Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton

  650

  Stand ready at command, and are his Eyes39

  That run through all the Heav’ns, or down to th’ Earth

  Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,

  O’re Sea and Land: him Satan thus accosts.

  Uriel, for thou of those seav’n Spirits that stand

  655

  In sight of Gods high Throne, gloriously bright,

  The first art wont his great authentic will

  Interpreter through highest Heav’n to bring,

  Where all his Sons thy Embassie attend;

  And here art likeliest by supream decree

  660

  Like honour to obtain, and as his Eye

  To visit oft this new Creation round;

  Unspeakable desire to see, and know

  All these his wondrous works, but chiefly Man,

  His chief delight and favour, him for whom

  665

  All these his works so wondrous he ordaind,

  Hath brought me from the Quires of Cherubim

  Alone thus wandring. Brightest Seraph tell

  In which of all these shining Orbs hath Man

  His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none,

  670

  But all these shining Orbs his choice to dwell;

  That I may find him, and with secret gaze,

  Or open admiration him behold

  On whom the great Creator hath bestowd

  Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces powrd;

  675

  That both in him and all things, as is meet,

  The Universal Maker we may praise;

  Who justly hath drivn out his Rebell Foes

  To deepest Hell, and to repair that loss

  Created this new happie Race of Men

  680

  To serve him better: wise are all his wayes.

  So spake the false dissembler unperceiv’d;

  For neither Man nor Angel can discern

  Hypocrisie, the only evil that walks

  Invisible, except to God alone,

  685

  By his permissive will, through Heav’n and Earth:

  And oft though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps

  At wisdoms Gate, and to simplicitie

  Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill

  Where no ill seems: Which now for once beguil’d

  690

  Uriel, though Regent of the Sun, and held

  The sharpest sighted Spirit of all in Heav’n;

  Who to the fraudulent Impostor foul

  In his uprightness answer thus retuind.

  Fair Angel, thy desire which tends to know

  695

  The works of God, thereby to glorifie

  The great Work-Maister, leads to no excess

  That reaches blame, but rather merits praise

  The more it seems excess, that led thee hither

  From thy Empyreal Mansion thus alone,

  700

  To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps

  Contented with report hear onely in heav’n:

  For wonderful indeed are all his works,

  Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all

  Had in remembrance alwayes with delight;

  705

  But what created mind can comprehend

  Thir number, or the wisdom infinite

  That brought them forth, but hid thir causes deep.

  I saw when at his Word the formless Mass,

  This worlds material mould, came to a heap:

  710

  Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar

  Stood rul’d, stood vast infinitude confin’d;

  Till at his second bidding darkness fled,

  Light shon, and order from disorder sprung:

  Swift to thir several Quarters hasted then

  715

  The cumbrous Elements, Earth, Flood, Air, Fire,

  And this Ethereal quintessence of Heav’n

  Flew upward, spirited with various forms,

  That rowld orbicular, and turnd to Starrs

  Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;

  720

  Each had his place appointed, each his course,

  The rest in circuit walls this Universe.

  Look downward on that Globe whose hither side

  With light from hence, though but reflected, shines;

  That place is Earth the seat of Man, that light

  725

  His day, which else as th’ other Hemisphere

  Night would invade, but there the neighbouring Moon

  (So call that opposite fair Starr) her aid

  Timely interposes, and her monthly round

  Still ending, still renewing through mid Heav’n,

  730

  With borrowd light her countenance triform40

  Hence fills and empties to enlighten th’ Earth,

  And in her pale dominion checks the night.

  That spot to which I point is Paradise,

  Adams abode, those loftie shades his Bowr.

  735

  Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.

  Thus said, he turnd, and Satan bowing low,

  As to superior Spirits is wont in Heav’n,

  Where honour due and reverence none neglects,

  Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath,

  740

  Down from th’ Ecliptic, sped with hop’d success,

  Throws his steep flight in many an Aerie wheel,

  Nor staid,41 till on Niphates42 top he lights.

  * * *

  1 not created. Thus the Holy Light is identified with the Son.

  2 Orpheus, who descended to Hades, won back his wife by his musical art, but reascending broke the difficult covenant made with Pluto.

  3 total blindness (gutta serena); “Suffusion” is partial blindness. For a reexamination of the nature of Milton’s blindness, see William B. Hunter, Jr.’s article in Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, XVII (1962), 333-41.

