From
Books IV and V of John Milton's Paradise Lost: |
We
have known since Genesis and the New Testament's Corinithians that 'the
serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field' and could transform
himself 'into an angel of light' that Satan's rhetorical skills
were formidible, and can thank Milton's Abdiel for the scorn he deserves, and
for his eloqence as a literary pièce de résistence. To quote from the Barnes & Noble's notes on the observations that were Inspired by Paradise Lost we have Thomas Hardy's 1897 words on civilisation's fall from grace: |
'Truth
like a bastard comes into the world Never without ill-fame to him who gives her birth.' |