).
Mr. Mark Pattison, quoting part of this passage, remarks with justice,
"on the contrary, we shall not rightly apprehend either the poetry or
the character of the poet until we feel that throughout Paradise Lost,
as in Paradise Regained and Samson, Milton felt himself to be standing
on the sure ground of fact and reality" (English Men of Letters--Milton,
p. 186, ed. 1879).
St. Jude for ages had been sufficient authority for the angelic revolt,
and in a sense it was a reasonable dogma, for although it did not
explain the mystery of the origin of evil it pushed it a step further
backwards, and without such a revolt the Christian scheme does not well
hold together. So also with the entrance of the devil into the serpent.
It is not expressly taught in any passage of the canonical Scriptures,
but to the Church and to Milton it was as indisputable as the presence
of sin in the world. Milton, I repeat, BELIEVED in the framework of his
poem, and unless we can concede this to him we ought not to attempt to
criticise him. He was impelled to turn his religion into poetry in
order to bring it closer to him.
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