Simple Gifts

PARADISE LOST

Book 8, Adam and Eve

Lines 1 - 216

The angel Raphael's account of heavenly matters at an end, Adam seeks to retain his heavenly visitor by recounting his memory of the events in Eden, and the curiosity of the angel, too, is aroused to seek knowledge of God:

Nor less think we in Heaven of thee on Earth/Than of our fellow-servant, and inquire/Gladly into the ways of God with Man:/For God, we see, hath honored thee, and set/On man his equal love: Say therefore on... for I attend,/Pleased with thy words no less than thou with mine.

Adam's story of God's immediate presence to him in the first theophany, sets the stage:

Presence Divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,/In adoration at his feet I fell/Submiss: He reared me, and 'Whom thou soughtest I am,'/Said mildly, 'Author of all this thou seest/Above, or round about thee, or beneath.'

We prefigure here the name of God, the Great "I am" of Moses, the eternal Word.

'This Paradise I give thee, count it thine/To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat:/Of every tree that in the garden grows/Eat freely with glad heart;/fear here no dearth:/But of the tree whose operation brings/Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set/The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith.

After naming the animals, Adam expresses to God desire for his own complement.

Of fellowship I speak/Such as I seek, fit to participate/All rational delight: wherein the brute/Cannot be human consort: They rejoice/Each with their kind, lion with lioness;/So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined.

The Maker's reply is beautiful, and fit:

I, ere thou spakest,/Knew it not good for man to be alone;/... What next I bring shall please thee, be assured,/Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,/Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.

Adam awakes to Eve:

Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,/In every gesture dignity and love.

His words of praise to God for this sweetest of all divine gifts:

Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,/Giver of all things fair, but fairest this/Of all thy gifts .... I now see/Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself/Before me: Woman is her name; of man/Extracted: for this cause he shall forego/Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;/And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.

Adam is so smitten, that he finds himself nearly undone in Eve's presence, an experience since familiar to all men in love, both sublime and dangerous: 

when I approach/Her loveliness, so absolute she seems/And in herself complete, so well to know/Her own, that what she wills to do or say,Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best:/All higher knowledge in her presence falls/Degraded; Wisdom in discourse with her/Loses discountenanced, and like Folly shows;/Authority and Reason on her wait ... /and, to consummate all,/Greatness of mind and Nobleness their seat/Build in her loveliest, and create an awe/About her, as a guard angelic placed.

Warned by Raphael to not allow love to overwhelm reason, Adam replies that it is not just Eve's beauty that draws his love, but:

those graceful acts,/Those thousand decencies, that daily flow/From all her words and actions mixed with love/And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned/Union of mind, or in us both one soul;/Harmony to behold in wedded pair/More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear..../To love, thou blamest me not; for Love, thou sayest,/Leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide

As the apostle John will later say, God is love. It is God who ordained the completion of man in woman, two as one.

The story complete Raphael returns to heaven with these words of parting from Adam:

Go, heavenly guest, ethereal Messenger,/Sent from whose sovereign goodness I adore./Gentle to me and affable hath been/Thy condescension, and shall be honored ever/With grateful memory: Thou to mankind/Be good and friendly still, and oft return.

Paradise Lost Book 8 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts

This is an excellent summary and commentary on each of the books in PARADISE LOST. I strongly recommend reading these commentaries over as you listen to our readings of this great poem!

Find our content helpful? Why not buy us a cup of coffee! Go to:

https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#paradiselost #paradise #johnmilton #milton #poetry #poem #epic #epicpoem #classicpoetry #classicpoem #classics #westernliterature #satan #hell #earth #christianity #religion #thechristianatheist #drjohndwise #drjohnwise #johnwise #christian #atheist #christianity #atheism #jesus #jesuschrist #god #bible #oldtestament #newtestament #nocompromise #rationality #faith #philosophy #philosopher #culture #society #hegelism #hegel #reason #incarnation #history#psychology #theology #literature #humanities #hardquestions #postmodernism #woke #wisdom #ethics #science #poetry

C. S. Lewis said this in MERE CHRISTIANITY, "anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world."

By all counts PILGRIM'S PROGRESS is one of the most influential and well-read books in all history. Lewis himself did it homage as a new Christian when he penned his own PILGRIM'S REGRESS soon after his conversion from theism to Christianity.

