No More Learning

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.

"Thou on the Throne of David in full glory,
From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond
Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear. "

The answer is that these things must be left to God's "due time and
providence. "


_IV. --The Last Temptation_

The Tempter now brings the Saviour round to the western side of the
mountain, and there Rome

An imperial city stood;
With towers and temples proudly elevate
On seven hills, with palaces adorned,
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens and groves. Queen of the Earth,
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
Of nations.

But this "grandeur and majestic show of luxury" has no effect on
Christ, who says:

"Know, when my season comes to sit
On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth;
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
All monarchies besides throughout the world,
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end. "

The offer of the kingdoms of the world incurs the stern rebuke:

"Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st
That Evil One, Satan, for ever damned. "

Still the Fiend is not utterly abashed, but, arguing that "the
childhood shows the man as morning shows the day," and that Christ's
empire is one of mind, he, as a last temptation from the "specular
mount," shows Athens.

"There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse.
To sage philosophy next lend thine ear,
From Heaven descended to the low-roofed house
Of Socrates. "

Christ replies that whoever seeks true wisdom in the philosophies,
moralities and conjectures of men finds her not, and that the poetry
of Greece will not compare with "Hebrew songs and harps. " It is the
prophets who teach most plainly

"What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so;
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat? "

Finding all these temptations futile, Satan explodes:

"Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,
Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor aught
By me proposed in life contemplative
Or active, tended on by glory or fame;
What dost thou in this world? The wilderness
For thee is fittest place.