Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (56 page)

And happy constellations on that hour

Shed their selectest influence
⁵¹³
; the earth

Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;

Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs

Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings

Flung rose, flung odors from the spicy shrub,

Disporting, till the amorous bird of night

Sung spousal, and bid haste the ev’ning star
⁵¹⁹

On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp.

Thus I have told thee all my state, and brought

My story to the sum of earthly bliss

Which I enjoy, and must confess to find

In all things else delight indeed, but such

As used or not, works in the mind no change,

Nor vehement desire, these delicacies

I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flow’rs,

Walks, and the melody of birds; but here

Far otherwise, transported I behold,

Transported touch; here passion first I felt,

Commotion strange, in all enjoyments else

Superior and
⁵³²
unmoved, here only weak

Against the charm of beauty’s powerful glance.

Or nature failed in me, and left some part

Not proof enough such object to sustain,

Or from my side subducting
⁵³⁶
, took perhaps

More than enough; at least on her bestowed
⁵³⁷

Too much of ornament, in outward show

Elaborate, of inward less exact.

For well I understand in the prime end

Of nature her th’ inferior, in the mind

And inward faculties, which most excel,

In outward also her resembling less

His image who made both, and less expressing

The character of that dominion giv’n

O’er other creatures; yet when I approach

Her loveliness, so absolute
⁵⁴⁷
she seems

And in herself complete, so well to know

Her own, that what she wills to do or say,

Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best;

All higher knowledge in her presence falls

Degraded, wisdom in discourse with her

Looses
⁵⁵³
discount’nanced, and like folly shows;

Authority and reason on her wait,

As one intended first
⁵⁵⁵
, not after made

Occasionally
⁵⁵⁶
; and to consummate all,

Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat

Build in her loveliest, and create an awe

About her, as a guard angelic placed
⁵⁵⁹
.”

To whom the Angel with contracted brow.

   “Accuse not nature, she hath done her part;

Do thou but thine, and be not diffident
⁵⁶²

Of Wisdom; she deserts thee not, if thou

Dismiss not her when most thou need’st her nigh,

By attributing overmuch to things

Less excellent, as thou thyself perceiv’st.

For what admir’st thou, what transports thee so,

An outside? Fair no doubt, and worthy well

Thy cherishing, thy honoring, and thy love,

Not thy subjection: weigh with her thyself;

Then value: ofttimes nothing profits more

Than self-esteem
⁵⁷²
, grounded on just and right

Well managed; of that skill the more thou know’st,

The more she will acknowledge thee her head
⁵⁷⁴
,

And to realities yield all her shows
⁵⁷⁵
:

Made so adorn
⁵⁷⁶
for thy delight the more,

So awful
⁵⁷⁷
, that with honor thou may’st love

Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise.

But if the sense of touch whereby mankind

Is propagated seem such dear delight

Beyond all other, think the same vouchsafed

To cattle and each beast; which would not be

To them made common and divulged
⁵⁸³
, if aught

Therein enjoyed were worthy to subdue

The soul of man, or passion in him move.

What higher in her society thou find’st

Attractive, human, rational, love still;

In loving thou dost well, in passion not,

Wherein true love consists not; love refines

The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat

In reason, and is judicious, is the scale
⁵⁹¹

By which to Heav’nly love thou may’st ascend,

Not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause

Among the beasts no mate for thee was found.”

   To whom thus half abashed Adam replied.

“Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught

In procreation common to all kinds

(Though higher of the genial
⁵⁹⁸
bed by far,

And with mysterious reverence I deem)

So much delights me as those graceful acts,

Those thousand decencies that daily flow

From all her words and actions mixed with love

And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned

Union of mind, or in us both one soul;

Harmony to behold in wedded pair

More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.

Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose

What inward thence I feel, not therefore foiled
⁶⁰⁸
,

Who meet with various objects, from the sense

Variously representing; yet still free

Approve the best, and follow what I approve.

To love thou blam’st me not, for love thou say’st

Leads up to Heav’n, is both the way and guide;

Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask;

Love not the Heav’nly spirits, and how their love

Express they, by looks only, or do they mix

Irradiance, virtual
⁶¹⁷
or immediate touch?”