If you enjoy our content, buy us a coffee through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

For more great content, check out our other podcasts:

The Christian Atheist: where faith and reason fuse in the incarnation …https://pod.link/1553077203

and

No Compromise: where faith and reason fuse in conversation …

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS9AH1236qO-xEEfBcBP39ip0UJtCpP9R

#thepilgrimprogress #christianallegory #bunyan #johnbunyan #theologicalfiction #bedfordshireprison #evangelist #obstinate #pliable #help #worldlywiseman #goodwill #beelzebub #interpreter #apollyon #faithful #cityofdestruction #poem #poetry #verse #literature #aestheticliterature #aesthetic #history #historical #philosophy #religion #christianity #bible #god #jesus #science #culture #society #humanities #wisdomofthepast #wisdom #classics #faith

Chapter 19, Sections 212 -222

John Locke's Second Treatise of Government was thought by Thomas Jefferson one of the most important influences on his own political thinking, and one of the most important philosophical voices in the formation of the United States and its founding documents.

As such, it is vital to Americans in these days to understand and know Locke's ideas. History is being rewritten at a level approaching the Doublethink of George Orwell, and we must know and proclaim the Truth, the ultimate safeguard of our liberties against the forces of tyranny.

If you enjoy our content, consider donating through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#johnlocke #locke #secondtreatise #secondtreatiseongovernment #government #politicalthought #politicaltheory #politicalphilosophy #philosophy #philosophical #philosopher #philosophicalvoice #unitedstates #unitedstateshistory #thomasjefferson #america #americans #foundingfathers #liberty #safeguardofliberty #tyranny #safeguardsagainsttyranny

Federalist papers #'s 10, 39, 51, 68, and 78 are considered the five most important, so we give them pride of place in publication here on Simple Gifts. The remainder will follow in numerical order.

Authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay to appear anonymously in New York papers under the pseudonym "Publius" in 1787 and 1788, the Federalist Papers aimed to rally public support for the proposed Constitution of the United States. As such, it is one of the most important sources for understanding the original intent of the US Constitution by those who participated in its construction.

In Federalist number one Alexander Hamilton sets forth the ambition of arguing the following positions in favor of the adoption of the Constitution:

"I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following interesting particulars:

THE UTILITY OF THE UNION TO YOUR POLITICAL PROSPERITY

THE INSUFFICIENCY OF THE PRESENT CONFEDERATION TO PRESERVE THAT UNION

THE NECESSITY OF A GOVERNMENT AT LEAST EQUALLY ENERGETIC WITH THE ONE PROPOSED, TO THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS OBJECT

THE CONFORMITY OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION TO THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT

ITS ANALOGY TO YOUR OWN STATE CONSTITUTION and lastly,

THE ADDITIONAL SECURITY WHICH ITS ADOPTION WILL AFFORD TO THE PRESERVATION OF THAT SPECIES OF GOVERNMENT, TO LIBERTY, AND TO PROPERTY."

Articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. If you enjoy our content, consider donating through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

and

No Compromise: where faith and reason fuse in conversation …

PARADISE LOST

Book 7, The Creation

Lines 449 - 640

The angel Raphael, completing his narration of the war in heaven and the fall of Satan and his host, is asked by Adam for more information.

Whence Adam soon repealed/The doubts that in his heart arose: and now/Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know ... /What within Eden, or without, was done/Before his memory; as one whose drought/Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream,/Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites.

Doubt, curiosity and rational exploration are then encouraged and met by divine Providence/revelation, while at the same time Raphael warns that improper desire for knowledge can lead to foolishness. 

to recount almighty works/What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,/Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?/Yet what thou canst attain ... shall not be withheld/Thy hearing; such commission from above/I have received, to answer thy desire/Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain/To ask; nor let thine own inventions hope/Things not revealed, which the invisible King ... Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night;/To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:/Enough is left besides to search and know./But knowledge is as food, and needs no less/Her temperance over appetite, to know/In measure what the mind may well contain,/Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns/Wisdom to folly.

Raphael recounts the Creation story to Adam and Eve, filled to overflowing with the brilliant speculations of Milton in connection to the biblical narrative, he ends by again encouraging human curiosity and investigation:

And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked/How first this world and face of things began,/And what before thy memory was done/From the beginning; that posterity,/Informed by thee, might know: If else thou seekest/Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.

