(P. R. iv. 163-7.)


This, then, is the drift and meaning of it all. The answer is taken
verbally from the gospel.


"'Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.'"
(P. R. iv. 176-7.)


That is to say, Thou shalt submit thyself to God's commands and God's
methods and thou shalt submit thyself to NO OTHER.

Omitting the Athenian and philosophic episode, which is unnecessary and
a little unworthy even of the Christian poet, we encounter not an
amplification of the Gospel story but an interpolation which is entirely
Milton's own. Night gathers and a new assault is delivered in darkness.
Jesus wakes in the storm which rages round Him. The diabolic hostility
is open and avowed and He hears the howls and shrieks of the infernals.
He cannot banish them though He is so far master of Himself that He is
able to sit "unappall'd in calm and sinless peace." He has to endure
the hellish threats and tumult through the long black hours


"till morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray,
Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar
Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds,