PARADISE REGAINED.

PARADISE REGAINED.

BOOK I.

нo ere-while the happy garden sung, ne man's disobedience lost, now sing over'd paradise to all mankind,

ne man's firm obedience fully try'd ugh all temptation, and the tempter foil'd 5 I his wiles, defeated, and repuls'd, Eden rais'd in the waste wilderness. nou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite the desert, his victorious field,

nst the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence roof the undoubted Son of God, inspire, nou art wont, my prompted song, else mute, bear thro' highth or depth of nature's bounds a prosperous wing full summ'd to tell of deeds we heroic, though in secret done,

unrecorded left through many an age, thy t' have not remain'd so long unsung. ow had the great Proclaimer, with a voice

aste] Spens. Fairy Queen, i. i. 32.

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Far hence, quoth he, in wasteful wilderness.' Dunster. summ'd] Drayton's Polyolbion. Song xi.

muse from Cambria comes, with pinicns summ'd and sound.'

Todd.

More awful than the sound of trumpet, cry'd
Repentance, and heaven's kingdom nigh at hand
To all baptiz'd: to his great baptism flock'd
With awe the regions round, and with them cam
From Nazareth the Son of Joseph deem'd
To the flood Jordan, came, as then obscure,
Unmarkt, unknown; but him the Baptist soon 25
Descry'd, divinely warn'd, and witness bore
As to his worthier, and would have resign'd
To him his heavenly office, nor was long
His witness unconfirm'd: on him baptiz'd
Heav'n open'd, and in likeness of a dove
The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice
From heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son.
That heard the adversary, who, roving still
About the world, at that assembly fam'd

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Would not be last, and, with the voice divine 35
Nigh thunder-struck, th' exalted man, to whom
Such high attest was giv'n, a while survey'd
With wonder, then, with envy fraught and rage,
Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air
To council summons all his mighty peers,
Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd,

A gloomy consistory; and them amidst
With looks aghast and sad he thus bespake.

42 consistory] Virg. Æn. iii. 677.

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