Thinking a bit more about the question of whether Milton thinks heaven
has mazes... consider a score of a Mozart symphony. It looks "mazelike"
to the ignorant, to those who do not know what the symbols mean. But if
one listens to the symphony, listens again and again, learns it,
internalizes it... is that symphony a maze? or is it in reality a vision
of oneness?
Isn't Milton saying that heaven is like this? Raphael tells the most
naive, ignorant (though in some ways wise) human who has ever lived:
That day, as other solemn dayes, they spent
In song and dance about the sacred Hill,
Mystical dance, which yonder starrie Spheare
Of planets and of fixt in all her Wheeles
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular
Then most, when most irregular they seem,
And in thir motions harmonie Divine
So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear
Listens delighted.
In Adam's perception, the dance would appear to consist of "mazes
intricate." But what is this dance in reality? It is harmonie. How do we
know Raphael is "talking down" to Adam? The planets reference (Milton
was born after Copernicus) and the statement that the dance movements
are most regular "when most irregular they seem" (i.e., when they would
seem most irregular to YOU, Adam).
It appears mazelike only to those who do not have adequate power to see
properly. Such beings include Adam, who is ignorant; and also Satan, who
is attracted by voids. Complexity that represents the intricacies of the
harmony of unitive reality is perverted in the vision of one who enjoys
voids, because their vision perverts silences into nothingness.
Therefore they too are unable to perceive the harmony, and instead view
the entire complexity as a mechanism, as something staged, or forced.
Hence, Satan "seemd well pleas'd" but was not -- he was not seeing
reality, but instead was "seeing" his own perverted rendition, a fantasy
of his own weaving.
I continue to disagree that Milton thinks there are mazes in heaven. I
see Milton telling us that mazes are perceived in heaven only by those
who cannot see aright.
--
Kevin Farnham
Lyra Technical Systems, Inc.
http://www.LyraTechnicalSystems.com
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