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Book II
MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained
At
Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
Him whom they
heard so late expressly called
Jesus Messiah, Son of
God, declared,
And on that high authority had
believed,
And with him talked, and with him lodged--I
mean
Andrew and Simon, famous after known,
With
others, though in Holy Writ not named--
Now missing
him, their joy so lately found,
So lately found and
so abruptly gone,
Began to doubt, and doubted many
days,
And, as the days increased, increased their
doubt.
Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn,
And for a time caught up to God, as once
Moses was in
the Mount and missing long,
And the great Thisbite,
who on fiery wheels
Rode up to Heaven, yet once again
to come.
Therefore, as those young prophets then with
care
Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these
Nigh to Bethabara--in Jericho
The city of palms,
AEnon, and Salem old,
Machaerus, and each town or
city walled
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Peraea--but returned in vain.
Then on the bank
of Jordan, by a creek,
Where winds with reeds and
osiers whispering play,
Plain fishermen (no greater
men them call),
Close in a cottage low together got,
Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed:--
"Alas, from what high hope to what relapse
Unlooked
for are we fallen! Our eyes beheld
Messiah certainly
now come, so long
Expected of our fathers; we have
heard
His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth.
'Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand;
The
kingdom shall to Israel be restored:'
Thus we
rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned
Into perplexity
and new amaze.
For whither is he gone? what accident
Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire
After
appearance, and again prolong
Our expectation? God of
Israel,
Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come.
Behold the kings of the earth, how they oppress
Thy
Chosen, to what highth their power unjust
They have
exalted, and behind them cast
All fear of Thee;
arise, and vindicate
Thy glory; free thy people from
their yoke!
But let us wait; thus far He hath
performed--
Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him
By his great Prophet pointed at and shown
In public,
and with him we have conversed.
Let us be glad of
this, and all our fears
Lay on his providence; He
will not fail,
Nor will withdraw him now, nor will
recall--
Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch
him hence:
Soon we shall see our hope, our joy,
return."
Thus they out of their plaints new hope
resume
To find whom at the first they found unsought.
But to his mother Mary, when she saw
Others returned
from baptism, not her Son,
Nor left at Jordan tidings
of him none,
Within her breast though calm, her
breast though pure,
Motherly cares and fears got
head, and raised
Some troubled thoughts, which she in
sighs thus clad:--
"Oh, what avails me now that
honour high,
To have conceived of God, or that
salute,
'Hail, highly favoured, among women blest!'
While I to sorrows am no less advanced,
And fears as
eminent above the lot
Of other women, by the birth I
bore:
In such a season born, when scarce a shed
Could be obtained to shelter him or me
From the bleak
air? A stable was our warmth,
A manger his; yet soon
enforced to fly
Thence into Egypt, till the murderous
king
Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing,
filled
With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.
From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth
Hath been our
dwelling many years; his life
Private, unactive,
calm, contemplative,
Little suspicious to any king.
But now,
Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,
By John the Baptist, and in public shewn,
Son owned
from Heaven by his Father's voice,
I looked for some
great change. To honour? no;
But trouble, as old
Simeon plain foretold,
That to the fall and rising he
should be
Of many in Israel, and to a sign
Spoken
against--that through my very soul
A sword shall
pierce. This is my favoured lot,
My exaltation to
afflictions high!
Afflicted I may be, it seems, and
blest!
I will not argue that, nor will repine.
But
where delays he now? Some great intent
Conceals him.
When twelve years he scarce had seen,
I lost him, but
so found as well I saw
He could not lose himself, but
went about
His Father's business. What he meant I
mused--
Since understand; much more his absence now
Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
But I to
wait with patience am inured;
My heart hath been a
storehouse long of things
And sayings laid up,
pretending strange events."
Thus Mary, pondering oft,
and oft to mind
Recalling what remarkably had passed
Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts
Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:
The while her
Son, tracing the desert wild,
Sole, but with holiest
meditations fed,
Into himself descended, and at once
All his great work to come before him set--
How to
begin, how to accomplish best
His end of being on
Earth, and mission high.
For Satan, with sly preface
to return,
Had left him vacant, and with speed was
gone
Up to the middle region of thick air,
Where
all his Potentates in council sate.
There, without
sign of boast, or sign of joy,
Solicitous and blank,
he thus began:--
"Princes, Heaven's ancient Sons,
AEthereal Thrones--
Daemonian Spirits now, from the
element
Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called
Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath
(So may
we hold our place and these mild seats
Without new
trouble!)--such an enemy
Is risen to invade us, who
no less
Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell.
I, as I undertook, and with the vote
Consenting in
full frequence was impowered,
Have found him, viewed
him, tasted him; but find
Far other labour to be
undergone
Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,
Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell,
However to
this Man inferior far--
If he be Man by mother's
side, at least
With more than human gifts from Heaven
adorned,
Perfections absolute, graces divine,
And
amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.
