262
��PARADISE REGAINED
��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, 250 Though needing, what praise is it to en- dure ?
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 260
Communed in silent walk, then laid him
down
Under the hospitable covert nigh Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept, And dreamed, 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 Though ravenous, taught to abstain from
what they brought;
He saw the Prophet also, how he fled 270 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 harald
Lark
Left his ground-nest, high towering to de- scry 280 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; Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting
waked. Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
��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 chaunt of tuneful birds resounding
loud. 290
Thither he bent his way, determined there To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys
brown,
That opened in the midst a woody scene; Nature's own work it seemed (Nature
taught Art),
And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He
viewed 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
addressed:
" 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 310
Of Israel here had famished, had not God Rained from heaven manna; and that Pro- phet bold,
Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed Twice by a voice inviting him to eat. Of thee these forty days none hath regard, Forty and more deserted here indeed." To whom thus Jesus: "What con-
clud'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, 320
Wouldst thou not eat ? " " Thereafter as
Hike The giver," answered Jesus. " Why should
that
Cause thy refusal ? " said the subtle Fiend. " Hast thou not right to all created things ?
�� �
