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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,

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Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence; Soon shall we see our Hope, our Joy, return.

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Thus they out of their plaints new hopes resume, To find whom at the first they found unsought: But to his mother Mary, when she saw Others return'd from baptism, not her son, Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none, Within her breast though calm, her breast though Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised

[pure,

Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:
O what avails me now that honour high
To have conceived of God, or that salute,
Hail, highly favour'd, 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

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Could be obtain'd to shelter him or me

From the bleak air; a stable was our warmth,

A manger his: yet soon enforced to fly

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Thence into Egypt, till the murd'rous king
Were dead, who sought his life, and missing fill'd
With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem ;
From Egypt home return'd 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 own'd from Heaven by his Father sice;

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I look'd for some great change; to honour m
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

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A sword shall pierce: this is my favour'd lot,
My exaltation to afflictions high!

9. Nazareth was in Galilee, a despised part of the country;

hence John i. 46.

Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest;

I will not argue that, nor will repine:

But where delays he now? some great intent

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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 100
Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
But I to wait with patience am inured;

My heart hath been a store-house long of things
And say'ings laid up, portending strange events.
Thus Mary pond'ring oft, and oft to mind
Recalling what remarkably had pass'd
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

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His end of being on earth, and mission high:

For Satan with sly preface to return

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Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone

Up to the middle region of thick air,

Where all his potentates in council sat;

There without sign of boast, or sign of joy,

Solicitous and blank, he thus began:

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Princes, Heav'n's ancient Sons, ethereal Thrones,

Demonian Spirits now, from th' element

Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd

Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath,

So may we hold our place and these mild seats 125 Without new trouble; such an enemy

Is risen to invade s, who no less

Threatens than our expulsion down to Hell;

103. The character o. Mary, though it can be hardly considered as described. is finely touched. The allusion here is to Luke ii.

19. 31.

122. It was the opinion of the ancients, that every elemen, as well as every corner of the earth hd its peculiar demons. The same opinion appears to have been upheld during the middle ages, and Milton, it is supposed, borrowed many of his notions from the strange and inystical works which were formerly written on the subject.

I, as I undertook, and with the vote

Consenting in full frequence was impower'd,

Have found him, view'd him, tasted him, but find Far other labour to be undergone

Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,

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Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell,
However to this Man inferior far,

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If he be man by mother's side at least,

With more than human gifts from Heav'n adorn'd, Perfections absolute, graces divine,

And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds;
Therefore I am return'd, lest confidence
Of my success with Eve in Paradise
Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure

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Of like succeeding here; I summon ali
Rather to be in readiness, with hand
Or council to assist: lest I, who erst

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Thought none my equal, now be over-match'd.

So spake th' 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:

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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 allay'd, yet terrible to' approach,
Skill'd 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,

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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

168. Magnetic; the adjective for the substantive, as in
instances pointed out in the Par. Lost.

Of wisest Solomon, and made him build,
And made him bow, to the gods of his wives.
To whom quick answer Satan thus return'd:
Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh'st
All others by thyself; because of old

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Thou thyself doat'dst 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

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Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men,

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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 way-lay

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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,

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Satyr, or Faun, or Sylvan? 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 scorn'd

All her assaults, on worthier things intent?
Remember that Pellean conqueror,

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A youth, how all the beauties of the East

He slightly view'd, and slightly overpass'd;

How he surnamed of Africa dismiss'd

In his prime youth the fair Iberian maid.

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For Solomon, he lived at ease, and full

Of honour, wealth, high fare, aim'd 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

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Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,

178. Milton here appears to favour the common notion of the angels having united with the daughters of men, but he expresses a contrary opinion, Par. Lost, xi. 621.

196. Alexander the Great, born at Pella, in Macedonia; his conduct towards the wife and daughters of Darius was distinguished for continency:--as was Scipio's, surnamed Africanus, on a similar occasion.

Made and set wholly on th' accomplishment
Of greatest things; what woan will you find,
Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
On whom his leisure will vouchsafe 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,
Discount'nance her despised, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject,

Or turn to reverent awe; for Beauty stands
In th' 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 abash'd:
Therefore with manlier objects we must try
His constancy, with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory', and popular praise;
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd;
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of Nature, not beyond;
And now I know he hungers where no food

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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

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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,

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Then to the desert takes with these his flight;
Where still from shade to shade the Son of God
After forty days' fasting had remain'd,
Now hung'ring first, and to himself thus said:
Where will this end? four times ten days I've pass'd
Wand'ring this woody maze, and human food

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Nor tasted, nor had appetite; that fast

244. An inaccuracy has been pointed out in this line, as our

Saviour did not now first hunger.

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