By thee how fairly is the giver now

Repaid? But gratitude in thee is loft

Long fince. Wert thou fo void of fear or fhame,
As offer them to me the fon of God,

To me my own, on fuch 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 abafh'd reply'd.
Be not fo fore offended, Son of God,
Though fons of God both Angels are and Men,
If I to try whether in higher fort

Than these thou bear'ft that title, have propos'd
What both from Men and Angels I receive,
Tetrachs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations befides from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invok'd and world beneath;

191. To me my own,] The right, which the Demon pretends to, over the kingdoms of the world, is by gift; but Chrift clames them as his own by nature, and by virtue of his Sonship. TIQ yap wo το Θες, όμοιος αυτό αν Ein as δε ων, πανίως εσι και κύριος και βασιλευς. For being the fon of God, he muft of courfe be like him

190

196

200

Who

whofe fon he is; and being like him, it neceffarily follows, that he is lord and king. S. Athanaf. Or. 3. contra Arianos. Op. Vol. 1. p. 387. Edit. Col. Calton.

191. abhorred pact,] He uses the word pact, as it is the technical term for the contrats of forcerers with the Devil. Warburton.

203. God

Who then thou art, whofe coming is foretold
To me fo fatal, me it most concerns.

205

The trial hath indamag'd thee no way,

Rather more honor left and more esteem
Me nought advantag'd, miffing what I aim'd.
Therefore let pafs, as they are tranfitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more
Advise thee; gain them as thou canft, or not.
And thou thyself seem'ft otherwise inclin'd
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
To contemplation and profound difpute,
As by that early action may be judg'd,

210

215

When flipping from thy mother's eye thou went'st Alone into the temple; there wast found

Among the gravest Rabbies disputant

219

On points and questions fitting Mofes chair, Teaching not taught; the childhood fhows the man,

As morning shows the day. Be famous then
By wisdom; as thy empire muft 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 Mofes law,
The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
The Gentiles alfo know, and write, and teach
To admiration, led by nature's light;

225

And with the Gentiles much thou must converfe,

Ruling

in more delufive colors, nor were they ever anfwer'd with more folidity of thought or acuteness of reafoning. Thyer.

230. Ruling them by perfuafion as thou mean'ft;] Alluding to thofe charming lines I. 221.

Yet held it more humane, more heav'nly firft

By winning words to conquer willing hearts,

And make perfuafion do the work of fear.

But Satan did not hear this; it. was part of our Saviour's felf-converfe and private meditation.

z36. this fpecular mount] This dife Loft. XII. 588. where see the mount of Speculation, as in Para

239

Ruling them by perfuafion as thou mean'st;
Without their learning how wilt thou with them,
Or they with thee hold converfation 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 fpecular mount
Weftward, much nearer by fouthwest, behold
Where on the Ægean fhore a city ftands

following defcription of Athens and its learning is extremely grand and beautiful. Milton's Mufe, as was before obferved, is too much cramped down by the argumentative caft of his fubject, but emerges upon every favorable occafion, and like the fun from under a cloud bursts out into the fame bright vein of poetry, which fhines out more frequently, tho' not more strongly, in the Paradife Loft. Thyer.

238. Where on the Ægean fhore a city fands] So Milton caufed this verfe to be printed, whereby it appears that he would have the word gean pronounced with the accent upon the first fyllable as in Paradife Loft. I. 746. and as Fairfax often ufes it, as was there remark'd. Built nobly, and Homer in his time calls it a well-built city, süxlıq-vou πluateûzov. Iliad. II. 546. pure the air, and light the foil, Attica being a mountainous country, the

235

Built

foil was light and barren, and the air fharp and pure, and therefore faid to be productive of fharp wits. την ευκρασίαν των ορων εν αυτώ κατίδωσα, ότι φρονιμωτατες ανδράς

οισει.

Plato in Timæo p. 24. Vol. 3. Edit. Serr. Athenis tenue cœlum, ex quo acutiores etiam putantur Attici. Cicero de Fato. 4. Athens the eye of Greece, and fo Demofthenes fomewhere calls it oplanos Exλados, but I cannot at prefent recollect the place; and in Juftin it is called one of the two eyes of Greece, Sparta being the other, Lib. 5. cap. 8.; and Catullus calls Sirmio the eye of ilands XXXII. 1.

Peninfularum Sirmio, infula-
rumque
Ocelle:

but the metaphor is more properly
applied to Athens than any other
place, as it was the great feat of
learning.

M 3

Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil,
Athens the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits
Or hofpitable, in her sweet recess.

City' or fuburban, ftudious walks and shades;