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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