It was to justify the ways of God to man! The controversial spirit observable in many parts of the poem, especially in God's speeches, is immediately attributable to the great controversy of that age, the origination of evil. The Arminians considered it a mere calamity. The Calvinists took away all human will. Milton asserted the will, but declared for the enslavement of the will out of an act of the will itself. There are three powers in us, which distinguish us from the beasts that perish;
1,
reason;
2,
the power of viewing universal truth;
and
3,
the power of contracting universal truth into particulars. Religion is the will in the reason, and love in the will.
The character of Satan is pride and sensual indulgence, finding in self the sole motive of action. It is the character so often seen
in little