And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had rais'd
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
But now the sun with more effectual beams
Had cheer'd the face of earth, and dri'd the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now beheld more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,
Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray
To gratulate the sweet return of morn."
(P. R. iv. 426-38.)


There is nothing perhaps in Paradise Lost which possesses the peculiar
quality of this passage, nothing which like these verses brings into the
eyes the tears which cannot be repressed when a profound experience is
set to music.

The temptation on the pinnacle occupies but a few lines only of the
poem. Hitherto Satan admits that Jesus had conquered, but he had done
no more than any wise and good man could do.


"Now show thy progeny; if not to stand,
Cast thyself down; safely, if Son of God;
For it is written, 'He will give command
Concerning thee to His angels; in their hands
They shall uplift thee, lest at any time
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.'"
(P. R. iv. 554-9.)