Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth, Glory of Him that made them to transform Then were they known to men by various names, III. AUGUSTINE 39 With Augustine at last we find a coherent account of the Fall. Augustine's ideas underwent great changes during his long life.38 But of all his works, Milton, like the whole of his century, knew chiefly the City of God."9 He took no trouble to reconcile Augustine's ideas in that work with his ideas at other periods of his life, and was only too happy, according to his wont, to find Augustine contradicting himself — that is, if he cared about Augustine's other books at all. Augustine sets the fall of the angels at the beginning of creation, before the birth of the world; he finds, as its motive, pride; he definitely identifies the Serpent as Satan; he connects sensuality with man's fall, and no longer with that of the angels. Except on this last point, Milton has therefore followed Augustine's version entirely. Even the sensual trait in the angels' fall is only 87 P. L., I, 364-75. 38 See P. Alfaric, L'Evolution intellectuelle de Saint Augustine (Paris, Nourry, 1918). 89 This is confirmed by Hanford, Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXXVI, 304. marked in the case of Satan, and, however heavily insisted upon, is used allegorically and philosophically, rather than dogmatically; in the De doctrina we hear nothing of it. So we can say that on the Fall Milton's dogma is Augustine's. 99 40 43 The angels were created before any other things or beings, with "heaven" or "light.' Some of the angels fell before the creation of the world. This is the meaning of the phrase "God divided the light from the darkness," and they were thrown into the lowest part of the world."1 Milton entirely adopts all this in the De doctrina: "the angels are considered as comprehended under the general name of heavens "; " his angels rebel "before the foundations of this world were laid," and his hell is in the lowest part of creation "beyond the limits of this universe." " The "sons of God" of Scripture are merely a race of good men.* We have seen that Milton officially adopts this opinion, whatever slips his reminiscences of Enoch (severely condemned by Augustine) may produce. The motive of the Fall is pride: "This superb and envious angel, this prince of devils who turns away from his creator towards himself, and makes himself into a tyrant." ** For Milton also, the devil is the archetype of the tyrant. Satan is the Serpent. "He chose the Serpent, a wily and cunning animal, and used it to speak to the woman. 45 99 47 In the account of the Fall, the same parallelism is to be found. Adam was not deceived by his wife, but he could not resist his love for her, 40 De civitate Dei XI, 32. 42 Prose Works, IV, 184. 48 45 De civitate XV, 13, 23, and XVIII, 38. Against his better knowledge, not deceived, But fondly overcome by female charm. But it is in the description of the degraded state that the resemblances are most striking. Augustine is very crude. As soon as man has disobeyed God, man's body ceases to obey him. "The motion of concupiscence is the sequel of sin." 49 Man's sexual organs no longer followed his will, but rebelled against him, at their pleasure." Even so Milton makes of sensuality the first consequence of the Fall. Augustine also opposes concupiscence to wisdom, reason: "They [passions] need to be led and moderated by reason; reason must allow them to effect only good actions, as anger to punish justly; concupiscence to beget children." "1 Adam's reason ought to have made him safe against Eve's charm. "As though there were some one to be believed and obeyed in preference to God." 52 Milton says: Was she thy God? that her thou didst obey Man's fall generally is in this triumph of passion over reason and will: "a revolt of himself against himself, so that he cannot effect what he wills."" Then man is no longer free in himself. "Man, because of his evil will, becomes a slave to his own passions." 55 For understanding ruled not, and the will But again here, as with Paul, Milton goes thus far and no further. He will hear nothing against the flesh as such, 49 Ibid., XIII, 24. 53 P. L., X, 145–46. 50 Ibid., XIII, 13, 15, 16, and XIV, 17. 51 Ibid, XIV, 19. 52 Ibid., XIV, 14. 54 De civitate XIV, 15; cf. XIX, 15. which is good in itself. He refers to Augustine's thoroughgoing ideas as "crabbed opinions." He puts sensuality in Paradise, before the Fall, whereas Augustine devotes long pages to proving that in Paradise sensual pleasure did not exist." He acknowledges the sacredness of the text which caused Milton to ask Who bids abstain? But he has found a way out: in Paradise, children "were to be begotten without any motion of concupiscence." And yet Augustine admits that "the flesh in itself is not to be blamed, since it is good in its way.' So that Milton may be said to be carrying Augustine's principles further than Augustine himself. But for Augustine the flesh has become evil, whereas for Milton matter and the flesh are still "the source of every subsequent good." What is only a concession for Augustine as for Paul, to which "shame attaches even in marriage," " is for Milton normal law," for marriage must not be called the sane, a defilement." 58 With this central difference, we may say, therefore, that Milton follows Augustine's ideas on the Fall. Since the tale of the myth is here completed, and as a transition between this and the next section, let us point out the resemblances between Augustine's and Milton's general ideas. They will confirm the hypothesis of a special influence of the Father on the poet, in so far as Milton can submit to influence; he preserves, that is, always his independence, and accepts only what his reason approves of, and violently rejects what he dislikes, even when it is intimately mixed with what he accepts, as we have seen on the subject of the Fall. 56 Ibid., XIV, 21 ff. 57 Ibid., XIV, 5. 58 Ibid., XIV, 18, title. It is curious that even in Augustine, whose name and influence have been weighty on the opposite side, Milton may have found authority for his belief in free will. Whatever others may have seen in Augustine-whatever Augustine himself may have really thought - Milton was sure to be impressed only by what he agreed with. And one of the chapters of the De civitate has for its subject: That man, created innocent, was lost only through evil use of his free will.59 For both, sin is foreseen by God, and provided for. Augustine has a chapter "On prevaricating men and angels whose sin does not disturb the order of divine providence." " God could have prevented the fall of both angels and men, but he preferred to let them follow their will, in order to show what his divine grace was capable of." These very considerations comfort Adam in his fall.62 In the account of the creation of man, the resemblances are also striking: Augustine devotes as much attention as Milton to the text " and man became a living soul." And the Father proves at length 63 that the passage does not refer to man's immortal soul, and that the word "soul" in Scripture applies to animals. This is only a secondary point in Augustine, who believes in the dualism of soul and body, but becomes all important for Milton. The coincidence of interpretation is all the more notable. The conception of Christ is also very similar in both systems. For Augustine, Christ is the Second Man, the Father of the Elect; his spiritual body comprehends all men who have received grace "to be together one and the same Christ." This is Milton's Greater Man. For 59 XIII, 14. 60 XIV, 27. 64 61 XIV, 27, in fine, and XIV, 11. 62 P. L., XII, 470 ff. |