Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still, And from the daily Scene effeminate.
What wise and valiant man would seek to free These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved, Or could of inward slaves make outward free?
Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit On David's throne, it shall be like a tree Spreading and overshadowing all the earth, Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash All monarchies besides throughout the world;
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end.
Means there shall be to this; but what the means Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell."
To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied:--
"I see all offers made by me how slight Thou valuest, because offered, and reject'st.
Nothing will please the difficult and nice, Or nothing more than still to contradict.
On the other side know also thou that I On what I offer set as high esteem, Nor what I part with mean to give for naught, All these, which in a moment thou behold'st, The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give (For, given to me, I give to whom I please), No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else--
On this condition, if thou wilt fall down, And worship me as thy superior Lord (Easily done), and hold them all of me;
For what can less so great a gift deserve?"
Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain:--"I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter The abominable terms, impious condition.
But I endure the time, till which expired Thou hast permission on me. It is written, The first of all commandments, 'Thou shalt worship The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.'
And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound To worship thee, accursed? now more accursed For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve, And more blasphemous; which expect to rue.
The kingdoms of the world to thee were given!
Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;
Other donation none thou canst produce.
If given, by whom but by the King of kings, God over all supreme? If given to thee, By thee how fairly is the Giver now Repaid! But gratitude in thee is lost Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame As offer them to me, the Son of God--
To me my own, on such 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 damned."
To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied:--"Be not so sore offended, Son of God--Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men--If I, to try whether in higher sort Than these thou bear'st that title, have proposed What both from Men and Angels I receive, Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth Nations besides from all the quartered winds--
God of this World invoked, and World beneath.
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold To me most fatal, me it most concerns.
The trial hath indamaged thee no way, Rather more honour left and more esteem;
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory, The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.
And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined Than to a worldly crown, addicted more To contemplation and profound dispute;
As by that early action may be judged, When, slipping from thy mother's eye, thou went'st Alone into the Temple, there wast found Among the gravest Rabbies, disputant On points and questions fitting Moses' chair, Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews the man, As morning shews 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 couched in Moses' law, The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach To admiration, led by Nature's light;
And with the Gentiles much thou must converse, Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean'st.
Without their learning, how wilt thou with them, Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
Error by his own arms is best evinced.
Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount, Westward, much nearer by south-west; behold Where on the AEgean shore a city stands, Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil--
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And Eloquence, native to famous wits Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, City or suburban, studious walks and shades.
See there the olive-grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;
There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls His whispering stream. Within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages--his who bred Great Alexander to subdue the world, Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next.
There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit By voice or hand, and various-measured verse, AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes, And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called, Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own.
Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught In chorus or iambic, teachers best Of moral prudence, with delight received In brief sententious precepts, while they treat Of fate, and chance, and change in human life, High actions and high passions best describing.
Thence to the famous Orators repair, Those ancient whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democraty, Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.
To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear, From heaven descended to the low-roofed house Of Socrates--see there his tenement--
Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pronounced Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools Of Academics old and new, with those Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe.
