But I endure the time, till which expir'd, Thou hast permission on me. It was written The first of all commandments, Thou shalt worship The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve; And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound To worship thee accurs'd, now more accurs❜d For this attempt bolder than that on Eve, And more blasphemous ? which expect to rue. The kingdoms of the world to thee were given, Permitted rather, and by thee usurp'd; Other donation none thou canst produce: If giv'n, 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 abhorred pact, That I fall down and worship thee as God? Get thee behind me; plain thou now appear'st That evil one, Satan for ever damn'd.
To whom the Fiend with fear abash'd reply'd. Be not so sore offended, Son of God, Though sons of God both angels are and men, If I to try whether in higher sort
Than these thou bear'st that title, have propos d What both from men and angels I receive, 200 Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth Nations besides from all the quarter'd winds, God of this world invok'd and world beneath;
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold To me so fatal, me it most concerns. The trial hath indamag'd thee no way, Rather more honour left and more esteem ; Me nought advantag'd, missing what I aim'd. Therefore let pass, as they are transitory, The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more 210 Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not. And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclin'd Than to a worldly crown, addicted more To contemplation and profound dispute, As by that early action may be judg'd, When shipping from thy mother's eye thou went'st Alone into the temple; there wast found Among the gravest Rabbies disputant
On points and questions fitting Moses' chair, Teaching, not taught; the childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. Be famous then 221 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 couch'd in Moses' law, The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote; The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach To admiration, led by Nature's light; And with the Gentiles much thou must converse, Ruling them by persuasion as thou mean'st; 230 Without their learning how wilt thou with them, Or they with thee hold conversation meet? How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
Error by his own arms is best evinc'd.
Look once more ere we leave this specular mount Westward, much nearer by south-west, behold Where on the Ægean shore a city stands Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil, Athens the eye of Greece, mother of arts 240 And eloquence, native to famous wits Or hospitable, in her sweet recess.
City' or suburban, studious walks and shades ; See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long; There flowery hill Hymettus with the sound Of bees industrious murmur oft invites
To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls
His whisp'ring stream; within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages; his who bred 251 Great Alexander to subdue the world,
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next: There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power Of harmony in tones and numbers hit By voice or hand, and various-measur❜d verse, Eolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
And his who gave him breath, but higher sung, Blind Melesigines thence Homer call'd, Whose poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own. 260 Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught In Chorus or Iambic, teachers best
Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd
In brief sententious 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,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook th' arsenal and fulmin'd over Greece, 270 To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear From Heav'n descended to the low-rooft house Of Socrates; see there his tenement, Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams that water'd all the schools Of Acadamics old and new, with these Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe;
These here revolve, 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 join'd. To whom our Saviour sagely thus reply'd: Think not but that I know these things, or think I know them not; not therefore am I short Of knowing what I ought: he who receives Light from above, from the Fountain of Light, No other doctrine needs, though granted true; 290 But these are false, or little else but dreams, Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm. The first and wisest of them all profess'd
To know this only, that he nothing knew ; The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits; A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense; Others in virtue plac'd felicity,
But virtue join'd with riches and long life; In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease; The Stoic last in philosophic pride,
By him call'd Virtue; and his virtuous man, Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing, Equals to God, oft shame not to prefer, As fearing God nor man, contemning all 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
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