"Spreading and overshadowing all the earth; To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied: 86 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?" 150 160 Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain: 170 "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, 180 66 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, To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied: "Than these thou bearst that title, have proposed "When, slipping from thy mother's eye, thou wentst "Among the gravest Rabbis, disputant "On points and questions fitting Moses' chair, 190 200 210 "Teaching, not taught; the childhood shows the man, 220 "As morning shows the day. Be famous then "By wisdom; as thy empire must extend, "To admiration, led by Nature's light; "And with the Gentiles much thou must converse, 66 Ruling them by persuasion, as thou meanst. "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, 66 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; "To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls "His whispering stream: within the walls then view 66 Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:- "Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit 66 By voice or hand; and various measured verse, "Eolian charms, and Dorian lyric odes, "And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, 66 High actions and high passions best describing: "Thence to the famous orators repair, 230 240 250 260 "Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence "Wielded at will that fierce democracy, "Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece, "To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: "To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear, 270 "From Heaven descended to the low-roofed house "Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect 66 Epicurean, and the Stoic severe. "These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home, 66 Light from above, from the fountain of light, "No other doctrine needs, though granted true; "But these are false, or little else but dreams,— "Conjectures,-fancies,-built on nothing firm. "The first and wisest of them all professed "To know this only, that he nothing knew; "The next to fabling fell, and smooth conceits; "A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense: "Others in virtue placed felicity, "But virtue joined with riches and long life; 280 290 "In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease: "The Stoic last, in philosophic pride, 66 66 66 By him called virtue; and his virtuous man, 'Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing, Equals to God, oft shames not to prefer, "As fearing God nor man, contemning all— 66 Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life, 66 Which, when he lists, he leaves, -or boasts he can, "For all his tedious talk is but vain boast, --- 300 "Or subtle shifts conviction to evade. "Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead, Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, "And how the world began, and how man fell 66 Degraded by himself, on grace depending? "Much of the soul they talk, but all awry, "And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves 66 66 A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?) "Uncertain and unsettled still remains, 66 Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself, "Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys "And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge; "As children gathering pebbles on the shore. 66 Or, if I would delight my private hours "With music or with poem; where, so soon "As in our native language, can I find "That solace? All our law and story strewed "With hymns, our psalms with artful terms inscribed, "That pleased so well our victors' ear,―declare, "Ill imitated, while they loudest sing 310 320 330 "The vices of their deities, and their own, "In fable, hymn, or song, so personating "Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame! "With Sion's songs,—to all true tastes excelling, 340 |