The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (146 page)

Why should’st thou, then, obtrude
⁶⁸⁵²
this diligence
⁶⁸⁵³

In vain, where no acceptance it can find?

And with my hunger what hast thou to do?

Thy pompous
⁶⁸⁵⁴
delicacies
⁶⁸⁵⁵
I contemn,
⁶⁸⁵⁶

And count thy specious
⁶⁸⁵⁷
gifts no gifts, but guiles.”

To whom thus answered Satan, malcontent:
⁶⁸⁵⁸

“That I have also power to give thou see’st.

If of that pow’r I bring thee voluntary

What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,

And, rather,
⁶⁸⁵⁹
opportunely
⁶⁸⁶⁰
in this place

Chose to impart to thy apparent
⁶⁸⁶¹
need,

Why should’st thou not accept it? But I see

What I can do or offer is suspect.

Of these things others quickly will dispose,

Whose pains have earned the far-fet
⁶⁸⁶²
spoil.”

With that

Both table and provision vanished quite,
⁶⁸⁶³

With sound of harpies’ wings and talons heard.

Only the importune
⁶⁸⁶⁴
Tempter still remained,

And with these words his temptation pursued:

“By hunger, that each other creature tames,

Thou art not to be harmed, therefore not moved.

Thy temperance,
⁶⁸⁶⁵
invincible besides,

For no allurement yields to appetite,

And all thy heart is set on high designs,

High actions. But wherewith to be achieved?

Great acts require great means of enterprise.
⁶⁸⁶⁶

Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,

A carpenter thy father known, thyself

Bred up in poverty and straits
⁶⁸⁶⁷
at home,

Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.

Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire

To greatness? Whence authority deriv’st?
⁶⁸⁶⁸

What followers, what retinue
⁶⁸⁶⁹
canst thou gain,

Or
⁶⁸⁷⁰
at thy heels the dizzy
⁶⁸⁷¹
multitude,

Longer than thou canst feed them on
⁶⁸⁷²
thy cost?

Money brings honor, friends, conquest, and realms.

What raised Antipater
⁶⁸⁷³
the Edomite
,
⁶⁸⁷⁴

And his son Herod, placed on Judah’s throne

(Thy throne), but gold, that got him puissant friends?

Therefore, if at great things thou would’st arrive,

Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap
⁶⁸⁷⁵
—

Not difficult, if thou hearken to me.

Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand.

They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain,
⁶⁸⁷⁶

While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.”

To whom thus Jesus patiently replied:

“Yet wealth without these three
⁶⁸⁷⁷
is impotent

To gain dominion, or to keep it, gained.
⁶⁸⁷⁸

Witness those ancient empires of the earth,

In height of all their flowing wealth dissolved,

But men endued with these
⁶⁸⁷⁹
have oft attained,

In lowest poverty, to highest deeds:

Gideon,
⁶⁸⁸⁰
and Jephtha,
⁶⁸⁸¹
and the shepherd lad
⁶⁸⁸²

Whose offspring on the throne of Judah sat

So many ages, and shall yet regain

That seat, and reign in Israel without end.

Among the heathen (for throughout the world

To me is not unknown what hath been done,

Worthy of memorial) canst thou not remember

Quintius,
⁶⁸⁸³
Fabricius,
⁶⁸⁸⁴
Curius,
⁶⁸⁸⁵
Regulus?
⁶⁸⁸⁶

For I esteem those names of men so poor

Who could do mighty things, and could contemn

Riches, though offered from the hand of kings.

And what in me seems wanting
⁶⁸⁸⁷
but that I

May also, in this poverty, as soon

Accomplish what they did, perhaps, and more?

Extol not riches, then, the toil
⁶⁸⁸⁸
of fools,

The wise man’s cumbrance, if not snare, more apt

To slacken virtue and abate
⁶⁸⁸⁹
her edge
⁶⁸⁹⁰

Than prompt her to do aught
⁶⁸⁹¹
may merit praise.

What if with like
⁶⁸⁹²
aversion I reject

Riches and realms! Yet not for that
⁶⁸⁹³
a crown,

Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns—

Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights

To him who wears the regal diadem,
⁶⁸⁹⁴

When on his shoulders each
⁶⁸⁹⁵
man’s burden lies.

For therein stands
⁶⁸⁹⁶
the office of a king,

His honor, virtue, merit, and chief praise

That for the public all this weight he bears.

“Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
⁶⁸⁹⁷

Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king—

Which every wise and virtuous man attains.

And who attains not, ill aspires to rule

Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes,

Subject
⁶⁸⁹⁸
himself to anarchy within,

Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.

But to guide nations in the way of truth

By saving
⁶⁸⁹⁹
doctrine, and from error lead

To know and, knowing, worship God aright,

Is yet more kingly. This attracts the soul,

Governs the inner man, the nobler part;

That other o’er the body only reigns,

And oft by force, which to a generous
⁶⁹⁰⁰
mind

So reigning can be no sincere delight.

“Besides, to give a kingdom hath been thought

Greater and nobler done, and to lay down
⁶⁹⁰¹

Far more magnanimous,
⁶⁹⁰²
than to assume.
⁶⁹⁰³

Riches are needless, then, both for themselves

And for thy reason why they should be sought,

To gain a scepter, oftest better missed.”
⁶⁹⁰⁴

BOOK III

So spoke the Son of God, and Satan stood

A while as mute, confounded
⁶⁹⁰⁵
what to say,

What to reply, confuted
⁶⁹⁰⁶
and convinced
⁶⁹⁰⁷

Of his weak arguing and fallacious
⁶⁹⁰⁸
drift.
⁶⁹⁰⁹

At length, collecting
⁶⁹¹⁰
all his serpent wiles,

With soothing words renewed, him
⁶⁹¹¹
thus accosts:

“I see thou know’st what is of use to know,

What best to say canst say, to do canst do.

Thy actions to thy words accord, thy words

To thy large heart give utterance due: thy heart

Contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.

Should kings and nations from thy mouth consult
⁶⁹¹²

Thy counsel would be as the oracle

Urim and Thummim,
⁶⁹¹³
those oraculous gems

On Aaron’s breast, or tongue of seers
⁶⁹¹⁴
old

Infallible. Or wert thou sought to deeds

That might require the array
⁶⁹¹⁵
of war, thy skill

Of conduct would be such that all the world

Could not sustain thy prowess, or subsist
⁶⁹¹⁶

In battle, though against thy few in arms.
⁶⁹¹⁷

“These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hide?

Affecting
⁶⁹¹⁸
private life, or more obscure

In savage wilderness, wherefore deprive

All earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself

The fame and glory—glory, the reward

That sole excites to high attempts the flame

Of most erected
⁶⁹¹⁹
spirits, most tempered
⁶⁹²⁰
pure

Ethereal, who all pleasures else despise,

All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,

And dignities and powers, all but the highest?

Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe. The son

Of Macedonian Philip
⁶⁹²¹
had ere these

Won Asia, and the throne of Cyrus
⁶⁹²²
held

At his dispose. Young Scipio had brought down

The Carthaginian pride;
⁶⁹²³
young Pompey quelled

The Pontic king,
⁶⁹²⁴
and in triumph had rode.

Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature,

Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.

Great Julius,
⁶⁹²⁵
whom now all the world admires,

The more he grew in years, the more inflamed

With glory, wept that he had lived so long

Inglorious. But thou yet art not too late.”