  4 Homer. Thamyris is mentioned in Iliad, II, 595; Phineus, blinded by the sun, was victimized by the Harpies.

  5 everlasting.

  6 broken widely apart.

  7 The word also retains its etymological meaning of places “encompassed in early times” (by light).

  8 Mercy is to be granted through the love of the Son, who will atone for human disobedience and thereby pacify the wrath of the, Father, guardian of Divine Justice. C. A. Patrides (PMLA, LXXIV, 1959, 7-13) makes clear that the atonement demanded by the Father here was accepted by both contemporary Protestant thinkers and earlier writers.

  9 in like substance.

  10 a basic doctrine of Calvinism. Although salvation is available to all men, some have special grace. Lines 183-97 indicate Milton’s differences from the Calvinist doctrine of the elect.

  11 fundamentally a statement of Arminianism.

  12 hardest, most glorious, most loving.

  13 in spite of.

  14 place.

  15 the Last Judgment.

  16 The symbol of the phoenix indicated immortality; it is appropriate here in conjunction with the Son since it was the embodiment of the Egyptian sun-god.

  17 See 2 Peter iii. 12-13, which refers to Isa. lxv. 17-25.

  18 1 Cor. xv. 28: “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself become subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”

  19 dark.

  20 a mountain in the Himalayas.

  21 both in the modern sense and with the meaning “unnatural.”

  22 e.g., Ariosto.

  23 Enoch and Elijah.

  24 Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans.

  25 Two theories were advanced (“talkt”): the Ptolemaic explained trepidation as the backward motion of the fixed stars which created the equinoxes; the Copernican classified it as the wobble of the earth rotating on its axis.

&nbs
p; 26 Gen. xxviii. 17.

  27 allegorically; the stairs are Jacob’s ladder (Gen. xxviii. 12).

  28 2 Kings ii. 11: “behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire … and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

  29 a city of Dan. The lines survey all of the Holy Land.

  30 Aries, the ram.

  31 See Mask, notes 40 and 93.

  32 toward or away from the center (the earth), “hard to tell” because of the varying views of the universe.

  33 Galileo had discerned sunspots in 1609.

  34 both “given form to” and “made known.”

  35 the philosopher’s stone (the “Elixir” of l. 607) which would turn base metal into gold. An alembic (l. 605) was a vessel in which the “Native” (l. 605) form of a substance was distilled. Mercury (“Volatil Hermes,” l. 603) was thought a component of all minerals, and the changeable Proteus was symbolic of basic matter. (See Edgar H. Duncan, Osiris, XI, 1954, 386-421.) The sun, thought to produce gold and precious gems, was a true alchemist (ll. 609 ff.). Urim (“radiant”) and Thummim in Aaron’s breastplate arm the Son when he ascends after the War in Heaven with Victory at his right hand (VI, 760-63). They were considered mediums for the revelation of God’s will.

  36 See Rev. xix. 17.

  37 appropriate.

  38 literally, “the fire of God”; he was the archangel who in Jewish tradition ruled the south.

  39 See Rev. iv. 5 and Zech. iv. 10.

  40 See Ely, n. 13.

  41 ceased such movement.

  42 a mountain in Armenia, near Assyria; see also IV, 126.

  BOOK IV

  THE ARGUMENT

  Satan now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprize which he undertook alone against God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy, and despare; but at length confirms himself in evil; journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and scituation is described, overleaps the bounds, sits in the shape of a Cormorant on the Tree of life, as highest in the Garden to look about him. The Garden describ’d; Satans first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at thir excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work thir fall; overhears thir discourse, thence gathers that the Tree of knowledge was forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his Temptation, by seducing them to transgress: then leaves them a while, to know further of thir state by some other means. Mean while Uriel descending on a Sunbeam warns Gabriel, who had in charge the Gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escap’d the Deep, and past at Noon by his Sphere in the shape of a good Angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his furious gestures in the Mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to thir rest: thir Bower describ’d; thir Evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his Bands of Night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong Angels to Adams Bower, least the evill spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom question’d, he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but hinder’d by a Sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.

