The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
Page 64
To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.
By humiliation6551 and strong sufferance6552
His weakness shall o’ercome Satanic strength,
And all the world, and mass6553 of sinful flesh,
That6554 all the Angels and aethereal Powers—
They now, and men hereafter—may discern
From what consummate virtue I have chose
This perfect man, by merit called my Son,
To earn salvation for the sons of men.”
So spoke th’ Eternal Father, and all Heav’n
Admiring6555 stood a space, then into hymns
Burst forth, and in celestial measures6556 moved,
Circling the throne and singing while the hand
Sung with the voice, and this the argument:6557
“Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
Now ent’ring his great duel,6558 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,6559
Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought!”
So they in Heav’n their odes6560 and vigils 6561 tuned.6562
Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
Lodged in Bethabara,6563 where John baptized,
Musing and much revolving in his breast
How best the mighty work he might begin
Of Savior to mankind, and which way first
Publish6564 his godlike office now mature,6565
One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading,
And his deep thoughts, the better to converse
With6566 solitude, till far from track6567 of men,
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
He entered now the bord’ring 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 sorting6568 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 thought6569
Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
All righteous things. Therefore, above my years,
The Law of God I read, and found it sweet,
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew
To such perfection that, ere yet my age
Had measured twice six years, at our6570 great feast
I went into the Temple, there to hear
The teachers of our Law, and to propose
What might improve my knowledge or their own,
And was admired6571 by all.
“Yet this not all
To which my spirit aspired. Victorious deeds
Flamed in my heart, heroic acts—one while6572
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke,
Then to subdue and quell,6573 o’er all the earth,
Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,
Till truth were freed, and equity6574 restored—
Yet held it more humane, more Heav’nly,6575 first
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear,
At least to try, and teach the erring soul,
Not wilfully misdoing, but unaware
Misled. The stubborn only to subdue.
“These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving,
By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,
And said to me apart,6576 ‘High are thy thoughts,
O Son! But nourish them, and let them soar
To what height sacred virtue and true worth
Can raise them, though above example6577 high.
By matchless deeds express thy matchless sire.
For know, thou art no son of mortal man,
Though men esteem thee low of parentage.
Thy Father is th’ Eternal King who rules
All Heav’n and earth, Angels and sons of men.
A messenger from God foretold thy birth
Conceived in me a virgin. He foretold
Thou should’st be great, and sit on David’s throne,
And of thy kingdom there should be no end.
At thy nativity a glorious choir
Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung
To shepherds, watching at their folds6578 by night,
And told them the Messiah now was born,
Where they might see him, and to thee they came,
Directed to the manger 6579 where thou lay’st,
For in the inn was left no better room.6580
A star, not seen before, in Heav’n appearing,
Guided the Wise Men thither from the East,
To honor thee with incense, myrrh, and gold,
By whose6581 bright course led on they found the place,
Affirming it thy star, new-graven6582 in Heav’n,
By which they knew thee King of Israel born.
Just Simeon6583 and prophetic Anna,6584 warned
By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spoke
Before the altar and the vested priest
Like6585 things of thee to all that present stood. ’
“This having heard, straight I again revolved6586
The Law and prophets, searching what was writ
Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes
Known partly, and soon found of whom they spoke
I am—this chiefly, that my way must lie
Through many a hard assay,6587 ev’n to the death,
Ere I the promised kingdom can attain
Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins’
Full weight must be transferred upon my head.
Yet neither thus disheart’ned or dismayed,
The time prefixed6588 I waited, when behold
The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard,
Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come
Before Messiah, and his way prepare.
I, as all others, to his baptism came,
Which I believed was from above, but he
Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed
Me him (for it was shewn him so from Heav’n)—
Me him whose harbinger 6589 he was, and first
Refused on me his baptism to confer,
As much his greater, and was hardly6590 won.6591
But as I rose out of the laving6592 stream
Heav’n op’ned her eternal doors, from whence
The Spirit descended on me like a dove,
And last—the sum6593 of all—my Father’s voice,
Audibly heard from Heav’n, pronounced me His,
Me His belovèd Son, in whom alone
He was well pleased. By which I knew the time
Now full,6594 that I no more should live obscure,6595
But openly begin, as best becomes
Th’ authority which I derived from Heav’n.
“And now by some strong motion I am led
Into this wilderness, to what intent
I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know,
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.”
So spoke our morning star, then in his rise,
And looking round on every side beheld
A pathless desert, dusk6596 with horrid shades.6597
The way he came, not having marked return,
Was difficult, by human steps untrod,
And he still on was led, but w
ith such thoughts
Accompanied of things past and to come
Lodged in his breast as well might recommend6598
Such solitude before choicest6599 society.
Full forty days he passed—whether on hill
Sometimes, anon6600 in shady vale, each night
Under the covert6601 of some ancient oak
Or cedar to defend6602 him from the dew,
Or harbored6603 in one cave, is not revealed.
Nor6604 tasted human food, nor hunger felt,
Till those days ended. Hungered then at last
Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild,6605
Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed. His walk
The fiery serpent fled and noxious6606 worm,
The lion and fierce tiger glared6607 aloof.6608
But now an agèd man in rural weeds,
Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray ewe,
Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve
Against a winter’s day when winds blow keen
To warm him, wet returned from field at eve,
He6609 saw approach, who first with curious eye
Perused him, then with words thus uttered spoke:
“Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place,
So far from path or road of men, who pass
In troop or caravan? For single6610 none
Durst ever, who returned, and dropped not here
His carcass, pined 6611 with hunger and with drought?
