Whom thus our Saviour answer'd with disdain.

I never lik'd thy talk, thy offers lefs,

Now both abhor, fince thou haft dar'd to utter
Th' abominable terms, impious condition,
But I indure the time, till which expir'd,
It is written

171

175

Thou haft permiffion on me.
The first of all commandments, Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;
And dar'ft thou to the Son of God propound
To worship thee accurs'd, now more accurs'd
For this attempt bolder than that on Eve,
And more blafphemous? which expect to rue.
The kingdoms of the world to thee were given,
Permitted rather, and by thee ufurp'd;

Other donation none thou canst produce:

180

If giv'n, by whom but by the king of kings, 185 God over all fupreme? if giv'n to thee,

troduction of this incident in this place. The Tempter fhould have propofed the condition, at the fame time that he offer'd the gifts; as he doth likewife in Scripture: but after his gifts had been abfolutely refus'd, to what purpofe was it to propofe the impious condition? Could he imagin that VOL. I.

By

our Saviour would accept the kingdoms of the world upon th' as bominable terms of falling down and worshipping him, juft after he had rejected them unclogg'd with any terms at all? Well might the author fay that Satan impudent reply'd: but I think that doth not entirely folve the objection. 191. To

M

By thee how fairly is the giver now

Repaid? But gratitude in thee is loft

Long fince. Wert thou fo void of fear or shame,
As offer them to me the Son of God,

To me my own, on fuch abhorred pact,
That I fall down and worship thee as God?
Get thee behind me; plain thou now appear'st
That evil one, Satan for ever damn'd.

190

To whom the Fiend with fear abash'd reply'd.
Be not fo fore offended, Son of God,
196
Though fons of God both Angels are and Men,
If I to try whether in higher fort

Than these thou bear'ft that title, have propos'd
What both from Men and Angels I receive,
Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations befides from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invok'd and world beneath;
BA

191. To me my own,] The right,
which the Demon pretends to,
over the kingdoms of the world,
is by gift; but Chrift clames them
as his own by nature, and by virtue
of his Sonship. Y: Yap wy To
DEɣ, oμoiG OUTY av en quoi
Se wv, Burlws 15i na velos na
Barinds. For being the Son of
God, he muft of course be like

200

Who

him whofe fon he is; and being
like him, it neceffarily follows, that
he is lord and king. S. Athanaf.
Or. 3. contra Arianos. Op. Vol. 1.
Calton.
p. 387. Edit. Col.

191. abhorred pact, ] He ufes the word pact, as it is the technical term for the contracts of for cerers with the Devil. Warburtoni

203. God

Who then thou art, whofe coming is foretold
To me fo fatal, me it moft concerns.

The trial hath indamag'd thee no way,

Rather more honor left and more esteem;
Me nought advantag'd, miffing what I aim'd.
Therefore let país, as they are tranfitory,

205

The kingdoms of this world; I fhall no more 219
Advise thee; gain them as thou canft, or not.
And thou thyself feem'ft otherwise inclin'd
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
To contemplation and profound dispute,

As by that early action may be judg'd,

215

When flipping from thy mother's eye thou went'st Alone into the temple; there waft found odel # Among the gravest Rabbies difputant

P

On points and questions fitting Mofes chair,.. 219 Teaching not taught; the childhood fhows the man,

203. God of this world invok'd Milton purfues the fame notion, which he had adopted in his Paradife Loft, of the Gods of the Gentiles being the fall'n Angels, and he is fupported in it by the authority of the primitive fathers, who are very unanimous în accufing the Heathens of worshipping Devils for Deities. Thyer.

217.

As

there waft found ] Ta

Milton's own edition and in moft of the following ones it was printed by mistake was found; but the fyntax plainly requires waft, as there is thou went ft in the verfe preceding.

219. fitting Mofes chair,] Mofes chair was the chair, in which the doctors fitting expounded the M 2

Jaw

As morning shows 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 couch'd in Mofes law, 225
The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
The Gentiles alfo know, and write, and teach
To admiration, led by nature's light;

And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,

Ruling

in more delufive colors, nor were
they ever anfwer'd with more foli-
dity of thought or acuteness of rea-
foning.
Thyer.

230. Ruling them by perfuafion as
thou mean'ft;] Alluding to

thofe charming lines I. 221.

Yet held it more humane, more heav'nly first

By winning words to conquer willing hearts,

And make perfuafion do the work of fear.

But Satan did not hear this; it was part of our Saviour's felf-converse and private meditation.

236. this fpecular mount] This mount of speculation, as in Paradife Laft. XII. 588. where see the note.

237. Weftward, much nearer by

fouthweft,] This correfponds exactly to our Saviour's fuppos'd fituation upon mount Taurus. The

following

230

Ruling them by perfuafion as thou mean'st;
Without their learning how wilt thou with them,
Or they with thee hold converfation meet?
How wilt thou reafon with them, how refute
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?

Error by his own arms is best evinc'd.

235

Look once more ere we leave this specular mount
Westward, much nearer by fouthwest, behold
Where on the Ægean shore a city stands

following defcription of Athens and its learning is extremely grand and beautiful. Milton's Mufe, as was before obferved, is too much cramped down by the argumentative caft of his fubject, but emerges upon every favorable occafion, and like the fun from under a cloud burfts out into the fame bright vein of poetry, which fhines out more frequently, tho' not more ftrongly, in the Paradise Loft. Thyer.

238. Where on the Egean fhore a city ftands] So Milton caufed this verfe to be printed, whereby it appears that he would have the word 'gean pronounced with the accent upon the first syllable as in Paradife Loft. I. 746. and as Fairfax often ufes it, as was there remark'd. Built nobly, and Homer in his time calls it a well-built city, Entisor oxide. Iliad. II. 546, pure the air, and light the foil, Attica being a mountainous country, the foil was light and barren,

Built

and the air fharp and pure, and therefore faid to be productive of fharp wits. The suxegolar TWV opwv ev aut natidoσa, ot! PCviμwrates avdeys oldes. Plato in Timæo p. 24. Vol. 3. Edit. Serr. Athenis tenue cœlum, ex quo acutiores etiam putantur Attici. Cicero de Fato. 4. Athens the eye of Greece, and fo Demofthenes fomewhere calls it ostanu Exλad, but I cannot at prefent recollect the place; and in Juftin it is called one of the two eyes of Greece, Sparta being the other, Lib. 5. cap. 8.; and Catullus calls Sirmio the eye of ilands XXXII. 1.

Peninfularum Sirmio, infularum-
que
Ocelle:

but the metaphor is more properly
applied to Athens than any other
place, as it was the great feat of
learning.