Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/298

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��PARADISE REGAINED

��Now full, that I no more should live ob- scure,

But openly begin, as best becomes

The authority which I derived from Hea- ven. 289

And now by some strong motion I am led

Into this wilderness; to what intent

I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;

For what concerns my knowledge God re- veals."

So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,

And, looking round, on every side beheld

A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.

The way he came, not having marked re- turn,

Was difficult, by human steps untrod ;

And he still on was led, but with such thoughts 299

Accompanied of things past and to come

Lodged in his breast as well might recom- mend

Such solitude before choicest society.

Full forty days he passed whether on hill

Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night

Under the covert of some ancient oak

Or cedar to defend him from the dew,

Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;

Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,

Till those days ended; hungered then at last

Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild, 310

Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk

The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;

The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.

But now an aged man in rural weeds,

Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray ewe,

Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve

Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,

To warm him wet returned from field at eve,

He saw approach; who first with curious eye

Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake: 320

" Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place,

So far from path or road of men, who pass

In troop or caravan ? for single none

��Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not

here His carcass, pined with hunger and with

droughth.

I ask the rather, and the more admire, For that to me thou seein'st the man whom

late

Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee

Son

Of God. I saw and heard, for we some- times 330 Who dwell this wild, constrained by want,

come forth

To town or village nigh (nighest is far), Where aught we hear, and curious are to

hear,

What happens new; fame also finds us out." To whom the Son of God: " Who

brought me hither Will bring me hence; no other guide 1

seek."

" By miracle he may," replied the swain; " What other way I see not; for we here Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst in- ured More than the camel, and to drink go

far 34 o

Men to much misery and hardship born. But, if thou be the Son of God, command That out of these hard stones be made thee

bread ;

So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve With food, whereof we wretched seldom

taste."

He ended, and the Son of God replied: " Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it

not written

(For I discern thee other than thouseem'st), Man lives not by bread only, but each word Proceeding from the mouth of God, who

fed 350

Our fathers here with manna ? In the

Mount

Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank; And forty days Eliah without food Wandered this barren waste; the same I

now.

Why dost thou, then, suggest to me dis- trust, Knowing who I am, as I know who thou

art ? " Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend,

now undisguised : " 'T is true, I am that Spirit unfortunate

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