Paradise Lost

by John Milton

483. involved: coiled.

  485. parsimonious emmet: thrifty ant.

  486. large heart: capacious intellect.

  487–89. Pattern … commonalty: Ants were often praised for their prudence and democratic commonality; Aristotle had remarked that they knew no king (Svendsen 1969, 150–52).

  465–67. left side … fresh: The Bible does not specify from which side the rib came, but tradition overwhelmingly chose the left, in part because of nearness to the heart (see l. 484; A. Williams 90–91).

  490. The female bee: In Milton’s day it was believed that worker bees were sterile females and drones male. Bees were traditionally monarchical (Shakespeare, H5 1.2.183–204), but Milton disputed that belief in 1Def. (Yale 4:348–50).

  493. gav’st them names: See 8.342–54.

  497. hairy main: Vergil described the serpents that strangled Laocoön as having bloodred manes (Aen. 2.203–7); terrific: terrifying.

  498. Not noxious: not evil or harmful.

  504. Frequent: in throngs.

  505. the end: the completion of Creation and the being for whom all the rest had been done.

  508–10. might … self-knowing: Man’s uprightness was noted by Ovid, Met. 1.76–86, and was commonly treated by Christian writers as a sign of moral and spiritual dignity.

  509. front: forehead.

  510. self-knowing: knowing himself as created in the image and likeness of God; Shakespeare’s Isabella memorably declares that this knowledge is sadly curtailed among fallen men (MM 2.2.120–24). from thence: as a result of these qualities.

  511. Magnanimous: great-souled, high-minded; to correspond with: to be an image of, to be in contact with.

  519–34. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.26–31.

  528. Express: exactly depicted.

  530–34. blessed … Earth: See Gen. 1.28.

  537. delicious: delightful.

  552. unwearied: The Son did not “rest” on the seventh day because his strength was in any sense depleted.

  557. idea: the only occurrence of the word idea in Milton’s English poetry. It bears the Platonic-Augustinian sense of “ideal form, pattern.” Thus Simon Goulart: “The idea, the form and pattern of them [all things] was in the science and intelligence of God … as Saint Augustine and others have expounded” (1621, 8–9).

  559. Symphonius: harmonious; tuned: played.

  564. pomp: procession; jubilant: shouting with joy.

  565–67. Based on Ps. 23.7.

  569–73. for … grace: CD 1.9 discusses the earthly missions of angels.

  579. Milky Way: The road to Heaven is like the Milky Way but not the Milky Way itself, as it is in Ovid, Met. 1.168–71.

  588–90. The editions of 1667 and 1674 punctuate confusingly: “With his great Father (for he also went/Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege/Hath omnipresence).”

  594. not in silence holy kept: The prominence of music at the first Sabbath indicates Milton’s disagreement with the stricter versions of Puritan Sabbatarianism (Berry 61–101).

  596. dulcimer: a stringed instrument played with small hammers; stop: the register of an organ.

  597. fret: a ridge on the fingerboard of a stringed instrument.

  599. Choral or unison: in parts or in unison.

  605. giant angels: referring to the defeat of the rebel angels but alluding to Jove’s defeat of the giants. Cp. 1.50–52, 199–200, 230–37; 6.643–66.

  606–7. but … destroy: Satan seeks glory from the lesser course of destroying the work of Creation (9.129–38).

  619. hyaline: the transliterated Greek word for the “sea of glass” before God’s throne in Rev. 4.6.

  621–22. every … habitation: On the possibility of other worlds being inhabited, see 3.566–71, 8.152–58. On the possibility that man might colonize other worlds, see 3.667–70 and 5.500.

  622–23. thou know’st/Their seasons: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1.7).

  624. nether ocean: the earth’s seas, the waters below the firmament.

  628–29. to rule/Over his works: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands” (Ps. 8.6).

  631–32. thrice … happiness: an adaptation of Vergil’s Georg. 2.458, and one of a number of statements in the poem about the close relationship between Adam and Eve’s happiness and their knowledge of that happiness. See 4.774–75 especially.

  632. persevere: continue in a state of grace.

  636. face of things: the visible world surrounding us.

  BOOK VIII

  THE ARGUMENT

  Adam inquires concerning celestial motions, is doubtfully answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge. Adam assents, and still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own creation, his placing in Paradise, his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society, his first meeting and nuptials with Eve. His discourse with the angel thereupon, who after admonitions repeated departs.

  The angel1 ended, and in Adam’s ear

  So charming left his voice, that he a while

  Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear;

  Then as new waked thus gratefully replied.

