Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race Adam thus forewarned, with Eve, heard attentive, and repenting of his doubts, yet sinless, seeks farther to know how this world began. He inquires of Raphael. It is not yet evening. The sun itself will stay to hear the angel telling of his generation. Raphael assents, for he had been commanded by God to answer Adam's desire of knowledge, within bounds. After the fall of Lucifer (So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of angels, than that star the stars among) God declared to His Son the resolve to create another world. The Word gave effect to the will of God, and there was joy in Heaven. The Son passed through the gates of Heaven: Heaven opened wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, Then began the days of the Creation. The Son took the golden compasses and marked the bounds of the new world, said, "Let there be light," and there was light; and the celestial quires -praised God and his works; Creator him they sung, Both when first evening was, and when first morn. Raphael tells of the work of Creation on the following days, until the Creation of Man on the sixth day, with the test of obedience. The story of Creation, therefore, like the story of the fall of the rebellious angels, ends with the warning to Adam, 66 -lest sin Surprise thee, and her black attendant, death." At the end of the sixth day there was the welcoming back to Heaven of the Creator returned from his work. Raphael then pictures the seventh evening in Eden, tells of the hallowing of the seventh day and of the angel's song of the Creation. Here the Seventh Book now ends. In its first edition "Paradise Lost" was in Ten Books. The original Seventh Book, divided in the second edition, formed the Books now numbered VII. and VIII. A similar subdivision of the original Tenth Book changed the whole number of ten into twelve. In each case the place of division was marked by the insertion of a sentence that suggested pause. In the Seventh Book Milton, at first, carried on to its close the story of the Creation of Man, by adding Adam's narrative and his discourse with the angel thereupon. The Book so planned contained two or three hundred lines beyond the average number. Milton then made a distinct Book of Raphael's narrative of the Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath Rest, and made his break where he had written continuously thus: "If else thou seek'st Aught not surpassing human measure, say.' To whom thus Adam gratefully replied: "What thanks sufficient," &c. The grace of the poet's art in making his pause a poet's pause is in the inserted lines which open the Eighth Book after thus closing the Seventh: "If else thou seek'st Aught not surpassing human measure, say." BOOK VIII. The angel ended, and in Adam's ear So charming left his voice, that he awhile Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear; Then, as new-waked, thus gratefully replied : "What thanks sufficient," &c. Adam asked knowledge of the system of the universe, entering on studious thoughts abstruse. Eve went to her flowers, preferring to hear from Adam what he learnt. Raphael's reply indicates Milton's knowledge of the Copernican system, although the legendary part of his poem was inevitably bound to older astronomical ideas. But Raphael's answer ended in the lesson : "Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid; Adam, replying, offers to tell his own story, which perhaps Raphael has not heard. He tells it to detain his heavenly visitor, "for while I sit with thee I seem in Heaven." Raphael delights also in the voice of man, and he was, on the day of Adam's creation, absent on an excursion towards the gates of Hell. Then Adam tells of his first sense of life. His first thought was a desire to know his Maker. God spoke with him and made known the interdict. Adam desired one to partake his happiness, not of the animals, but of his own kind. Whereto the Almighty answered, not displeased, trying the mind of Adam, and to his lowly plea repeated gave gracious assent, saying, "I, ere thou spak'st Knew it not good for man to be alone." Then follows Adam's narrative of the creation of Eve, "--adorned With what all earth or heaven could bestow Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen, Adam tells how he thanked God with joy, and dwells to Raphael upon the excellence of Eve, who, though dominion is not given to her in the mind and inward faculties, --yet, when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute 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 Loses, discountenanced, and like folly shows; Authority and reason on her wait, As one intended first, not after made Occasionally; 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." Raphael in his reply distinguishes between pure love and the passion that man shares with the lower animals. "What higher in her society thou find'st By which to heavenly love thou may'st ascend.” Adam dwells on the pure harmonies of the love between himself and Eve, and asks, "Do not angels love!" To whom the angel, with a smile that glowed Answered: "Let it suffice thee that thou know'st His words of love pass still into the warning he was sent to give: "Be strong, live happy, and love! but, first of all, Him, whom to love is to obey." The Book ends the episode of Raphael with the parting of the angel, the gentlest words and thoughts of love upon the lips and in the hearts of both. It is night in Paradise, and Satan, who had fled with the shades of the night before, returns from compassing the earth, re-enters the happy garden by a river-course, and rising as a mist from the fountain by the tree of life, resolves to enter the Serpent. He utters a plaint of envy for his lost delight. Revenge, at all costs, is his aspiration. He seeks the Serpent ; enters him. Then follows morning in Eden. Eve proposes to divide labour with Adam. Adam, gently answering, holds it safer that they keep together. There is an enemy to watch against. Eve repels doubt of her firmness. Adam replies, with healing words, that the fiend is subtle, and that he too feels stronger when Eve is by. Eve replies; Adam rejoins; the charm of the dialogue