CHAPTER IV

_PARADISE LOST_

_Paradise Lost_ is in several ways one of the most wonderful of the
works of man. And not least in the circumstances of its composition.
The Restoration found Milton blind, and to blindness it added
disappointment, defeat, obscurity, and fear of the public or private
revenge of his victorious enemies. Yet out of such a situation as this
the most indomitable will that ever inhabited the soul of a poet
produced three great poems, every one of which would have been enough
to give him a place among the poets who belong to the whole world.

The first and greatest of these was, of course, _Paradise Lost_.
Unlike many great poems, but like all the great epics of the world, it
obtained recognition at once. It sold well for a work of its bulk and
seriousness, and it received the highest praise from those whose word
was and deserved to be law in questions of literature. Throughout the
eighteenth {143} century its fame and popularity increased. Literary
people read it because Dryden and Addison and all the established
authorities recommended it to them, and also because those of them
whose turn for literature was a reality found that these
recommendations were confirmed by their own experience. But the poem
also appealed to another and a larger public. To the serious world it
appeared to be a religious book and as such enjoyed the great advantage
of being thought fit to be read on the only day in the week on which
many people were accustomed to read at all. This distinction grew in
importance with the progress of the Wesleyan revival and with it grew
the number of Milton's admirers. When Sunday readers were tired of the
Bible they were apt to turn to _Paradise Lost_. How many of them did
so is proved by the influence Milton has had on English religious
beliefs. To this day if an ordinary man is asked to give his
recollections of the story of Adam and Eve he is sure to put Milton as
well as Genesis into them. For instance, the Miltonic Satan is almost
sure to take the place of the scriptural serpent. The influence Milton
has had is unfortunately also seen in less satisfactory ways. He
claimed to justify the ways of God to men. Perhaps he did so to his
own mind {144} which, in these questions, was curiously matter-of-fact,
literal, legal and unmystical. He was determined to explain everything
and provide for all contingencies by his legal instrument of the
government of the world: a