  “What thanks sufficient, or what recompense

  Equal have I to render thee, divine

  Historian, who thus largely hast allayed

  The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed

  This friendly condescension9 to relate

  Things else by me unsearchable, now heard

  With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,

  With glory attributed to the high

  Creator; something yet of doubt remains,

  Which only thy solution can resolve.

  When I15 behold this goodly frame, this world

  Of heav’n and Earth consisting, and compute

  Their magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a grain17,

  An atom, with the firmament compared

  And all her numbered19 stars, that seem to roll

  Spaces incomprehensible (for such

  Their distance argues and their swift return

  Diurnal) merely to officiate22 light

  Round this opacous23 Earth, this punctual spot,

  One day and night; in all their vast survey

  Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire25,

  How nature wise and frugal could commit

  Such disproportions, with superfluous hand

  So many nobler bodies to create,

  Greater so manifold to this one use,

  For aught appears30, and on their orbs impose

  Such restless revolution day by day

  Repeated, while the sedentary32 Earth,

  That better might with far less compass move,

  Served by more noble than herself, attains

  Her end without least motion, and receives,

  As tribute such a sumless36 journey brought

  Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;

  Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.”

  So spake our sire, and by his count’nance seemed

  Ent’ring on studious thoughts abstruse, which Eve

  Perceiving where she sat retired in sight,

  With lowliness majestic from her seat,

  And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,

  Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flow’rs,

  To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,

  Her nursery; they at her coming sprung

  And touched by her fair tendance gladlier grew.

  Yet went she not, as not with such discourse

  Delighted, or not capable her ear

  Of what was high: such pleasure she reserved,

  Adam relating, she sole auditress;

  Her husband the relater she preferred

  Before the angel, and of him to ask

  Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix

  Grateful digressions, and solve
high dispute

  With conjugal caresses; from his lip

  Not words alone pleased her. O when meet now

  Such pairs, in love and mutual honor joined?

  With goddesslike demeanor forth she went;

  Not unattended, for on her as queen

  A pomp of winning Graces waited still,

  And from about her shot darts of desire62

  Into all eyes to wish her still in sight.

  And Raphael now to Adam’s doubt proposed

  Benevolent and facile65 thus replied.

  “To ask or search I blame thee not, for heav’n

  Is as the book of God67 before thee set,

  Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn

  His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:

  This to attain, whether heav’n move or Earth70,

  Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest

  From man or angel the great Architect

  Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

  His secrets to be scanned by them who ought

  Rather admire75; or if they list to try

  Conjecture, he his fabric of the heav’ns

  Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move

  His laughter78 at their quaint opinions wide

  Hereafter, when they come to model heav’n

  And calculate80 the stars, how they will wield

  The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive

  To save appearances82, how gird the sphere

  With centric and eccentric83 scribbled o’er,

  Cycle and84 epicycle, orb in orb:

  Already85 by thy reasoning this I guess,

  Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest

  That bodies bright and greater should not serve

  The less not bright, nor heav’n such journeys run,

  Earth sitting still, when she alone receives

  The benefit: consider first, that great

  Or bright infers not excellence: the Earth

  Though, in comparison of heav’n, so small,

  Nor glistering, may of solid good contain

  More plenty than the sun that barren shines

  Whose virtue on itself works no effect,

  But in the fruitful Earth; there first received

  His beams, unactive else, their vigor find.

  Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries

  Officious99, but to thee Earth’s habitant.

  And for the Heav’n’s wide circuit, let it speak

  The Maker’s high magnificence, who built

  So spacious, and his line stretched out so far;

  That man may know he dwells not in his own;

  An edifice too large for him to fill,

  Lodged in a small partition, and the rest

  Ordained for uses to his Lord best known.

  The swiftness of those circles attribute,

  Though numberless, to his omnipotence,

  That109 to corporeal substances could add

  Speed almost spiritual; me thou think’st not slow,

  Who since the morning hour set out from Heav’n

  Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived

  In Eden, distance inexpressible

  By numbers that have name. But this I urge,

  Admitting motion in the heav’ns, to show

  Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;

  Not that I so affirm117, though so it seem

  To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.

  God to remove his ways from human sense,

  Placed heav’n from Earth so far, that earthly sight,

  If it presume, might err in things too high,

  And no advantage gain. What if the sun

  Be center to the world, and other stars

  By his attractive virtue124 and their own

  Incited, dance about him various rounds?

