immortal.

And a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

And this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

And in mercy shall the throne be established.

He will put on justice as a breastplate, and will take true judgment instead of a helmet.

He will take equity for an invincible shield.

In his days shall the righteous flourish;

In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace.

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

And shall make him of quick understanding in the

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 over-matched."

So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all
With clamour was assured their utmost aid
At his command; when from amidst them rose
Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell,
The sensualest, 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.
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 weigh'st
All others by thyself. Because of old

Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring
Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,
None are, thou think'st, but taken with such toys.
How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned

All her assaults, on worthier things intent!

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.
Therefore with manlier objects we must try

His constancy-with such as have more shew

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 acclaim;
Then 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;

fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.

And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

Injustice shall be blotted out, and fidelity shall stand for ever.

All nations shall serve him.

And all nations shall know that there is one that redeemeth and delivereth.

And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth.

And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

And the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

I will save my people from the land of the east, and from the land of the going down of the sun.

And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

And they shall dwell safely all of them.

And they all shall have one shepherd:

THE DESIRED OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME.

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:"Where will this end? Four times ten days I have passed Wandering this woody maze, and human food

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 meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet.
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 fled

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,

Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.

Thus wore out night; and now the harald 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.
When suddenly a man before him stood,

Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,

As one in city or court or palace bred,