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prepared Eve for this, and she tells Adam that with him

by her side all places are alike

'Now lead on ;

In me is no delay; with thee to go,
Is to stay here; without thee here to stay,
Is to go hence unwilling; thou to me
Art all things under Heaven, all places thou,
Who for my wilful crime art banish'd hence.
This further consolation yet secure

I carry hence; though all by me is lost,
Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed,
By me the promised Seed shall all restore.'

So spake our mother Eve; and Adam heard
Well pleased, but answer'd not: for now, too nigh
The archangel stood; and from the other hill
To their fix'd station, all in bright array
The cherubim descended; on the ground
Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist

Risen from a river o'er the marish glides,
And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel
Homeward returning. High in front advanced,
The brandish'd sword of God before them blazed
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan air adust,
Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappear'd.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,

Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms :
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon ;

The world was all before them, where to choose

Their place of rest, and Providence their guide :
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.

PARADISE REGAINED

As a poem is considered greatly inferior to the 'Paradise Lost,' but yet contains some passages of excellence and beauty. The title, however, is not realised in the work, which might have been more aptly named the 'Temptation of Christ,' as it contains nothing of what the title leads the reader to expect-the great subjects of Christ's Death, the Resurrection, Ascension, and Second Coming of Our Lord, not being included. It begins with the baptism of Christ at Jordan by John the Baptist, and ends with the defeat of Satan after the Forty Days' temptation in the wilderness.

Opening with an invocation to the Holy Spirit, we are led to the banks of the Jordan, where the Baptist is Divinely made aware that the Son of God is before him by the Spirit in the likeness of a dove descending upon

the beloved Son. Satan is present also among the crowd of votaries, and when he hears the 'high attest,' he 'flies to his place,' and summons the infernal council to consider how best they may avert the long-delayed decree of Heaven, that the Woman's Seed should destroy their power.

'I saw

The prophet do him reverence; on him, rising
Out of the water, heaven above the clouds
Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head
A perfect dove descend (whate'er it meant),
And out of heaven the sovran voice I heard,—
"This is my Son beloved; in him am pleased."

Again his peers commit to the arch-traitor the mission of trying by temptation to overcome the decrees of God.

Meanwhile the Almighty, in the assembly of angels, declares that He has ordained His Son shall be tempted by Satan, but that the Messiah will certainly overcome the wiles of the tempter:

'This Man, born and now upgrown,
To show him worthy of his birth divine
And high prediction, henceforth I expose
To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay
His utmost subtlety, because he boasts
And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng
Of his apostasy: he might have learnt,

Less overweening, since he failed in Job,
Whose constant perseverance overcame
Whate'er his cruel malice could invent.
He now shall know I can produce a Man,

Of female seed, far abler to resist

All his solicitations, and at length

All his vast force, and drive him back to hell;
Winning, by conquest, what the first Man lost,
By fallacy surprised.

Jesus, after being baptized by John, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He meditates on the work of redemption He has undertaken. For forty days the Messiah continues thus solitarily meditating and fasting, at the end of which time Satan appears as an 'aged man, in rural weeds, following, as seemed, in quest of some stray ewe.' Getting into conversation with Jesus, and recognising Him as the one whom he had seen with John at Jordan, Satan asks Him to prove His divinity by commanding the stones to become bread, since in that wilderness men are to hardship and misery born. Jesus knows His tempter, and replies that

'Man lives not by bread only, but by each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God.'

Satan disappears after this repulse as night comes on, and again consults with his infernal council. Various

modes of temptation are suggested, but the arch-traitor resolves to avail himself of Our Lord's hungering in the wilderness. Jesus is still wandering in the 'woody maze,' communing upon His divinely appointed work, when at the end of the forty days He lays Him down to sleep,

And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,

Of meats and drinks, Nature's refreshment sweet :
Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood,

And saw the ravens with their horny beaks

Food to Elijah bringing, even and morn,

Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought :

He saw the prophet also, how he fled

Into the desert, and how there he slept
Under a juniper; then how, awaked,
He found his supper on the coals prepared,
And by the angel was bid rise and eat,
And eat the second time after repose,

The strength whereof sufficed him forty days:
Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,

Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.

Thus wore out night.

In the morning Satan again appears, not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,' and expressing surprise that the Son of God should be so neglected, invites Him to a banquet; but his proposed favour being refused, the 'table and provisions vanished quite.' The arch-traitor

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