The World's Greatest Books by Arthur Mee - HTML preview

Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,

Through Eden took their solitary way.

 

FOOTNOTES:

[AA]

John Milton, the peer of Dante as one of the world's master-poets, was born in Bread Street, London, on December 9, 1608, the son of a well-to-do scrivener. Educated at St. Paul's School and at Cambridge, he devoted himself from the first to poetry. The "Ode on the Nativity" was written when the poet was twenty-one. His productions till his thirtieth year were nearly all of a classical caste�"L'Allegro," "Il Penseroso," "Comus," "Lycidas." Returning from Continental travels in 1639, Milton became enmeshed in politics, and so continued for twenty years, during which time he wrote much polemical prose, including his "Areopagitica" (see Vol. XX, p. 257) and his "Tractate on Education." After a spell of teaching and pamphleteering, he served as Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and was stricken with blindness at the age of forty-four. Though poor by loss of office after the Restoration, he was never in poverty. He died on November 8, 1674. "Paradise Lost," planned in his youth, was actually begun in 1658, finished in 1665, and published in 1667. The price arranged was �5 down and �5 more on each of three editions, of which Milton received �10, and his widow �8, the rest being unpaid. In English literature "Paradise Lost" stands alone as an effort of sheer imagination, and its literary genius is as haunting as its conception is stupendous.

 

 

[Pg 342]

Paradise Regained^[AB]

 

I.�The Forty Days

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.

Having thus introduced his subject, the poet describes, on Scriptural lines, the baptism of John, seen by Satan, "when roving still about the world." The Fiend then "flies to his place" and "summons all his mighty peers"�a gloomy consistory�warning them that the time seems approaching when they "must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound," when "the woman's Seed shall bruise the serpent's head." They agree that Satan shall return to earth and act as Tempter. In Heaven, meantime, God tells the assembly of angels, addressing Gabriel, that He will expose His Son to Satan, in order that the Son may "show him worthy of His birth divine and high prediction." And the angelic choir sings "Victory and triumph to the Son of God."

So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.

Meanwhile the Son of God ...

[Pg 343]

Musing and much revolving in his breast

How best the mighty work he might begin

Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first

Publish his God-like office now mature,

One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading,

And his deep thoughts, the better to converse

With solitude, till, far from track of men,

Thought following thought, and step by step led on,

He entered now the bordering desert wild.

Christ then, in meditation, tells reminiscently the story of His life.

Full forty days He passed ...

Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,

Till those days ended; hungered then at last

Among wild beasts. They at His sight grew mild,

Nor sleeping Him nor waking harmed; His walk

The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;

The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.

But now an aged 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,

He saw approach.

This is Satan, and, entering into conversation adjures the Son�

"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."

Christ at once discerns who His tempter is and rebuffs him; and the Fiend, "now undisguised," goes on to narrate his own history, arguing that he is not a foe to mankind.

"They to me

Never did wrong or violence. By them

I lost not what I lost; rather by them

[Pg 344]

I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell

Co-partner in these regions of the world."

Christ, replying, attributes to Satan the evils of Idolatry and the crafty oracles of heathendom, which have taken the place of the "inward oracle in pious hearts," whereupon Satan, "bowing low his gray dissimulation, disappeared."

II.�The Temptation of the Body

Meanwhile the disciples were gathered "close in a cottage low," wondering where Christ could be, and Mary with troubled thoughts, rehearsed the story of His early life. Satan, returning to the council of his fellow fiends, in "the middle region of thick air," reports his failure, and that he has found in the Tempted "amplitude of mind to greatest deeds." Belial advises that the temptation should be continued by women "expert in amorous arts," but Satan rejects the plan, and reminds Belial�

"Among the sons of men

How many have with a smile made small account

Of beauty and her lures. For beauty stands

In the admiration only of weak minds

Led captive: cease to admire and all her plumes

Fall flat.... We must try

His constancy with such as have more show

Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise."

With this aim Satan again betakes himself to the desert, where Christ, now hungry, sleeps and dreams of food.

And now the herald lark

Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry

The morn's approach, and greet her with his song,

As lightly from his grassy couch uprose

Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;

Fasting he went to sleep and fasting waked.

Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,

And in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,

With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud.

Thither He bent His way ...

When suddenly a man before Him stood,

[Pg 345]

Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,

As one in city or court or palace bred.

Here Satan again tempts Him with a spread of savoury food, which Jesus dismisses with the words:

"Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,

And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles!"

The book closes with the offer of riches, which are rejected as "the toil of fools."

III.�The Temptation of Glory

Finding his weak "arguing and fallacious drift" ineffectual, Satan next appeals to ambition and suggests conquest; but is reminded that conquerors

"Rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave

Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,

Made captive, yet deserving freedom more

Than those their conquerors, who leave behind

Nothing but ruin wheresoe'r they rove,

And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;

Then swell with pride and must be titled gods.

But if there be in glory aught of good,

It may by means far different be attained;

Without ambition, war, or violence,

By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,

By patience, temperance."

But Satan, sardonically, argues that God expects glory, nay, exacts it from all, good and bad alike. To which Christ replies:

"Not glory as prime end,

But to show forth his goodness, and impart

His good communicable to every soul

Freely; of whom what could He less expect

Than glory and benediction�that is thanks�

The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense

From them who could return him nothing else."

[Pg 346]

But, argues Satan, it is the throne of David to which the Messiah is ordained; why not begin that reign? Hitherto Christ has scarcely seen the Galilean towns, but He shall "quit these rudiments" and survey "the monarchies of the earth, their pomp and state." And thereupon he carries Him to a mountain whence He can see "Assyria and her empire's ancient bounds," and there suggests the deliverance of the Ten Tribes.

"Thou on the Throne of David in full glory,

From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond

Shalt reign, and Rome or C�sar not need fear."

The answer is that these things must be left to God's "due time and providence."

IV.�The Last Temptation

The Tempter now brings the Saviour round to the western side of the mountain, and there Rome

An imperial city stood;

With towers and temples proudly elevate

On seven hills, with palaces adorned,

Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,

Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,

Gardens and groves. Queen of the Earth,

So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched

Of nations.

But this "grandeur and majestic show of luxury" has no effect on Christ, who says:

"Know, 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."

The offer of the kingdoms of the world incurs the stern rebuke:

"Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st

That Evil One, Satan, for ever damned."

[Pg 347]

Still the Fiend is not utterly abashed, but, arguing that "the childhood shows the man as morning shows the day," and that Christ's empire is one of mind, he, as a last temptation from the "specular mount," shows Athens.

"There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power

Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit

By voice or hand, and various-measured verse.

To sage philosophy next lend thine ear,

From Heaven descended to the low-roofed house

Of Socrates."

Christ replies that whoever seeks true wisdom in the philosophies, moralities and conjectures of men finds her not, and that the poetry of Greece will not compare with "Hebrew songs and harps." It is the prophets who teach most plainly

"What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so;

What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat?"

Finding all these temptations futile, Satan explodes:

"Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,

Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor aught

By me proposed in life contemplative

Or active, tended on by glory or fame;

What dost thou in this world? The wilderness

For thee is fittest place. I found thee there

And thither will return thee."

So he transports the passive Saviour back to his homeless solitude.

Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind,

Hungry and cold betook himself to rest.

The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams

Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now

'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heaven; the clouds

From many a rift abortive poured

Fierce rain with lightning mixed; water with fire

In ruin reconciled. Ill wast Thou shrouded then,

O patient Son of God! Yet only stood'st

Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there.

[Pg 348]

Infernal ghosts of hellish furies round

Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,

Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou

Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.

Thus passed the night so foul, till morning fair

Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,

Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar

Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,

And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had raised

To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.

And now the sun with more effectual beams

Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet

From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,

Who all things now beheld more fresh and green,

After a night of storm so ruinous,

Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,

To 'gratulate the sweet return of morn.

Satan, in anger, begins the last temptation.

Feigning to doubt whether the Saviour is the Son of God, he snatches him up and carries him to where, in

Fair Jerusalem, the Holy City lifted high her towers

And higher yet the glorious Temple reared

Her pile; far off appearing like a mount

Of alabaster, topp'd with golden spires:

There on the highest pinnacle he set

The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:

"There stand if thou wilt stand; to stand upright will task thy skill."

