Well hath obey'd; just trial, ere I merit
My exaltation without change or end.
But what concerns it thee, when I begin
My everlasting kingdom? Why art thou
Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition?
Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall,
And my promotion will be thy destruction?"
To whom the tempter, inly rack'd, replied:
'Let that come when it comes; all hope is lost
Of my reception into grace: what worse?
For where no hope is left, is left no fear:
If there be worse, the expectation more
Of worse torments me than the feeling can.
I would be at the worst: worst is my port,
My harbour, and my ultimate repose;
The end I would attain, my final good.
My error was my crror, and my crime
My crime; whatever, for itself condemn'd;

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And will alike be punish'd, whether thou

Reign, or reign not; though to that gentle brow

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Willingly could I fly, and hope thy reign,

From that placid aspéct and meek regard,

Rather than aggravate my evil state,

Would stand between me and thy Father's ire

(Whose ire I dread more than the fire of hell),

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A shelter, and a kind of shading cool

Interposition, as a summer's cloud.

If I then to the worst that can be haste,

Why move thy feet so slow to what is best,

Happiest, both to thyself and all the world,

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That thou, who worthiest art, shouldst be their king?
Perhaps thou linger'st, in deep thoughts detain'd
Of th' enterprise so hazardous and high!

No wonder; for though in thee be united
What of perfection can in man be found,
Or human nature can receive, consider,

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Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent

At home, scarce view'd the Galilean towns,

And once a year Jerusalem, few days'

Short sojourn; and what thence couldst thou observe? 235 The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,

Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts,

Best school of best experience, quickest insight

In all things that to greatest actions lead.

The wisest, unexperienc'd, will be ever

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Timorous and loth, with novice modesty

(As he who, seeking asses, found a kingdom),

Irresolute, unhardy, unadvent'rous:

But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit
Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes

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The monarchies of th' earth, their pomp and state

Sufficient introduction to inform

Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal arts,

And regal mysteries; that thou mayst know
How best their opposition to withstand.'

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With that (such pow'r was giv'n him then), he took The Son of God up to a mountain high.

It was a mountain at whose verdant feet

A spacious plain, outstretch'd in circuit wide,
Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flow'd,

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Th' one winding, th' other straight, and left between
Fair champaign with less rivers intervein'd,
Then meeting join'd their tribute to the sea:
Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;
With herds the pastures throng'd, with flocks the

hills;

Huge cities and high towr'd, that well might seem
The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large
The prospect was, that here and there was room
For barren desert, fountainless and dry.
To this high mountain top the tempter brought
Our Saviour, and new train of words began:

'Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale,
Forest and field and flood, temples and towers,
Cut shorter many a league; here thou behold'st
Assyria, and her empire's ancient bounds,
Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on
As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,
And oft beyond: to south the Persian bay,
And, inaccessible, th' Arabian drought:
Here Nineveh, of length within her wall
Several days journey, built by Ninns old,
Of that first golden monarchy the seat,
And seat of Salmanassar, whose success
Israel in long captivity still mourns;
There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues,
As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice
Judah and all thy father David's house
Led captive, and Jerusalem laid' waste,
Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,

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His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;
Ecbatana her structure vast there shows,

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And Hecatompylos her hundred gates;

There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,
The drink of none but kings; of later fame,
Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands,
The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there
Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,

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Turning with easy eye, thou mayst behold.
All these the Parthian (now some ages past,

By great Arsaces led, who founded first

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That empire) under his dominion holds,

From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.
And just in time thou com'st to have a view
Of his great pow'r; for now the Parthian king
In Ctesiphon hath gather'd all his host
Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild
Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid

He marches now in haste; sec, though from far,
His thousands, in what martial equipage

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They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms, 305 Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit;

All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;

See how in warlike muster they appear,

In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings.'

He look'd, and saw what numbers numberless

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The city-gates out-pour'd, light-armed troops,

In coats of mail and military pride;

In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,

Prancing their riders bore, the flow'r and choice

Of many provinces from bound to bound;
From Arachosia, from Candaor east,

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And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs
Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;

From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains
Of Adiabene, Media, and the south
Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.