Therefore I am
returned, lest confidence
Of my success with Eve in
Paradise
Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure
Of
like succeeding here. I summon all
Rather to be in
readiness with hand
Or counsel to assist, lest I, who
erst
Thought none my equal, now be overmatched."
So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all
With
clamour was assured their utmost aid
At his command;
when from amidst them rose
Belial, the dissolutest
Spirit that fell,
The sensualest, and, after Asmodai,
The fleshliest Incubus, and thus advised:--
"Set
women in his eye and in his walk,
Among daughters of
men the fairest found.
Many are in each region
passing fair
As the noon sky, more like to goddesses
Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,
Expert
in amorous arts, enchanting tongues
Persuasive,
virgin majesty with mild
And sweet allayed, yet
terrible to approach,
Skilled to retire, and in
retiring draw
Hearts after them tangled in amorous
nets.
Such object hath the power to soften and tame
Severest temper, smooth the rugged'st brow,
Enerve,
and with voluptuous hope dissolve,
Draw out with
credulous desire, and lead
At will the manliest,
resolutest breast,
As the magnetic hardest iron
draws.
Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart
Of wisest Solomon, and made him build,
And made him
bow, to the gods of his wives."
To whom quick answer
Satan thus returned:--
"Belial, in much uneven scale
thou weigh'st
All others by thyself. Because of old
Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring
Their
shape, their colour, and attractive grace,
None are,
thou think'st, but taken with such toys.
Before the
Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew,
False titled Sons
of God, roaming the Earth,
Cast wanton eyes on the
daughters of men,
And coupled with them, and begot a
race.
Have we not seen, or by relation heard,
In
courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,
In wood
or grove, by mossy fountain-side,
In valley or green
meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,
Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,
Or Amymone, Syrinx, many
more
Too long--then lay'st thy scapes on names
adored,
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan,
Satyr,
or Faun, or Silvan? But these haunts
Delight not all.
Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made
small account
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned
All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
Remember
that Pellean conqueror,
A youth, how all the beauties
of the East
He slightly viewed, and slightly
overpassed;
How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.
For
Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full
Of honour,
wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond
Higher design
than to enjoy his state;
Thence to the bait of women
lay exposed.
But he whom we attempt is wiser far
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,
Made and set
wholly on the accomplishment
Of greatest things. What
woman will you find,
Though of this age the wonder
and the fame,
On whom his leisure will voutsafe an
eye
Of fond desire? Or should she, confident,
As
sitting queen adored on Beauty's throne,
Descend with
all her winning charms begirt
To enamour, as the zone
of Venus once
Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables
tell),
How would one look from his majestic brow,
Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill,
Discountenance
her despised, and put to rout
All her array, her
female pride deject,
Or turn to reverent awe! For
Beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall
flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden
slighting quite abashed.
Therefore with manlier
objects we must try
His constancy--with such as have
more shew
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular
praise
(Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest
wrecked);
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond.
And now I know
he hungers, where no food
Is to be found, in the wide
Wilderness:
The rest commit to me; I shall let pass
No advantage, and his strength as oft assay."
He
ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;
Then
forthwith to him takes a chosen band
Of Spirits
likest to himself in guile,
To be at hand and at his
beck appear,
If cause were to unfold some active
scene
Of various persons, each to know his part;
Then to the desert takes with these his flight,
Where
still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,
After
forty days' fasting, had remained,
Now hungering
first, and to himself thus said:--
"Where will this
end? Four times ten days I have passed
Wandering this
woody maze, and human food
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,
Though needing,
what praise is it to endure?
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
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
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 descry
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.
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,
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
Of Israel here had famished, had not God
Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,
Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed
Twice by a
voice inviting him to eat.
Of thee those forty days
none hath regard,
Forty and more deserted here
indeed."
To whom thus Jesus:--"What conclud'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,
Wouldst
thou not eat?" "Thereafter as I like
the giver,"
answered Jesus. "Why should that
Cause thy refusal?"
said the subtle Fiend.
"Hast thou not right to all
created things?
Owe not all creatures, by just right,
to thee
Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,
But tender all their power? Nor mention I
Meats by
the law unclean, or offered first
To idols--those
young Daniel could refuse;
Nor proffered by an
enemy--though who
Would scruple that, with want
oppressed? Behold,
Nature ashamed, or, better to
express,
Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath
purveyed
From all the elements her choicest store,
To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord
With honour.
Only deign to sit and eat."
He spake no dream; for,
as his words had end,
Our Saviour, lifting up his
eyes, beheld,
In ample space under the broadest
shade,
A table richly spread in regal mode,
With
dishes piled and meats of noblest sort
And savour--beasts
of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from
the spit, or boiled,
Grisamber-steamed; all fish,
from sea or shore,
Freshet or purling brook, of shell
or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drained
Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.
Alas! how
simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude Apple
that diverted Eve!
And at a stately sideboard, by the
wine,
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich-clad, of fairer hue
Than
Ganymed or Hylas; distant more,
Under the trees now
tripped, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train,
and Naiades
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's
horn,
And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
Of faery
damsels met in forest wide
By knights of Logres, or
of Lyones,
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.
