s frank and cynical,
and begins at once without shame, apology or preface--

"Set women in his eye and in his walk."

What could be more exactly in the downright manner affected by men of
his type in the world of to-day and every day? And there are other
similar touches. Then again the sequel recalls its predecessor when we
hear Satan strike the very note he struck so often in _Paradise Lost_--

"'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,"

and when we see him fall in ruin at the awful end of the long debate--

"Now shew 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.'
To whom thus Jesus: Also it is written
'Tempt not the Lord thy God.' He said, and stood:
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell."

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Nor must it be supposed by those who have not read the _Paradise
Regained_ that the bareness of its style is invariable. Most
conspicuous, for reasons of reverence no doubt, in the speeches of
Christ, it is far less marked in those of Satan and disappears
altogether in some of the descriptive passages. Take, for instance,
the famous temptation of the banquet--

"He spake no dream; for, as his words had end,
Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld
In ample space under the broadest shade,
A table richly spread in regal mode,
With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort
And savour; beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,
Grisamber-steamed; all fish from sea or shore
Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drained
Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.
Alas, how simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!
And at a stately sideboard, by the wine,
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich-clad, of fairer hue
Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more,
Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,
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And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
Of faery damsels met in forest wide
By knights of Logres, or of Lyones,
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore."

_Paradise Lost_ itself con