(By what strange parallax, or optic skill
Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass
Of telescope, were curious7073 to enquire).
And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:
“The city which thou see’st no other deem
Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
Of nations. There the capitol 7074 thou see’st,
Above the rest lifting his stately7075 head
On the Tarpeian rock,7076 her citadel
Impregnable, and there Mount Palatine,
Th’ imperial palace, compass7077 huge, and high
The structure, skill of noblest architects,
With gilded battlements, conspicuous7078 far,
Turrets and terraces, and glittering spires.
Many a fair edifice besides, more like
Houses of gods (so well I have disposed 7079
My airy microscope7080 ) thou may’st behold,
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs
Carved work, the hand of famed artificers7081
In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.
“Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see
What conflux7082 issuing forth, or entering in:
Praetors,7083 proconsuls7084 to their provinces
Hasting, or on return, in robes of state,
Lictors7085 and rods, the ensigns7086 of their power;
Legions and cohorts,7087 turms7088 of horse and wings,
Or embassies from regions far remote,
In various habits,7089 on the Appian road,7090
Or on the Emilian,7091 some from farthest south,
Syene,7092 and where the shadow both way falls,
Meroë,7093 Nilotic isle, and more to west
The realm of Bocchus7094 to the Blackmoor sea.7095
From th’ Asian kings (and Parthian among these),
From India and the golden Chersoness,7096
And utmost Indian isle, Taprobane,7097
Dusk faces with white silken turbants7098 wreathed.
From Gallia,7099 Gades,7100 and the British west,
Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians7101 north
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.7102
All nations now to Rome obedience pay,
To Rome’s great Emperor, whose wide domain,
In ample territory, wealth and power,
Civility7103 of manners, arts and arms,
And long renown, thou justly may’st prefer
Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
Shared among petty kings too far removed.7104
These having shown thee, I have shown thee all
The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
“This Emperor7105 hath no son, and now is old,
Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
To Capri,7106 an island small but strong
On the Campanian7107 shore, with purpose there
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy,
Committing to a wicked favorite 7108
All public cares, and yet of him suspicious—
Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
Endued with regal virtues as thou art,
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
Might’st thou expel this monster from his throne,
Now made a sty, and in his place ascending,
A victor-people free7109 from servile yoke!
“And with my help thou may’st. To me the power
Is giv’n, and by that right I give it thee.
Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world.
Aim at the highest: without the highest attained
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,
On David’s throne, be prophesied what will.”
To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:
“Nor doth this grandeur and majestic show
Of luxury, though called magnificence,
More than of arms, before, allure mine eye,
Much less my mind, though thou should’st add to tell
Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous7110 feasts
On citron7111 tables or Atlantic stone7112
(For I have also heard, perhaps have read),
Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,7113
Chios and Crete,7114 and how they quaff in gold,
Crystal, and myrrhine cups embossed with gems
And studs7115 of pearl—to me should’st tell, who thirst
And hunger still. Then embassies thou show’st
From nations far and nigh! What honor that?
But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish7116 flatteries. Then proceed’st to talk
Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,
How gloriously. I shall, thou say’st, expel
A brutish monster. What if I withal
Expel a Devil who first made him such?
Let his tormentor, conscience, find him out.
For him I was not sent, nor yet to free
That people, victor once, now vile and base,
Deservedly made vassal—who, once just,
Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,
But govern ill the nations under yoke,
Peeling7117 their provinces, exhausted all
By lust and rapine—first ambitious grown
Of triumph, that insulting7118 vanity,
Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured
Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed,
Luxurious7119 by7120 their wealth, and greedier still,
And from7121 the daily scene 7122 effeminate.7123
What wise and valiant man would seek to free
These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,
Or could of inward slaves make outward free?
“Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit
On David’s throne, it shall be like a tree
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
All monarchies besides 7124 throughout the world,
And of my kingdom there shall be no end.
Means there shall be to this, but what the means
Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell.”
To whom the Tempter, impudent,7125 replied:
“I see all offers made by me how slight
Thou valu’st, because offered and reject’st.
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,7126
Or nothing more than still 7127 to contradict.
On th’ other side, know also thou that I
On what I offer set as high esteem,
Nor what I part with mean to give for naught.
All these, which in a moment thou behold’st,
The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give
(For, giv’n to me, I give to whom I please),
No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else—
On this condition, if thou wilt fall down
And worship me as thy superior Lord
(Easily done), and hold them all of me.
For what can less so great a gift deserve?”
Whom thus our Savior answered with disdain:
“I never liked thy talk, thy offers less,
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter
Th’ abominable terms, impious condition.
But I endure7128 the time, till which expired
Thou hast permission7129 on me. It is written,
The first of all commandments, ‘Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve. ’ 7130
And dar’st thou to the Son of God propound7131
To worship thee, accursed? Now more accursed
For this
attempt, bolder than that on Eve,
And more blasphemous, which expect to rue.
The kingdoms of the world to thee were giv’n!
Permitted, rather, and by thee usurped.
Other donation7132 none thou canst produce.
If given, by whom but by the King of kings,
God over all supreme? If giv’n to thee,
By thee how fairly is the giver now
Repaid? But gratitude in thee is lost
Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame
As offer them to me, the Son of God—
To me my own, on such abhorrèd pact,
That I fall down and worship thee as God?
Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear’st
That Evil One, Satan, forever damned.”
To whom the fiend, with fear abashed, replied:
“Be not so sore offended, Son of God—
Though Sons of God both Angels are and men—
If I, to try7133 whether in higher sort 7134
Than these thou bear’st that title, have proposed
What both from men and Angels I receive,
Tetrachs7135 of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations besides, from all the quartered winds—7136
God of this world invoked,7137 and world beneath.
