Paradise Regained

by John Milton

Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life--

  Which, when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can;

  For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,

  Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.

  Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,

  Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, 310

  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, 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, 320

  An empty cloud. However, many books,

  Wise men have said, are wearisome; who 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 for choice matters, worth a sponge,

  As children gathering pebbles on the shore. 330

  Or, if I would delight my private hours

  With music or with poem, where so soon

  As in our native language can I find

  That solace? All our Law and Story strewed

  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, 340

  In fable, hymn, or song, so personating

  Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.

  Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid

  As varnish 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); 350

  Unless where 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--statists 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. 360

  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 spake the Son of God; but Satan, now

  Quite at a loss (for all his darts were spent),

  Thus to our Saviour, with stern brow, replied:--

  "Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,

  Kingdom nor empire, pleases thee, nor aught

  By me proposed in life contemplative 370

  Or active, tended on by glory or fame,

  What dost thou in this world? The Wilderness

  For thee is fittest place: I found thee there,

  And thither will return thee. Yet remember

  What I foretell thee; soon thou shalt have cause

  To wish thou never hadst rejected, thus

  Nicely or cautiously, my offered aid,

  Which would have set thee in short time with ease

  On David's throne, or throne of all the world,

  Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season, 380

  When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.

  Now, contrary--if I read aught in heaven,

  Or heaven write aught of fate--by what the stars

  Voluminous, or single characters

  In their conjunction met, give me to spell,

  Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate,

  Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,

  Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.

  A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,

  Real or allegoric, I discern not; 390

  Nor when: eternal sure--as without end,

  Without beginning; for no date prefixed

  Directs me in the starry rubric set."

  So saying, he took (for still he knew his power

  Not yet expired), and to the Wilderness

  Brought back, the Son of God, and left him there,

  Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose,

  As daylight sunk, and brought in louring Night,

  Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both,

  Privation mere of light and absent day. 400

  Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind

  After hisaerie jaunt, though hurried sore,

  Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest,

  Wherever, under some concourse of shades,

  Whose branching arms thick intertwined might shield

  From dews and damps of night his sheltered head;

  But, sheltered, slept in vain; for at his head

  The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams

  Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now

  'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds 410

  From many a horrid rift abortive poured

  Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire,

  In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds

  Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad

  From the four hinges of the world, and fell

  On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines,

  Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks,

  Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,

  Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,

  O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st 420

  Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there:

  Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round

  Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,

  Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou

  Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.

  Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair

  Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,

  Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar

  Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,

  And griesly spectres, which the Fiend had raised 430

  To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.

  And now the sun with more effectual beams

  Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet

  From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,

  Who all things now behold more fresh and green,

  After a night of storm so ruinous,

  Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,

  To gratulate the sweet return of morn.

  Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,

  Was absent, after all his mischief done, 440

  The Prince of Darkness; glad would also seem

  Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;

  Yet with n
o new device (they all were spent),

  Rather by this his last affront resolved,

  Desperate of better course, to vent his rage

  And mad despite to be so oft repelled.

  Him walking on a sunny hill he found,

  Backed on the north and west by a thick wood;

  Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,

  And in a careless mood thus to him said:-- 450

  "Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,

  After a dismal night. I heard the wrack,

  As earth and sky would mingle; but myself

  Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them,

  As dangerous to the pillared frame of Heaven,

  Or to the Earth's dark basis underneath,

  Are to the main as inconsiderable

  And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze

  To man's less universe, and soon are gone.

  Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light 460

  On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,

  Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,

  Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,

  They oft fore-signify and threaten ill.

  This tempest at this desert most was bent;

  Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.

  Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject

  The perfect season offered with my aid

  To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong

  All to the push of fate, pursue thy way 470

  Of gaining David's throne no man knows when

  (For both the when and how is nowhere told),

  Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;

  For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing

  The time and means? Each act is rightliest done

  Not when it must, but when it may be best.

  If thou observe not this, be sure to find

  What I foretold thee--many a hard assay

  Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,

  Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold; 480

  Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round,

  So many terrors, voices, prodigies,

  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 find'st not; other harm

  Those terrors which thou speak'st 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 490

  As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;

  Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,

  Obtrud'st thy offered aid, that I, accepting,

  At least might seem to hold all power of thee,

  Ambitious Spirit! and would'st be thought my God;

  And storm'st, refused, thinking to terrify

  Me to thy will! Desist (thou art discerned,

  And toil'st in vain), nor me in vain molest."

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

  "Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born! 500

  For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.

  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.

  From that time seldom have I ceased to eye

  Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,

  Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;

  Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all 510

  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:

  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.

  Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek

  To understand my adversary, who

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

  By parle 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,

  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 the Son of God by voice from Heaven,

  Another method I must now begin." 540

  So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing

  Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime,

  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 alablaster, topt with golden spires:

  There, on the highest pinnacle, he set

  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 shew thy progeny; if not to stand,

  Cast thyself down. Safely, if Son of God;

  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, 560

  'Tempt not the Lord thy God.'" He said, and stood;

  But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.

  As when Earth's son, Antaeus (to compare

  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 570

  Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall;

  And, as that Theban monster that proposed

  Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured,

  That once found out and solved, for grief and spite

  Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep,

  So, strook 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,

  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 vans 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, 590

  That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired

  What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,

  Or thirst; and, as he fed, Angelic quires

  Sung heavenly anthems of his victory

  Over temptation and the Tempter proud:--

  "True Image of the Father, 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, 600

  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! Him long of old

  Thou didst debel, 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.

  He never more henceforth will dare set foot 610

  In paradise to tempt; his snares are broke.

  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;

  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

  Under his feet. For proof, ere this thou feel'st

  Thy wound (yet not thy last and deadliest wound)

  By this repulse received, and hold'st in Hell

  No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues

  Thy bold attempt. Hereafter learn with awe

  To dread the Son of God. He, all unarmed,

  Shall chase thee, with the terror of his voice,

  From thy demoniac holds, possession foul--

  Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,

  And beg to hide them in a herd of swine, 630

  Lest he command them down into the Deep,

  Bound, and to torment sent before their time.

  Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both Worlds,

  Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work

  Now enter, and begin to save Mankind."

  Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,

  Sung victor, and, from heavenly feast refreshed,

  Brought on his way with joy. He, unobserved,

  Home to his mother's house private returned.

  End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Paradise Regained by John Milton