Season 3 Podcast 193 Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk VIII, Pt XVI, "The Story of Creation Pt II"

Paradise Lost Bk VII, Pt XVI, “The Story of Creation” Pt IIIn the following segments of Book VII, we first have a conversation between Adam and Raphael about the purpose of creation. Milton, the Christian and Bible scholar, uses the Bible as his primary resource for the fundamental elements of the creation story. For those familiar with Genesis the story will be very familiar. Milton, the poet, however, in addition to telling the creation story, attempts to make Adam and Eve more personal. He gets inside their head and tries to show what it is like to be the first humans on earth. But primarily, Milton wants to justify the ways of God to man. This is a very ambitious theme. In addition, he wants to show Adam and Eve as real people. In the following Adam speaks to Raphael: When I behold this goodly Frame, this WorldOf Heav’n and Earth consisting, and compute,Their magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a graine,An Atom, with the Firmament comparedAnd all her numbered Stars, that seem to roleSpaces incomprehensible (for suchTheir distance argues and their swift returnDiurnal) merely to officiate lightRound this spacious Earth, this punctual spot,One day and night; in all their vast surveyUseless besides, reasoning I oft admire,How Nature wise and frugal could commitSuch disproportions, with superfluous handSo many nobler Bodies to create,Greater so manifold to this one use,For aught appears, and on their Orbs imposeSuch restless revolution day by dayRepeated, while the sedentary Earth,That better might with far less compass move,Served by more noble than herself, attainsHer end without least motion, and receives,As Tribute such a sumless journey broughtOf incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;Speed, to describe whose swiftness Number fails. While Adam contemplates the science of creation, Eve, a more practical person, immediately begins to tend the garden. o spake our Sire, and by his countenance seemedEntering on studious thoughts abstruse, which EvePerceiving 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 Flowers,To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom,Her Nursery; they at her coming sprungAnd touched by her fair tendance gladlier grew. Eve took little interest in discussing the creation with Raphael. She preferred to have Adam summarize their conversation. To quote Milton, With Goddess-like demeanor forth she went;Not unattended, for on her as QueenA pomp of winning Graces waited still,And from about her shot Darts of desireInto all Eyes to wish her still in sight. Raphael speaks of the scope of knowledge, but he cautions Adam not to overreach the designs of the Almighty. He also advises Adam to be exact in his reckoning.  In other words, not to accept any theory that poses itself.  To ask or search I blame thee not, for Heav’nIs as the Book of God before thee set,Wherein to read his wondrous Works, and learnHis Seasons, Hours, or Days, or Months, or Years:This to attain, whether Heav’n move or Earth,Imports not, if thou reckon right, the restFrom Man or Angel the great ArchitectDid wisely to conceal, and not divulgeHis secrets to be scanned by them who oughtRather admire; or if they list to tryConjecture, he his Fabric of the Heav’nsHath left to their disputes, perhaps to moveHis laughter at their quaint Opinions wideHereafter, when they come to model Heav’nAnd calculate the Stars, how they will wieldThe mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contriveTo save appearances, how gird the SphereWith Centric and Eccentric scribbled o’re,Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb: