No More Learning

This is Satan, and, entering into conversation adjures the Son--

"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. "

Christ at once discerns who His tempter is and rebuffs him; and the
Fiend, "now undisguised," goes on to narrate his own history, arguing
that he is not a foe to mankind.

"They to me
Never did wrong or violence. By them
I lost not what I lost; rather by them
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
Co-partner in these regions of the world. "

Christ, replying, attributes to Satan the evils of Idolatry and the
crafty oracles of heathendom, which have taken the place of the
"inward oracle in pious hearts," whereupon Satan, "bowing low his gray
dissimulation, disappeared. "


_II. --The Temptation of the Body_

Meanwhile the disciples were gathered "close in a cottage low,"
wondering where Christ could be, and Mary with troubled thoughts,
rehearsed the story of His early life. Satan, returning to the council
of his fellow fiends, in "the middle region of thick air," reports
his failure, and that he has found in the Tempted "amplitude of mind
to greatest deeds. " Belial advises that the temptation should be
continued by women "expert in amorous arts," but Satan rejects the
plan, and reminds Belial--

"Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures. For beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive: cease to admire and all her plumes
Fall flat. . . . We must try
His constancy with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise. "

With this aim Satan again betakes himself to the desert, where Christ,
now hungry, sleeps and dreams of food.
And now the herald lark
Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
The morn's approach, and greet her with his song,
As lightly from his grassy couch uprose
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,
And in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud.
Thither He bent His way . . .
When suddenly a man before Him stood,
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
As one in city or court or palace bred.

Here Satan again tempts Him with a spread of savoury food, which Jesus
dismisses with the words:

"Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,
And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles! "

The book closes with the offer of riches, which are rejected as "the
toil of fools. "


_III. --The Temptation of Glory_

Finding his weak "arguing and fallacious drift" ineffectual, Satan
next appeals to ambition and suggests conquest; but is reminded that
conquerors

"Rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'r they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride and must be titled gods.
But if there be in glory aught of good,
It may by means far different be attained;
Without ambition, war, or violence,
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
By patience, temperance. "

But Satan, sardonically, argues that God expects glory, nay, exacts it
from all, good and bad alike. To which Christ replies:

"Not glory as prime end,
But to show forth his goodness, and impart
His good communicable to every soul
Freely; of whom what could He less expect
Than glory and benediction--that is thanks--
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense
From them who could return him nothing else. "

But, argues Satan, it is the throne of David to which the Messiah is
ordained; why not begin that reign? Hitherto Christ has scarcely seen
the Galilean towns, but He shall "quit these rudiments" and survey
"the monarchies of the earth, their pomp and state. " And thereupon he
carries Him to a mountain whence He can see "Assyria and her empire's
ancient bounds," and there suggests the deliverance of the Ten Tribes.