Summary and Reading Notes--Adam Kissel

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1-12, Milton hails "holy Light"--which is either a name for God or the first "offspring of Heav'n"--and ventures to describe it/him. Gen 1:1-4
13-26, Milton has ascended into Heaven after sojourn in hell and travel through Chaos. Blind, Milton can feel but not see God's light.
27-36, Though blind, he revisits classical readings, and nightly reads of Sion, and remembers other renowned blind men.
37-40, As a bird, he composes verses in private, in his thoughts.
41-50, He is yet blind and cut off "from the cheerful ways of men" who can see. He is "for the book of knowledge fair/Presented with a universal blank/Of nature's works to me expunged and razed,/And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." [cf. limits on Satan's activity]
51-55, Therefore, Milton asks that God's Light "shine inward" through his mind, "that I may see and tell/Of things invisible to mortal sight."

56-76, God surveys everything: heaven, where he receives ultimate beatitude; Jesus, "The radiant image of his glory"; Adam and Eve, "in blissful solitude" in the garden; hell and chaos, where Satan has been traveling--towards the edge of the world, by the firmament ["Uncertain which, in ocean or in air"]. Gen 1:6-8
77-79, God beholds all of time.
80-86, God tells his Son that they behold Satan ("our Adversary") unchained in his desperate path of revenge, though his path "shall redound/Upon his own rebellious head."
87-99, Satan is winging toward earth to destroy man by force or pervert him by guile--God knows that the guile will succeed, and man will easily fall, along with his "faithless progeny"--"whose fault?/Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me/All he could have; I made him just and right,/Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."
100-02, God had created all the angels free, and some freely stood, though others fell.
103-11: Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith or love, [cf. demon's advice in Bk. II]
Where only what they needs must do, appeared,
Not what they would? What praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When will and reason (reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled,
Made passive both, had served necessity,
Not me.
111-19, Therefore, those who fell cannot accuse God of their chosen fate; their will overrules any claim of predestination; "if I foreknew,/Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault."
120-28, Those who fell had been made free, to judge and choose for themselves, and can only be made unfree by binding themselves; it is their nature; therefore "they themselves ordained their fall."
129-34, Though angels fell, undeceived, man falls by deception, so man "shall find grace,/The other none"; God excels in glory, justice and mercy, though mercy has the brighter shine.
135-43, All rejoice at the words of God, and Jesus shines glorious with him, face expressing compassion and unrestricted love and grace.

144-49, the Son concurs and declares the glory of God in this plan.
150-55, the Son agrees that man should not finally be lost due to fraud (though also through man's own folly); for God is just and judge.
156-62, the alternative is to let Satan win revenge and lead mankind corrupted into hell.
162-66, another alternative is to "Abolish thy creation" and forgo the glory of having made man. Alternatives are worse because God's goodness and greatness would be questioned, and blasphemed for just cause.

167-82, God's thoughts are the same as the Son's words. God will save those who choose to accept God's grace, but in the knowledge that they are saved by God alone: "Man shall not quite be lost, but save who will,/Yet not of will in him, but grace in me"--"By me upheld, that he may know how frail/His fall'n condition is, and to me owe/All his deliv'rance, and to none but me." [ways of God]
183-93, Some will get "peculiar grace" and be the Elect; others will hear God's call and be offered grace as well--only those who offer prayer, repentance, and obedience "with sincere intent" [contra the demons] will receive God's grace.
194-97, God will place divine conscience in the saved, as a guide to virtue.
198-202, God will exclude those only who "neglect and scorn"--and they will fall deeper.
203-12, But this is all to come; first, someone able and willing must pay the price for man's sin, to satisfy justice: "death for death."
213-16, God asks all heavenly powers if one of them is willing and able to become mortal "to redeem/Man's mortal crime."

217-21, All heaven is quiet while nobody comes forward.
222-26, looks like mankind will be lost, until the Son begins to speak.
227-56 [long first sentence for the story] Free grace shall reach mankind in the Son's atonement via mortality, in his putting off the glory of being at God's bosom; then, since he has eternal life, he will rise victorious and conquer Death. He will bind the powers of hell.
256-65, Then he will ruin them, killing Death, and then enter heaven with the redeemed, into full joy and peace.
266-71, This is the will of God, and the Son's free filial obedience to it.

