The only things that today are considered as living are the plants, animals, and humans. The rest is looked upon as inorganic. Other peoples, reared for generations on the reality of nature forces and laws, of life existing everywhere, would be infinitely more sensitive than we are. The old traditions have it that these nature forces and powers were elemental beings but not self-conscious gods, whose life and whose being are the intelligent fabric of nature, providing its harmony and law. As some of the early religions grew old they often turned to worshipping these nature powers.
English poetry contains many beautiful creations that reach a high level.
But when we come to Milton's Paradise Lost we see, together with Shakespeare, English poetry at its highest, for poetry is at its grandest when it serves a lofty purpose. Here we have blind old Milton, wearied from his Cromwellian duties, dictating to his daughters the text of this epic work, drawing from memory the countless classical, biblical, and other images which glorify its pages. Although Milton calls him Satan, the enemy of God, Lucifer becomes the strongest figure in Paradise Lost . The Mahabharata , as an example, tells of the five Pandava princes who were deposed from their kingdom by the blind king Dhritarashtra and his hundred sons, and describes how the five brothers regained their kingdom once more. We need not detail the many insights this poem gives us of our divine and spiritual nature and of our human and lower aspects.