PARADISE REGAIN/D. B p "0 K W. PErplex'd and troubled at his bad fuccefs The Tempter flood, nor had what to reply, Difcover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope So oft, and the perfuafive rhetoric That fleek'd his tongue, and won fo much on Eve, 5 So little here, nay loft ; but Eve was Eve, This far his over-match, who felf-deceiv'd And rail, beforehand had no better weigh'd The flrength he was to cope with, or his own: But as a man who had been matchlefs held ie In cunning, over-reach'd where leafi he thought, To falve his credit, and for very fpite, Still will be tempting him who foils him 11111, And never ceafe, though to his fhame the more ; Or as a fwarm of flies in vintage time, 15 About the wine-prefs where fweet mull is pour'd, Beat off, returns as oft with humming found ; Or furging waves againft a folid rock, Though all to fhivers dafh'd, th' affault renew, Vain batt'ry, and in froth or bubbles end; 20 So Satan, whom repulfe upon repulfe Met ever, and to fhameful filence brought, Yet gives not o'er though defp'rate of fuccefs, And his vain importunity purfues. He brought our Saviour to the weftern fide 25 Of that high mountain, whence he might behold Another plain, long but in breadth not wide, Wafb'd by the fouthern lea, and on the north To
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