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He saw them in their forms of battle rang'd,

How quick they wheel'd, and flying behind them shot

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Sharp sleet of arrowy show'rs against the face
Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;
The field all iron cast a gleaming brown;
Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor on each horn
Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight,
Chariots, or elephants indors'd with towers
Of archers; nor of lab'ring pioneers
A multitude, with spades and axes arm'd
To lay hills plane, fell woods, or valleys fill,
Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay
With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke;
Mules after these, camels and dromedaries,
And waggons, fraught with utensils of war.
Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,
When Agrican with all his northern powers
Besieg'd Albracea, as romances tell,

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The city of Gallaphrone, from whence to win
The fairest of her sex Angelica,

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His daugter, sought by many prowest knight
Both Paynim, and the peers of Charlemain.
Such and so numerous was their chivalry:
At sight whereof the fiend yet more presum'd,
And to our Saviour thus his words renew'd:

That thou mayst know I seek not to engage

Thy virtue, and not every way secure

On no slight grounds thy safety; hear, and mark,

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To what end I have brought thee hither, and show n350
All this fair sight: thy kingdom though foretold
By prophet or by angel, unless thou

Endeavour as thy father David did,

Thou never shalt obtain; prediction still
In all things, and all men, supposes means;
Without means us'd, what it predicts revokes.
But, say thou wert possess'd of David's throne,
By, free consent of all, none opposite,
Samaritan or Jew; how couldst thou hope

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Long to enjoy it, quiet and secure,

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Between two such enclosing enemies,

Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these

Thou must make sure thy own; the Parthian first
By my advice, as nearer, and of late

Found able by invasion to annoy

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Thy country, and captive lead away her kings,

Antigonus and old Hyrcanus, bound,

Maugre the Roman: it shall be my task

To render thee the Parthian at dispose,

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Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league: 370
By him thou shalt regain, without him not,
That which alone can truly re-install thee
In David's royal seat, his true successor,
Deliverance of thy brethren, those ten tribes
Whose offspring in his territory yet serve,
In Habor, and among the Medes dispers'd:
Ten sons of Jacob, two of Joseph, lost
Thus long from Israel, serving, as of old
Their fathers in the land of Egypt serv'd,
This offer sets before thee to deliver.
These if from servitude thou shalt restore
To their inheritance, then, nor till then,
Thou on the throne of David in full glory,
From Egypt to Euphrates, and beyond,

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Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar need not fear,'

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To whom our Saviour answer'd thus, unmov'd :

'Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm

And fragile arms, much instrument of war,
Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,
Before mine eyes thou hast set; and in my ear
Vented much policy, and projects deep
Of enemies, of aids, battles and leagues,
Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.
Means I must use, thou say'st, prediction else
Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne:
My time, I told thee (and that time for thee
Were better farthest off), is not yet come:

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When that comes, think not thou to find me slack

On my part aught endeavouring, or to need

Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome

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Luggage of war there shown me, argument

Of human weakness rather than of strength.

My brethren, as thou call'st them, those ten tribes

I must deliver, if I mean to reign

David's true heir, and his full scepter sway

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To just extent over all Israel's sons.

But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then

For Israel, or for David, or his throne,

When thou stood'st up his tempter to the pride

Of numb'ring Israel, which cost the lives

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Of threescore and ten thousand Israelites

By three days' pestilence? Such was thy zeal
To Israel then; the same that now to me!

As for those captive tribes, themselves were they

Should I of these the liberty regard,

Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony,

Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd,

Headlong would follow; and to their gods perhaps
Of Bethel and of Dan? No; let them serve
Their enemies, who serve idols with God.

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a

Yet he at length (time to himself best known),
Rememb'ring Abraham, by some wondrous call

May bring them back repentant and sincere,
And at their passing cleave th' Assyrian flood,
While to their native land with joy they haste;
As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,
When to the promis'd land their fathers pass'd:
To his due time and providence I leave them.'

So spake Israel's true King, and to the fiend
Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.
So fares it, when with truth falsehood contends.

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Satan, persisting in the temptation of our Lord, shows him imperial Rome in its greatest pomp and splendour, as a power which he probably would prefer before that of the Parthians; and tells him that he might with the greatest case expel Tiberius, restore the Romans to their liberty, and make himself master not only of the Roman empire, but, by so doing, of the whole world, and inclusively of the throne of David. Our Lord, in reply, expresses his contempt of grandeur and worldly power, notices the luxury, vanity, and profligacy of the Romans, declaring how little they merited to be restored to that liberty which they had lost by their misconduct, and briefly refers to the greatness of his own future kingdom. Satan, now desperate, to enhance the value of his proffered gifts, professes that the only terms, on which he will bestow them, are our Saviour's falling down and worshipping him. Our Lord expresses a firm but temperate indignation at such a proposition, and rebukes the tempter by the title of 'Satan for ever damn'd.' Satan, abashed, attempts to justify himself: he then assumes a new ground of temptation, and proposing to Jesus the intellectual gratifications of wisdom and knowledge, points out to him the celebrated seat of ancient learning, Athens, its schools, and other various resorts of learned teachers and their disciples;