The honesty of this confession is not impugned by Christ, although he exposes the hollow insincerity of the rest of Satan’s speech in which these lines occur.
And Satan lives up to his confession. The power of moral goodness to hold his mind’s thought by its beauty is seen in his behavior in the Garden of Eden. He had reached this place in pursuit of his revenge to ruin the happy pair. As he gazes upon the beauties of the garden,
“where the Fiend
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind
Of living creatures, new to sight and strange,”—
(IV. 285–287.)
he at last catches sight of Adam and Eve, in whom
“The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure.”
(IV. 292–293.)