[Milton-L] (no subject)

[Carl Bellinger]

    Concerning the limits and quality of Satan's apprehension, John Rumrich's reply "that Satan sits on top of the tree of life and doesn't understand it at all" is a mild form of Milton's own stark commentary in the text concerning Satan's knowledge about the tree he has perched on.

       Satan sits atop the Tree of Life --like a Cormorant [wonderful image]-- simply because, as highest point and in the middle, it's the best place to fish from. He has no intuition or apprehension about the "virtue of that life-giving Plant" He doesn't know it's any particular tree, only that it's a tall one. 

   Thunders the poet: "So little knows any, but God alone, to value right the good before him, but perverts best things... to their meanest use."

Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,

The middle Tree and highest there that grew,          [ 4.195 ]

Sat like a Cormorant; yet not true Life

Thereby regaind, but sat devising Death

To them who liv'd; nor on the vertue thought

Of that life-giving Plant, but only us'd

For prospect, what well us'd had bin the pledge          [ 4.200 ]

Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

The good before him, but perverts best things

To worst abuse, or to thir meanest use.



As for the adjacent Tree of Knowledge, presumably, Satan doesn't notice it.



Carl


From: Horace Jeffery Hodges 
  To: John Milton Discussion List 
  Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 3:54 PM
  Subject: Re: [Milton-L] (no subject)


        John Rumrich wrote:

        "Angels are very intelligent, Milton believes, and they tend to understand phenomena intuitively, by sudden apprehension. But one might reply that Satan sits on top of the tree of life and doesn't understand it at all. Go figure."

        Jeffery Hodges suggests:

        But Satan is fallen and as God's adversary can now think only in purely adversarial, instrumental ways. He might still be capable of reasoning intuitively, as an angel, but we see him reasoning discursively, asking himself questions and seeking answers. Perhaps he is clever -- a high IQ sort of guy -- but Milton portrays him as lacking genuine insight.

        Jeffery Hodges 



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