Of telescope, were curious to inquire:)

And now the tempter thus his silence broke:—
The city, which thou seest, no other deem

Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth,
So far renown'd, and with the spoils enrich'd
Of nations: there the Capitol thou seest,
Above the rest lifting his stately head
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel
Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine,
The imperial palace, compass huge, and high
The structure, skill of noblest architects,
With gilded battlements conspicuous far,
Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires:
Many a fair edifice besides, more like
Houses of gods, (so well I have disposed
My aery microscope,) thou mayst behold,
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs,
Carved work, the hand of famed artificers,
In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.

Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see
What conflux issuing forth, or entering in;
Prætors, proconsuls to their provinces

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50

55

60

Hasting, or on return, in robes of state,

Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power,

Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings:
Or embassies from regions far remote,
In various habits, on the Appian road,

65

Or on the Emilian: some from farthest south,
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,

Meroe, Nilotick isle; and, more to west,

The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor sea;

From the Asian kings, and Parthian among these;

From India and the golden Chersonese,

And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,

75

Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed;

From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;

Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, north
Beyond Danubius to the Taurick pool.
All nations now to Rome obedience pay;
To Rome's great emperour, whose wide domain,
In ample territory, wealth, and power,
Civility of manners, arts, and arms,

66. Turms: Troops, from the Latin turma.

68. The Appian road led towards the south, to Brundusium, whence travellers embarked for Greece. The Emilian led towards the north.

69. Farthest south, Syene, the limit of the Roman empire, south. Meroe was an island with a city of the same name, in Ethiopia, south of the tropic of Cancer, and of course at the summer solstice had Its shadow fall to the south.

80

72. Realm of Bocchus. Bocchus was king of Gætulia, a province of Africa, south of Numidia. By Black-moor sea, Milton probably means that part of the Mediterranean along the coast of Mauritania, the country of the black or dark Moors.

74. Golden Chersonese: Malacca. Taprobane: Ceylon.

77. Gades: Cadiz. Taurick pool: the Palus Mæotis, or Sea of Azof.

And long renown, thou justly mayst prefer
Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
Shared among petty kings too far removed.
These having shown thee, I have shown thee all
The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
This emperour hath no son, and now is old,
Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
To Capreæ, an island sma'l, but strong,
On the Campanian shore; with purpose
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;
Committing to a wicked favourite

there

All publick cares, and yet of him suspicious;
Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
Endued with regal virtues, as thou art,
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
Mightst thou expel this monster from his throne,
Now made a stye; and, in his place ascending,
A victor people free from servile yoke!
And with my help thou mayst: to me the power
Is given, and by that right I give it thee.
Aim therefore at no less than all the world;
Aim at the highest: without the highest attain'd,
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,
On David's throne, be prophesied what will.

To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:

Nor doth this grandeur and majestick show

Of luxury, though call'd magnificence,
More than of arms before, allure mine eye,

Much less my mind; though thou shouldst add to tell

On citron tables or Atlantick stone,

Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts

(For I have also heard, perhaps have read,)

Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
Chios, and Crete, and how they quaff in gold,
Crystal, and myrrhine cups, emboss'd with gems
And studs of pearl, to me shouldst tell, who thirst
And hunger still. Then embassies thou show'st
From nations far and nigh: what honour that,
But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear

So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed'st to talk
Of the emperour, how easily subdued,
How gloriously: I shall, thou say'st, expel
A brutish monster: what if I withal

90. This emperor: Tiberius. Wicked ever used marble for tables. favourite: Sejanus.

115. Citron tables, &c. This citron wood, which grew upon Mount Atlas in Mauritania, was held by the Romans equally valuable with gold. Atlantick, therefore, must have a reference to this citron wood, for it does not appear that the Romans

115

120

125

It was

probably called Atlantick stone, from its marble-like appearance, being veined and spotted.-DUNSTER.

117. Their wines, &c. The first three mentioned were the most famous Campanian wines of the Romans, of which the Falernian was considered the best.

Expel a devil who first made him such?
Let his tormentor conscience find him out;
For him I was not sent, nor yet to free
That people, victor once, now vile and base;
Deservedly made vassal; who, once just,
Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquer'd well;
But govern ill the nations under yoke,
Peeling their provinces, exhausted all

By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown
Of triumph, that insulting vanity;

Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured
Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed;
Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still;
And from the daily scene effeminate.

