Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/319

 BOOK FOURTH

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��For Angels have proclaimed it, but con- cealing

The time and means ? Each act is right- liest done

Not when it must, but when it may be best.

If thou observe not this, be sure to find

What I foretold thee many a hard as- say

Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,

Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold;

Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round, 481

So many terrors, voices, prodigies,

May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign." So talked he, while the Sou of God went on,

And staid not, but in brief him answered

thus:

" Me worse than wet thou find'st not ; other harm

Those terrors which thou speak'st of did me none.

I never feared they could, though noising loud

And threatening nigh : what they can do as signs

Betokening or ill-boding I contemn 49 o

As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;

Who, knowing I shall reign past thy pre- venting,

Obtrud'st thy offered aid, that I, accept- ing.

At least might seem to hold all power of thee,

Ambitious Spirit ! and would'st be thought my God;

And storm'st, refused, thinking to terrify

Me to thy will ! Desist (thou art dis- cerned,

And toil'st in vain), nor me in vain molest." To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:

" Then hear, O Son of David, virgin- born ! 500

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.

Of the Messiah I have heard foretold

By all the Prophets ; of thy birth, at length

Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,

And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,

On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.

From that time seldom have I ceased to eye

��Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth, Thy manhood last, though yet in private

bred;

Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all 510 Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest (Though not to be baptized), by voice from

Heaven Heard thee pronounced the Sou of God

beloved. Thenceforth I thought thee worth my

nearer view

And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn In what degree or meaning thou art called The Son of God, which bears no single

sense.

The Son of God I also am, or was; And, if I was, I am; relation stands: All men are Sons of God; yet thee I

thought 520

In some respect far higher so declared. Therefore I watched thy footsteps from

that hour, And followed thee still on to this waste

wild,

Where, by all best conjectures, I collect Thou art to be my fatal enemy. Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek To understand my adversary, who And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent; By parle or composition, truce or league, To win him, or win from him what I can. And opportunity I here have had 531

To try thee, sift thee, and confess have

found thee

Proof ajainst all temptation, as a rock Of adamant and as a centre, firm To the utmost of mere man both wise and

good, Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms,

��Have been before contemned, and may

again. Therefore, to know what more thou art

than man, Worth naming Son of God by voice from

Heaven,

Another method I must now begin." 540 So saying, he caught him up, and, with-

out wing

Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime, Over the wilderness and o'er the plain, Till underneath them fair Jerusalem, The Holy City, lifted high her towers, Aud higher yet the glorious Temple reared Her pile, far off appearing like a mount

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