Paradise Lost Book 7 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts

This is an excellent summary and commentary on each of the books in PARADISE LOST. I strongly recommend reading these commentaries over as you listen to our readings of this great poem!

Find our content helpful? Why not buy us a cup of coffee! Go to:

https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#paradiselost #paradise #johnmilton #milton #poetry #poem #epic #epicpoem #classicpoetry #classicpoem #classics #westernliterature #satan #hell #earth #christianity #religion #thechristianatheist #drjohndwise #drjohnwise #johnwise #christian #atheist #christianity #atheism #jesus #jesuschrist #god #bible #oldtestament #newtestament #nocompromise #rationality #faith #philosophy #philosopher #culture #society #hegelism #hegel #reason #incarnation #history#psychology #theology #literature #humanities #hardquestions #postmodernism #woke #wisdom #ethics #science #poetry

C. S. Lewis said this in MERE CHRISTIANITY, "anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world."

By all counts PILGRIM'S PROGRESS is one of the most influential and well-read books in all history. Lewis himself did it homage as a new Christian when he penned his own PILGRIM'S REGRESS soon after his conversion from theism to Christianity.

If you enjoy our content, buy us a coffee through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

For more great content, check out our other podcasts:

The Christian Atheist: where faith and reason fuse in the incarnation …https://pod.link/1553077203

and

No Compromise: where faith and reason fuse in conversation …

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS9AH1236qO-xEEfBcBP39ip0UJtCpP9R

#thepilgrimprogress #christianallegory #bunyan #johnbunyan #theologicalfiction #bedfordshireprison #evangelist #obstinate #pliable #help #worldlywiseman #goodwill #beelzebub #interpreter #apollyon #faithful #cityofdestruction #poem #poetry #verse #literature #aestheticliterature #aesthetic #history #historical #philosophy #religion #christianity #bible #god #jesus #science #culture #society #humanities #wisdomofthepast #wisdom #classics #faith

Chapter 18, Section 207 - Chapter 19, Section 211

John Locke's Second Treatise of Government was thought by Thomas Jefferson one of the most important influences on his own political thinking, and one of the most important philosophical voices in the formation of the United States and its founding documents.

As such, it is vital to Americans in these days to understand and know Locke's ideas. History is being rewritten at a level approaching the Doublethink of George Orwell, and we must know and proclaim the Truth, the ultimate safeguard of our liberties against the forces of tyranny.

If you enjoy our content, consider donating through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#johnlocke #locke #secondtreatise #secondtreatiseongovernment #government #politicalthought #politicaltheory #politicalphilosophy #philosophy #philosophical #philosopher #philosophicalvoice #unitedstates #unitedstateshistory #thomasjefferson #america #americans #foundingfathers #liberty #safeguardofliberty #tyranny #safeguardsagainsttyranny

Federalist papers #'s 10, 39, 51, 68, and 78 are considered the five most important, so we give them pride of place in publication here on Simple Gifts. The remainder will follow in numerical order.

Authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay to appear anonymously in New York papers under the pseudonym "Publius" in 1787 and 1788, the Federalist Papers aimed to rally public support for the proposed Constitution of the United States. As such, it is one of the most important sources for understanding the original intent of the US Constitution by those who participated in its construction.

In Federalist number one Alexander Hamilton sets forth the ambition of arguing the following positions in favor of the adoption of the Constitution:

"I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following interesting particulars:

THE UTILITY OF THE UNION TO YOUR POLITICAL PROSPERITY

THE INSUFFICIENCY OF THE PRESENT CONFEDERATION TO PRESERVE THAT UNION

THE NECESSITY OF A GOVERNMENT AT LEAST EQUALLY ENERGETIC WITH THE ONE PROPOSED, TO THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS OBJECT

THE CONFORMITY OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION TO THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT

ITS ANALOGY TO YOUR OWN STATE CONSTITUTION and lastly,

THE ADDITIONAL SECURITY WHICH ITS ADOPTION WILL AFFORD TO THE PRESERVATION OF THAT SPECIES OF GOVERNMENT, TO LIBERTY, AND TO PROPERTY."

Articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. If you enjoy our content, consider donating through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

and

No Compromise: where faith and reason fuse in conversation …