And
all the while harmonious airs were heard
Of chiming
strings or charming pipes; and winds
Of gentlest gale
Arabian odours fanned
From their soft wings, and
Flora's earliest smells.
Such was the splendour; and
the Tempter now
His invitation earnestly renewed:--
"What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?
These are
not fruits forbidden; no interdict
Defends the
touching of these viands pure;
Their taste no
knowledge works, at least of evil,
But life
preserves, destroys life's enemy,
Hunger, with sweet
restorative delight.
All these are Spirits of air,
and woods, and springs,
Thy gentle ministers, who
come to pay
Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their
Lord.
What doubt'st thou, Son of God? Sit down and
eat."
To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:--
"Said'st
thou not that to all things I had right?
And who
withholds my power that right to use?
Shall I receive
by gift what of my own,
When and where likes me best,
I can command?
I can at will, doubt not, as soon as
thou,
Command a table in this wilderness,
And call
swift flights of Angels ministrant,
Arrayed in glory,
on my cup to attend:
Why shouldst thou, then, obtrude
this diligence
In vain, where no acceptance it can
find?
And with my hunger what hast thou to do?
Thy
pompous delicacies I contemn,
And count thy specious
gifts no gifts, but guiles."
To whom thus answered
Satan, male-content:--
"That I have also power to
give thou seest;
If of that power I bring thee
voluntary
What I might have bestowed on whom I
pleased,
And rather opportunely in this place
Chose to impart to thy apparent need,
Why shouldst
thou not accept it? But I see
What I can do or offer
is suspect.
Of these things others quickly will
dispose,
Whose pains have earned the far-fet spoil."
With that
Both table and provision vanished quite,
With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard;
Only
the importune Tempter still remained,
And with these
words his temptation pursued:--
"By hunger, that each
other creature tames,
Thou art not to be harmed,
therefore not moved;
Thy temperance, invincible
besides,
For no allurement yields to appetite;
And
all thy heart is set on high designs,
High actions.
But wherewith to be achieved?
Great acts require
great means of enterprise;
Thou art unknown,
unfriended, low of birth,
A carpenter thy father
known, thyself
Bred up in poverty and straits at
home,
Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.
Which
way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire
To
greatness? whence authority deriv'st?
What followers,
what retinue canst thou gain,
Or at thy heels the
dizzy multitude,
Longer than thou canst feed them on
thy cost?
Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and
realms.
What raised Antipater the Edomite,
And his
son Herod placed on Juda's throne,
Thy throne, but
gold, that got him puissant friends?
Therefore, if at
great things thou wouldst arrive,
Get riches first,
get wealth, and treasure heap--
Not difficult, if
thou hearken to me.
Riches are mine, fortune is in my
hand;
They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain,
While virtue, valour, wisdom, sit in want."
To whom
thus Jesus patiently replied:--
"Yet wealth without
these three is impotent
To gain dominion, or to keep
it gained--
Witness those ancient empires of the
earth,
In highth of all their flowing wealth
dissolved;
But men endued with these have oft
attained,
In lowest poverty, to highest deeds--
Gideon, and Jephtha, and the shepherd lad
Whose
offspring on the throne of Juda sate
So many ages,
and shall yet regain
That seat, and reign in Israel
without end.
Among the Heathen (for throughout the
world
To me is not unknown what hath been done
Worthy of memorial) canst thou not remember
Quintius,
Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?
For I esteem those names
of men so poor,
Who could do mighty things, and could
contemn
Riches, though offered from the hand of
kings.
And what in me seems wanting but that I
May
also in this poverty as soon
Accomplish what they
did, perhaps and more?
Extol not riches, then, the
toil of fools,
The wise man's cumbrance, if not
snare; more apt
To slacken virtue and abate her edge
Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.
What if
with like aversion I reject
Riches and realms! Yet
not for that a crown,
Golden in shew, is but a wreath
of thorns,
Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and
sleepless nights,
To him who wears the regal diadem,
When on his shoulders each man's burden lies;
For
therein stands the office of a king,
His honour,
virtue, merit, and chief praise,
That for the public
all this weight he bears.
Yet he who reigns within
himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is
more a king--
Which every wise and virtuous man
attains;
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes,
Subject
himself to anarchy within,
Or lawless passions in
him, which he serves.
But to guide nations in the way
of truth
By saving doctrine, and from error lead
To know, and, knowing, worship God aright,
Is yet
more kingly. This attracts the soul,
Governs the
inner man, the nobler part;
That other o'er the body
only reigns,
And oft by force--which to a generous
mind
So reigning can be no sincere delight.
Besides, to give a kingdom hath been thought
Greater
and nobler done, and to lay down
Far more
magnanimous, than to assume.
Riches are needless,
then, both for themselves,
And for thy reason why
they should be sought--
To gain a sceptre, oftest
better missed."
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