   To whom
⁶¹⁸
the angel with a smile that glowed

Celestial rosy red, love’s proper hue,

Answered. “Let it suffice thee that thou know’st

Us happy, and without love no happiness.

Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy’st

(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy

In eminence
⁶²⁴
, and obstacle find none

Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive
⁶²⁵
bars:

Easier than air with air, if spirits embrace,

Total they mix, union of pure with pure

Desiring; nor restrained conveyance
⁶²⁸
need

As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul.

But I can now no more; the parting sun

Beyond the Earth’s green cape
⁶³¹
and verdant isles

Hesperean sets, my signal to depart.

Be strong, live happy, and love, but first of all

Him whom to love is to obey, and keep

His great command; take heed lest passion sway

Thy judgment to do aught, which else free will

Would not admit; thine and of all thy sons

The weal or woe in thee is placed; beware.

I in thy persevering shall rejoice,

And all the blest: stand fast; to stand or fall

Free in thine own arbitrament it lies.

Perfect within, no outward aid require;

And all temptation to transgress repel.”

   So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus

Followed with benediction. “Since to part
⁶⁴⁵
,

Go Heav’nly guest, ethereal messenger,

Sent from whose sov’reign goodness I adore.

Gentle to me and affable hath been

Thy condescension, and shall be honored ever

With grateful memory: thou to mankind

Be good and friendly still, and oft return.”

   So parted they, the angel up to Heav’n

From the thick shade, and Adam to his bow’r.

1–4.
The first three and half lines were added to the second edition of 1674. In the long Book 7 of 1667, the pause after Raphael’s narration was marked by a single line: “To whom thus Adam gratefully replied.”

9.
condescension
: courteous disregard of rank.

15–38.
Eve was the first to wonder about the curious abundance of the nighttime sky (4.657–58). Adam tried to answer her query (4.660–88), as did Satan in the dream he created for Eve (5.41–47). Adam now broadens her question to include other celestial instances of apparent wastefulness and favoritism toward earth. Cp.
Prolusion
7
(
MLM
795–96).

15.
this goodly frame
: a phrase used by Hamlet (2.2.316).

17–18.
a spot, a grain,/An atom:
The tininess of the earth was apparent to ancient astronomers.

19.
numbered
: numerous, as in 7.621.

22.
officiate
: supply, minister.

23.
opacous
: dark;
punctual spot:
spot the size of a point (Lat.
punctum
) in relation to the spaces of the firmament, but also in the sense of “subject to exact timing.”

25.
admire
: wonder, but with a sense of perplexity (the
something yet of doubt
in l. 13).

30.
For aught appears
: for all that can be seen.

32.
sedentary
: motionless.

36.
sumless
: immeasurable (see l. 38).

62.
darts of desire
: not sexual desire, as in love poetry, but desire that she remain
still in sight
(l. 63).

65.
facile
: affable. Raphael does not deem Adam’s doubt about the wisdom of the celestial design malignant or accusatory.

67.
Is as the book of God
: Cp. 3.47.

70.
whether heav’n move or Earth
: a difference between the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems; but there were many compromise positions between the two (see G. McColley 217–44; Babb 78–94).

75.
admire
: behold with wonder.

78.
His laughter
: Psalm 2.4: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” A. O. Lovejoy considered Milton’s God a “singularly detestable being” for devising cosmic riddles so that he could laugh at the false solutions (1962, 140). However, God will laugh not primarily at the falseness of astronomical theories but at the way astronomers play God in modeling the heavens.
quaint:
ingenious;
wide:
wide of the truth.

80.
calculate
: predict the motions of;
wield:
direct, guide.

82.
save appearances
: a scholastic term for fitting hypothesis to observation, a process particularly evident in the history of astronomy, where theories were modified repeatedly to account for local observations inconsistent with general assumptions.