What wise and valiant man would seek to free
These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved?
Or could of inward slaves make outward free?
Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit
On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth;
Or as a stone, that shall to pieces dash

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135

140

145

All monarchies besides throughout the world;

150

And of my kingdom there shall be no end:

Means there shall be to this; but what the means,

Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell.

To whom the tempter, impudent, replied:

I see all offers made by me how slight
Thou valuest, because offer'd, and reject'st:
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,
Or nothing more than still to contradict:
On the other side, know also thou, that I
On what I offer set as high esteem,

Nor what I part with mean to give for naught:
All these, which in a moment thou behold'st,
The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give,
(For, given to me, I give to whom I please,)
No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else,
On this condition; if thou wilt fall down,
And worship me as thy superiour lord,
(Easily done,) and hold them all of me;
For what can less so great a gift deserve?

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160

165

Whom thus our Saviour answer'd with disdain:

170

I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter
The abominable terms, impious condition:

132. That people, &c. This description of the corruption and decline of the Roman empire, contained in this and the following ten lines, is at once concisely fine and accurately just.-DUNSTER.

139. The connection of luxury, cruelty, and effeminacy, has been often remarked in all ages.

140. Not only men to beasts exposed, but men to men, as the gladiators. In the gladiatoral school at Capua, 40,000 men were regularly trained to kill each other -or, as Byron has it

Butcher'd, to make a Roman holiday. 147. Tree, &c. See Matt. xiii. 32; Dan. iv. 11, and ii. 44; Luke i. 33.

But I endure the time, till which expired

Thou hast permission on me. It is written,

175

The first of all commandments, Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;
And darest thou to the Son of God propound
To worship thee accursed? now more accursed
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 given, by whom but by the King of kings,
God over all supreme? If given 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?

180

185

190

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, replied:

195

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 proposed
What both from men and angels I receive,
Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth,
Nations besides from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invoked, and world beneath:
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
To me most fatal, me it most concerns:
The trial hath indamaged thee no way,
Rather more honour left, and more esteem;
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aim'd.
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more
Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not:
And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined
Than to a worldly crown; addicted more
To contemplation and profound dispute;
As by that early action may be judged,

When, slipping 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,

200

205

210

215

Teaching, not taught. The childhood shows the man, 220
As morning shows the day: be famous then

185. King of kings. 1 Tim. vi. 15; Rom. ix. 5.

203. The devil, in Scripture, is termed the God of this world: 2 Cor. iv. 4.

219. Moses' chair was the chair in which the doctors expounded the Law. See Matt. xxiii. 2.

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;
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?

225

230

Errour by his own arms is best evinced.

235

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;

240

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
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 Attick bird

245

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 whispering stream: within the walls then view
The schools of ancient sages; his, who bred
Great Alexander to subdue the world,
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:

250

There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit

By voice or hand; and various-measured verse,
Eolian charms and Dorian lyrick odes,

240. The eye of Greece. Athens and Sparta were called the two eyes of Greece; but the metaphor is infinitely more proper as applied to the former city, so distinguished for its learning and wisdom, while the latter is known only for its brute force, and military skill and valor.

242. Hospitable: That is, hospitable to wits of other countries, by admitting all persons, whatever, to the benefit of the instructions communicated by her philosophers.

244. Academe. Dr. Newton has justly observed that Plato's Academy was never more beautifully described.

245. Attick bird. Philomela, who, ac cording to the fable, was changed into a nightingale, was the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Of line 246, Dr. Newton observes that "there never was

256

a verse more expressive of the harmony" (melody?) "of the nightingale, than this."

251. Who bred great Alexander. When Alexander was born, his father Philip wrote to Aristotle that he thanked the gods not so much for the birth of a son, as that he was born at a time when he could receive the benefit of his instruction.

252. Painted Stoa. The Stoa or Portico was the school of Zeno, whose disciples were therefore called Stoicks. The build ing was adorned with various paintings, and hence the appropriate epithet, painted, by our poet, whose epithets are al ways not only exceedingly beautiful, but critically correct.

257. Eolian charms, referring to the poets Acæus and Sappho, who were both