"Tempt not the Lord thy God," He said, and stood.

But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell,

And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought

Ruin, and desperation, and dismay.

So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe,

Of angels, on full sail of wing flew nigh,

Who on their plumy vans received Him soft,

From His uneasy station, and upbore

[Pg 349]

As on a floating couch through the blithe air;

Then in a flowery valley set Him down

On a green bank, and set before Him, spread,

A table of celestial food....

....And as He fed, angelic quires

Sang Heavenly anthems of His victory

Over temptation and the Tempter proud.

"Now Thou hast avenged

Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing

Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise."

Thus they, the Son of God, our Saviour meek,

Sung victor, and from Heavenly feast refreshed,

Brought on His way with joy. He, unobserved,

Home to His mother's house private returned.

 

FOOTNOTES:

[AB]

The origin of "Paradise Regained" has been told authentically. It was suggested in 1665 by Ellwood the Quaker, who sometimes acted as Milton's amanuensis, and it was finished and shown to Ellwood in 1666, though not published till 1671. Neither in majesty of conception or in charm of style can it compare with "Paradise Lost," to which it is, as has been said, a codicil and not a sequel. The Temptation, the reader feels, was but an incident in the life of Christ and in the drama of the "ways of God to man," which "Paradise Lost" introduced with such stupendous imaginative power. Much of the poem is but a somewhat ambling paraphrase and expansion of Scriptural narratives; but there are passages where Milton resumes his perfect mastery of poetic form, under the inspiration that places him among the selectest band of immortal singers.

 

 

Samson Agonistes^[AC]

 

Persons in the Drama

Samson
Manoa, the father of Samson
Dalila, his wife
Hurapha, of Gath
Public Officer
Messenger
Chorus of Danites

The scene is placed before the prison in Gaza.

[Pg 350]

Samson: A little onward send thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on;
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade.
There I am wont to sit, when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil.
Daily in the common prison else enjoined me,
Where I, a prisoner chained, scarce freely draw
The air, imprisoned also, close and damp,
Unwholesome draught. But here I feel amends
The breath of Heaven fresh blowing, pure and sweet,
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
This day a solemn feast the people hold
To Dagon, their sea-idol, and forbid
Laborious works. Hence, with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek
This unfrequented place to find some ease�
Oh, wherefore was my birth from Heaven foretold
Twice by an angel, if I must die
Betrayed, captive, and both my eyes put out,
Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze?

O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrevocably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!
O first created beam, and thou great Word,
"Let there be light, and light was over all,"
Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?

[Pg 351]

The Sun to me is dark
And silent as the Moon,
When she deserts the night,
Hid in her vacant inter-lunar cave.

Chorus: This, this is he; softly a while;
Let us not break in upon him.
O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused,
With languished head unpropt,
As one past hope, abandoned.
Which shall I fast bewail�
Thy bondage or lost sight,
Prison within prison
Inseparably dark?
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)
The dungeon of thyself;
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou are fallen.

Samson: I hear the sound of words; their sense the air
Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

Chorus: He speaks; let us draw nigh. Matchless in might,
The glory late of Israel, now the grief!
We come, thy friends and neighbours not unknown,
From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful vale,
To visit or bewail thee.

Samson: Your coming, friends, revives me.

Tell me, friends,
Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool
In every street?

Chorus: Wisest men
Have erred, and by bad women been deceived;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy country's enemy,
Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness.
But see! here comes thy reverend sire,

[Pg 352]

With careful step, locks white as down,
Old Manoa: advise
Forthwith how thou ought'st to receive him.

Manoa: Brethren and men of Dan, if old respect,
As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,
My son, now captive, hither hath informed
Your younger feet, while mine, cast back with age,
Came lagging after, say if he be here.

Chorus: As signal now in low dejected state
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.

Manoa: O miserable change! Is this the man,
That invincible Samson, far renowned,
The dread of Israel's foes?

Samson: Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me
But justly.

Manoa: True; but thou bear'st
Enough, and more, the burden of that fault;
Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying,
That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains;
This day the Philistines a popular feast
Here celebrate in Gaza, and proclaim
Great pomp, an