"
(P. R. ii. 390-1.)
So they were, for at a word
"Both table and provision vanish'd quite,
With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard."
(P. R. ii. 402-3.)
If but one grain of that enchanted food had been eaten, or one drop of
that enchanted liquor had been drunk, there would have been no Cross, no
Resurrection, no salvation for humanity.
The temptation on the mountain is expanded by Milton through the close
of the second book, the whole of the third and part of the fourth. It
is a temptation of peculiar strength because it is addressed to an
aspiration which Jesus has acknowledged.
"Yet this not all
To which my spirit aspir'd: victorious deeds
Flam'd in my heart, heroic acts."
(P. R. i. 214-16.)
But he denies that the glory of mob-applause is worth anything.
"What is glory but the blaze of fame,
The people's praise, if always praise unmixt?
And what the people but a herd confus'd,
A miscellaneous rabble, who extol
Things vulgar, and, well weigh'd, scarce worth the praise?"
(P. R. iii. 47-51.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113