God over all supreme? if giv'u to thee,
By thee how fairly is the giver now
Repaid? But gratitude in thee is loft
Long fince.

Wert thou fo void of fear or

shame.

As offer them to me the Son of God,

190

To me my own, on such abhorred pact,
That I fall down and worship thee as God?
Get thee behind me; plain thou now appear'st
That evil one, Satan for ever damm'd

To whom the Fiend with fear abafh'd

reply'd.

Be not fo fore offended, Son of God,

195

Though fons of God both Angels are and Men, If I to try whether in higher fort

Than these thou bear'st that title, have pro

pos'd

What both from Men and Angels I receive, 200
Tetrachs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations befides from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invok'd and world beneath;
Who then thou art, whofe coming is foretold
To me fo fatal, me it most concerns.
The trial hath indamag'd thee no way,
Rather, more honor left and more esteem;
Me nought advantag'd: missing what I aim'd.
Therefore let pafs, as they are tranfitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I fhall no

more

205

210

Advise

Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.
And thou thyfelf feem'ft otherwife inclin'd
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
To contemplation and profound dispute,
As by that early action may be judg'd,
When flipping from thy mother's eye thou
went'st

215

Alone into the temple; there waft found
Among the graveft Rabbies difputant
On points and questions fitting Mofes chair,
Teaching not taught; the childhood fhows

As morning fhows the day. Be famous then
Be wifdom; as thy empire muft extend
So let extend thy mind o'er all the world
In knowledge, all things in it comprehend:
All knowledge is not couch'd in Mofes
225

law,

The Pentateuch, or wath the Prophets wrote;
The Gentiles alfo know, and write and teach
To admiration, led by nature's light;
And with the Gentiles much thou must con-
verse,

Ruling them by perfuafion as thou mean'ft; 230 -Without their learning how wilt thou with them,

Or they with thee hold converfation meet? How wilt thou reafon with them, how refute Their idolifms, traditions, paradoxes?

N

235

Error by his own arms is best evinc'd.
Look once more ere we leave this specular

mount

Weftward, much nearer by fouthweft, behold
Where on the Aegean fhore a city ftands
Beilt nobly, pure the air, and light the foil,
Athens the eye of Greece, mother of arts 240
And cloquence, native to famous wits
Or hofpitable, in her fweet recefs,

City or fuburban, studious walks and fhades;
See there the olive grove of Academe,

Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird

245

Trills her thick - warbled notes the fummer.

long;

There flow'ry hill Hymettus with the found
Of bees induftrious murmur oft invites
To ftudious mufing; there Iliffus rolls
His whifp'ring ftream: within the walls then

view

The schools of ancient fages; his who bred
Great Alexander to fubdue the world,

Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:

250

There thou fhalt hear and learn the fecret

power

Of harmony in tones aud numbers hit 255 By voice or hand, and various-measur'd

verse,

Aeolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,

And his who gave them breath, but higher fung,

Blind Melefigenes thence Homer call'd,
Whole poem Phoebus challeng'd for his

Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught.
In Chorus or Iambic, teachers best

Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd
In brief fententious precepts, while they

treat

Of fate, and change, and change in human

life;

265

High actions, and high paffions best describ

ing:

Thence to the famous orators repair,

Those ancient, whofe refiftlefs eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,

Shook th' arsenal and fulmin'd over Grece 270
To Macedon and Artaxerxes throne:
To fage philofophy next lend thine ear,
From Heav'n defcended to the low-rooft
houfe

Of Socrates; fee there his tenement,

Whom well infpir'd the oracle pronunc'd 275 Wifeft of men; from whofe mouth iffued

forth

Mellifluous ftreams, that water'd all the schools Of Academics old and new, with thofe

Surnam❜d Peripatetics, ad the fect

Epicurean, and the Stoic fevere';

280

These here revolve, or, as thou lik'ft, at

home,

Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;

Thefe rules will render thee a king complete Within thyself, much more with empire

join'd.

To wohm our Saviour fagely thus re

plyd.

285 Think not but that I know thefe things,

or think

I know them not; not therefore am I short Of knowing what I ought: he who receives Light from above, from the fountain of

light,

No other doctrin needs, though granted true;

290

But these are falfe, or little elfe but dreams,
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
The firft and wifeft of them all profefs'd
To know this only, that he nothing knew;
The next to fabling fell and fmooth, con-
ceits;
A third fort doubted all things, though plain
fense;

Others in virtue plac'd felicity,

295

But virtue join'd with riches and long life; In corporal pleasure he, and careless eafe; The Stoic laft in philofophic pride,

300

By him call'd virtue; and his virtuous man, Wife, perfect in himself, and all poffeffing, Equals to God, oft fhames not to prefer,