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Paradise Regained - Book Ib
(
thing
)
by
danlowlite
Tue Sep 26 2000 at 22:47:47
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"O what a
multitude
of thoughts at once
Awakened in me
swarm
, while
I consider
What from within I feel myself, and
hear
What from without comes often to my ears,
Ill sorting with my present state
compared
! 200
When I was yet a child, no
childish
play
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do,
What might be
public good
; myself I thought
Born to that end, born to promote all
truth
,
All righteous things
. Therefore, above my
years
,
The Law of
God
I read, and found it sweet;
Made it my whole
delight
, and in it grew
To such perfection that, ere yet my age
Had measured twice
six
years, at our great
Feast
210
I went into the
Temple
, there to
hear
The teachers of our
Law
, and to propose
What might improve my
knowledge
or their own,
And was admired by all. Yet this not all
To which my spirit aspired.
Victorious
deeds
Flamed
in my heart,
heroic acts
--one while
To rescue
Israel
from the
Roman
yoke
;
Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the
earth
,
Brute
violence
and proud
tyrannic
power,
Till truth were
freed
, and equity
restored
: 220
Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first
By winning words to
conquer
willing
hearts
,
And make
persuasion
do the
work
of
fear
;
At least to try, and teach the erring
soul
,
Not wilfully
misdoing
, but
unware
Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.
These growing thoughts my mother soon
perceiving
,
By words at times cast forth, inly
rejoiced
,
And said to me apart, 'High are thy thoughts,
O Son! but nourish them, and let them
soar
230
To what highth sacred virtue and true worth
Can raise them, though above example high;
By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.
For know, thou art no son of mortal man;
Though men esteem thee low of parentage,
Thy
Father
is the Eternal
king
who rules
All
Heaven
and
Earth
, Angels and sons of men.
A messenger from
God
foretold thy birth
Conceived in me a
virgin
; he foretold
Thou shouldst be great, and sit on
David
's throne, 240
And of thy
kingdom
there should be no end.
At thy nativity a
glorious
quire
Of
Angels
, in the fields of
Bethlehem
, sung
To
shepherds
, watching at their folds by night,
And told them the
Messiah
now was
born
,
Where they might see him; and to thee they came,
Directed to the manger where thou lay'st;
For in the inn was left no better room.
A Star, not seen before, in
Heaven
appearing,
Guided the
Wise Men
thither from the
East
, 250
To honour thee with
incense
,
myrrh
, and
gold
;
By whose bright course led on they found the place,
Affirming it thy star, new-graven in
Heaven
,
By which they knew thee
king
of
Israel
born.
Just
Simeon
and
prophetic
Anna
, warned
By
vision
, found thee in the
Temple
, and spake,
Before the altar and the vested
priest
,
Like things of thee to all that present stood.'
This having
heart
, straight I again revolved
The
Law
and
Prophets
, searching what was writ 260
Concerning the
Messiah
, to our scribes
Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake
I am--this chiefly, that my way must lie
Through many a hard assay, even to the death,
Ere I the promised
kingdom
can attain,
Or work redemption for
mankind
, whose sins'
Full weight must be
transferred
upon my head.
Yet, neither thus
disheartened
or dismayed,
The time
prefixed
I waited; when behold
The
Baptist
(of whose birth I oft had heard, 270
Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come
Before
Messiah
, and his way prepare!
I, as all others, to his baptism came,
Which I believed was from above; but he
Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed
Me him (for it was shewn him so from
Heaven
)--
Me him whose
harbinger
he was; and first
Refused on me his
baptism
to confer,
As much his greater, and was hardly won.
But, as I rose out of the laving
stream
, 280
Heaven
opened her eternal doors, from whence
The
Spirit
descended on me like a
Dove
;
And last, the sum of all, my
Father
's voice,
Audibly heard from
Heaven
, pronounced me his,
Me his beloved
Son
, in whom alone
He was well pleased: by which I knew the time
Now full, that I no more should live
obscure
,
But openly begin, as best
becomes
The authority which I
derived
from
Heaven
.
And now by some strong motion I am led 290
Into this
wilderness
; to what intent
I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;
For what concerns my
knowledge
God
reveals."
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
return,
Was difficult, by
human steps
untrod
;
And he still on was led, but with such
thoughts
Accompanied of things past and to come 300
Lodged in his breast as well might recommend
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 eye,
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 seem'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 sometimes 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 I 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 inured
More than the
camel
, and to drink go far-- 340
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 thou seem'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 distrust
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?"
Whom thus answered the
Arch-Fiend
, now
undisguised
:--
"'Tis true, I am that
Spirit
unfortunate
Who, leagued with millions more in rash
revolt
,
Kept not my happy station, but was driven 360
With them from bliss to the
bottomless Deep
--
Yet to that hideous place not so
confined
By rigour
unconniving
but that oft,
Leaving my
dolorous
prison
, I enjoy
Large liberty to round this globe of
Earth
,
Or range in the
Air
; nor from the
Heaven
of Heavens
Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.
I came, among the
Sons of God
, when he
Gave up into my hands
Uzzean Job
,
To prove him, and
illustrate
his high worth; 370
And, when to all his
Angels
he proposed
To draw the proud
king
Ahab
into fraud,
That he might fall in
Ramoth
, they
demurring
,
I undertook that office, and the
tongues
Of all his flattering
prophets
glibbed with lies
To his
destruction
, as I had in charge:
For what he bids I do. Though I have lost
Much lustre of my
native
brightness, lost
To be beloved of
God
, I have not lost
To love, at least
contemplate
and
admire
, 380
What I see excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
What can be then less in me than desire
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declared the
Son of God
, to hear attent
Thy wisdom, and behold thy
Godlike
deeds?
Men generally think me much a foe
To all
mankind
. Why should I? they to me
Never did wrong or
violence
. By them
I lost not what I lost; rather by them 390
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
Copartner
in these regions of the
World
,
If not disposer--lend them oft my
aid
,
Oft my advice by
presages
and
signs
,
And answers, oracles,
portents
, and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life.
Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain
Companions
of my misery and woe!
At first it may be; but, long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by
proof
400
That
fellowship
in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load;
Small consolation, then, were
Man
adjoined.
This wounds me most (what can it less?) that
Man
,
Man fallen
, shall be
restored
, I never more."
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Contents
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Paradise Regained - Book Ic
Paradise Regained - Book Ia
Paradise Regained - Contents
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