Delight not all: among the sons of men,

How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorn'd
All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
Remember that Pellean conquerour,
A youth, how all the beauties of the East
He slightly view'd, and slightly overpass'd;
How he, surnamed of Africa, dismiss'd,
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.
For Solomon, he lived at ease; and, full

Of honour, wealth, high fare, aim'd not beyond
Higher design than to enjoy his state;

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Thence to the bait of women lay exposed:
But he, whom we attempt, is wiser far
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,
Made and set wholly on the accomplishment

Of greatest things. What woman will you find,
Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
On whom his leisure will vouchsafe an eye
Of fond desire? Or should she, confident,
As sitting queen adored on beauty's throne,
Descend with all her winning charms begirt
To enamour, as the zone of Venus once
Wrought that effect on Jove, so fables tell;
How would one look from his majestick brow,
Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill,
Discountenance her despis'd, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject

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210

215

Or turn to reverent awe! for beauty stands

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In the admiration only of weak minds

Led captive. Cease to admire, and all her plumes

Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,

At every sudden slighting quite abash'd.

Therefore with manlier objects we must try

225

His constancy; with such as have more show

Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise;

Rocks, whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd;
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond:

And now I know he hungers, where no food

Is to be found, in the wide wilderness:

230

The rest commit to me; I shall let pass

No advantage, and his strength as oft assay.

He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim,

196. Pellean conquerour: Alexander, born at Pella in Macedonia.

199. Surnamed: Scipio Africanus.
222. Cease to admire, that is, if you

cease.

191-225. The whole of this part of Satan's speech seems to breathe such a sincere and deep sense of the charms of real goodness, that we almost forget who

235

is the real speaker. His description of the little effect which the most powerful enticements can produce on the resolute mind of the virtuous, while it is heightened with many beautiful turns of language, is, in its general tenor, of the most superior and dignified kind.-DUNSTER.

Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band
Of spirits, likest to himself in guile,
To be at hand, and at his beck appear,

If cause were to unfold some active scene

Of various persons, each to know his part;
Then to the desert takes with these his flight;
Where still from shade to shade the Son of God,
After forty days fasting, had remain'd,

Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:

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Where will this end? four times ten days I've pass'd 245
Wandering this woody maze, and human food
Nor tasted, nor had appetite; that fast
To virtue I impute not, or count part
Of what I suffer here; if nature need not,
Or God support nature without repast
Though needing, what praise is it to endure?
But now I feel I hunger, which declares
Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God
Can satisfy that need some other way,
Though hunger still remain: so it remain
Without this body's wasting, I content me,
And from the sting of famine fear no harm;
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed
Me hungering more to do my Father's will.

It was the hour of night, when thus the Son
Communed in silent walk, then laid him down
Under the hospitable covert nigh

Of trees thick interwoven; there he slept,
And dream'd, as appetite is wont to dream,

Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet:

Him thought, he by the brook of Cherith stood,
And saw the ravens with their horny beaks
Food to Elijah bringing, even and morn,

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260

265

Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they

brought:

He saw the prophet also, how he fled

Into the desert, and how there he slept

Under a juniper; then how, awaked,

He found his supper on the coals prepared
And by the angel was bid rise and eat,
And eat the second time after repose,

The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:
Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,
Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.

Thus wore out night; and now the herald lark
Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
The morn's approach, and greet her with his song:
As lightly from his grassy couch up rose
Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;

259. Me hungering. John iv. 34. 266. Him thought, an ancient phraseology of the same construction as me

270

275

280

thought. Cherith: see 1 Kings xvii. 5, 6 and xix. 4.

278. Daniel: see Dan. chap. 1.

Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
Up to a hill anon his steps he rear'd,
From whose high top to ken the prospect round,
If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;
But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw;
Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud:
Thither he bent his way, determined there
To rest at noon; and enter'd soon the shade
High roof'd, and walks beneath, and alleys brown,
That open'd in the midst a woody scene:
Nature's own work it seem'd, (Nature taught art)
And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt

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Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs: he view'd it round;

When suddenly a man before him stood;
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,

As one in city, or court, or palace bred;

300

And with fair speech these words to him address'd:
With granted leave officious I return;

But much more wonder that the Son of God
In this wild solitude so long should bide,
Of all things destitute; and, well I know,
Not without hunger. Others of some note,
As story tells, have trod this wilderness;
The fugitive bond-woman, with her son,
Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief
By a providing angel: all the race

305

810

Of Israel here had famish'd, had not God

Rain'd from heaven manna; and that prophet bold,

Native of Thebez, wandering here was fed

Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.

