He added not; and Satan, bowing low His gray dissimulation, disappear'd, Into thin air diffus'd: for now began Night with her sullen wings to double-shade The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couch'd; And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam. END OF BOOK I. : THE ARGUMENT. I he Disciples of Jesus, uneasy at his long absence, reason among themselves concerning it. Mary also gives vent to her maternal anxiety in the expression of which she recapitulates many cir cumstances respecting the birth and early life of her Son-Satan again meets his Infernal Council, reports the bad success of his first temptation of our Blessed Lord, and calls upon them for counsel and assistance. Belial proposes the tempting of Jesus with women. Satan rebukes Belial for his dissoluteness, charging on him all the profligacy of that kind ascribed by the poets to the Heathen Gods, and rejects his proposal as in no respect likely to succeed. Satan then suggests other modes of temptation, particularly proposing to avail himself of the circumstance of our Lord's hungering; and, taking a band of chosen Spirits with him, returns to resume his enterprise.-Jesus hungers in the desert.-Night comes on; the manner in which our Saviour passes the night is described.-Morning advances.-Satan again appears to Jesus, and after expressing wonder that he should be so en. tirely neglected in the wilderness, where others had been miraculously fed, tempts him with a sumptuous banquet of the most luxurious kind. This he rejects, and the banquet vanishes.Satan, finding our Lord not to be assailed on the ground of ap petite, tempts him again by offering him riches, as the means of acquiring power: This Jesus also rejects, producing many instances of great actions performed by persons under virtuous poverty, and specifying the danger of riches, and the cares and pains inseparable from power and greatness. PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK II. MEANWHILE the new-baptiz'd, who yet remain'd And on that high authority, had believ'd, And with him talk'd, and with him lodg'd; I mean With others though in Holy Writ not nam'd; Nigh to Bethabara, in Jericho The city of palms, Ænon, and Salem old, On this side the broad lake Genezaret, Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek, Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play, Their unexpected loss and plaints out breath'd: For whither is he gone, what accident Send thy Messiah forth, the time is come; : Thy chosen to what height their power unjust They have exalted, and behind them cast All fear of thee; arise, and vindicate Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke. |