75. This proclamation aroused the jealousy and wrath of one of the principal angels, whose heavenly name must forever remain unknown (see P. L. I. 361), but whom we shall call Satan, because by this title (meaning Enemy) he was afterwards known in Heaven. He induced all but one of the angels under his regency to revolt against the elevation above themselves of any created being, and after a three days' fight he was expelled from Heaven with all his followers by the Son of God (called Messiah), and was cast into a dungeon especially created for him, deep in outer space. One-third of all the angels were thus "amerced of Heaven." To supply their vacant room and at the same time guard against the possibility of another revolt, God determined to create a World outside the bounds of Heaven, to place therein a new race of beings, and to train them in obedience before entrusting them with the powers and privileges of angels of Heaven. The Creation and the Fall of Man. 76. We have spoken of Heaven as situated in an upper region of space. All the space about and beneath it Milton conceived to be occupied by atoms such as, when properly combined, compose the four forms of matter known to man (see 4). But these atoms, existing from all eternity and waiting until it should be God's pleasure to make them useful, knew no law and had no fixed place or form, drifting aimlessly about in blackest darkness, the sport of chance. This is Milton's interpretation of the statement of the Hebrew writer in Gene sis i. 1, 2: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." According to this interpretation, the process of creating the World began, not when the atoms of matter were brought into existence, but when the "Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." In Milton's story this Spirit is identified with the Son of God, lately appointed Regent of Heaven under the title of Messiah, and now deputed to bring into existence the new World. "Heaven opened wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turned by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains to assault Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.' " With golden compasses He first ascribed to the World its bounds, expelling all materials unsuited to his purpose, causing the atoms about the circumference to become compacted into the Primum Mobile (see 10), and the atoms within to cease their confused motion; and then on successive days uttered the commands that wrought the atoms into orbs, continents and oceans, plants and animals, as we know them to-day. 77. On the first day, Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the Deep, and from her native East On the second the firmament of heaven spanned the sky "Expanse of liquid, pure, Transparent, elemental air, diffused In circuit to the uttermost convex Of this great round." On the third the masses of land and water were differen "Immediately the mountains huge appear Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave and vegetation sprang up in abundance. On the fourth the luminous bodies (sun, moon, and stars) were set in the firmament of heaven; on the fifth living creatures (fish and fowl) were created; on the sixth the higher animals, including man, crowned the work. 78. One man (Adam) and one woman (Eve) were created as ancestors of the human race. They were placed in a garden called Paradise, situated in the district of Eden, near the source of the river Euphrates, and over this garden they were given charge. Adam gave names to the various animals, with all of which he lived on friendly terms, and the time of both Adam and Eve was pleasantly occupied in the care of the garden. They were forbidden to eat of the fruit of one tree in this garden, called the "tree of knowledge of good and of evil." In all other respects they were unhampered by |