lies in the fact that it paints a division of opinion between minds perfect in innocence and love; it is designed as contrast to the debate between Adam and Eve after the clouding of their innocence. Adam assents to the wish of Eve: Hang drooping unsustained; them she upstays Gently, with myrtle band, mindless the while Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh. He Satan half relents, but recollects his hate, fortifies himself against pity, and approaches Eve. addresses her with a prelude of flattery. Eve wonders that the Serpent speaks; asks why. He answers that he has tasted of a tree which raised his thoughts until he could gaze at and worship her. Eve asks what tree it is. The Serpent undertakes to lead her to it; and he leads her to the forbidden tree. She cannot taste of that. The Serpent reasons guilefully, using all rhetoric of the tempter, in both under the first intoxication of the senses. Exhaustion follows, then the sense of shame. Adam complains. They clothe themselves in leaves of the fig-tree-not that kind for fruit renowned, but the leaves broad as Amazonian targe of the tree now known in Malabar or Deccan. Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part They sat them down to weep; nor only tears SORROW OF ADAM AND EVE. (From the MS. of Cadmon's "Paraphrase," tenth century.) and wins acceptance. Eve's thoughts are followed as they are misled by the Serpent's reasoning: so -in rash hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate. Of knowledge: nor was Godhead from her thought. And knew not eating death: satiate at length, Her thoughts now indicate the change wrought in her. Adam must share with her. She returns to Adam, who meets her with a bough of the fruit in her hand. Her address to him is marked by a new flush of emotion. Adam in love must live or die with her. He reasons to himself that he must eat since she has eaten. Eve rejoices in the love of Adam. He eats. There is next painted the change Lost innocence is shown in mistrust and reproach. It is a debate unlike that of the morning. Eve replies in defence, why did not Adam prevent her? "Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me." Adam answers in anger. Thus they in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours, but neither self condemning, And of their vain contest appeared no end. This is the close of the Ninth Book; the close of the Tenth will be a companion picture skilfully contrasted with it. God saw the offence. The angelguards left Paradise. The Father, who foresaw man's choice, sends the Son, man's friend and future Mediator, to be his judge. "Easy it may be seen that I intend Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee, The whole design of this part of the poem is to represent the sentence upon man as an act of Divine Love and Mercy, and to do away with the concep tion of a God of Wrath. The Son obeys the Father, and descends from Heaven as mild judge and intercessor to the garden, where he calls Adam and Eve. Milton uses the gentlest of conceivable images for the purpose of dissociating any thought of anger from the sentence upon man. Now was the Sun in western cadence low From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour To fan the Earth now waked, and usher in The evening cool, when he, from wrath more cool, Came the mild judge and intercessor both, To sentence Man. The voice of God they heard Now walking in the Garden, by soft winds Brought to their ears, while day declined; they heard, And from his presence hid themselves among The thickest trees, both man and wife, till God, Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud: "Where art thou, Adam, wont with joy to meet Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief: After sentence has been pronounced, “for dust thou art, and shalt to dust return," Milton goes on: So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent, Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man Sin and Death left the Gates of Hell, now opened, Sin bidding Death along with him. But let them found a path for the infernal host to earth. Death snuffed the smell of mortal change on earth. Sin They flew from Hell-gates into Chaos, and formed, as they went, the bridge across the track first made by Satan. They met on their way Satan, who had fled at the first coming of the Son of God. welcomed Satan: Satan answered in pride of triumph; they parted, and Satan passing down the bridge sought Hell, ascended there his throne in Pandæmonium, and addressed the fallen angels in his empire. Instead of universal shout and high applause, the answer was a dismal universal hiss. They were all changed to serpents. They sought to quench thirst with fruit like that of the forbidden tree, but it was changed to ashes in their mouths. Some say they undergo an annual humbling in this form for certain numbered days. The poetic meaning of this incident is to continue the enforcement of the thought that there is no question in the action of the poem of a power in Satan to control or thwart the will of the Almighty. Having followed Satan back to Hell along the track across Chaos, Milton returns to Sin and Death, and follows them to earth. He paints the effect of their coming on the fruits and herbs of Paradise. God looking down upon all declares His purpose fixed, and the victory of the Son over Sin and Death. Then follows the song of the angels, and the charge to the angels for the changes upon earth. Turning then to Adam and Eve, between whom discord first brought death, the poem paints the growing miseries, and sets forth the complaint of Adam, and his reasoning upon God's ways with him-reasoning that justifies the ways of God to Man. Adam laments through the ¦ still night. Why comes not death? Eve, desolate, approaches him, and is repelled with anger. Then follows her tender plaint: “Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not Against a foe by doom express assigned us, On me already lost, me than thyself More miserable. Both have sinned; but thou Eve is upraised by Adam, and the end of discord is the beginning of repentance. She suggests that they seek death. Adam reasons, recalls trust in God, who has been merciful in judging, |