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
To me so fatal, me it most concerns.
The trial 7138 hath endamaged thee no way—
Rather more honor left, and more esteem—
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world. I shall no more
Advise thee. Gain them as thou canst, or not.
“And thou thyself seem’st otherwise inclined
Than to a worldly crown, addicted 7139 more
To contemplation and profound dispute,
As by that early action may be judged,
When slipping from thy mother’s eye, thou went’st
Alone into the Temple. There wast found
Among the gravest7140 rabbis disputant
On points and questions fitting Moses’ chair,7141
Teaching, not taught.7142 The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day. Be famous, then,
By wisdom. As thy empire must extend,
So let extend thy mind o’er all the world
In knowledge, all things in it comprehend.
All knowledge is not couched7143 in Moses’ law,
The Pentateuch,7144 or what the prophets wrote.
The gentiles7145 also know, and write, and teach
To admiration,7146 led by Nature’s light,
And with the gentiles much thou must converse,
Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean’st.
Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,
Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?7147
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
Error by his own arms7148 is best evinced.7149
“Look once more, ere we leave this specular 7150 mount,
Westward, much nearer by south-west. Behold
Where on th’ Aegean shore a city stands,
Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits
Or hospitable,7151 in her sweet recess,7152
City or suburban, studious walks and shades.
See there the olive-grove of Academe,7153
Plato’s retirement,7154 where the Attic bird7155
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.
There flow’ry hill, Hymettus,7156 with the sound
Of bees’ industrious murmur, oft invites
To studious musing; there Ilissus7157 rolls
His whispering stream. Within the walls then view
The schools of ancient sages—his7158 who bred7159
Great Alexander to subdue the world,
Lyceum7160 there, and painted Stoa7161 next.
There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony, in tones and numbers7162 hit7163
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,
Aeolian7164 charms7165 and Dorian7166 lyric odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,
Blind Melesigenes,7167 thence Homer called,
Whose poem Phoebus7168 challenged7169 for his own.
Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught
In chorus or iambic,7170 teachers best
Of moral prudence,7171 with delight received
In brief sententious7172 precepts, while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,
High actions and high passions best describing.
Thence to the famous orators repair,7173
Those ancient whose resistless eloquence
Wielded7174 at will that fierce democraty,
Shook the Arsenal,7175 and fulmined7176 over Greece
To Macedon7177 and Artaxerxes’7178 throne.
To sage philosophy next lend thine ear,
From Heav’n descended to the low-roofed house
Of Socrates—see there his tenement,7179
Whom well inspired the oracle pronounced
Wisest of men, from whose mouth issued forth
Mellifluous7180 streams, that watered all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with those
Surnamed7181 Peripatetics,7182 and the sect
Epicurean,7183 and the Stoic severe.
“These here revolve7184 or, as thou lik’st, at home,
Till time mature thee to a kingdom’s weight.
These rules will render thee a king complete
Within thyself, much more with empire joined.”
To whom our Savior sagely thus replied:
“Think not but that I know these things, or think
I know them not. Not therefore am I short7185
Of knowing what I ought. He who receives
Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,
No other doctrine needs, though7186 granted7187 true.
But these are false, or little else but dreams,
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
The first and wisest7188 of them all professed
To know this only, that he nothing knew.
The next7189 to fabling fell and smooth conceits.
A third sort 7190 doubted all things, though plain sense.
Others in virtue placed felicity,
But virtue joined with riches and long life.
In corporal pleasure he,7191 and careless ease.
The Stoic last, in philosophic pride
(By him called virtue) and his virtuous man,
Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing
Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,
As fearing God nor man, contemning7192 all
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life—
Which, when he lists,7193 he leaves, or boasts he can,
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,
Or subtle shifts,7194 conviction to evade.
“Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,
Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,
And how the world began, and how man fell,
Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
Much of the soul they talk, but all awry,
And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves
All glory arrogate,7195 to God give none,
Rather accuse Him under usual names,
Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite
Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks in these
True wisdom finds her not, or by delusion
Far worse, her false resemblance only
meets,
An empty cloud. However many books,
Wise men have said, are wearisome. Who7196 reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
A spirit and judgment equal or superior
(And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?),
Uncertain and unsettled still remains,
Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself,
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys
And trifles for7197 choice7198 matters, worth a sponge,7199
As7200 children gathering pebbles on the shore.
Or if I would delight my private hours
With music or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language7201 can I find
That solace? All our Law and story strewn7202
With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,
Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon
That pleased so well our victor’s ear, declare
That rather Greece from us these arts derived—
Ill imitated while they loudest sing
The vices of their deities, and their own,
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating7203
Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
Remove their swelling epithets, thick-laid
As varnish7204 on a harlot’s cheek, the rest,
Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy to compare
With Sion’s songs, to all true tastes excelling,
Where God is praised aright and godlike men,
The Holiest of Holies and His Saints.
Such are from God inspired, not such from thee,7205
Unless where7206 moral virtue is expressed
By light of Nature, not in all quite lost.
Their orators thou then extoll’st as those
The top of eloquence—statists7207 indeed,
And lovers of their country, as may seem.
But herein to our prophets far beneath,
As men divinely taught, and better teaching
The solid rules of civil government,
In their majestic, unaffected style,
Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome.
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat.
These only, with our Law, best form a king.”
So spoke the Son of God. But Satan, now
Quite at a loss ( for all his darts were spent),7208
Thus to our Savior, with stern brow, replied:
“Since neither wealth nor honor, arms nor arts,
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 68
