The Complete Poetry of John Milton (133 page)

   350     
Proceeding from the mouth of God; who fed

               
Our Fathers here with Manna; in the Mount

               
Moses
was forty days,
¹⁷
nor eat nor drank,

               
And forty days
Eliah
without food

               
Wander’d this barren waste,
¹⁸
the same I now:

   355     
Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,

               
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?

           
      
       Whom thus answer’d th’ Arch Fiend now undisguis’d.

               
’Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,

               
Who leagu’d with millions more in rash revolt

   360     
Kept not my happy Station, but was driv’n

               
With them from bliss to the bottomless deep,

               
Yet to that hideous place not so confin’d

               
By rigour unconniving,
¹⁹
but that oft

               
Leaving my dolorous Prison I enjoy

   365     
Large liberty to round this Globe of Earth,

               
Or range in th’ Air, nor from the Heav’n of Heav’ns

               
Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.

               
I came among the Sons of God, when he

               
Gave up into my hands
Uzzean Job

   370     
To prove him, and illustrate his high worth;

               
And when to all his Angels he propos’d

               
To draw the proud King
Ahab
into fraud

               
That he might fall in
Ramoth
, they demurring,

               
I undertook that office, and the tongues

   375     
Of all his flattering Prophets glibb’d with lies

               
To his destruction, as I had in charge.
²⁰

               
For what he bids I do; though I have lost

               
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost

               
To be belov’d of God, I have not lost

   380     
To love, at least contemplate and admire

               
What I see excellent in good, or fair,

               
Or vertuous, I should so have lost all sense.

               
What can be then less in me then desire

               
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know

   385     
Declar’d the Son of God, to hear attent
²¹

               
Thy wisdom, and behold thy God-like deeds?

               
Men generally think me much a foe

               
To all mankind: why should I? they to me

               
Never did wrong or violence, by them

   390     
I lost not what I lost, rather by them

               
I gain’d what I have gain’d, and with them dwell

               
Copartner in these Regions of the World,

               
If not disposer; lend them oft my aid,

               
Oft my advice by presages and signs,

   395     
And answers, oracles, portents and dreams,

               
Whereby they may direct their future life.

               
Envy they say excites me, thus to gain

               
Companions of my misery and wo.

               
At first it may be; but long since with wo

   400     
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof,

               
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,

               
Nor lightens aught each mans peculiar load.

               
Small consolation then, were Man adjoyn’d:

               
This wounds me most (what can it less) that Man,

   405     
Man fall’n shall be restor’d, I never more.

           
      
       To whom our Saviour sternly thus reply’d.

               
Deservedly thou griev’st, compos’d of lies

               
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;

               
Who boast’st release from Hell, and leave to come

   410     
Into the Heav’n of Heav’ns; thou corn’st indeed,

               
As a poor miserable captive thrall

               
Comes to the place where he before had sat

               
Among the Prime in Splendour, now depos’d,

               
Ejected, emptied, gaz’d, unpitied, shun’d,

   415     
A spectacle of ruin or of scorn

               
To all the Host of Heav’n; the happy place

               
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy,

               
Rather inflames thy torment, representing

               
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable,

   420     
So never more in Hell then when in Heav’n.

               
But thou art serviceable to Heav’ns King.

               
Wilt thou impute t’ obedience what thy fear

               
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?

               
What but thy malice mov’d thee to misdeem

   425     
Of righteous
Job
, then cruelly to afflict him

               
With all inflictions, but his patience won?

               
The other service was thy chosen task,

               
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
²²

               
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
²³

   430     
Yet thou pretend’st to truth; all Oracles

               
By thee are giv’n, and what confest more true

               
Among the Nations? that hath been thy craft,

               
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.

               
But what have been thy answers, what but dark,

   435     
Ambiguous and with double sense deluding,

               
Which they who ask’d have seldom understood,

               
And not well understood as good not known?

               
Who ever by consulting at thy shrine

               
Return’d the wiser, or the more instruct

   440     
To fly or follow what concern’d him most,

               
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

               
For God hath justly giv’n the Nations up

               
To thy Delusions; justly, since they fell

               
Idolatrous, but when his purpose is

   445     
Among them to declare his Providence

               
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,

               
But from him or his Angels President
²⁴

               
In every Province, who themselves disdaining

               
T’ approach thy Temples, give thee in command

   450     
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say

               
To thy Adorers; thou with trembling fear,

               
Or like a Fawning Parasite obey’st;

               
Then to thy self ascrib’st the truth fore-told.

               
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench’d;

   455     
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse

               
The Gentiles; henceforth Oracles are ceast,

               
And thou no more with Pomp and Sacrifice

               
Shalt be enquir’d at
Delphos
or elsewhere,

               
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.

   460     
God hath now sent his living Oracle

               
Into the World, to teach his final will,

               
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell

               
In pious Hearts, an inward Oracle

               
To all truth requisite for men to know.

   465  
      
       So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,

               
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,

               
Dissembl’d, and this Answer smooth return’d.

           
      
       Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,

               
And urg’d me hard with doings, which not will

   470     
But misery hath wrested from me; where

               
Easily canst thou find one miserable,

               
And not inforc’d oft-times to part from truth;

               
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,

               
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?

   475     
But thou art plac’t above me, thou art Lord;

               
From thee I can and must submiss
²⁵
endure

               
Check or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.

               
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,

               
Smooth on the tongue discourst, pleasing to th’ ear,

   480     
And tuneable as Silvan Pipe or Song;

               
What wonder then if I delight to hear

               
Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire

               
Vertue, who follow not her lore: permit me

               
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes)

   485     
And talk at least, though I despair t’ attain.

               
Thy Father, who is holy, wise and pure,

               
Suffers the Hypocrite or Atheous Priest

               
To tread his Sacred Courts, and minister

               
About his Altar, handling holy things,

   490     
Praying or vowing, and vouchsaf’d his voice

               
To
Balaam
²⁶
Reprobate, a Prophet yet

               
Inspir’d; disdain not such access to me.

           
      
       To whom our Saviour with unalter’d brow.

               
Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,

   495     
I bid not or forbid; do as thou find’st

               
Permission from above; thou canst not more.

           
      
       He added not; and Satan bowing low

               
His gray dissimulation, disappear’d

               
Into thin Air diffus’d: for now began

   500     
Night with her sullen wing to double-shade

               
The Desert, Fowls in thir clay nests were couch’t;

               
And now wild Beasts came forth the woods to roam.