BOOK FOURTH
��2 73
��Thou hast permission on me. It is writ- ten,
The first of all commandments, ' Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve ; '
And dar'st thou to the Son of God pro- pound
To worship thee, accursed ? now more ac- cursed
For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve,
And more blasphemous; which expect to rue. 181
The kingdoms of the world to thee were given !
Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;
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 190
To me my own, on such abhorred pact,
That I fall down and worship thee as God ?
Get thee behind me ! Plain thou now ap- pear'st
That Evil One, Satan for ever damned." To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied :
" 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
Thau these thou bear'st that title, have proposed 199
What both from Men and Angels I receive,
Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth
Nations besides from all the quartered winds
God of this World invoked, and World beneath.
Who then thou art, whose coming is fore- told
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 aimed.
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I shall no
��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, Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews
the man, 220
As morning shews the day. Be famous,
then,
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 couched 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, 229
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 ? Error by his own arms is best evinced. Look once more, ere we leave this specular
mount, Westward, much nearer by south-west;
behold
Where on the zEgean shore a city stands, Built nobly, pure the air and light the
soil 239
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 Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer
long; There, flowery bill, Hymettus, with the
sound
Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls
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