  O for that warning voice,1 which he who saw

  Th’ Apocalyps, heard cry in Heaven aloud,

  Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,

  Came furious down to be reveng’d on men,

  5

  Wo to th’ inhabitants on Earth! that now,

  While time was, our first Parents had bin warnd

  The coming of thir secret foe, and scap’d

  Haply so scap’d his mortal snare; for now

  Satan, now first inflam’d with rage, came down,

  10

  The Tempter ere th’ Accuser of man-kind,

  To wreck on innocent frail man his loss

  Of that first Battel, and his flight to Hell:

  Yet not rejoycing in his speed, though bold,

  Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,

  15

  Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth

  Now rowling, boils in his tumultuous brest,

  And like a devillish Engine back recoils

  Upon himself; horror and doubt distract

  His troubl’d thoughts, and from the bottom stirr

  20

  The Hell within him, for within him Hell

  He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

  One step no more then from himself can fly

  By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair

  That slumberd, wakes the bitter memorie

  25

  Of what he was, what is, and what must be

  Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

  Sometimes towards Eden2 which now in his view

  Lay pleasant, his griev’d look he fixes sad,

  Sometimes towards Heav’n and the full-blazing Sun,

  30

  Which now sat high in his Meridian Towr:

  Then much revolving, thus in sighs began.

  O thou that with surpassing Glory crownd,

  Look’st from thy sole Dominion like the God

  Of this new World; at whose sight all the Starrs

  35

  Hide thir diminisht heads; to thee I call,

  But with no friendly voice, and add thy name

  O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams

  That bring to my remembrance from what state

  I fell, how glorious once above thy Sphear;

  40

  Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down

  Warring in Heav’n against Heav’ns matchless3 King:

  Ah wherefore! he deserv’d no such return

  From me, whom he created what I was

  In that bright eminence, and with his good

  45

  Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.

  What could be less then to afford him praise,

  The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks,

  How due! yet all his good prov’d ill in me,

  And wrought but malice; lifted up so high

  50

  I sdeind4 subjection, and thought one step higher

  Would set me highest, and in a moment quit

  The debt immense of endless gratitude,

  So burthensome still paying, still to ow;

  Forgetful what from him I still receiv’d,

  55

  And understood not that a grateful mind

  By owing owes not, but still pays, at once

  Indebted and discharg’d; what burden then?

  O had his powerful Destiny ordaind

  Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood

  60

  Then happie; no unbounded hope had rais’d

  Ambition. Yet why not? som other Power

  As great might have aspir’d, and me though mean

  Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great

  Fell not, but stand unshak’n, from within

  65

  Or from without, to all temptations arm’d.

  Hadst thou the same free Will and Power to stand?

  Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what t’ accuse,

  But Heav’ns free Love dealt equally to all?

  Be then his Love accurst, since love or hate,

  70

  To me alike, it deals eternal woe.

  Nay curs’d be thou; since against his thy will

  Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

  Me miserable I which way shall I flie

  Infinite wrauth, and infinite despair?

  75

  Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell;

  And in the lowest deep a lower deep

  Still threatning to devour me opens wide,

  To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.

  O then at last relent: is there no place

  80

  Left for Repentan
ce, none for Pardon left?

  None left but by submission; and that word

  Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame

  Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduc’d

  With other promises and other vaunts

  85

  Then to submit, boasting I could subdue

  Th’ Omnipotent. Ay me, they little know

  How dearly I abide that boast so vain,

  Under what torments inwardly I groan:

  While they adore me on the Throne of Hell,

  90

  With Diadem and Scepter high advanc’t

  The lower still I fall, onely supream

  In miserie; such joy Ambition finds.

  But say I could repent and could obtain

  By Act of Grace my former state; how soon

  95

  Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay

  What feign’d submission swore: ease would recant

  Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

  For never can true reconcilement grow

  Where wounds of deadly hate have peirc’d so deep:

  100

  Which would but lead me to a worse relapse,

  And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

  Short intermission bought with double smart.

  This knows my punisher; therefore as farr

  From granting hee, as I from begging peace:

  105

  All hope excluded thus, behold in stead

  Of us out-cast, exil’d, his new delight,

  Mankind created, and for him this World.

  So farwell Hope, and with Hope farwell Fear,

  Farwell Remorse: all Good to me is lost;

  110

  Evil be thou my Good;5 by thee at least

  Divided Empire with Heav’ns King I hold

  By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne;

  As Man ere long, and this new World shall know.

  Thus while he spake, each passion dimm’d his face

  115

  Thrice chang’d with pale, ire, envie and despair,

  Which marrd his borrow’d visage, and betraid

  Him counterfet, if any eye beheld.