83.
centric and eccentric
: spheres centered on, and not centered on, the earth. Kepler’s teacher, Tycho Brahe, proposed that the sun was the center of the planetary orbits, while the fixed stars were centered on the earth.
scribbled o’er:
Raphael is making fun of complex astrological diagrams; cp. Donne, “An Anatomy of the World”: “Man hath weaved out a net, and this net thrown/Upon the heavens, and now they are his own” (279–80).

84.
In the Ptolemaic system planets traverse a circular
orb
, or orbit, but turn smaller circles (
epicycles
) within this larger cycle. Meant to account for observed differences of orbital velocity among the planets, the theory of epicycles is a notable example of “saving the appearances” (see 82n).

85–90.
Already … benefit:
Raphael maintains that he has been able to guess from Adam’s thinking some of the forthcoming perplexity in the astronomy to be developed by his offspring. In particular, Adam mistakes brightness for excellence and on that ground supposes that the
opacous
earth (l. 23) should not be served by more resplendent heavenly bodies, such as the sun.

99.
Officious
: attentive, dutiful.

109–10.
That … spiritual:
The corporeal planets are almost as swift as spiritual angels, which is a sign of God’s omnipotence in molding matter.

117.
Not that I so affirm
: Raphael makes it clear that he is not delivering true, once-and-for-all knowledge of the heavens but confounding Adam’s assumption that he had, or could in principle attain, such knowledge.

124.
attractive virtue
: Kepler supposed that the planets were held in their orbits by the sun’s magnetism.

128.
The
six
are the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

129.
The planet Earth
: The most striking result of the Copernican theory was the idea that the earth was simply another planet (the seventh).

130.
three different motions
: “The three different motions, which the Copernicans attribute to the earth, are the
diural
round her own axis, the
annual
round the sun, and the
motion of libration
as it is called, whereby the earth so proceeds in her orbit, as that her axis is constantly parallel to the axis of the world [universe]” (Newton).

131–32.
“Even if you do not posit a moving earth, you will have to posit spheres moving in contrary and awkward directions.”

133–40.
Or save … ray:
Copernicus was able to make the sun responsible for astronomical effects earlier attributed to the
swift … rhomb
, or
primum mobile
, the great wheel turning rapidly beyond the fixed stars and imparting orbital motions to the planets. But this earlier picture of things
needs not thy belief
, need not be believed by Adam, if he assumes that the earth of its own power revolves on a daily basis, thus creating the alternation of day and night.

145.
inhabitants
: Cp. 3.460–62.

148–49.
other suns … moons:
Advocates of an infinite universe, such as Giordano Bruno and Henry More, believed that the so-called fixed stars were suns with their own planetary systems; Galileo observed the
attendant moons
of Jupiter and Saturn. Cp. 1.650, 3.566–71, 7.621–22; also Spenser, FQ 2.1.3.

150.
male and female light
: original and reflected light.

151.
No one has found a convincing source for this striking line, with its absolute confidence in the universality of gender and the conjunction of gender and life.

162.
He
: the sun.

163–66.
These fine lines are sufficient to dispel the old idea that Milton found the Ptolemaic system inherently more poetic than the Copernican one.

163.
she
: the earth.

167.
Solicit not
: trouble not.

175.
what creatures
: That other planets might harbor life was a common speculation in Milton’s day.

183.
easiest way
: Milton entitled a prose work
The Ready and Easy Way
(1660).
Way
, which here means “course of action” (
OED
12), is a key word in the poem.
Paradise Lost
intends to “justify the ways of God” (1.26) and ends with “way” (12.649). It should be borne in mind that in Acts 9.2, 19.9, 24.14, 24.22, et cetera,
way
signifies Christianity.

194.
fume
: literally “vapor” or “smoke,” figuratively “something unsubstantial, transient, imaginary”; see
Apology
(Yale 1:193): “the pride of a metaphysical fume.”

195.
fond
: foolish.

197.
still to seek
: without a clue.

202.
sufferance
: permission;
wonted:
customary.

209.
Fond
: foolish.

225.
fellow servant
: As the angel told a worshipful St. John, “I am thy fellow servant” (Rev. 22.9).