Of thee these forty days none hath regard,

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Forty and more deserted here indeed."

To whom thus Jesus:-What conclud'st thou hence?

They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none.

How hast thou hunger then? Satan replied.

Tell me, if food were now before thee set,
Wouldst thou not eat?-Thereafter as I like
The giver, answer'd Jesus.-Why should that
Cause thy refusal? said the subtle fiend:
Hast thou not right to all created things?
Owe not all creatures by just right to thee
Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,

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325

But tender all their power? Nor mention I
Meats by the law unclean, or offer'd first
To idols; those young Daniel could refuse:

Nor proffer'd by an enemy; though who

Would scruple that, with want oppress'd? Behold,

330

308. Fugitive bond-woman. Hagar. See | eldest son of Ishmael, and seems here to Gen. xvi. 6, and xxi. Nebaioth, was the be put for Ishmael himself.

312. Prophet bold. Elijah.

Nature ashamed, or, better to express,

Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purvey'd
From all the elements her choicest store,

To treat thee, as beseems, and as her Lord,
With honour: only deign to sit and eat.

He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,
Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,
In ample space under the broadest shade,
A table richly spread, in regal mode,
With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort
And savour; beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,
Gris-amber-steam'd; all fish, from sea or shore,
Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drain'd
Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Africk coast:
(Alas, how simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!)
And at a stately sideboard, by the wine,
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue
Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more
Under the trees now tripp'd, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades

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340

345

350

355

With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,
And ladies of the Hesperides, that seem'd

Fairer than feign'd of old, or fabled since

Of fairy damsels, met in forest wide

By knights of Logres, or of Lyones,

360

Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore;

And all the while harmonious airs were heard

Of chiming strings, or charming pipes; and winds

Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fann'd

From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.

365

Such was the splendour; and the tempter now
His invitation earnestly renew'd:

What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?
These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict
Defends the touching of these viands pure:
Their taste no knowledge works, at least of evil;
But life preserves, destroys life's enemy,

344. Gris-amber-steamed, for ambergris, which has a fragrant odor. In Osborne's Memoirs of James I. vol. ii. 157, we read "a whole pye, reckoned to my lord at ten pounds, being composed of amber-grece, magisterial of pearl, musk." All fish. Milton had here in his mind the exces sive luxury of the Romans in the article of fish. Freshet, fresh runing stream. 349. Diverted, in the sense of the Latin divertere, "to turn aside."

352. Tall youth's, &c. This is in the style of Eastern magnificence.

370

359. Fairy damsels. Whenever Milton takes any images from his favourite romances, he immediately rises, as here, into the most exquisite poetry; and seems to finish his lines with peculiar pleasure and art.-J. WARTON.

360. Logres. Sir Lancelot, Pelleas, and Pellenore are personages in old romance. In the "Life and Death of King Athur" Sir Lancelot is there called of Logris, (an old name for England,) and Sir Tristam is named of Lyones, an old name for | Cornwall.

Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.

All these are spirits of air, and woods, and springs,
Thy gentle ministers, who come to pay

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Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord.
What doubt'st thou, Son of God? Sit down and eat.
To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:-
Said'st thou not that to all things I had right?
And who withholds my power that right to use?
Shall I receive by gift, what of my own,
When and where likes me best, I can command?
I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,
Command a table in this wilderness,
And call swift flights of angels ministrant
Array'd in glory on my cup to attend:
Why shouldst thou then obtrude this diligence,
In vain, where no acceptance it can find?
And with my hunger what hast thou to do?
Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,

And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles.

To whom thus answer'd Satan malecontent:
That I have also power to give, thou seest;
If of that power I bring thee voluntary

880

385

390

What I might have bestow'd on whom I pleased.
And rather opportunely in this place

395

Chose to impart to thy apparent need,

Why shouldst thou not accept it? but I see

What I can do or offer is suspect;

Of these things others quickly will dispose,

400

Whose pains have earn'd the far-fet spoil. With that,

Both table and provision vanish'd quite

With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard:

Only the impórtune tempter still remain'd,

And with these words his témptation pursued:

405

By hunger, that each other creature tames,

Thou art not to be harm'd, therefore not moved;
Thy temperance invincible besides,
For no allurement yields to appetite;
And all thy heart is set on high designs,

410

High actions: but wherewith to be achieved?
Great acts require great means of enterprise:
Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,
A carpenter thy father known, thyself
Bred up in poverty and straits at home;
Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.

415

Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire
To greatness? whence authority deriv'st?
What followers, what retinue canst thou gain,
Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude,

420

Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost?

Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and realms:

401. Fur-fet, for far-fetched.