I ask the rather, and the more admire,
For that6612 to me thou seem’st the man whom late
Our new baptizing prophet at the ford
Of Jordan honored so, and called thee Son
Of God. I saw and heard, for we sometimes
Who dwell this wild,6613 constrained6614 by want, come forth
To town or village nigh (nighest is far),
Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,
What happens new. Fame6615 also finds us out.”
To whom the Son of God:
“Who brought me hither
Will bring me hence. No other guide I seek.”
“By miracle he may,” replied the swain.6616
“What other way I see not, for we here
Live on tough roots and stubs,6617 to thirst inured
More than the camel, and to drink go far—
Men to much misery and hardship born.
But if thou be the Son of God, command
That out of these hard stones be made thee bread,
So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.”
He ended, and the Son of God replied:
“Think’st thou such force in bread? Is it not written
(For I discern thee other than thou seem’st),
Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed
Our fathers here with manna? In the mount
Moses was forty days, nor ate nor drank,
And forty days Elijah without food
Wandered this barren waste. The same I now.
Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust,6618
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?”
Whom thus answered th’ arch-fiend, now undisguised:
“’Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate
Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,
Kept not my happy station, but was driv’n
With them from bliss to the bottomless deep.
Yet to that hideous place not so confined
By rigor6619 unconniving6620 but that oft,
Leaving my dolorous6621 prison, I enjoy
Large liberty to round6622 this globe of earth,
Or range6623 in the air, nor from the Heav’n of Heav’ns
Hath He excluded my resort6624 sometimes.
I came among the Sons of God when He
Gave up into my hands Uzzean6625 Job,
To prove6626 him, and illustrate6627 his high worth.
And when to all His Angels He proposed
To draw the proud King Ahab6628 into fraud,
That he might fall in Ramoth,6629 they demurring,6630
I undertook that office, and the tongues
Of all his6631 flattering prophets glibbed 6632 with lies
To his destruction, as I had in charge.6633
For what He bids I do. Though I have lost
Much luster of my native brightness, lost
To be beloved of God, I have not lost
To love, at least contemplate6634 and admire,
What I see excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous.6635 I should so have lost all sense.
“What can be then less in me than desire6636
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declared the Son of God, to hear attent6637
Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?
Men generally think me much a foe
To all mankind. Why should I? They to me
Never did wrong or violence. By them
I lost not what I lost. Rather by them
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
Copartner in these regions of the world,
If not disposer6638 —lend them oft my aid,
Oft my advice by presages6639 and signs,
And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life.
“Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain
Companions of my misery and woe!
At first it may be but, long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof
That fellowship in pain divides6640 not smart,6641
Nor lightens aught each man’s peculiar6642 load.
Small consolation, then, were man adjoined.6643
This wounds me most (what can it less?) that man,
Man fall’n, shall be restored, I never more.”
To whom our Savior sternly thus replied:
“Deservedly thou griev’st, composed6644 of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,
Who boast’st release from Hell, and leave to come
Into the Heav’n of Heav’ns! Thou com’st indeed,
As a poor miserable6645 captive thrall6646
Comes to the place where he before had sat
Among the prime in splendor, now deposed,
Ejected, emptied, gazed,6647 unpitied, shunned,
A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,
To all the host of Heav’n. The happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy,
Rather inflames thy torment, representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable—
So never more in Hell than when in Heav’n.
“But thou art serviceable to Heav’n’s King!
Wilt thou impute t’ obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem6648
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? But his patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task,
To be a liar in four hundred mouths,
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend’st to truth! All oracles
By thee are giv’n, and what confessed more true
Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers? What but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
Which they who asked have seldom understood,
And not well understood, as good not known?6649
Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,
Returned the wiser, or the more instruct
To fly6650 or follow wh
at concerned him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly giv’n the nations up
To thy delusions—justly, since they fell
Idolatrous.
“But when His purpose is
Among them to declare His providence,
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
But from Him, or his Angels president6651
In every province, who themselves disdaining
T’ approach thy temples, give thee in command
What, to the smallest tittle,6652 thou shalt say
To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning6653 parasite, obey’st,
Then to thyself ascrib’st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched.6654
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse6655
The gentiles:6656 henceforth oracles are ceased,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquired at Delphos or elsewhere—
At least 6657 in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent His living oracle
Into the world to teach His final will,
And sends His Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle
To all truth requisite for men to know.”
So spoke our Savior. But the subtle fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,6658
Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:
“Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,
And urged me hard with doings which not will 6659
But misery hath wrested 6660 from me. Where
Easily canst thou find one6661 miserable,
And not enforced oft-times to part from truth,
If it may stand him more in stead 6662 to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?6663
But thou art placed above me, thou art Lord.
From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure
Check6664 or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.6665
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue discoursed,6666 pleasing to th’ ear,
And tunable6667 as sylvan6668 pipe6669 or song.
What wonder, then, if I delight to hear
Her dictates6670 from thy mouth? Most men admire6671
Virtue who follow not her lore. Permit me
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),
And talk at least, though I despair t’ attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,