Paradise Regained

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  PARADISE REGAINED

  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 10

  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 20

  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 30

  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, 40

  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, 50

  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 60

  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 70

  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 80

  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; 90

  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 100

  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: 110

  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, 120

  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, 130

  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, 140

  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, 150

  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 160

  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