271-80, God will endure distance from the Son for a while, in order to save lost mankind.
281-86, the Son shall be made flesh when the time comes.
287-94, Despite Adam's original sin, all the restored shall be restored through the one Son, "As from a second root."
294-302, Thus will justice be paid to those who accept grace, outdoing death; not so for those who do not accept.
303-04, Divine nature is not lessened by assuming man's nature.
305-29, The Son's merit in being good, abounding in love (yet more than in glory), is what makes him worthy of his title; further, the Son's humiliation "shall exalt/With thee thy manhood also to this throne"--giving humanity a share in divine reign--and all shall bow to the Son. Then the Son will declare the day of judgment.
330-38, On that day the Son shall judge, sending the bad to hell, burning the world. Then a new heaven and earth will spring forth for the just.
339-41, Then free from trouble, "God shall be all in all."
341-43, God has heaven adore the Son as himself.

344-64, They erupt in loud jubilee, and cast their crowns toward the thrones, over the bright pavement. The crowns include amaranth flowers, which had grown near the Tree of Life in Eden but were removed after man's offense.
365-71, In full concord they take their harps and sing.
372-82, They sing of the extremely bright glory of God, who cannot be seen at his height, or ever approached.
383-89, They sing of the Son [begotten, as Milton says], to bright to be beheld by any but God, sharing God's glory.
390-96, Through the Son, God created all heaven and threw down the rebellion.
397-410, They sing of God's vengeance on the rebels, but pity on mankind, and of the Son's offer to atone for man's offense.
410-11, "O unexampled love,/Love nowhere to be found less than divine!"
412-17, They shall sing praises to the Father and the Son forever.

418-30, Meanwhile, Satan walks at the edge of Chaos and the world.
431-509, [long sentence for Limbo] Like a bird of prey moving from mountain to plains on the way to the field, Satan walks through Limbo. Limbo, or Paradise of Fools, is empty but will be filled with vanities and vain men and monsters of nature, waiting saints, several OT figures, suicides, "embryos and idiots," Catholic monks, etc. St. Peter is waiting to release them. When wind blows, one can see the vanities blowing away. Finally Satan reaches the majestic gate to the world, beyond human imitation.
510-15, S sees the stairs that Jacob saw, "the gate of heav'n." Gen 28:17
516-25, the stairs are sometimes out of sight; each one has its meaning; under them is a bright sea. In this case, the stairs are down--daring Satan to ascend, or to remind him of his separation.
526-39, the stairway runs over a huge passage from heaven to earth, through which angels go to and fro, and through which God can see all of Palestine.
540-43, S, on the bottom step, is amazed to see "all this world at once."
543-51, It's like a scout discovering a new land with "goodly prospect."
552-54, Even though he's seen heaven, Satan marvels in envy at the world.

555-90, S surveys the world and drops himself in. He ignores the universe and, drawn by the sun, proceeds toward it. The sun described in relation to the universe; has some godlike characteristics. S lands on it.
591-612, The sun described further; very bright, having power of purification, like the arch-alchemist, producing pure gold.
613-29, S can see clearly in the sun's light, and spies a bright and solemn angel.
630-33, S is glad to find a chance to get to earth and mankind via the angel.
634-44, S transforms externally into a young Cherub to fool the angel.
645-53, S accosts the archangel, Uriel.

654-67, S as cherub claims "Unspeakable desire to see, and know/All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man."
667-80, S claims to want to see man in order to praise man's Maker; presumes [falsely, it would seem] that God created man "to repair that loss" of the rebellion.
681-93, S gets away with his dissembling, for nobody can discern hypocrisy except God, who permits it to exist. Wisdom requires the supplement of suspicion in order to discern evil, but Uriel is not suspicious, so he is beguiled.

694-707, U. is pleased that while some are contented with reports of wonderful works, this cherub wants to see for himself, and has traveled alone to do it. God's creations outstrip the comprehension of created beings [mystery preserved].
708-21, U. had witnessed the creation of the world, where "Light shone, and order from disorder sprung."
722-32, U. points out the earth and teaches about the moon.
733-35, he points out Paradise.
736-42, Satan bows reverently and speeds to Paradise, alighting on a nearby mountain.

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