"In discourse more sweet [for Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense] others apart sat on a hill retired, in thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate-- fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, and found no end, in wandering mazes lost. Of good and evil much they argued then, of happiness and final misery, passion and apathy , and glory and shame : vain wisdom all and false philosophy!--Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm pain for a while or anguish, and excite fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast with stubborn patience as with triple steel."
P.17-18, PARADISE LOST by John Milton (1667, 2015)
Saturday, March 17, 2018
PARADISE LOST, excerpt
"In discourse more sweet [for Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense] others apart sat on a hill retired, in thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate-- fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, and found no end, in wandering mazes lost. Of good and evil much they argued then, of happiness and final misery, passion and apathy , and glory and shame : vain wisdom all and false philosophy!--Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm pain for a while or anguish, and excite fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast with stubborn patience as with triple steel."
P.17-18, PARADISE LOST by John Milton (1667, 2015)