Timmons 1
Jeffrey Timmons
Professor Whoever
English 280
12 March 2005
Title
The sublimity
and immateriality of God work in tandem in “Paradise Lost.” The vastness of God’s power requires that his
being remain at the liminal boundaries of human
consciousness. As the poem describes
this ultimate ineffableness what becomes clear is that it is a power that
demands a reverential deference; God’s absolute power is and must remain beyond
ordinary perception. When Satan asks Uriel for directions to
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in rembrance alwayes with delight;
But what created mind can comprehend
Thir number, or the wisdom infinite
That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep. (1-6)
As Uriel understands, the power of God to create material out of immaterial is a capability no “created mind can comprehend”; it is a power, too, that must, as a consequence, remain hidden. Uriel demonstrates the “correct” attitude for understanding God’s creation: one of respect and admiration, one that does not advocate the aspiration to a deeper search into its meaning or mysteries.
More importantly, however, even if angels are not able to fathom God’s creation the sublimity of God is simply too expansive for human sensory understanding. When Michael is showing the future to Adam late the poem, virtually operating on his “visual Nerve” in order to allow further sight, Adam suffers a Burkian “astonishment”: able to glimpse “nobler sights,” Adam is temporarily overwhelmed by the power of “objects divine”:
Timmons 2
but to nobler sights
Michael from
Which that false Fruit that promis’d clearer sight
Had bred; then purg’d with Euphrasie and Rue
The visual Nerve, for he had much to see;
And from the Well of Life three drops instill’d. (320-325)
The suspension of imagination and reason, in the face of the terror of the sublime’s greatness, overwhelms Adam’s sensory abilities. Suffering an overload of the senses he nearly passes out. As Micheal says later, just before he is about to show Adam more of the future, “I perceave / Thy mortal sight to faile; objects divine / Must needs impaire and wearies human sense” (333-343). Contemplation of “objects divine,” in other words, is not only able to be accomplished with divine assistance, but even then they potentially threaten to exceed the capacities of “human sense.” (400 Words)
The suspension of imagination and reason, in the face of the terror of the sublime’s greatness, overwhelms Adam’s sensory abilities. Suffering an overload of the senses he nearly passes out. As Micheal says later, just before he is about to show Adam more of the future, “I perceave / Thy mortal sight to faile; objects divine / Must needs impaire and wearies human sense” (333-334). Contemplation of “objects divine,” in other words, is not only able to be accomplished with divine assistance, but even then they potentially threaten to exceed the capacities of “human sense.”
The suspension
of imagination and reason, in the face of the terror of the sublime’s
greatness, overwhelms Adam’s sensory abilities.
Suffering an overload of the senses he nearly passes out. As Micheal says
later, just before he is about to show Adam more of the future, “I perceave / Thy mortal sight to faile;
objects divine / Must needs impaire and wearies human
sense” (333-334). The suspension of
imagination and reason, in the face of the terror of the sublime’s greatness,
overwhelms Adam’s sensory abilities.
Suffering an overload of the senses he nearly passes out. As Micheal says
later, just before he is about to show Adam more of the (600 Words)
Timmons 3
Works Cited
Milton,
John. “