M 1 ILTON has written a systematic treatise De doctrina Christiana; he has also scattered his ideas in numerous prose writings produced as circumstances called for them; and lastly, in accordance with his own conception of poetics, he has expressed his ideas in his poems, either plainly, or allegorically, or in the very construction of them. In order to study what there is of lasting originality in Milton's thought, and especially to disentangle from theological rubbish the permanent and human interest of that thought, these different expressions must be unified, compared, and made to tally. The best way seems to be to adopt the abstract plans of nineteenth-century metaphysics, which can be applied with necessary adaptations to any organized system of thought. Consequently, in Milton's ideas, there may be studied (1) an Ontology, or a doctrine of the conditions of general being and of separate beings; (2) a Cosmology, or a doctrine of the formation of this world, and its laws; (3) a Psychology, or a doctrine of man and his fundamental tendencies and powers, from which will come naturally a system of ethics based on it. In order to compass a complete study of Milton's ideas, we must add (4) Religion, or the doctrine of the salvation of man, whom psychology shows to be fallen; and (5) 1 Mr. J. H. Hanford, in a careful study of "The Date of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana" (Studies in Philology, 1920, XVII, 309–19) comes to the conclusion that the work was written between 1655 and 1660. This date is in harmony with the analysis given below (Part IV, Sect. II, chapter III) of the resemblances between the De doctrina and the 1655 edition of Man's Mortality, and seems to me quite acceptable. Politics, the crowning doctrine of Milton's thought, which is for him the study of man's destiny on earth. In politics lies the great problem of Milton's thought, the aim of which is essentially "To justify the ways of God to men "; that is to say, to show that destiny is not blind, but just. Through his passionate study of destiny, Milton takes his place among the great searchers of mankind, who, from Æschylus to Hugo, have looked the problem of evil in the face, have asked the question which all religions and all philosophies try to answer: what is destiny? This is the very revolt of that thinking reed of Pascal's, knowing that the universe is crushing him, and calling the universe to account. Milton has tried to answer that question. In the measure in which the solution he proposes is human and universal, and not merely peculiar to one time or one sect, but grounded on elements that are truly alive in all men, Milton's philosophy is valid for mankind in general. The classification I propose follows in a general way the course of the De doctrina, in which Milton deals first with God and his decree (Chapters I to IV), which is his ontology; then with creation through the Son (V to X), which is his cosmology; then with the Fall and its consequences (XI to XIII), which is his psychology; then with regeneration (XIV and following), which is his religion. This last part gets entangled in interminable theology, of little interest. Milton's theory of politics, which applies the foregoing to the events of this world, is found in all his works, peeping through at any moment in the De doctrina, and forming the very basis of the poems and whatever substance there is in the polemical tracts. CHAPTER I ONTOLOGY I. THE ABSOLUTE ILTON'S God is far from the God of popular belief or even orthodox theology. He is, prop Mb erly speaking, identical with the Absolute of nineteenth-century philosophy. He is no Creator external to his Creation, but Total and Perfect Being, which includes in himself the whole of space and the whole of time. Therefore Milton's doctrine of God is rather to be called an Ontology than a Theology. Milton, in order to express his ideas, makes use here of ordinary expressions to which he gives as the rest of his system shows - a larger meaning than theologians. God includes the whole of space. Among his attributes are" immensity and infinity," and consequently "omnipresence." " This commonplace idea of omnipresence will become for Milton a basis for pantheism. God is everywhere because God is everything. 2 1 Running through the whole of the De doctrina - and in this it is still a poet's work — - there is the fierce joy of the iconoclast, a well-nigh juvenile jubilation, under the stiff sentences and accumulated texts, in the destruction 1 Treatise of Christian Doctrine, in Prose Works, IV, 22. I use Bishop Sumner's translation and adopt most of his interpretations. Sumner's work has been done in a most competent manner. His poor opinion of Milton as a theologian - which is perfectly justified, and which Milton would have taken as a compliment - has never prevented him from seeing Milton's meaning, and his adverse commentaries make Milton's position extremely clear. 2 Ibid., IV, 24. |