"Winning, by conquest, what the first man lost,

"By fallacy surprised. But first I mean

"To exercise him in the wilderness:
"There he shall first lay down the rudiments
"Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth
"To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes,
"By humiliation and strong sufferance:
"His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,
"And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;
"That all the Angels and ethereal Powers-
"They now, and men hereafter-may discern,
"From what consummate virtue I have chose
"This perfect Man, by merit called my Son,
"To earn salvation for the sons of men."

So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven
Admiring stood a space; then into hymns
Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved,
Circling the throne and singing, while the hand
Sung with the voice, and this the argument:

"Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
"Now entering his great duel, not of arms,
"But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles!
"The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
"Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,

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'Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce, "Allure, or terrify, or undermine.

"Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell;
66 And, devilish machinations, come to nought!"
So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned:
Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,
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 godlike 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,

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Thought following thought, and step by step led on,

He entered now the bordering desert wild;

And, with dark shades and rocks environed round,
His holy meditations thus pursued:

66 O, what a multitude of thoughts at once
"Awakened in me swarm, while I consider
"What from within I feel myself, and hear
"What from without comes often to my ears,
"Ill sorting with my present state compared !
"When I was yet a child, no childish play
"To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
"Serious to learn and know, and thence to do,
"What might be public good: myself I thought
"Born to that end-born to promote all truth,
"All righteous things; therefore, above my years,
"The law of God I read, and found it sweet,
"Made it my whole delight; and in it grew
"To such perfection, that, ere yet my age
"Had measured twice six years, at our great feast
"I went into the temple, there to hear
"The teachers of our law, and to propose
"What might improve my knowledge or their own;
"And was admired by all. Yet this not all
"To which my spirit aspired; victorious deeds
“Flamed in my heart-heroic acts-one while
"To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke;
"Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the Earth,
"Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,
"Till truth were freed, and equity restored:
"Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
"And make persuasion do the work of fear;
"At least to try, and teach the erring soul,
"Not wilfully misdoing, but unaware

"Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.

"These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving, "By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,

"And said to me apart: 'High are thy thoughts, "O Son! but nourish them, and let them soar

"To what height sacred virtue and true worth "Can raise them, though above example high:

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By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.

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"For know, thou art no Son of mortal man,
"Though men esteem thee low of parentage;
"Thy Father is the Eternal King who rules
"All Heaven and Earth, angels and sons of men:
"A messenger from God foretold thy birth,
"Conceived in me a virgin; he foretold
"Thou shouldst be great, and sit on David's throne,
"And of thy kingdom there should be no end.
"At thy nativity, a glorious quire

"Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung
"To shepherds, watching at their folds by night,
"And told them the Messiah now was born-
"Where they might see him—and to thee they came,
"Directed to the manger where thou layst,
"For in the inn was left no better room:
"A star, not seen before, in Heaven appearing,
"Guided the wise men thither from the East,
"To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold;
"By whose bright course led on they found the place,
"Affirming it thy star, new-graven in Heaven,

"6 By which they knew thee King of Israel born.

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Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned

"By vision, found thee in the temple, and spake,
"Before the altar and the vested priest,

"Like things of thee to all that present stood.'
"This having heard, straight I again revolved
"The law and prophets, searching what was writ
Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes

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"Known partly, and soon found, of whom they spake "I am; this chiefly, that my way must lie

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Through many a hard assay, e'en to the death,

"Ere I the promised kingdom can attain,

"Or work redemption for mankind, whose sins-
"Full weight-must be transferred upon my head.
"Yet, neither thus disheartened nor dismayed,
"The time prefixed I waited; when behold
"The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard,

"Not knew by sight), now come, who was to come
"Before Messiah, and his way prepare!
"I, as all others, to his baptism came,

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"Which I believed was from above; but he

"Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed "Me him-for it was shown him so from Heaven

"Me him, whose harbinger he was; and first

"Refused on me his baptism to confer,

"As much his greater, and was hardly won:
"But, as I rose out of the laving stream,
"Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence
"The Spirit descended on me like a dove;
"And last, the sum of all, my Father's voice,

Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his"Me his beloved Son, in whom alone

"He was well pleased; by which I knew the time
"Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
"But openly begin, as best becomes,
"The authority which I derived from Heaven.
"And now by some strong motion I am led
"Into this wilderness, to what intent
"I learn not yet-perhaps I need not know;
"For what concerns my knowledge God reveals."
So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise;
And, looking round, on every side beheld
A pathless desert—dusk with horrid shades:
The way he came not having marked, return
Was difficult, by human steps untrod;
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
Accompanied, of things past and to come,
Lodged in his breast, as well might recommend
Such solitude before choicest society.
Full forty days he passed, whether on hill
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
Under the covert of some ancient oak,
Or cedar, to defend him from the dew,
Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,

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Till those days ended; hungered then at last

Among wild beasts: they at his sight grew mild,

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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, who first with curious eye
Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake:

"Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place, "So far from path or road of men, who pass

"In troop or caravan? for single none

"Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here
"His carcass, pined with hunger and with drouth.
"I ask the rather, and the more admire,
"For that to me thou seemst the man, whom late
"Our new baptizing Prophet, at the ford

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"Of Jordan, honoured so, and called thee Son

"Of God: I saw and heard, for we sometimes

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"Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth "To town or village nigh (nighest is far),

"Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear

"What happens new; fame also finds us out."

To whom the Son of God:

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"Who brought me hither

"Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek."
By miracle he may," replied the swain ;
"What other way I see not; for we here

"Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured
"More than the camel, and to drink go far,-
"Men to much misery and hardship born:
"But, 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."
He ended, and the Son of God replied:

"Thinkst thou such force in bread? Is it not written,
"(For I discern thee other than thou seemst),
"Man lives not by bread only, but each word

Proceeding from the mouth of God,' who fed "Our fathers here with manna? in the mount "Moses was forty days, nor eat, nor drank;

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