Paradise Regained | Page 9

let pass?No advantage, and his strength as oft assay."?He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;?Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band?Of Spirits likest to himself in guile,?To be at hand and at his beck appear,?If cause were to unfold some active scene?Of various persons, each to know his part; 240 Then to the desert takes with these his flight,?Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,?After forty days' fasting, had remained,?Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:--?"Where will this end? Four times ten days I have passed?Wandering this woody maze, and human food?Nor tasted, nor had appetite. That fast?To virtue I impute not, or count part?Of what I suffer here. If nature need not,?Or God support nature without repast, 250 Though needing, what praise is it to endure??But now I feel I hunger; which declares?Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God?Can satisfy that need some other way,?Though hunger still remain. So it remain?Without this body's wasting, I content me,?And from the sting of famine fear no harm;?Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed?Me hungering more to do my Father's will."?It was the hour of night, when thus the Son 260 Communed in silent walk, then laid him down?Under the hospitable covert nigh?Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept,?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 270 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; and now the harald Lark?Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry 280 The Morn's approach, and greet her with his song.?As lightly from his grassy couch up rose?Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;?Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.?Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,?From whose high top to ken the prospect round,?If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;?But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw--?Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,?With chaunt of tuneful birds resounding loud. 290 Thither he bent his way, determined there?To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade?High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys brown,?That opened in the midst a woody scene;?Nature's own work it seemed (Nature taught Art),?And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt?Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He viewed it round;?When suddenly a man before him stood,?Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,?As one in city or court or palace bred, 300 And with fair speech these words to him addressed:--?"With granted leave officious I return,?But much more wonder that the Son of God?In this wild solitude so long should bide,?Of all things destitute, and, well I know,?Not without hunger. Others of some note,?As story tells, have trod this wilderness:?The fugitive Bond-woman, with her son,?Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief?By a providing Angel; all the race 310 Of Israel here had famished, had not God?Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,?Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed?Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.?Of thee those forty days none hath regard,?Forty and more deserted here indeed."?To whom thus Jesus:--"What conclud'st thou hence??They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none."?"How hast thou hunger then?" Satan replied.?"Tell me, if food were now before thee set, 320 Wouldst thou not eat?" "Thereafter as I like?the giver," answered Jesus. "Why should that?Cause thy refusal?" said the subtle Fiend.?"Hast thou not right to all created things??Owe not all creatures, by just right, to thee?Duty and service, nor to stay till bid,?But tender all their power? Nor mention I?Meats by the law unclean, or offered first?To idols--those young Daniel could refuse;?Nor proffered by an enemy--though who 330 Would scruple that, with want oppressed? Behold,?Nature ashamed, or, better to express,?Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed?From all the elements her choicest store,?To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord?With honour. Only deign to sit and eat."?He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,?Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,?In ample space under the broadest shade,?A table richly spread in regal mode, 340 With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort?And savour--beasts of chase, or fowl of game,?In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,?Grisamber-steamed; all fish, from sea or shore,?Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,?And exquisitest name, for which was drained?Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.?Alas! how simple, to these