BOOK III. THE ARGUMENT. GOD sitting on his throne sees Satan flying towards this wo newly created; shows him to the Son who sat at his righ foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; c own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having crea free, and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of ders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his purpose towards Man; but God again declares, that grac be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godh therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must di some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offe undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers h ransom for Man; the Father accepts him, ordains his inca pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and commands all the angels to adore him; they obey, and 1 to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this wor ermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, sind the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending b and the waters above the firmament that flow about it; sage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel, th of that orb; but first changes himself into the shape of a angel, and pretending a zealous desire to behold the new and Man whom God had placed there inquires of him the his habitation, and is directed; alights first on Mount Nip HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-bor Or of the eternal coeternal beam May I express thee unblamed? since God is li 1. first-born. See Genesis i. 3. 3. express thee unblamed, with out blame call thee. See 1 John i. 5. nd never but in unapproachèd light velt from eternity; dwelt then in thee, he rising world of waters dark and deep, nee I revisit now with bolder wing, scaped the Stygian pool, though long detained that obscure sojourn, while in my flight hrough utter and through middle darkness borne, With other notes than to the Orphéan lyre, sung of Chaos and eternal Night; aught by the heavenly Muse to venture down he dark descent, and up to reascend, hough hard and rare; thee I revisit safe, and feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain 4. unapproached. "Dwelling in 7. hearest thou rather. This is 14. Escaped, escaped from.- 16. utter. See I. 72. 17. With other notes, "with otes different from those which ere sung to the Orphean lyre; or Milton drew from the Sacred criptures, and probably believed imself to be in some sort inpired; while the song of Orheus and the Orphic hymn to Night were only the products of uman imagination." Orpheus vas a Thracian bard, who charmed 5 10 15 20 with his music not men only, but also beasts, and even rocks and trees, which moved from their places to follow the sound of his golden harp. His lyre was placed among the constellations, perhaps because he was the first who introduced music into the worship of the gods. 19. the heavenly Muse. See I. 6. 21. rare, seldom tried. 22. sovran (sovereign) lamp, the sun, whose warmth Milton could feel, though he could not see its light. 22-26. His eyesight had been long decaying, and at the time this poem was written was entirely gone. He seems uncertain whether the disease by which his blindness was occasioned was caused by "gutta serena," drop serene, or by dim suffusion, probably cataract. veiled, veiled them. To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; 26. Yet not the more cease I, nevertheless I do not on this account cease. 27. to wander, that is, in imagination, recalling poetic scenes. -the Muses, nine in number, were the goddesses of song, by whom poets were inspired. Many a clear spring in Greece was sacred to the Muses, especially the fountain of Castalia on Mount Parnassus, and that of Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, near which was a shady grove, their peculiar seat. See I. 15. 30. brooks, Kedron and Siloa. See I. 10-12. 35. Thamyris was a Thracian bard who challenged the Muses to a trial of skill, and for sumption was by them o of sight. His story was Homer, who is also called ides. 36. Tiresias was a blind soothsayer of Thebes.was also blind, and gif Apollo with prophetic po This line begins, like son lines in Milton, with a three syllables. 37. voluntary, of the 45. dark, darkness. sented with a universal blank Nature's works to me expunged and rased, d wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. much the rather thou, celestial light! ne inward, and the mind through all her adiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence rge and disperse, that I may see and tell things invisible to mortal sight. Now had the Almighty Father from above, om the pure empyréan where he sits powers gh throned above all height, bent down his eye, ood thick as stars, and from his sight received blissful solitude. He then surveyed o stoop with wearied wings and willing feet n the bare outside of this World, that seemed irm land imbosomed without firmament, 49. rased, erased; effaced. 60. Sanctities, holy beings. ge of his person." Hebrews i. 3. 50 55 60 69 70 75 71. on this side Night, on this side of Night, the utter darkness. See line 16. 72. the dun air, the middle darkness, where was a glimmering dawn. Sec II. 1034-1042.sublime. See II. 528. 74. World, universe; whole system of created things. See II. 1051-1055. "Only-begotten Son, seest thou what rage Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his And Spirits, both them who stood, and ther Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. Not free, what proof could they have given sin Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, Where only what they needs must do appeared 76. in ocean or in air, uncertain which. 98. I made him just a See Ecclesiastes vii. 29. 103. Not free, if they been free. 105. appeared, would peared. |