  Their wand’ring course now high, now low, then hid,

  Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,

  In six128 thou seest, and what if sev’nth to these

  The planet Earth129, so steadfast though she seem,

  Insensibly three different motions130 move?

  Which else131 to several spheres thou must ascribe,

  Moved contrary with thwart obliquities,

  Or save133 the sun his labor, and that swift

  Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,

  Invisible else above all stars, the wheel

  Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,

  If Earth industrious of herself fetch day

  Traveling east, and with her part averse

  From the sun’s beam meet night, her other part

  Still luminous by his ray. What if that light

  Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,

  To the terrestrial moon be as a star

  Enlight’ning her by day, as she by night

  This Earth? Reciprocal, if land be there,

  Fields and inhabitants145: her spots thou seest

  As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce

  Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat

  Allotted there; and other suns148 perhaps

  With their attendant moons thou wilt descry

  Communicating male and female light150,

  Which two151 great sexes animate the world,

  Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.

  For such vast room in nature unpossessed

  By living soul, desert and desolate,

  Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute

  Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far

  Down to this habitable, which returns

  Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.

  But whether thus these things, or whether not,

  Whether the sun predominant in heav’n

  Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the sun,

  He162 from the east his flaming road begin,

  Or she163 from west her silent course advance

  With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps

  On her soft axle, while she paces ev’n,

  And bears thee soft with the smooth air along,

  Solicit not167 thy thoughts with matters hid,

  Leave them to God above, him serve and fear;

  Of other creatures, as him pleases best,

  Wherever placed, let him dispose: joy thou

  In what he gives to thee, this Paradise

  And thy fair Eve; heav’n is for thee too high

  To know what passes there; be lowly wise:

  Think only what concerns thee and thy being;

  Dream not of other worlds, what creatures175 there

  Live, in what state, condition or degree,

  Contented that thus far hath been revealed

  Not of Earth only but of highest Heav’n.”

  To whom thus Adam cleared of doubt, replied.

  “How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure

  Intelligence of Heav’n, angel serene,

  And freed from intricacies, taught to live,

  The easiest way183, nor with perplexing thoughts

  To interrupt the sweet of life, from which

  God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,

  And not molest us, unless we ourselves

  Seek them with wand’ring thoughts, and notions vain.

  But apt the mind or fancy is to rove

  Unchecked, and of her roving is no end;

  Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn,

  That not to know at large of things remote

  From use, obscure and subtle, but to know

  That which before us lies in daily life,

  Is the prime wisdom; what is more, is fume194,

  Or emptiness, or fond195 impertinence,

  And renders us in things that most concern

  Unpracticed, unprepared, and still to seek197.

  Therefore from this high pitch let us descend


  A lower flight, and speak of things at hand

  Useful, whence haply mention may arise

  Of something not unseasonable to ask

  By sufferance202, and thy wonted favor deigned.

  Thee I have heard relating what was done

  Ere my remembrance: now hear me relate

  My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard;

  And day is yet not spent; till then thou seest

  How subtly to detain thee I devise,

  Inviting thee to hear while I relate,

  Fond209, were it not in hope of thy reply:

  For while I sit with thee, I seem in Heav’n,

  And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear

  Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst

  And hunger both, from labor, at the hour

  Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill,

  Though pleasant, but thy words with grace divine

  Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety.”

  To whom thus Raphael answered Heav’nly meek.

  “Nor are thy lips ungraceful, sire of men,

  Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee

  Abundantly his gifts hath also poured

  Inward and outward both, his image fair:

  Speaking or mute all comeliness and grace

  Attends thee, and each word, each motion forms.

  Nor less think we in Heav’n of thee on Earth

  Than of our fellow servant225, and inquire

  Gladly into the ways of God with man226:

  For God we see hath honored thee, and set

  On man his equal love: say therefore on;

  For I that day229 was absent, as befell,

  Bound on a voyage uncouth230 and obscure,

  Far on excursion toward the gates of Hell;

  Squared in full legion (such command we had)

  To see that none thence issued forth a spy,

  Or enemy, while God was in his work,

  Lest he incensed at such eruption bold,

  Destruction with creation might have mixed.

  Not that they durst without his leave attempt,

  But us he sends upon his high behests

  For state239, as sov’reign King, and to inure

  Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut

  The dismal gates, and barricadoed strong;

  But long ere our approaching heard within

  Noise, other243 than the sound of dance or song,

  Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

  Glad we returned up to the coasts of light

  Ere Sabbath evening246: so we had in charge.

  But thy relation now; for I attend,

  Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine.”