226.
ways of God with man
: See 183n, 1.26n.

229.
that day
: the sixth day of Creation? Presumably Raphael witnessed the other days, whose events he has just narrated.

230.
uncouth
: strange, desolate.

239.
state
: ceremony.

243–44.
Cp. Aeneas hearing the groans and cries behind the gate to Tartarus (Vergil,
Aen
. 6.557–59), Astolfo listening at the gates of Hell (Ariosto,
OF
34.4), and Dante greeted by wailings and lamentations upon entering Hell (
Inf
. 3.22–29).

246.
Sabbath evening
: the beginning of the seventh day of Creation. Milton here adopts the Hebrew custom of measuring the day from sunset to sunset.

255.
balmy sweat
: In one of the first postmodern essays on
Paradise Lost
, Hartman declares that balmy sweat mingles “the balm of fruitfulness and the sweat of the curse, the labor to come and the regeneration to come from that” (147). But Edwards suggests that this reading spoils Paradise with the consequences of the Fall: “Adam’s balmy sweat is, simply, sweet-scented sweat” (197).

256.
reeking
: steaming.

263.
lapse
: flow.

273–74.
Thou sun … earth:
In his very first words, Adam articulates in nascent form the ideas that lead to his puzzlement about the heavens (see 85–90n).

281.
Acts 17.28: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.”

282.
happier than I know
: Cp. 4.774–75.

287.
Pensive
: The combination of happiness and pensiveness in this passage suggests that Milton, returning imaginatively to the themes of his youthful poetry, is blending elements of
L’Allegro
and
Il Penseroso
. The pensive man also goes to sleep during the daytime, and dreams (142–50), and the happy man speaks of “Such sights as youthful poets dream/On summer eves by haunted stream” (129–30).

288.
oppression
: weighing down.

302.
Smooth … led
: The
l
- sounds slide smoothly through the
s-
sounds.

331.
From that day mortal
: the usual interpretation of Gen. 2.17: “For in the day you eat of it you shall die.”

350.
two and two
: There is no indication in Gen. 2.19–20 that the animals parade by Adam in pairs, as they will again when entering Noah’s ark “two and two” (Gen. 7.9). Milton’s Adam seems intended to think about companionship, which he does (Gallagher 1990, 36).

373.
Their language
: Since animals do not speak (9.557), Leonard must be right in asserting that
language
here means “inarticulate sounds used by the lower animals” (
OED
1c).

379.
See Abraham’s similar preface when negotiating with God (Gen. 18.30).

383.
unequals
: Adam is here referring to the gap between himself and animals.

384.
sort
: fit.

387.
intense
: taut;
remiss:
slack.

399.
nice
: refined, difficult to please (
OED
7, the “good sense”).

405–7.
Who … less:
These lines are central to a debate over the identity of the divine presence speaking to Adam. Since Milton’s Son is not coeternal with the Father, the claim to be
alone/From all eternity
suggests that the Father speaks.

417.
But in degree
: Man is perfect only in his station (which is of a kind to require a partner).

419.
solace
: alleviate.

419–21.
No need … one:
Adam, who began his religious life with the intuition of a Maker (ll. 278–79), here takes a leap forward in sophistication.
Through all numbers absolute
Englishes the Latin
omnibus numeris absolutus
, meaning “complete in every part,” as in a well-written book (Pliny the Younger,
Letters
9.38). Yet God is
infinite
—hence the completeness of his parts must be an innate idea, not an empirical observation. And God, despite his complete and infinite parts, is paradoxically
one
.

422–26.
Man has a
single imperfection
, his
unity
is
defective
, because unlike God he requires another being to multiply his image.

426.
Collateral
: etymologically “side by side,” accompanying.

435.
Permissive
: allowed.

445.
From Gen. 2.18: “God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone.’ ”

450.
thy other self
: an addition to Gen. 2.18 that Milton thought intended in the Hebrew (
MLM
1000–1001). The Latin
alter ego
means “friend,” which suggests that Milton is giving biblical sanction to the seventeenth-century ideal of “companionate marriage” (see Stone 361–74).