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　　SELECTION FROM PARADISE REGAINED.

　　THE TEMPTATION OF THE VISION OF THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH.

　　Satan, meeting the Savior in the wilderness, tempted him to change the stones to bread, and then, after endeavoring to awake in him a longing for wealth and power, appealed to his ambition by leading him to a mountain top, and displaying to him the kingdoms of the earth.

　　With that (such power was given him then), he {Satan} took

　　The Son of God up to a mountain high.

　　It was a mountain at whose verdant feet

　　A spacious plain outstretched in circuit wide

　　Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,

　　The one winding, the other straight, and left between

　　Fair champaign, with less rivers interveined,

　　Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea.

　　Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;

　　With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills;

　　Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem

　　The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large

　　The prospect was that here and there was room

　　For barren desert, fountainless and dry.

　　To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought

　　Our Saviour, and new train of words began:—

　　"Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale,

　　Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,

　　Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold'st

　　Assyria, and her empire's ancient bounds,

　　Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on

　　As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,

　　And oft beyond; to south the Persian bay,

　　And, inaccessible, the Arabian drouth:

　　Here, Nineveh, of length within her wall

　　Several days' journey, built by Ninus old,

　　Of that first golden monarchy the seat,

　　And seat of Salmanassar, whose success

　　Israel in long captivity still mourns;

　　There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues,

　　As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice

　　Judah and all thy father David's house

　　Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,

　　Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,

　　His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;

　　Ecbatana her structure vast there shows,

　　And Hecatompylos her hundred gates;

　　There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,

　　The drink of none but kings; of later fame,

　　Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands,

　　The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there

　　Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,

　　Turning with easy eye, thou may'st behold.

　　All these the Parthian (now some ages past

　　By great Arsaces led, who founded first

　　That empire) under his dominion holds,

　　From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.

　　And just in time thou com'st to have a view

　　Of his great power; for now the Parthian king

　　In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host

　　Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild

　　Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid

　　He marches now in haste. See though from far,

　　His thousands, in what martial equipage

　　They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,

　　Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit—

　　All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;

　　See how in warlike muster they appear,

　　In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings."

　　He looked, and saw what numbers numberless

　　The city gates outpoured, light-armed troops

　　In coats of mail and military pride.

　　In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,

　　Prancing their riders bore, the flower and choice

　　Of many provinces from bound to bound—

　　From Arachosia, from Candaor east,

　　And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs

　　Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;

　　From Atropatia, and the neighboring plains

　　Of Adiabene, Media, and the south

　　Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.

　　He saw them in their forms of battle ranged,

　　How quick they wheeled, and flying behind them shot

　　Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face

　　Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;

　　The field all iron cast a gleaming brown.

　　Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor, on each horn,

　　Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight,

　　Chariots, or elephants indorsed with towers

　　Of archers; nor of labouring pioneers

　　A multitude, with spades and axes armed,

　　To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill,

　　Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay

　　With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke:

　　Mules after these, camels and dromedaries,

　　And waggons fraught with utensils of war.

　　Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,

　　When Agrican, with all his northern powers,

　　Besieged Albracca, as romances tell,

　　The city of Gallaphrone, from thence to win

　　The fairest of her sex, Angelica,

　　His daughter, sought by many prowest knights,

　　Both Paynim and the peers of Charlemain.

　　Such and so numerous was their chivalry.

　　Book III.

　　He brought our Saviour to the western side

　　Of that high mountain, whence he might behold

　　Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,

　　Washed by the southern sea, and on the north

　　To equal length backed with a ridge of hills

　　That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men

　　From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst

　　Divided by a river, off whose banks

　　On each side an imperial city stood,

　　With towers and temples proudly elevate

　　On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,

　　Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,

　　Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,

　　Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes

　　Above the highth of mountains interposed—

　　By what strange parallax, or optic skill

　　Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass

　　Of telescope, were curious to inquire.

　　And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:—

　　"The city which thou seest no other deem

　　Than great and glorious Rome Queen of the Earth

　　So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched

　　Of nations. There the Capitol thou seest,

　　Above the rest lifting his stately head

　　On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel

　　Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine,

　　The imperial palace, compass huge, and high

　　The structure, skill of noblest architects,

　　With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,

　　Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires.

　　Many a fair edifice besides, more like

　　Houses of gods—so well have I disposed

　　My aery microscope—thou may'st behold,

　　Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs

　　Carved work, the hand of famed artificers

　　In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.

　　Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see

　　What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:

　　Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces

　　Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;

　　Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;

　　Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;

　　Or embassies from regions far remote,

　　In various habits, on the Appian road,

　　Or on the Aemilian—some from farthest south,

　　Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,

　　Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,

　　The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;

　　From the Asian kings (and Parthian among these),

　　From India and the Golden Chersoness,

　　And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,

　　Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreathed;

　　From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;

　　Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians north

　　Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.

　　All nations now to Rome obedience pay—

　　To Rome's great Emperor, whose wide domain,

　　In ample territory, wealth and power,

　　Civility of manners, arts and arms,

　　And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer

　　Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,

　　The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,

　　Shared among petty kings too far removed;

　　These having shown thee, I have shown thee all

　　The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory".

　　Book IV. National Epics