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The First Book

 

I, WHO erewhile the happy Garden sung
  By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
  Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
  By one man's firm obedience fully tried
  Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled
  In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,
  And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.
    Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite
  Into the desert, his victorious field
  Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence


  By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,
  As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,
  And bear through highth or depth of Nature's bounds,
  With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds
  Above heroic, though in secret done,
  And unrecorded left through many an age:
  Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.
    Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice
  More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried
  Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand


  To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked
  With awe the regions round, and with them came
  From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed
  To the flood Jordan—came as then obscure,
  Unmarked, unknown. But him the Baptist soon
  Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore
  As to his worthier, and would have resigned
  To him his heavenly office. Nor was long
  His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized
  Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove


  The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice
  From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.
  That heard the Adversary, who, roving still
  About the world, at that assembly famed
  Would not be last, and, with the voice divine
  Nigh thunder-struck, the exalted man to whom
  Such high attest was given a while surveyed
  With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage,
  Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air
  To council summons all his mighty Peers,


  Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,
  A gloomy consistory; and them amidst,
  With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake:—
    "O ancient Powers of Air and this wide World
  (For much more willingly I mention Air,
  This our old conquest, than remember Hell,
  Our hated habitation), well ye know
  How many ages, as the years of men,
  This Universe we have possessed, and ruled
  In manner at our will the affairs of Earth,


  Since Adam and his facile consort Eve
  Lost Paradise, deceived by me, though since
  With dread attending when that fatal wound
  Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
  Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven
  Delay, for longest time to Him is short;
  And now, too soon for us, the circling hours
  This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we
  Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound
  (At least, if so we can, and by the head


  Broken be not intended all our power
  To be infringed, our freedom and our being
  In this fair empire won of Earth and Air)—
  For this ill news I bring: The Woman's Seed,
  Destined to this, is late of woman born.
  His birth to our just fear gave no small cause;
  But his growth now to youth's full flower, displaying
  All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve
  Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
  Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim


  His coming, is sent harbinger, who all
  Invites, and in the consecrated stream
  Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so
  Purified to receive him pure, or rather
  To do him honour as their King. All come,
  And he himself among them was baptized—
  Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
  The testimony of Heaven, that who he is
  Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw
  The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising


  Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds
  Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head
  A perfet Dove descend (whate'er it meant);
  And out of Heaven the sovraign voice I heard,
  'This is my Son beloved,—in him am pleased.'
  His mother, than, is mortal, but his Sire
  He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven;
  And what will He not do to advance his Son?
  His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,
  When his fierce thunder drove us to the Deep;


  Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems
  In all his lineaments, though in his face
  The glimpses of his Father's glory shine.
  Ye see our danger on the utmost edge
  Of hazard, which admits no long debate,
  But must with something sudden be opposed
  (Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares),
  Ere in the head of nations he appear,
  Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth.
  I, when no other durst, sole undertook


  The dismal expedition to find out
  And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed
  Successfully: a calmer voyage now
  Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once
  Induces best to hope of like success."
    He ended, and his words impression left
  Of much amazement to the infernal crew,
  Distracted and surprised with deep dismay
  At these sad tidings. But no time was then
  For long indulgence to their fears or grief:


  Unanimous they all commit the care
  And management of this man enterprise
  To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt
  At first against mankind so well had thrived
  In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
  From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,
  Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,
  Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
  So to the coast of Jordan he directs
  His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles,


  Where he might likeliest find this new-declared,
  This man of men, attested Son of God,
  Temptation and all guile on him to try—
  So to subvert whom he suspected raised
  To end his reign on Earth so long enjoyed:
  But, contrary, unweeting he fulfilled
  The purposed counsel, pre-ordained and fixed,
  Of the Most High, who, in full frequence bright
  Of Angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spake:—
    "Gabriel, this day, by proof, thou shalt behold,


  Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth
  With Man or men's affairs, how I begin
  To verify that solemn message late,
  On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure
  In Galilee, that she should bear a son,
  Great in renown, and called the Son of God.
  Then told'st her, doubting how these things could be
  To her a virgin, that on her should come
  The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest
  O'ershadow her. This Man, born and now upgrown,


  To shew him worthy of his birth divine
  And high prediction, henceforth I expose
  To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay
  His utmost subtlety, because he boasts
  And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng
  Of his Apostasy. He might have learnt
  Less overweening, since he failed in Job,
  Whose constant perseverance overcame
  Whate'er his cruel malice could invent.
  He now shall know I can produce a man,


  Of female seed, far abler to resist
  All his solicitations, and at length
  All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell—
  Winning by conquest what the first man lost
  By fallacy surprised. But first I mean
  To exercise him in the Wilderness;
  There he shall first lay down the rudiments
  Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth
  To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.
  By humiliation and strong sufferance


  His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,
  And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;
  That all the Angels and aethereal Powers—
  They now, and men hereafter—may discern
  From what consummate virtue I have chose
  This perfet man, by merit called my Son,
  To earn salvation for the sons of men."
    So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven
  Admiring stood a space; then into hymns
  Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved,


  Circling the throne and singing, while the hand
  Sung with the voice, and this the argument:—
    "Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
  Now entering his great duel, not of arms,
  But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles!
  The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
  Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,
  Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,
  Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
  Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell,


  And, devilish machinations, come to nought!"
    So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
  Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
  Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,
  Musing and much revolving in his breast
  How best the mighty work he might begin
  Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
  Publish his godlike office now mature,
  One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading
  And his deep thoughts, the better to converse


  With solitude, till, far from track of men,
  Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
  He entered now the bordering Desert wild,
  And, with dark shades and rocks environed round,
  His holy meditations thus pursued:—
    "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!


  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