The Poems of John Milton With Notes - 2 Author:John Milton Volume: 2 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1859 Original Publisher: Chapman and Hall Subjects: Poetry / General Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Boo... more »ks edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 2SO BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT. Satan now exhibits to our Lord the Roman empire in all its glory, and states how easy it would be to wrest it from the sensual emperor Tiberius. Our Lore! expresses his contempt of worldly grandeur. Satan then tells him that little as he thought of it, it could only be obtained by his falling down and worshiping him who had the bestowing of it. He then shows him Athens, and tempts him with the charms of wisdom and philosophy; but he displays the poverty of Grecian, compared with Hebrew, literature. Satan then takes him back to the wilderness, and leaves him there. Night comes on; Satan raises a tremendous storm. A beautiful morning sueceeds. Satan returns, and scofla at our Lord. He finally conveys him to the Temple, and placing him on its highest pinnacle, desires him, if he is the Son of God, to stand on it or to cast himself down. Jesus rebukes him, and then stands. Satan, amazed, falls down and departs ; and Angels receive our Lord, and convey him to a beautiful valluv, where they spread for him a rich repast, during which they sing anthems of hi- victory. -- K. Perplexed and troubled at his bad suecess The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply, Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve So little here, nay lost; but Eve was Eve; This far his over-mateh, who, self-deceived And rash, beforehand had no better weighed The strength he was to cope with, or his own. ...« less